Lossiemouth penalty double helped by "bobbly" Harmsworth Park pitch as Ian Campbell praises Coasters character in 2-2 draw at Wick Academy
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Lossiemouth held on to finish 14th in the Highland League following Saturday's 2-2 draw at Wick Academy.
Interim Lossie boss Ian Campbell, in what is likely to be his last game in charge, saw his team benefit from two penalty decisions on a bumpy Harmsworth Park pitch.
Niall Kennedy netted both spot kicks to cancel out two superb Gordon MacNab goals for the home side.
Campbell felt that the result provided further evidence of how the Coasters are maturing as a squad.
They finished one place higher than last season, albeit Lossie's points tally of 27 fell three short on what they achieved in 2021-22.
Campbell admitted that his team had been "a bit fortunate" with the penalty decisions that led to their goals. But he felt they should have scored more, given the number of chances they had.
"We needed to get a point," Campbell said. "That keeps us 14th. The last thing we needed was to get beaten by Wick today.
"The boys battled on and kept going. It was a bit of a bobbly pitch and that might have caused a couple of penalties as well because maybe the defender missed it with the bobble.
"But I thought on the whole I thought we created more chances.
"The boy [Gordon MacNab] scored two great goals, to be fair. A couple of seasons ago we would have just folded there and would have lost the game.
"The boys have matured a wee bit so they battled away. I remember the first time I first came up here [in 2018], the average age of our team was 19. It was 8-0 at half-time, and it finished 8-0.
"So you can look at us as having come on a bit since then."
Reflecting on the season as a whole for Lossiemouth, Campbell said: "I'm disappointed with the points but we're a place above where we were last season, and we've scored more goals. But if you take Fort William out of that it's a difficult one to judge.
"It's a good competitive league. Anywhere from sixth or seventh down, you could expect anything to happen."
Double scorer Kennedy finished as Lossiemouth's second-top goal scorer for the season with his five penalty conversions. Captain Liam Archibald topped the charts on nine strikes.
Wick Academy's line-up on Saturday included Steven Anderson as a trialist, while Owen Rendall was the only one of the Orkney-based trio to feature in the squad.
The Scorries took the lead after four minutes. Sean Campbell delivered a cross from wide on the right and from then on it was all about MacNab's trickery and eye for goal. The striker evaded a couple of challenges before expertly curling the ball beyond Lossie keeper Cameron Farquhar.
Lossie were awarded a penalty three minutes into the second half for a foul by Rendall. Kennedy fired the ball low to Graeme Williamson's right.
MacNab restored Wick's lead after 72 minutes with another superb strike.
Ryan Campbell did well to win possession wide on the left and he played the ball to MacNab just outside the penalty area. MacNab brought it under control, created space for himself and slammed it past the diving Farquhar.
Three minutes later it was level again after Manson was adjudged to have tripped a Lossie player. Kennedy stepped up again and chose the same spot, this time sending Williamson the wrong way.
While there were no complaints about the first penalty, Manson was adamant that he had got "a clear toe on the ball" for the second one.
He added: "At times it had that 'end of season affair' feel to it, but on the balance of play I thought we should have won it. We scored two good goals and they scored two penalties, which are avoidable."
