Moray welfare football round-up
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Aberlour's Colin Davies (left) races by Moray Social's Kieran Burchill.
A LAST-MINUTE winning goal left Portsoy still searching for their first point of the Moray welfare season.
Rob Murray’s side was left wedged to the bottom of the McDonald and Munro Premier League table after a 2-1 loss to Brander on Sunday.
Craig Smith’s last-gasp strike won the day for the Lossiemouth side and consigned Portsoy to four defeats out of four in the league so far.
The match began well for ’Soy when David McCallum fired a free kick over the Brander wall past helpless keeper Ross Bruce to make it 1-0 inside five minutes.
Brander equalised when Darren Stephenson broke forward and could have shot for goal, but unselfishly set up team-mate Stephen Mitchell to side-foot home his third goal of the season.
Both teams had chances to win the contest in the second half, with Darren Taylor going close for Portsoy and Brander’s Ally Main being denied by a Darren Woods save.
A draw looked the likeliest outcome until the final minute when a long throw into the home box wasn’t cleared and Brander full back Smith slid in to grab a dramatic winner.
A powerful second half show by Bishopmill Villa proved too much for Elgin Albion at Pinefield.
Villa’s new signing from Portgordon Vics, Mark Wood, opened the scoring on five minutes with a tidy finish from an Alex McGregor corner.
But sloppy home defending gifted a chance to Albion’s Gary Leslie and he tapped home to level on 33 minutes.
It took a spectacular goal at the beginning of the second half to get Bish’s challenge back on track. McGregor’s chipped pass found Gary Burr and he smashed it home on the volley. Then good work by another Villa new boy Mike Mann set up Wood for his second of the afternoon and fifth of the season just after the hour. Mann himself was on target to make it 4-1, and Burr grabbed his own fifth of the campaign from Doug Ainsworth’s through ball.
Finally, McGregor netted a fine solo effort after rounding the keeper, and Albion’s misery was completed when Gary Pope was shown a red card late on.
Aberlour Villa made it four wins in a row at the expense of a Moray Social side suffering their fourth straight loss.
The Elgin side went behind when keeper Steven Duncan failed to connect with a punch and Kyle Coutts was left with a tap-in. Scott McPherson added a second soon after, though home side Social got back in it on the stroke of half-time when John Harrold netted from the spot.
The second half was a quiet affair until the later stages when Aberlour hit the woodwork three times, before getting their third goal from a Tolga Dagtas penalty. Just before the end, Coutts scored his second of the game, latching onto a through ball to lob the keeper.
Lhanbryde United were also looking for a fourth win on the bounce when they paid a visit to Burghead United.
But it was the home team who drew first blood when a long kick out by keeper Sandy McPherson found Dean Walker and he ran into the box before scoring from an acute angle.
Lhanbryde levelled just before break, Richard Johnston taking advantage of a sliced Burghead clearance to score.
Ten minutes after the break a piece of magic by veteran Stuart McIntyre gave Broch the lead for a second time. McIntyre flipped the ball over one defender and round another before cracking the ball home.
Walker completed the scoring with his second on 62 minutes, after Lhanbryde’s Keiron Ingram had been sent off for preventing a goalscoring opportunity.
