Moray welfare football: FC Fochabers and Hopeman boost title hopes
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Moray welfare leaders Aberlour Villa came a cropper against their bogey team FC Fochabers yet again.
A 4-2 win for Fochabers pulled them to within a point of Villa at the top of the table.
And with Hopeman avenging two recent defeats to RAF Lossiemouth to strengthen their own aspirations, an exciting three-horse race has emerged.
At Hopeman, the home side forced some early saves out of keeper Tristan Fahey while Scott Wilson narrowly missed the target from distance.
At the other end, Hopeman number one Darren Wood saved superbly from Lossie dangerman Logan Buick, with the airman passing up a second chance a minute later by firing over.
Wood then denied Dan Finlay and from the resulting corner, Callum Devine headed against the bar.
On 34 minutes, Hopeman opened the scoring with a well driven corner by Chris Cooper which saw Connor McArthur beat his man and powered home an unstoppable glancing header.
Two minutes later it was 2-0 as Scott Wilson won and converted a penalty, and it could easily have been three when Gary Burr latched on to an Andrew Stewart cross but sent the ball just wide of the mark.
Burr went close at the start of the second half but the next goal came for Lossie with a superb Devine strike from 35 yards finding the net.
Both sides has chances after that with home keeper Wood on good form to ensure that RAF Lossie couldn't pick up a third straight win over their hosts.
Fochabers' meeting with Aberlour was switched to Villa Park as Fochabers pitch was unplayable.
The leaders made a good start and Luke Gordon's 30 yarder put them ahead, before Karl Harris made it 2-0 a couple of minutes later.
Fochabers clambered back into the contest after Luke Gordon deflected into his own net to reduce the deficit.
Moments later a solo effort by Warren Orford made it 2-2.
Villa lost Jack Craib to a bad injury and were soon behind to a John Gerrard header, with James Higgins nodding in from a corner to complete the turnaround.
