Inverurie Locos edged out a battling Turriff United outfit in a highly entertaining 90 minutes at the Haughs last night.
The result sees Locos consolidate fifth spot in the Highland League table with Turriff, somewhat unluckily, still in 17th place.
Locos started strongly with livewire Robert Ward pulling the strings as the visitors pushed for an early opener.
In the 13th minute, United shocked Locos when Callan Gray gathered the ball wide on the left, cut inside and beat Sandy Reid in the visitors’ goal with a well-placed drive into the far corner of the net.
Turriff were right in the game and a superb ball across goal by Magnus Watson only just failed to pick out two inrushing attackers.
In the 37th minute Locos drew level when Turriff defender Dylan Stuart turned the ball into his own net when attempting to clear a dangerous in-swinging corner-kick from the left.
— Turriff United Football Club (@TurriffUnitedFC) February 9, 2022
Just after the break, Locos substitute Calum Dingwall fired wide of the target from 25 yards and at the other end a poor clearance from Andy Reid almost created another chance for United but Mark Souter was on hand to nod the ball back to the relieved keeper.
Just after the hour Turriff were awarded a free-kick 20 yards out but Jack McKenzie opted not to shoot and his speculative chip into the box was easily cleared by the Locos defence.
— InverurieLocoWorksFC (@InverurieLocos) February 9, 2022
With 10 minutes to go Turriff’s valiant effort came to nought when Locos’ substitute Ross Still, unmarked in the box, clipped the ball past the helpless David Dey from eight yards for what proved to be the winner.
Shortly after frustration got the better of United’s Liam Norris when he was shown a straight red card for pulling back Robert Ward