A 3-1 victory on Saturday at Bellslea over a rather rusty Fraserburgh, who looked as if they had next week’s Aberdeenshire Shield Final on their mind, was a good way to end a poor season for Inverurie Locos.
Hard on the heels of the 3-2 derby win at Formartine, this result hopefully provides another boost and a springboard for next season.
It was a glorious, sunny afternoon in the Broch and the match was watched by a surprisingly healthy crowd, many in short-sleeves.
I couldn’t help reflecting that, having watched a good part of the season in miserable, wet and cold weather, this was the curtain coming down just as the weather takes a turn for the better – and just as the rest of Scottish football anticipates the climax to the 2014/15 season.
I know that I am not the only one unhappy with the change to the fixture programme and clubs have suffered financially because of the higher proportion of midweek league matches with reduced hospitality potential. And we wait to see if, given the right (or wrong!) results, Montrose become the 19th team in the Highland League!
As for Locos – the season can be summarised by bad injuries, inconsistent defending (especially from free-kicks), and poor home form.
Seven defeats and two draws at Harlaw contrasts with much better away form of twelve victories and one draw. All four defeats on the road were by a single goal and the wins included hitting Strathspey for eight, Lossiemouth and Rothes for seven and Fort William for six.
The result of the season was the 6-3 early-season victory against Wick Academy at Harmsworth Park. So, it was not all doom and gloom – and the emergence of youngsters such as Ryan Keir and Daniel Crisp and the recent return of injury victims Andy Hunter and Mark Souter provides a degree of optimism.
It will now be at least a full three months before Locos kick a ball in anger again. That will be the longest close-season in many a year and hopefully at least it will whet the appetite of the supporters to come out in numbers in July.
There was one other positive and interesting feature from Saturday’s match. Club secretary Billy Thomson has pointed out that Jordan Leyden’s second goal was Inverurie Locos’ 1,000th league goal since joining the Highland League in 2001. If my arithmetic is correct that’s an average of 2.34 goals per game. Not bad for a team which was Junior only 15 years ago!