Champions Buckie shocked by Lossiemouth
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
LOSSIEMOUTH pulled off the surprise result of the Highland League weekend by winning 2-1 away to champions Buckie Thistle.
Lossie boss Charlie Charlesworth was thrilled as first half goals by captain Martin McMullan and striker Nikki Smith earned a deserved win for the Coasters.
“It was a superb performance and I’m chuffed to bits,” Charlie said.
“We set our stall up with a 4-5-1 and it worked a treat. Nikki played up there on his own and did really well for us, getting the winning goal.
“It’s a great result for us and it’s been a long road to go on. While we’re not taking anything for granted, we’re obviously doing something right when we can come to places like this and win.”
Skipper McMullan scored Lossie’s opener on just five minutes, capitalising on a loose Andy Low header to go clean through and fire past home keeper Kevin Main.
But Buckie hit back sixty seconds later with a 25 yard strike by top scorer Zander Sutherland which skimmed in at the near post.
A Jags blunder gifted Lossiemouth what proved to be the winning goal on 28 minutes. Lewis MacKinnon’s free kick on the edge of his own box fell short and Smith nipped in before lobbing Main with a superb strike from 25 yards.
The result means Buckie have slipped to fifth in the table, four points behind leaders Nairn County, who won 4-2 at Deveronvale.
Manager Gregg Carrol was heard tearing into his team in the home dressing room after the match, and he left coach Graeme Roy to speak to the Press.
The champions have now gone four games without a win and Roy admitted: “We’re being too complacent. We’re losing a lot of goals to basic errors and we seem to have lost a lot of our desire to compete.
“It’s a bad spell but we’ll definitely come through it with the quality we have in our squad.”
Cove Rangers went second after a thumping 4-0 win over Rothes, who had Darren Wood and Iain Macrae sent off to add to their misery.
Forres Mechanics are the best placed team in third spot, just two points behind leaders Nairn with two games in hand.
They beat Huntly 2-0 at Mosset Park, teenage striker Lee Fraser being their hero with both goals.
Keith took an early lead at Formartine United through Cammy Keith, but trailed at the break when Gary McNamee scored an own goal and Michael McGinlay converted a penalty on the stroke of half time.
Former Huntly man McGinlay went on to complete a hat-trick, before McNamee netted at the right end to give the Kynoch Park men some consolation in a 4-2 defeat.
Elsewhere Fraserburgh won 3-1 at Wick, Clach beat Strathspey 5-0 and Inverurie Locos earned a 4-0 success at Brora.
For a full Highland League round-up and pictures from the Buckie v Lossiemouth match, see Friday’s Northern Scot.
