Conor Gethins was the match winner as Nairn County earned a 1-0 victory against Clachnacuddin in a scrappy Breedon Highland League encounter at Station Park.
Gethins, who reached a landmark 200 goals for the Wee County last week, added another to his tally with a superbly executed finish early in the second half.
Nairn manager Steven Mackay said: “Conor is the one person on the park you want that chance to fall to.
“I had hoped when we got the goal we would kick on and the momentum would swing in our favour but we sat back and invited Clach on to us.
“Both teams huffed and puffed in the first half but didn’t really create a lot of chances.
“I don’t think Dylan (MacLean) had a save to make but we earned the win, albeit we made it difficult for ourselves.”
There was little in the way of goalmouth incidents early on with play getting bogged down in the middle of the park.
48' Goal for Nairn!
Clach fail to clear their lines, ball bounces over the backline in space for Conor Gethins. A cool and confident chip over the keeper to make it 201. Only 99 to go til 300 Conor. No pressure!
🟡 1-0 ⚪️ pic.twitter.com/klsYqkr5X6
— Nairn County FC (@NairnCounty) April 8, 2023
The best chance of the first half came in the 29th minute in a breakaway move down the right.
Scott Davidson squared the ball to Ciaran Young but the striker, with only Daniel Rae in the Clach goal to beat, flashed his shot wide of target.
At the other end Clach’s best move of the half ended with Lewis Mackenzie scooping the ball over the crossbar.
Clach created the first opening of the second period when James Anderson just failed to get his head to a Robbie Thompson delivery.
But it was Nairn who took the lead in the 48th minute. A long ball from the back was headed on by Kenny McKenzie and when it fell to Gethins he deftly lobbed Rae in the Clach goal.
Nairn almost doubled their lead in the 75th minute when Davidson flashed a shot just past Rae’s right hand post and the same player passed up another chance to score in stoppage time blazing his effort over.
Clach manager Jordan MacDonald said: “We didn’t deserve to lose. A punt up the park cost us.
“It’s frustrating as the same thing happened on Wednesday night (1-1 draw with Fraserburgh) – we didn’t learn from it.
“We started off really well then the game got scrappy. It was the same in the second half, we were knocking it about but we didn’t have that final bit, it was missing, which is very unlike us.”
Rothes 1-1 Deveronvale
Craig Stewart was the happier of the two managers as Rothes and Deveronvale drew 1-1 at Mackessack Park.
The Banffers had been in front through Zane Laird but Gary Kerr’s leveller earned the Speysiders a point.
Vale boss Stewart said: “We started really well and we got into some decent areas but things didn’t quite fall for us and we made some wrong decisions in the final third.
“There wasn’t much in it over the piece, Rothes threw everything at it in the second half but Sean McIntosh didn’t really have much to do.
“A draw was about right and it’s a decent result for us, a lot of teams have struggled at Rothes.
“But I think we were very much worth our point.”
Deveronvale broke the deadlock on 39 minutes with Laird finishing off a Michael Watson cross from the right.
Seven minutes from time Rothes equalised with Alan Pollock’s free-kick from the left finding substitute Kerr at the back post and he made no mistake.
Rothes manager Ross Jack said: “We had quite a few efforts without ever really testing Sean McIntosh, but overall I felt it was a poor game.
“Credit to Gary Kerr he came off the bench and made a positive impact for us.
“I felt we maybe just shaded it and could have won, but by the same token I think Deveronvale would have felt they didn’t deserve to lose it.
“Players looked uncomfortable on the ball, we didn’t really settle, and didn’t have any fluent passages of play. Overall I wasn’t very happy.”