Fort wins and Kyle Willis impact were highlights of Lossiemouth's Highland League basement battle campaign
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WILL Lossiemouth be able to claim victory in their battle with Fort William to avoid the Highland League wooden spoon?
We will never know now who would have finished bottom of the pile in a season cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fort have almost perennially been the worst team in the league, but with a string of Caley Thistle loan players on board this term, they harboured ambitions of overhauling the Coasters in the table.
Lossie’s young squad fought manfully to put some distance between themselves and their basement rivals, and managed to create a gap when the campaign was halted in mid March.
Grant Park manager Joe Russell’s quest to bring experienced players to his club in the effort to climb the table did gain some reward last summer.
He persuaded former Rothes, Deveronvale, Forres and Keith front man Kris Duncan to take up a peg at Lossie along with defender Scott Gordon, who returned from a spell in the juniors.
Local lad Scott Wilson also came back to the club following a spell out of the game, with youngsters William Ralph and Michael Weir taken in with the future in mind.
Former captain Kevin Flett also came out of retirement to pull on the red jersey again.
Lossie were keen to get off to a good start and they did just that, defeating Huntly in their opening league game with new boy Duncan grabbing a debut winner from the spot.
But regular victories were never going to be easy to find with such a young squad, and the next 13 league and cup outings all ended in defeat for the coast club.
These included a tough Scottish Cup exit at Strathspey Thistle when a missed penalty and countless spurned opportunities contributed to a painful 2-1 loss.
However, there was some hope on the horizon with the arrival of RAF striker Kyle Willis on loan from Elgin City.
Willis stamped his class on the side immediately, scoring and running the show on his debut as Lossie saw off Turriff 3-0 to break their losing streak.
The victory gave the Coasters a surge in confidence, and back-to-back wins were on the cards when they produced a stunning first half performance in their next match at Forres Mechanics.
The goals kept flying in for the Coasters at Mosset Park and they surged into a 4-1 lead - before the wheels came off. Two red cards, another spot kick miss and a flurry of Forres raids turned the contest around, and Lossie ended up with a crazy 5-4 defeat in an epic derby.
The Coasters maintained their good form, though luck was seldom on their side.
A goal-less draw kept them out of the bottom two, while a twice postponed League Cup trip to Keith produced a thrilling tie which went to extra time before the Maroons plundered a 3-2 win with a late strike.
A visit to Huntly produced another narrow loss, while in December the first of two meetings with fellow strugglers Fort was scheduled for December.
Claggan Park was unplayable so the game was switched to Grant Park, where goals by Brodie Allen and Ryan Sewell sealed a 2-0 success.
The festive period produced some tough outings for Lossie, including an 8-0 home thumping by champions-elect Brora and a 7-1 drubbing at Inverurie.
Teenager striker Owen Loweland came in on loan from Elgin to increase attacking options for Lossie, who endured a run of defeats against mainly top half opponents.
The visit of fellow basement boys Clach to Moray was an opportunity for Lossie to put more points on the board, but despite a rousing comeback from 4-0 down to 4-3, they were again defeated.
With Fort William winning at Turriff on the same day, Lossie were dumped into bottom spot and feeling the pinch ahead of their return game against Fort two weeks later.
The Lochaber club’s pitch problems meant that for the second time in the campaign that their match was switched to Grant Park.
And the result was identical to the December meeting, as Willis and captain Liam Archibald netted in a 2-0 win which put Fort back to the foot of the table.
Fort had eight games in hand to try and make up the three points on Lossie, though their pitch problems were creating great difficulties in getting games played when the season was officially declared over due to the coronavirus crisis.
