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Locos were knocked out of the Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup by Formartine United for the second successive season. Two early goals put the visitors in the driving seat and a third on the cusp of half time meant that Locos improvement after the break was in vain.
Signs that it was going to be a difficult evening came before kick off. Ethan Cairns had already been ruled out through illness when Zack Ellis pulled up in the warm up, with Louis Amann stepping in to make his first start of the season. Any hope that this game might offer some respite from the league form was firmly snuffed out on seven minutes when Finlay Morris powered home a header from a corner. By the time Aaron Norris added a second after quarter of an hour, there was more injury woe as Jay Halliday hobbled off. To add insult to that injury, Nathan Meres was also forced off in the first half as the injury list at Harlaw Park continues to grow.
Despite all the changes, Locos grew into the game. Daniel Agnew was thwarted by an alert Stuart McKenzie in the visitors’ goal. The third goal of the game came at the other end though, with just about the last action of the half as Morris got his second with a low free kicked that squirmed past Amann.
Nobody inside Harlaw Park would have been expecting a remarkable turnaround in the second half, but Locos kept plugging away and perhaps salvaged a little pride after the break. With a big lead to defend though, Formartine comfortably avoided any scares as Locos were largely limited to shots from outside the box.
The lack of cutting edge was something Dean Donaldson bemoaned on a number of occasions last season, but the success of that campaign was built on solid foundations and so the goals conceded in this tie, and previously, will be a concern and he will be looking to find a way to reinstall that resilience. It’s difficult to think of a harder place to do that than Dudgeon Park on Saturday, particularly if his squad is further depleted. The players that are available will give it a go though, and perhaps just need a bit of luck to go their way to get the season going.
