It was probably too good to last for Keith fans, but the Maroons were not disgraced on Friday night at Spain Park where they lost 3-0 to high flying Cove Rangers.
Cove will be one of the sides vying for this season’s title, they are strong, powerful and vastly experienced.
They also have a more than distinct ex-Keith flavour to their squad – three players, Stuart Walker, Johnny Smith and Daniel Park notched 104 goals in 458 appearances for Keith with a host of honours, and Daryl Nicol’s dad Derek made quite a few appearances 30 years ago.
Anyway, Keith battled bravely on the astroturf, it’s not my kind of surface but each to their own. Defensively we were pretty sound, we appear to have tightened up from the leakage of goals over the past two seasons, and tried gamely in midfield, but few chances up front came our way.
On loan teenage defender Sam Pugh from Inverurie Locos looks a healthy addition to the squad, doing well when he came on as a substitute. He wasn’t fazed at all and more than held his own against a very experienced forward line.
The top of the table has the same familiar look already with seemingly unstoppable Brora being the juggernaut that is going to be very difficult to halt.
We are up there next Saturday, so it could a be a torrid afternoon for Gordon Winton’s troops, but hey, stick at it I say, football can be a funny old game.