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It was a day to forget for Locos as they were well beaten by Nairn County at Station Park. The signs weren’t good when the team bus broke down before it even arrived at Harlaw Park. The team got themselves to Nairn and there was a debut in goal for Kyle Irvine and Jay Halliday returned to the starting lineup.
On the pitch, Locos started brightly enough and carried the greater threat in the opening exchanges. With a little more than ten minutes played, Lewis Munro tipped Jack McKenzie’s effort over the bar. The hosts took the lead shortly afterwards. Calum Mackay’s free kick from the right wasn’t dealt with and Adrian Voigt lashed home from six yards.
With something to defend, Nairn started to look more comfortable at both ends of the pitch as the game began to open up a little. Tyler Eadie tried his luck from distance but fired straight at Irvine, while Sam Gordon dragged a shot across goal and wide of the far post. At the other end, a good move gave McKenzie a sight of goal but he was off balance as he shot and couldn’t generate the power needed to beat Munro.
Dean Donaldson made changes at half time and Mark Souter was pushed forward in an effort to get behind the home defence. Shortly before the hour mark, the tactic looked to have worked as Souter got on the end of a Paul Coutts pass before being wiped out by Munro. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot but Coutts’ penalty rattled the cross bar with nobody in a white shirt able to take advantage of a rebound.
Locos continued to push for a leveller, allowing County to exploit space on the counter attack. One such opportunity saw Ben Baron shoot tamely at Irvine before Andy Greig was thwarted by Coutts. Munro pulled off a fine stop to deny Souter and within a couple of minutes, Paul Brindle doubled the hosts lead, finishing off a quick counter attack with his first touch after coming off the bench.
Locos tried to get back into the game but were lacking the quality needed to broke down the home defence. Finn As-Chainey added gloss to the scoreline, slotting past Irvine from an angle in stoppage time.
The scoreline perhaps flattered the Wee County a little but, after strong recent showings, this was a disappointing display from the Railwaymen, who will be frustrated by the manner of the goals they conceded and their lack of cutting edge in attack. Dean Donaldson will be looking for an immediate reaction on Wednesday when Turriff United visit Harlaw Park.
