Highland League results round-up: Deveronvale get back to winning ways against Lossiemouth as manager Garry Wood hails subs' impact

Press and Journal

2 days ago

Player-manager Garry Wood praised the impact of Deveronvale's substitutes after they returned to winning ways against Lossiemouth.
The Banffers recorded their second victory of the season in the Breedon Highland League with a 3-1 triumph at Grant Park.
After back-to-back defeats against Turriff United in the league and Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup, boss Wood was pleased to get back on the winning trail and felt his subs played a key role.
Ryan Park, Olek Dlugosz and Cameron Angus all looked lively after coming off the bench. Park was involved in Vale's second goal – which was scored by Michael Watson – and Angus set-up Park for their third.
Wood said: 'The impact the subs made was pleasing and that's why we've got a squad.
'I think this season we're stronger in terms of our squad and the players who came on made a difference.
'It's a team game and not everyone will be happy, but it's up to the guys when they get a chance to go and stake their claim and some of them did that.
'I thought we dominated large parts of the game and I think it was a thoroughly deserved victory.
'It's good to get back to winning ways, when we spoke to the guys before the game we told them a couple of home truths.
'This was more like what I expect from Deveronvale. We were hard working and pressed all over the park, I thought it was a really good performance.'
Wood also made his first appearance of the campaign as a player. He missed Deveronvale's first four games of the season due to a suspension incurred towards the tail end of last term.
He added: 'It was good to be back and it's been a long time coming.
'After the results in the last couple of games we thought a bit of experience was maybe what we needed and hopefully I managed to play my part in the win.'
In blustery conditions referee Vladyslav Melnyk dismissed an early Vale penalty claim after Ethan Blanchard collided with Grant Moroney.
The visitors moved in front on 19 minutes. Matthew Nicol fouled Fergus Alberts wide on the Banffers' right flank and Murray Esson's sublime left-footed free-kick curled into the top left corner beyond goalkeeper Stuart Knight's despairing dive.
However, Lossie responded well to falling behind and equalised in the 37th minute thanks to an excellent counter-attacking move.
Connor Macaulay's pass in behind released Liam Harvey on the left and his cross was volleyed into the left corner by Shaun Cameron from six yards.
For spells the game became scrappy, but it was keenly-contested throughout, with both sides jumping into challenges at every opportunity.
In the second half Vale's Jack Mitchell shot narrowly wide from the edge of the box, while at the other end Macaulay's net-bound volley was blocked by Moroney.
But in the 69th minute Deveronvale regained the lead.
Jayden Goldie's cross from the right came through to Jamie MacLellan at the back post, he unselfishly teed up Park, whose shot was blocked, but Lossie were unable to clear and Watson swept the loose ball into the net from close range.
As time ticked down the Coasters committed more bodies forward in search of a second equaliser, but their hopes were extinguished five minutes from time.
Lewis McAndrew's heavy touch allowed Angus to block his attempted pass forward and the ball broke for Park to score from 20 yards, with Knight out of position because he was offering himself as a passing option to McAndrew.
Lossiemouth manager Steve Porter said: 'In the first half I thought we did quite well and limited their chances.
'We conceded a wee bit of a freak goal, but we responded well to equalise.
'But in the second half we didn't come out at all. The way we lost the goals was frustrating, but we win and lose as a team so we'll learn from it and move on.
'We've had some good performances this season and at times in this game we had good passages of play.
'But we didn't play in the second half, we seemed to just lump the ball away.
'It was frustrating to lose the game in the manner we did and the boys are hurting.'
Buckie Thistle maintained their perfect start to the season with their second win at Kynoch Park in four days, stretching their unbeaten run to 16 games into the bargain.
Two quickfire first-half goals from Lyall Keir and Ross Morrison did the damage as Jags controlled the game comfortably.
Jags manager Lewis Mackinnon said: 'We're delighted at coming to Kynoch Park twice in a few days and coming away with two wins and two clean sheets as it's always a hard place to come.
'It's been a good year so far, from February onwards. We played some good stuff, created chances, keeping it tight at the back.
'We were better in the second half than we were on Wednesday, and controlled the game more.
'We made four changes to give some guys their first start of the season and overall, I'm really happy with the performance, but just wanted us to be a little more clinical in the forward areas.'
Buckie made a whirlwind start, pushing Keith back, although the Maroons went close when Jack Searle forced Euan Storrier to tip his shot over the bar.
But the visitors opened the scoring in the 19th minute when Keir gave goalie Craig Reid no chance from 12 yards.
The Maroons keeper then denied Josh Peters, parrying his well struck 15 yard effort.
