North of Scotland Football League: Lossiemouth United and Islavale go down while New Elgin continue fine start and Forres Thistle crash to seven-goal loss
New Elgin continued their fine start to the North of Scotland League season with another victory.
The Free Staters climbed over opponents Banchory St Ternan in the Championship table with a 2-1 success at Nicol-Togneri Park.
New Elgin now sit sixth in the table with games in hand over all the teams above them.
A cracking strike by Kayden Davies had the home side ahead at the break and a Jordan Clark penalty made it 2-0.
A red card for Ben Davidson with 20 minutes to go saw Banchory gain a man advantage and they pulled back a goal on 83 minutes but couldn’t find an equaliser.
In the Premier League, Lossiemouth United went down to a 5-1 defeat at Longside.
The Buchan side netted two free kicks in the opening ten minutes and although sub Baylee Campbell got one back, three more Longside strikes made it a bad day at the office for United.
Islavale went down 2-1 at Aberdeen East End, who climbed above the Keith side and out of the bottom three as a result of their victory.
A Stevie Paterson header had Vale in the lead after a good start, but East End equalised midway through the first half and took the lead two minutes later.
Dufftown were also in front against Glentanar in the Championship before sliding to a 4-2 home loss.
Brad Mills’ goal raised hopes of a morale-boosting result for the Toonsers but a penalty on the stroke of half time got the Aberdeen side level, and two more visiting goals followed just after the break.
Ryan Morrison got Dufftown back in the game and they had chances to tie the scores, but instead Glentanar got a fourth.
Burghead Thistle bounced back from a ten-goal defeat at Kirkintilloch in the Scottish Communities Cup by holding Deveronside to a 2-2 draw.
In a game played at Deveronvale’s Highland League ground, Craig Ellis put Burghead ahead in the first half and Joel Wiseman’s penalty levelled for ‘Side.
The home side had Josh Gordon sent off but went in front through on-loan Deveronvale youngster Wiseman’s second of the game on 82 minutes.
Burghead pushed hard and were rewarded in time added on at the end as Ellis scored again to earn a 2-2 draw.
Leaders Fraserburgh United handed out a lesson to Forres Thistle in Buchan.
It started horribly for Jags when a first minute miskick by Angus Mackintosh let in Jake West to open the scoring for Broch.
Then a wayward passback on ten minutes forced Forres keeper Rian Wilson to hack the ball out to West on the edge of the box and he made it 2-0.
Wilson made some good stops but was beaten by a Theo Watt header before the break.
Another error came just after half time as Cameron Wallace’s difficult pass back to Wilson led to another miskick from the keeper and the ball rolled into the net for an own goal.
Wilson then thwarted Fraserburgh on several occasions before Fraserburgh ran in three late goals from subs Owen Pearson (2) and Kai Benson for a 7-0 victory.
Whitehills continued their recent revival with a 3-0 win at bottom club Cruden Bay.
Shaun McLeod, Ross Fiske and Alfie Wood got the goals.