Moray welfare football: Sweet revenge for Rothes A, Aberlour Villa and FC Fochabers progress and Hopeman slip up league points at Ugie
Rothes A avenged a heavy cup defeat to Cullen by ousting them from Moray welfare football’s Mike Simpson Cup on Tuesday.
Two weeks earlier, Cullen travelled to Speyside for a Tewnion Cup clash and inflicted a bruising 10-4 defeat on their hosts.
Rothes were in no mood for a repeat performance this week’s match, and revenge was sweet when they recorded a 2-1 victory over their coast visitors.
Calum Smith and Gavin Cameron scored the Rothes goals with Elliot Findlay replying for Cullen.
Holders FC Fochabers survived a couple of scares from bottom club Seaforth to come through their preliminary round tie.
it took 25 minutes for league champs Fochabers to break Seaforth down with a back post John Gerrard finish.
But a poor passback forced the home keeper to concede a penalty and Kyle Murdoch levelled from the spot.
Evan Smith’s fourth goal in two games restored Fochabers lead, only for another woeful home pass to gift possession to Murdoch who cracked home his third goal of the week and make it 2-2.
This time Fochabers learned their lesson, going on to dominate the second half and score four more goals through Jordan Clark (2), Euan Edward and Ben Stewart.
Some good saves by Seaforth keeper Ahmo Alagic kept the final score down to 6-2.
Aberlour Villa made it seven wins from their last eight outings by defeating a young Portsoy side 4-0 at Villa Park.
Villa’s progress to the first round was fairly straightforward once Barry Grant bulleted home a header from a Darren Mitchell corner on 18 minutes.
Gary Morrison added his tenth goal of the season, collecting a fine through pass by Ruari Watt to cut inside his man and finish well.
Watt was the grateful recipient of another great pass by Mitchell to add Aberlour’s third on 55 minutes.
And Harry Doble’s third of the campaign ten minutes from time finished off good work by Marcus Murray to complete the scoring.
Leading goalscorers, all competitions:
10 - Gary Morrison (Aberlour)
9 - Ben Carby (RAF Lossiemouth), Matthew McConachie (Rothes A)
8 - Jordan Gray (Craigellachie), Stewart McLaren (Hopeman), Raymond Anderson (Thunderton)
7 - Ross Fiske (Buckie Rovers), Aaron O’Hara (Craigellachie), Jordan Clark (FC Fochabers), Warren Orford (Thunderton)
6 - Jack McConnachie (Craigellachie), Iain Lunan (Hopeman), Ryan Woods (RAF Lossiemouth), Cammy Thomson (Ugie)
Buckie Rovers went through without kicking a ball as scheduled hosts Thunderton forfeited the tie.
In the night’s only league game, Hopeman slipped up two points in their title hunt as they were held by Keith hosts Ugie.
Reece Johnston opened the scoring fro Ugie with a brilliant left foot curling effort from outside the box which caught out the keeper.
Hopeman’s equaliser came direct from a corner kick as Chris Cooper’s inswinger went through numerous bodies and ended up sneaking inside the back post without a touch.
Ugie keeper Elliott Gordon was a home hero, pulling off several saves to deny the unbeaten visitors a winning goal.
The Keith men also had David Preston sent off for a second yellow late in the game.