However, the custodian couldn't prevent Morrison from curling the ball home from 15 yards as the Jags doubled their lead.
The Green and Whites were in the ascendancy for most of the second half without adding to their their tally, mainly due to some good goalkeeping and wayward shooting.
Keir saw his left wing free kick well turned away by Reid in the 62nd minute, then the keeper pulled off a point blank save to keep out Finlay Allen's diving header on the 75 minute mark, whilst Peters skied well over the bar a couple of minutes later.
Maroons manager Craig Ewen is also looking for more of an attacking threat from his side.
He said: 'Buckie are in really good form, they looked quick and hungry, and we struggled to match them in the first half.
The 2-0 at half-time probably flattered us.
'We did have a couple of balls into the box, but we're just not getting on the end of them just now. We can't find that bit of quality to score a goal.
'We just need to try and galvanise and get a result to kick start our season, stick together, go again and try to win the next game.'
Brora Rangers manager Steven Mackay hailed two of his leaders as they beat Inverurie Locos 2-0 at Dudgeon Park.
With Colin Williamson and Mark Nicolson missing, striker and club captain Jordan MacRae filled in at centre-back alongside Michael Finnis, who required a pain-killing injection to enable him to play.
Mackay said: 'It was a huge win for us for a couple of reasons.
'We wanted to bounce back in the league after the disappointment of last weekend (3-0 loss to Fraserburgh) and it was a bit of a makeshift team.
'Jordan played centre-half and was excellent and Michael couldn't put weight on his foot in the morning, he had an injection to mask the pain and he played through it and was excellent as well.
'A huge mention to those two and I'm really pleased with the win given the circumstances.'
The first goal arrived just before the half hour mark when Craig MacKenzie won a foul in a promising position. MacRae stepped up and thumped the free-kick into the top corner.
Shane Sutherland, Tony Dingwall and Alex Cooper were thwarted by goalkeeper Conner Douglas before the break and the Cattachs also had a penalty claim dismissed by referee Scott Donohoe when Dingwall went down after getting a shot away.
Mackay was sent off for dissent at half-time but four minutes after the restart Brora got their second.
Connor Bunce was played through on goal and he found the roof of the net.
Inverurie then had two great opportunities, youngster Rory Butchart wriggled free in the box, but he couldn't keep his effort down.
Then Robert Ward was then denied incredibly at the back post by goalkeeper Cammy Mackay from close range.
Brora coach Michael MacKenzie joined Mackay in the stand after receiving two yellow cards for dissent and late on Locos' Mark Souter rattled the crossbar from 35 yards.
Pre-match Inverurie signed 16-year-old striker Bradley Chikomo on a season-long loan from Aberdeen and he made his debut as a sub in the closing stages.
Inverurie manager Dean Donaldson said: 'We played some good stuff overall. We're really pleased with the young players we drafted in like 17-year-old Rory Butchart, who battled well against good opposition.
'We just needed to be braver with the wind and sometimes we lacked that final ball or runners into the box.
'But overall, if we play like we are playing, I am confident we will turn it around.'
Formartine United cemented their third place position in the table with another polished performance and another clean sheet.
The two quick fire second half goals from Rory McAllister were the difference between the sides but manager Stuart Anderson felt it could have been more.
He said: ''It was one of those days when we couldn't get the ball in the back of the net.
'Their goalkeeper made three or four excellent saves and defenders cleared off the line on a couple of occasions. It can happen sometimes.
'You just have to win the game and thankfully Rory came up with the goals, a great one for the first, the second a typical poacher goal which he's done for years.
'Hamish Ritchie has loads of quality, he'll be disappointed with the free kick that came off the upright.
'It's been a difficult week for us with three tough games close together '
Formartine lost defenders Rhys Thomas,firstly in the warm up then Luke Emmett to an ankle injury early on.
Although the first half was goalless Ritchie fired into the side netting and McAllister hit the post amid claims for offside.
But the Wee County battled away and Calum Mackay forced Stuart McKenzie into a save at his left post.
But McAllister's two goals in five minutes effectively sealed the points.
His first was a well powered volley which left Munro well beaten in 49 minutes and then he prodded home a rebound after Munro made a great double save.
The visitors had to soak up further pressure but battled hard to get a goal back.
Manager Wayne Mackintosh who played the full 90 minutes due to injury absences, said: 'It's another hard luck story for us considering we had chances in the first half and could have been ahead at the interval.
'It's been a tough run of games.
'We have a spate of injuries so it's been a tough ask going to the players and asking them to play two games a week.
'The quality Formartine have you know they're going to create, especially at home. I can't fault the players.
'They put in the workrate and effort.'
