Nairn County have thrown the Highland League title chase wide apart after a memorable win against the champions.
This from a team defeated by Keith the week before.
Brora had led at the break through Paul Brindle’s eighth-minute goal and it seemed they would cruise to yet another win, but County’s unexpected but determined rally after the break paid dividends with goals from Tony Wallace and Robbie Duncanson’s winner just three minutes from time.
Man of the match and County captain, Duncanson said: “We let ourselves down when Keith beat us last week and we knew it was going to be tough coming up here.
“We changed our formation to counteract them.
“We tried to hit them on the break and it worked.
“We sat in during the first half and tried to play them on the break. In the second half we came a lot more into the game.
“I think we deserved the win.
“We had a few chances, they were always dangerous but we got there in the end.
“We had two shots on targets and scored with them both, if we could do that every week it would be great.”
Brora were unchanged from the side which humbled Clachnacuddin 10-1 the previous week, although former Fort William forward John Macleod, who missed the Grant Street win due to illness, took the place of captain Steven Mackay, who has returned to work in Houston, on the bench.
Brora’s players were quickly into their work and in the eighth minute the champions took the lead when the Nairn defence failed to clear a short corner.
Zander Sutherland tapped the ball to Andy Greig and when his cross came in Brindle, lurking at the front post, clipped his shot high past Callum Antell, although the visiting goalkeeper got a hand to it, he could not stop the ball entering the net.
Brindle should have made it 2-0 in the 27th minute, but his first effort was blocked and as he was about to convert the rebound a timely tackle by Sean Webb cleared the danger.
The home side was enjoying the majority of the possession, but Nairn were closing them down quickly and not allowing the Brora players time to create anything constructive.
Eight minutes from the break Brindle almost made it 2-0 but Antell made a brilliant instinctive stop on the line and a minute later Nairn’s Sam Urquhart had to make a goal-line clearance to stop Grant Munro’s downward header from doubling the home side’s advantage.
Brora central defender Munro failed to reappear for the second half so Dale Gillespie dropped back and Martin Maclean came off the bench and moved into midfield.
Three minutes after the restart Urquhart almost equalised, but the former Clach player’s angled drive shaved the far post.
Nairn’s players had started to come out of their shell and in the 63rd minute they drew level with their first shot on-target, Wallace’s curling effort going into the net off the inside of the post giving Malin no chance.
And with three minutes the raid was completed when County took the lead.
Conor Gethins’ net-bound effort was blocked but when the ball fell to Duncanson he swept it past Malin from 10 yards.
After the final whistle Brora goalkeeper Malin and Nairn substitute Michael Morrison, were both yellow-carded following after an incident as the players went up the tunnel.
A disappointed Brora midfielder Dale Gillespie said: “Although we were 1-0 up at half-time I thought Nairn were the better team in the first half.
“In the second half we got even worse and they got better, there is no doubt the run-in is going to be tough. We were very confident going into the game, but we went into our shell, that isn’t like us but I’m sure we will kick on again.”