Turriff United 1 Keith 1: First point on the board for Maroons as supersub Przemyslaw Nawrocki breaks Keith scoring duck
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Keith are off the mark in the Highland League after a 1-1 draw at Turriff United on Saturday.
The Maroons trailed to an Aaron Reid goal but sub Przemyslaw Nawrocki came on to net his team's first competitive goal of the campaign and rescue their first point.
"It's a point gained for us at the end of the day," said Keith manager Craig Ewen. "We haven't had the best of starts and we came here looking for three points.
In the first half the home side fired a ball into the box which was collected by Owen Kinsella in a good position. He got an effort away but it was saved by Keith keeper Craig Reid.
A Turriff corner from Jordan Cooper was sent into to striker Reid and his header was wide of the post.
United were applying the pressure to get the opening goal and a ball was played to Jack McKenzie who was through, however, Craig Reid blocked the shot.
Another corner for the home side from Cooper found the head of Kinsella who could not guide the ball into the net.
Kinsella came close for the hosts with a shot in the away side's box which just scraped by the post.
McKenzie then had a chance for United, however, his effort went over the crossbar.
A cross from Keith was delivered to Connor Killoh who could not get anything on it and the opportunity was squandered.
Just before the break, James Brownie skewed his shot wide of the target as the visitors threatened again.
"The way the game panned out Turriff were the better team for reasonable spells of it and we dug in," Ewen added.
"In the first half I thought Turriff started well and then we got into more of a match where there was not much in it for a long spell.
"We were playing too much long balls, we didn't pass the ball well enough and there was not enough quality.
Turriff were lively at the start of the second half and a corner was swung into Keir Smith whose header was over the bar.
The hosts then opened the scoring when Reid was played in and he powered his shot past the Keith keeper.
Turriff had the ball in the net again when a Smith free-kick was saved by Craig Reid and Cooper latched on to a loose ball afterwards and netted, however, it was disallowed by the referee.
Nawrocki then came on for the visitors and made an immediate impact. With his first touches of the ball he made a good run and scored to equalise.
A corner from Keith was fired into Nawrocki whose header was saved by Turriff goalkeeper David Dey.
The away side were then reduced to 10 men when a collision between Emmett and Aaron Reid saw the former receive a red card and the latter was cautioned.
It was a frantic finish to the game as both teams looked for the winner. United thought they had it with the last play of the match when a free-kick was played to Smith but his header did not hit the target.
"In the second half they got a fairly early goal and that got their tails up," Ewen said.
"However, they then seemed to sit back and protect their lead, rather than trying to push on and get a second goal.
"Thankfully we were able to create a decent equaliser with Nawrocki coming on and scoring with his first couple of touches.
"You have to take a gamble at times and thankfully that one paid off.
"Then we had a spell where I thought we were going to go on and win the game.
"We looked good going forward, we were starting to create chances and putting the balls into the box.
"There was then the red card incident and after that we were hanging on a bit. The boys were sitting a bit deeper, we couldn't get pressure on the ball and we were having to defend Turriff's crosses.
"I'm happy to get a point on the board and hopefully it give us some optimism for moving forward into the next game.
"It's not been a good start to the season. This result is a building block and we just need to try and progress from here.
"We will have to train hard this week in preparation for our next match at home to Clach."