Forres Mechanics manager Steven MacDonald was delighted his players showed what they are capable of in their 4-1 victory over Fraserburgh.
The Can-Cans boss hadn't been impressed with their performances in the first three matches of the season.
But Saturday's display at Mosset Park was more like what MacDonald is looking for.
He said: 'I haven't been happy with the way we started the season and I don't think we fired in any of the first three games.
'I wanted to see that we were capable of producing this sort of performance after not doing it in the first few games.
'Hopefully we can continue to produce performances like this because it was very good.
'Last season we were 2-0 up against Fraserburgh at half-time and drew 2-2, we were in the same position and we spoke about not letting that happen again at half-time.
'I thought it was a controlled performance and we didn't give away many chances.'
Midway through the first half Forres took the lead when Matt Jamieson finished from Calum Frame's right-wing cross.
As half-time approached Mark McLauchlan's tremendous strike from 25 yards made it 2-0.
On 51 minutes Jamieson got his second and the Can-Cans' third when he beat the offside trap before rounding goalkeeper Joe Barbour to score.
Fraserburgh pulled a goal back midway through the second period when Kieran Simpson headed home from Greg Buchan's free-kick.
Five minutes from time Barbour was sent off by referee Will Adam for handling the ball outside his box and shortly after Kyle MacLeod completed the scoring by netting from McLauchlan's right-wing delivery.
Before full-time MacLeod and Simpson were involved in a nasty head clash, which left both players requiring stitches.
Fraserburgh have taken four points from their first four league games and manager Mark Cowie said: 'It was a day to forget.
'Nothing went right for us and we were second best all over the park.
'Everything seemed to go against us, but it was our own fault because they were things that could have been avoided and we got out of the game what we deserved.
'Our all-round performance was sloppy, we had a good performance last week and in midweek, but we need to sustain that.
'If we can find some consistency then we'll be fine, but places are up for grabs and whoever wants it needs to show it and they'll get a place.'
Wick Academy came from behind to secure their first win at Huntly since November 2021.
Manager Gary Manson scored the winner in that win and pleased to see that hoodoo end after their recent run of results against their opponents.
He said: 'I said to the players at half-time the game was still 50/50, it was a decent contest and we weren't downbeat.
'It took us a minute and a half to equalise and it gives us a bit of impetus and we sealed it with less than a minute left.
'I thought we were worthy winners, you come to Huntly and the form they're in they'll enjoy most of the ball but we had chances and took them when we had the opportunity.'
Manson paid tribute to his goal scorers who netted at either end of the second half.
He added: 'Euan has been good so far and has a lot to give, he's a good young player at only 18 while Marc (MacGregor) gave us that focal point and that worked for us with his hold up play.'
Huntly broke the deadlock on 23 minutes when an Owen Morris through ball found Sam Robertson whose low strike off the post made it four goals in as many games for the winger.
With 75 seconds of the second half played, James Boyd played in substitute Euan Kennedy who drove low into the far post to level.
With less than a minute of normal time remaining, Kennedy turned provider cutting the ball back for Academy top scorer Marc MacGregor to find the net with the aid of a deflection.
Huntly finished the game with 10 men when captain Michael Clark saw red for an elbow on Owen Rendall deep into stoppage time.
Huntly Manager Colin Charlesworth was disappointed to see his side suffer their first defeat of the season.
He said: 'I don't think we were at our best, I don't think we ever got going and Wick had a score to settle after we beat them four times last season and fair play to them.
'We didn't get to the standards we've set for this season.
'Sam (Robertson) scored and he always looked like one trying to make something happen.
'He took his goal well and it's a well-worked move and he's a serial finisher when he gets a chance like that.'
Brechin blitzed a woefully understrength and youthful Rothes side to consolidate their lead at the top of the Highland League table.
Grady McGrath was once again the visitors' main man as he scored his second hat-trick of the season.
Brechin boss Ray McKinnon said: 'To win 8-1 away from is quite pleasing, I fancied Grady McGrath to score with late free-kick after he got his second goal, I am delighted for him but it was a good all-round performance from most of the lads.
'Conditions were difficult, the wind in the first half was a factor, and to be fair I thought Rothes made it pretty difficult for us in the first half, so I was pleased to go in at 4-1 ahead.'
The Speysiders had seven players missing while City's only absentee was striker Dayle Robertson.
Paul Watson almost opened the scoring with a superb 30-yard strike for Brechin, but 17-year-old Rothes keeper Jack Robertson was equal to the task, diving full length to turn the ball around the post.
In the 22nd minute Mitchell Taylor was bowled over in the box by home keeper Robertson and McGrath made an immaculate job of the resultant spot-kick for the opener.
