Inverurie Locos are closing in on a sixth-place finish in the Highland League after coming out in top in a five-goal thriller at Keith.
Victory for Andy Low’s side ended Keith’s four-game unbeaten run, although the Maroons, playing their fifth match in 14 days, gave as good as they got.
Locos manager Low was happy to take the win, but was not impressed by the display.
He said: “We are delighted to get another three points, but I’m really disappointed with our overall performance.
“In the first half it took us a while to get used to the park, and then we played well for 10-15 minutes, before getting untidy.
“I wasn’t happy with the second half performance, Keith came on to us quite a bit, but we got a fortunate third goal that we didn’t have to work for.”
Damage done in the first half
The visitors opened the scoring in the 12th minute, when the Maroons lost possession and Sam Robertson capitalised to fire the ball into the roof of the net.
Locos doubled their lead before the interval after former Maroons striker Jonny Smith pounced scored from six yards.
Keith took the game to Locos after the break and pulled one back in the 49th minute, thanks to a looping Matty Tough header.
But the home side then shot themselves in the foot barely two minutes later when Kieran Yeats turned a Calum Dingwall shot into his own net.
Gavin Elphinstone pulled one back to set-up a grandstand finish, but Locos held on for the win.
‘We need to learn from our mistakes’
Keith manager Craig Ewen was disappointed and said: “It’s a hard one to take.
“I’m really disappointed to lose a narrow game, because I’m not sure that Locos deserved to win.
“Considering the schedule we’ve had recently, our fitness levels were quite good.
“It was three individual errors that’s cost us three goals. It’s happened at different times this season and we need to learn from our mistakes.
“However, our performance was full of workrate and endeavour all over the par. We kept going to the final whistle.”
Turriff United punished by ruthless Nairn County
An early striker from the mercurial Conor Gethins set Nairn County on their way to a 3-1 win at Turriff United.
Wee County manager Steven Mackay paid tribute to the efforts of the veteran striker.
He said: “Conor scoring as early as he did gives a team a perfect start and, with eighth place still up for grab, we didn’t want it to be a flat end to the season
“When a chance falls to him he will take it. He scored his 200th recently, now he’s on 202. He’s our top goalscorer, always involved and Scott Davidson worked tirelessly alongside him.”
Gethins headed County in front in the second minute before Fraser Dingwall headed home a corner eight minutes later to double the visitors’ lead.
Davidson made it 3-0 from the penalty spot after Owen Kinsella of Turriff had tripped Angus Dey before Fergus Alberts pulled a goal back just before the hour mark.
United boss Dean Donaldson could not hide his disappointment about the result.
He said: “Crosses were coming in too easy. Poor decision making. Holding on to the ball too long, going sideways and backwards. When we did go forwar, the final pass wasn’t there.
“Probably the only positive was Andy Watt coming through the full game after being out for a year. We’ve not had a settled defence in the past couple of months and I had to change it again.
“There was not enough of a winning mentality from us. The Nairn players were fighting among each other to win and they were already three-up.”
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