As a Lossiemouth fan being exiled from Lossiemouth – firstly to Aberdeen, and now to Inverurie – means getting to ‘home’ games involves sober Saturdays, expensive train journeys, or convoluted travel plans the likes of which I thought were a great idea in my youth but not so much now I’ve got grown up things to pay for.
Mercifully, the Highland League has so far delivered a big game to my doorstep with much appreciated regularity, and this weekend saw another take place.
With the title race still alive and yet to become the procession predicted by many, Saturday’s game at Harlaw Park between sometime train enthusiasts Inverurie Loco Works and nearby cattle rustlers Turriff United stood out on the fixture list like the sorest of thumbs.
Turriff strolled into town unbeaten in the league but smarting from a midweek penalty shoot-out defeat to Cove. Locos made it through to the last four of the Shire Cup that same evening but had to come from behind to beat a meaty-looking Keith side to do so.
Locos have proved amenable hosts so far this season, conceding the opening goal in home games against Buckie Thistle, Formartine United and the aforementioned Maroons, before fighting back to win all three games.
Locos were generous once again here, shipping an early goal to Gary McGowan who skipped through the defence and fired the ball into the net via the body of Scott Mathieson who, on a dry day, may have seen the ball bounce back out into play rather than skite under him.
Locos’ Gordon Forsyth then found himself bundled into an advertising hoarding, resulting in a burst head and a Terry Butcher-style bandage.
Inside the opening third of the game the paying punters saw a goal, two bookings, some decent football, and a club medic treating an on-field injury without their manager causing an international media meltdown.
£8 well spent.
Something strange was happening, though – hardly anyone was giving the game the attention it deserved.
The goal was one of the first of the day and temporarily hoisted Turriff to the top of the table as Brora struggled early on against Keith, but the loons in the shed seemed more interested in what was happening elsewhere. Aberdeen were losing, remarked one to another as Turriff continued to boss the first half. Hearts are winning at Dingwall, while Sunderland were getting skelped at the Stadium of Light. Few seemed to notice that Turriff were comfortably keeping Locos at bay, with more seemingly interested in the fact Inverness were being beaten up at Celtic Park.
A discussion on who to ask to get the best tatties in Turriff – a barman, apparently, whose name sadly went unsaid – kept two gentlemen busy as what was a tense encounter continued to play out just beyond the ends of their noses.
Excusing myself from the presence of a hundred farmers staring at a hundred smart phones, I watched the second half from the drizzle outside the shed. Locos were by far the better team in the second half, although regardless of where I ventured I couldn’t fail to overhear stories about how Aberdeen were now winning or how Elgin had scored again, the latter being completely unwelcome information as far as I was concerned.
Locos had a goal disallowed after Martin Bavidge was deemed to have taken a bit too much of Kevin Main into the net with him before making sure the ball went in too. Obviously, despite breaking news sweeping the ground that Spurs were throwing their points away at home to Stoke, EVERYONE present had chosen that moment to pay enough attention to justify an opinion on that particular decision.
Those still tuned to the game they’d paid to see and not wondering if Dunfermline would hit double figures at home to Cowdenbeath were treated to a goal from Darren Mackie with ten minutes remaining, and it proved to be the winner. Locos managed to convert their much improved second half performance into a solitary injury time goal, coming from the still-bandaged head of man of the match Forsyth, but it was too little, too late.
On the evidence of one game, Turriff looked the more likely of the two to mount a challenge at the very top of the table. For their part, Locos look good value for the Aberdeenshire Cup, the semi-finals of which they take part in next month.
As for the league title itself, can either put a spoke in the wheels of the Brora bandwagon? And if they can, will anyone be paying attention?