Worse was to follow for the Speysiders three minutes later when Taylor's low cross was turned into his own net by Rothes central defender Taylor Thain despite appeals for offside from the home side.
Rothes almost pulled a goal back through Daniel Fraser but the striker hit the top of the crossbar with a brilliant 35-yard lob.
The Speysiders did reduce the arrears in the 28th minute when Tom Brady fired home from 10 yards after 16-year-old Fraser had played him in.
But Brechin soon made it 3-1 following a mistake by Owen Alexander and Taylor capitalised to beat Robertson from 15 yards.
Four minutes from the break Brechin made it 4-1. Jake Thomson lost the ball in midfield and Mitch Findlay collected a Taylor pass to fire home from 10 yards.
Five minutes after the restart Brad McKay's back-post header at a corner kick made it 5-1 to the visitors and Cillan Sheridan added another, again from a corner kick, and again unchallenged.
McGrath made it 7-1 on the hour mark with the goal of the game, running on unchallenged to fire home into the corner of the net.
McGrath grabbed his hat-trick 10 minutes from time when he hammered a 20-yard free-kick into the corner of the net.
Disconsolate Rothes boss Ronnie Sharp said: 'I thought that we were in the game for the first 20 minutes or so until they got the opener.
'We defended well up until that point but after that we made mistake after mistake after mistake and every one of their goals were preventable.'
Banks o' Dee recorded their first win of the season as three late goals defeated Strathspey Thistle at Seafield Park.
In the first period Kane Winton and Alex Balfour threatened for the visitors, while the Grantown Jags had a penalty claim turned away by referee Stuart Randall when Shaun Morrison went down under goalkeeper Daniel Hoban's challenge after knocking the ball beyond the custodian.
After the break Winton headed against the post and Joe McCabe had a goal disallowed, while Hoban repelled Daniel Whitehorn from close range.
But Dee broke the deadlock in the 79th minute when Magnus Watson finished at the second attempt after his first effort was blocked.
Ten minutes later a fine move on the left involving Zack Stephen, Andy Hunter, Kacper Lewecki and Watson culminated in Mark Gilmour scoring.
In injury time Conor MacPhee fouled Max Alexander and Hunter dispatched the resultant penalty.
Dee co-manager Josh Winton said: 'We were good. Our only criticism was that we could have been more ruthless in front of goal with the chances we had.
'It's good to get that first win and it's overdue because our performances in a couple of the games have probably warranted getting three points.
'Hopefully that can kickstart us for the rest of the season.'
Strathspey boss Ryan Esson said: 'I'm really disappointed both with our performance and that we didn't get a penalty at 0-0.
'Shaun Morrison lifted the ball over Daniel Hoban and then got taken out.
'I don't understand why it wasn't a penalty, it's a huge moment in game which didn't go our way.
'Over the piece I thought Banks o' Dee were the better team. I don't think it was a 3-0 game, but with our defending it ended up that way.'
Clachnacuddin fought back from a two goal half time deficit to share the points against Turriff United in a game that saw the visitors reduced to 10 men.
Ewen McArthur was red carded in the 71st minute after collecting a second yellow card.
His manager Conor Gethins also saw red for comments made to referee Owen Lawrence about the defender's challenge and other bookings made by the official.
Despite the setback the Merkinch men raised their game to grab a point.
Clach manager Gethins was furious that it took his side going down to 10 men and him being sent to the stand for his side to come to life.
He said 'I thought we were superb the last half hour as the players finally took responsibility.
'I am looking for that to spring board us for the rest of the season because that is the standard and level I am looking for after a really disappointing first half performance when Turriff wanted it far more than us.'
The home side were ahead after just nine minutes when Murray Thompson split the home defence with a fine pass to Miller Keir who in turn set up Sam Garnham to score his first goal for his new side.
One became two for Garnham nine minutes from the break as Thompson's thunderous free kick rebounded from the woodwork for the winger to fire high into the net from the edge of the box.
Clach pulled one back 10 minutes after the break as Troy Cooper curled a fine curling shot beyond Lee Herbert from just inside the box before McArthur was dismissed.
Rather than crumble however the Merkinch men went onto equalise eight minutes from time when substitute Mikey MacKenzie found the target from 16 yards.
Turriff manager Warren Cummings felt that his side had to use the ball better during the second half after a good showing in the first period.
He said: 'We were great in the first half and could have had more goals.
'But Clach were just as good in the second half especially when they went down to 10 men which is disappointing from our point of view.
'We created a couple of late chances which we couldn't take and I have no problem with that as that is just a product of football while it was great for Sam (Garnham) to get two good goals.'