Keith spurn chances in Inverurie Locos defeat and manager Craig Ewen reflects on how the retirement of Highland League striking legend Cammy Keith robbed the Maroons of a huge goal threat
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GAMES like Saturday make you realise how much the Maroons miss their goalscoring legend Cammy Keith.
Spurned chances proved costly for Keith in their 2-0 defeat at Inverurie Locos, and manager Craig Ewen sees a familiar pattern developing in matches.
“We actually played very well for long spells and didn’t score,” Ewen said. “On the balance of play we could have been a couple of goals up in the first half.
“Goals change games and it has probably been that way for a while. We are not getting the breaks.
“Everyone is looking for a striker that can score you 20-odd goals but finding one could be difficult."
Cammy Keith’s retirement in 2021 robbed Keith of the services of a deadly marksman and Ewen said: “I genuinely think if Cammy is playing up top on Saturday we would maybe have been two or three goals up.”
Cammy netted an incredible 263 goals for the Maroons in two blistering spells with the club, and in total scored over 350 in Highland league football encompassing a stint at Formartine United.
Ewen admitted he has made several attempts to persuade the player to reverse his decision to hang up his boots, but is consigned to defeat in that matter with Keith sticking to his guns.
The job of finding a replacement for a sharpshooter like Cammy is a near-impossible task, and his former club can only aim to make the most of goal opportunities that come their way.
Kieran Mooney's six goals this term make him Maroons top marksman ahead of last season's best scorer Przemyslaw Nawrocki, who was set to leave the club in the summer and has not been available for several weeks.
Manager Ewen refused to be too critical of goalkeeper Craig Reid, who made an uncharacteristic error for Locos' second goal on Saturday.
“It wasn’t to say that Locos were much better in the second half but their first goal is going five yards wide and our full back has deflected it in.
“The second goal is a bread-and-butter take for our goalie Craig Reid and he’s just spilled it and it’s dribbled in at the corner.
“I’m certainly not criticising Craig as he’s done well in a lot of games for us this season. Nine times out of 10 it’s a comfortable save for him. Maybe the ball was slightly slippy and came out of his grasp.
“Unfortunately for us we are not getting too much of a rub of the green at the minute.
“But in terms of how we played in the first half there was a lot of decent football.
Ewen’s attention now turns to Saturday’s Highland League Cup tie at home to his former club Forres Mechanics.
“It’s one of these games where both teams will think they can get a result,” he said. “From our side of things the hope is that if we can create a few chances on Saturday, we put them away. I expect it to be a close game coming down to small margins.”
Ryan Robertson is set to miss out but Stewart Hutcheon and Nizam Abdulkarim could return for the Maroons.
