Cove Rangers rounded off their pre-season preparations with a 2-1 defeat against Forfar Athletic.
Three days after beating another League 1 side Montrose, Cove left Station Park on the back of a promising performance, going down only to Murray Mackintosh’s late goal.
Mitch Megginson and Ross Forbes traded early strikes and the Forfar man later hit the woodwork.
Paul Hartley’s side looked to be heading for a share of the spoils before substitute Mackintosh found the net late on.
It was the final friendly for Cove – the first team to be promoted from the Highland League through the pyramid play-offs – ahead of their Betfred Cup opener against Peterhead on Saturday.
Cove had already beaten League 1 Angus opposition in Montrose at the weekend and started in positive fashion at Station Park, with Megginson giving them the lead inside two minutes.
But they were not afforded the chance to rest on their lead as Forbes, formerly of Motherwell, Partick Thistle and Morton, picked out the top corner with less than four minutes on the clock.
Jimmy Scott and new signing Jamie Redman both spurned opportunities to test goalkeeper Marc McCallum, with Scott clipping his shot straight at the goalkeeper and Redman’s long-range strike drifting harmlessly over.
Forfar exploited Cove’s offside trap on a couple of occasions, with one chance setting Jordan Kirkpatrick clear down the left. A miscommunication between goalkeeper Stuart McKenzie and Darryn Kelly took the ball away from the visiting stopper, with Andy Jackson only able to hook the rebound on to the roof of the net.
McCallum did brilliantly to keep out Megginson’s instinctive finish, reacting quickly to claw away his low shot from Harry Milne’s cross, while Redman sent a header drifting harmlesssly wide.
Forbes crashed a free-kick off the crossbar in the second half while Daniel Park had a shot repelled by McCallum, before Mackintosh turned in Matthew Aitken’s cross with nine minutes remaining.