A late goal from Nathan Meres gave Inverurie Locos all three points in a 2-1 win at Keith.
The victory capped an eventful afternoon for Locos boss Dean Donaldson as he celebrated his first win first since taking over at Harlaw Park by being send to the stand by referee Scott Donohoe.
Donaldson said “It was a game that could have gone either way.
“In the first half we dominated possession without creating anything, and tried to be more direct in the second half.
“Overall we maybe just edged it, but there’s lots of things I’m not happy with.
“Keith maybe didn’t have a lot of chances, but they looked dangerous, especially Gavin Elphinstone. We have performed better and lost, so we’ll take the win and move on.”
Although the first half was goalless, there was plenty of action.
Donaldson was sent to the stand in the 16th minute following an apparent exchange of words with the referee when Calum Dingwall was booked for a foul.
All the goals came in the second half
The deadlock was broken with 62 minutes played when the Keith rearguard was caught napping and Myles Gaffney raced through to fire past Craig Reid in the Maroons goal from 15 yards.
The lead lasted only five minutes with Elphinstone sprinting clear to rifle home his fifth goal of the season.
The Maroons took control after their equaliser but were left to rue two missed chances by Liam Duncan as Locos snatched a winner four minutes from time when Meres fired into the bottom corner.
Keith manager Craig Ewen said: “It’s very disappointing to lose, the guys put a lot into the game, so it’s a bit soul destroying to come out with nothing.
“Locos had the better possession in the first half, but I think Craig only had one save to make from 25 yards.
“When we got the equaliser I could only see one winner and we created two or three good opportunities and didn’t take them.
“It feels as if we shot ourselves in the foot.”
Vale bounce back in style to record vital win
Deveronvale fought back from going a goal behind to Lossiemouth to score three times and record their first league victory since the opening day of the season.
Vale manager Craig Stewart was delighted to see his team get the win after admitting that their confidence took a hit by losing 5-2 to Strathspey last time out.
Stewart was particularly pleased with how his side responded after losing the first goal of the game.
He said: “The lads worked really hard at training during the week and wanted to put things right against Lossie and they have done that.
“I was a bit worried when we lost the first goal, which again was really cheap to give away from a simple free kick, but they rolled their sleeves up to turn around at half time ahead.
“We knew Lossie would come back at us in the second half which was a bit scrappy and not the best of games to watch.
“At this time of the year in the Highland League that is sometimes the way it is with the heavy sticky pitches but we got the third goal to leave us in control of the game.
“Our goals were all well taken and it is a big win for us as we know there are a lot of doubters out there but not within our dressing room.
“We now have to look to build on this win.”
Lossie pegged back after taking an early lead
Ross Morrison put Lossiemouth ahead after 20 minutes but Oleg Dlugosz fired home from the edge of the box to equalise seven minutes later.
Harry Noble then took advantage of poor defending from the Coasters to edge Vale ahead five minutes from the break.
Ryan Park finished superbly with an angled drive following Vale’s best move of the game after 57 minutes to make sure of the victory.
Lossie manager Frank McGettrick said the home side deserved their win.
He said: “We were 1-0 ahead and playing quite well and had a couple of great chances to go further ahead which we didn’t take and then Vale score a good goal out of nothing to get level as we gave the ball away.
“We were a bit flat after that and lost a bad goal from our point of view to go behind.
“It’s something we haven’t been doing the last few weeks as we have been keeping clean sheets.
“However Vale’s front three were dangerous and took their opportunities to get what was a deserved win for them.
“Had we taken our chances when we were ahead things could have been different.”
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