Nairn County edged out Turriff United in an eight-goal Station Park thriller to bring the curtain down on the season.
A Ciaran Young double for the home side was the highlight, his second, a header with 15 minutes left ending hopes of Turriff overturning a 4-1 deficit.
County coach Stuart Finnie said: “It was good result to end the season but it was a really scrappy game with neither defence being on top as you can tell by the scoreline.
“It did have an end of season feel to it. I though both teams put in plenty of effort but there probably was a lack of quality throughout.”
United opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a Rory Brown penalty kick but County hit back seven minutes later, also from the spot, with Conor Gethins netting from 12 yards but injuring himself in the process.
Young fired Nairn ahead seven minutes from the interval with a cool first-time 20-yard finish and the home side made it 3-1 two minutes after the break with a superb Andy Greig finish off a long Dylan MacLean clearance.
A Nairn County stag do at Station Park today.
Good luck with the wedding, Colin. pic.twitter.com/i3KmErY8yb
— Nairn County FC (@NairnCounty) April 16, 2022
Greig turned provider in the 54th minute with John Treasurer turning in a pin-point cross but the visitors pulled one back through Callan Gray in the 68th minute, after good set-up play by Matty McDonald and Luke Kinsella.
Seven minutes later Ethan Smith’s header made it 4-3 but Young’s second goal of the afternoon, a back-post header from another Greig cross, ended any hopes of a Turriff revival.
Disappointed Turriff assistant manager Jamie Lennox said: “We started quite well and scored with an early penalty, but it’s been the story of our season and once again we let ourselves down defensively by not clearing our lines.
“We conceded what I thought was a soft penalty and from our perspective the second goal we conceded was another poor one as we really should have won a couple of 50-50 balls in the run up to it.”
Today’s teams.
Come on Nairn! pic.twitter.com/ZSxVmS2ype
— Nairn County FC (@NairnCounty) April 16, 2022
Fort William 1-2 Deveronvale
Deveronvale struck in injury time to gain victory over a Fort William side who had taken the lead just after the break.
Vale created good opportunities during the first half but it was Fort who showed them the way to goal two minutes after the restart when Adam Morris raced through the middle to fire the ball under the advancing Sean McIntosh from 14 yards.
Dane Ballard levelled for Vale from the spot after Jamie McConnel pushed Matt Jamieson in the box after 67 minutes and although both teams had chances it was Jamie Tinnock’s slight touch from a Kyle McKillop Hall corner that won the contest a minute into injury time.
Fort manager Shadab Iftikhar was disappointed that his team had lost the game.
He said “The lads worked tremendously hard and that was our fourth game in a week having travelled over 1,000 miles which is an impossible schedule.
“We still have to go to Rothes in midweek before trying to save our future in the Highland League four days later in the first play-off game against Banks o’ Dee.
“However I felt we should have won the game as we had two great chances to win before Vale got their winner with Adam Morris being very unlucky not to score again. He has settled very well into the league and causes problems for opposing players.
“We go again on Tuesday night and bandage everyone up and then see what happens before Saturday. We are playing so many games but that is what we have been told to do.”
Vale manager Craig Stewart felt his team were deserving winners but was disappointed they left it so late to grab the win.
He said “I felt that we were dominant throughout and had enough chances to win three games.
“However we then had to chase the game after losing the early goal in the second half.
“Fair play to the lads as it is the end of the season, they could easily have downed tools but they kept playing and we got our rewards with a winning goal from Jamie Tinnock at the end.
- Deveronvale defender Innes McKay was the big winner at the Deveronvale end of season awards as he claimed both the supporters player of the year trophy and the players player of the year award.
Young player of the year was Matt Jamieson while clubman of the year went to goalkeeper Sean McIntosh with Max Stewart’s injury time free kick against Inverurie Locos selected as goal of the season.
Jaydon Goldie picked up the Lee Henderson Trophy as most improved 19s player of the year.