Nairn County grabbed a dramatic injury time winner against Deveronvale to claim victory in a nine-goal encounter that raced from end to end from start to finish.
Poor defending from both teams at Princess Royal Park saw their defences breached far too easily, but it was Nairn manager Ronnie Sharp who was happier at the final whistle with his side 5-4 winners.
The away boss said “It was a real rollercoaster of a game as we controlled the early stages and missed two great chances before scoring.
“Our keeper then made a mistake to let Vale back into the game and then we lost another poor goal, but we got level thanks to a penalty and showed a bit of character.
“We finally won it thanks to a great strike from Kyle MacDonald and, considering we had 12 players missing, it is a great result.
“Our team at present is basically made up of lads that are in the reserves and they have come in and done an excellent job for us.
“We are just delighted to get the win and the points, because we didn’t defend well but scored some good goals with a very young team.”
When you win 5-4 in the 92nd minute… pic.twitter.com/1uJ5BWVHsX
— Nairn County FC (@NairnCounty) December 11, 2021
Vale manager Craig Stewart has had a difficult week. with his assistant Mike Morrison resigning due to work commitments, while his captain Ross Aitken and holding midfielder Matty Wallace both left the club.
He said “To be honest we were not good enough and you should never lose five goals at home – having scored four should be enough to win any game.
“However, when you sell your better players then that is what is going to happen and we are in for a tough second half to the season and that is the bottom line.
“It’s not easy to get players of that quality to the club, but – having said that – we got ourselves into winning positions. I don’t really know how we scored four goals as we created very little, but we defended really poorly, allowing the Nairn attack far too much space to get their goals.”
90’ | Full time at Princess Royal Park and it ends 4-5. 2 Andy Hunter goals, alongside an Innes Mckay strike and an own goal seemed to have secured a draw for the Vale before a late Nairn winner nicked the points.
[4-5] | 🔴⚪️ | #vale pic.twitter.com/j6yx8iJxBO
— Deveronvale Football Club (@DeveronvaleFC) December 11, 2021
Angus Dey put Nairn ahead after just 12 minutes, but Andy Hunter scored after 30 minutes to pull Vale level and the trialist added a second two minutes later with a fine finish from the edge of the box.
Vale were incensed to have a penalty awarded against them on the stroke of half time, but Ciaron Young made no mistake from the spot to level things up again at the interval.
A superb 20-yard lob from Ross Williamson put Nairn ahead after 54 minutes, but Innes McKay squared things up again four minutes later, before Sam Gordon drilled a 10-yard drive into the net as County went ahead again.
Cohen Ramsey turned a fine Jamie Tinnock cross beyond his keeper as Vale got the eighth goal of the game after 80 minutes, but an injury time strike from substitute Kyle MacDonald won it for County as he produced a fantastic finish from 25 yards to end the game in sensational style.