Forres bounced back from their recent loss to Turriff to win twice in five days.
First was a quarter-final home tie against an out of sorts Rothes in the AJG Parcels North of Scotland Cup on Tuesday, August 11.
Forres welcomed back from injury Stuart Soane and he proved just how vital he is to us by scoring the first goal in a 5-2 win, the other goals coming from Craig McGovern, Liam Baxter (2) and Scott Moore. It could have been much more if it wasn’t for the heroics of the Rothes goalkeeping coach Scott Riddoch, who had to step in between the posts due to several absentees.
Rothes also gave a start to on-loan midfielder Ryan Keir who was by far their best player on the night – someone to keep an eye on for the future. His first minute shot coming back off the post and hitting Forres goalie Stuart Knight on the back of his head before bouncing and spinning back over the goal-line for an unfortunate OG and later he scored a 25-yard curling shot which left Knight stranded.
Despite the off-field problems at Rothes they gave a good account of themselves.
Forres will now be at home to Nairn County in the semi-final in mid-September – the date still to be confirmed.
The second win of the week came with our home league game against an under performing Huntly on Saturday, August 15 with goals from Scott Moors, Lee Fraser and Liam Baxter giving us a 3-0 win. Following Huntly’s recent bad results this should have been a walk in the park but they fought hard and played well, albeit lacking in confidence.
We dominated for long periods of the game and the scoreline should have more emphatic but for poor finishing & many shots off target.
However with 12 goals so far this season from the Fraser/Baxter partnership up front, there is now real competition to see who can get to 20 goals first, who knows they might both manage that, I can’t remember the last time that happened to two Forres players in one season – keep it going boys.
Next up is a trip to Grantown on Saturday, August 22 to take on an improving Strathspey Thistle, lets hope the winning run continues.