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Locos were beaten on penalties at the end of an entertaining Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup tie at North Lodge Park. The Railwaymen got themselves in front three times but were unable to hold on as a late Formartine leveller took the game to shootout in which the hosts ultimately prevailed. Oluyemi saved Chris Parton’s spot kick, but Daniel Agnew and Milosz Ochmanski were both denied by Stuart McKenzie.
Dean Donaldson made five changes from Saturday’s team, with Blessing Oluyemi, Blair Smith, Robert Ward, Paul Campbell and Nathan Meres coming into the starting lineup. Meres opened the scoring in just the second minute. Agnew broke down the left and picked out Meres who took a touch before finishing past McKenzie. It was a perfect start for Locos, who continued to impress in the opening stages.
United worked their way into the game though, and got themselves on level terms with a quarter of an hour on the clock, Gafar Abari firing low past Oluyemi from the edge of the penalty area. The hosts then enjoyed a strong spell and Julian Wade twice had opportunites to head his side in front. The first was headed straight at Oluyemi from close range and the second he headed into the ground and over the bar. Locos made the most of the reprieve and regained the lead through Campbell’s first Locos goal when he athletically volleyed home Ward’s cross from the right against his former club.
Locos took the narrow lead into the break and Formartine introduced the experience of Hamish Ritchie for the second half, and later Rory McAllister. With the latter only just introduced, the two combined to level things up just after the hour mark, McAllister teeing up Ritchie to drive home. It felt like anything could happen now, and the game began to open up us both teams looked keen to avoid penalty kicks. Another Ritchie effort looped up off a defender and came down on top of the cross bar, but it was Locos who got themselves back in front with another well worked goal. Meres picked out substitue Ethan Cairns, who fired across goal and inside the far post with five minutes remaining.
Inevitably, Formartine applied plenty of pressure in the closing stages and that pressure eventually paid off deep into injury time, when a smart free kick routine was finished by Ritchie for his second of the evening. There was still time for Cairns to fire narrowly wide before the spot kick drama.
It was a disappointing night for Locos, who will feel disappointed that they were unable to hold onto their late advantage. There were positives though; despite the final result, the performance was good, some excellent goals scored and there were strong performances from players who haven’t started many games this season. They must now take that positivity into the tricky Breedon Highland League fixture and Turriff United this weekend.
