Close
Locos came out on the wrong side of the scoreline from an entertaining encounter with Buckie Thistle at Harlaw Park.
The Railwaymen, who welcomed back Nathan Meres and Max Foster from injury, started the game brightly and Robert Ward opened the scoring in the 17th minute. Thistle goalkeeper Theo Simpson and his defenders repelled a flurry of shots on goal before the ball fell to Ward on the right hand edge of the six yard box and he fired home.
It was just reward for Locos positive start but the visitors were level 8 minutes later when Josh Peters turned in the penalty area before sending a pinpoint shot inside the left post. The goal lifted Buckie and Zack Ellis had to be alert to deal with a Lyall Keir effort that looked like it was heading in at the near post.
Cairns thought he had restored Locos lead but his smart finish was ruled out for a debatable offside. The Jags were in the ascendency at this point though, and Peters’ second goal, tapping home from Harry Noble’s knock down, gave them the lead just before the break.
Locos will feel they should have gone into the interval on level terms and they did restore parity just a couple of minutes after the restart, from the most unlikely source. Josh Buchan picked the ball up on the corner of the penalty area and worked it onto his left foot before curling a peach of a shot beyond Simpson and into the top corner to net his first goal for the club.
Locos enjoyed another good spell, playing some excellent football without testing Simpson, before the momentum changed again. Ellis kept out a Ryan Fyffe effort from distance, before Darryl McHardy scored what proved to be the winning goal on the hour mark, nodding home Noble’s right wing corner.
Fyffe went close to adding a fourth as his free kick struck the wall before hitting the outside of the post. Substitute Bradley Chikomo made the most of his electric pace to get through on goal but his effort went just the wrong side of the upright as Locos looked for another leveller.
The Railwaymen kept looking for a way back into the game but the Jags saw out the win without much alarm. Once again Locos put in an encouraging performance but were left to lament the lack of a cutting edge in front of goal. Both teams enjoyed strong spells over the course of the game but it was the visitors who made the most of their opportunities.
Dean Donaldson was happy with his players’ performance but felt that all three of the goals conceded were avoidable. “On the balance of play I’m really pleased with the boys, it’s just individual errors have cost us goals at certain moments of the game” he said “I think we scored a couple of good goals and also scored anpther perfectly good goal, I think the Assistant has got it wrong there.”
The two teams will meet at Harlaw Park again next week as we get our R Davidson (Banchory) Highland League Cup campaign underway.
