This was summer football at its best with a fair-sized, short-sleeved crowd basking in blistering sunshine for the Locos v Strathspey Thistle league match.
Well, it was as “blistering” as you’ll get in the north-east. And the sides served up reasonable entertainment. Strathspey continue to improve every year and Locos were well-warned after Cove had only scrambled a 3-2 win with late goals in Grantown ten days ago.
Locos welcomed back forwards Andy Hunter and David Ross to provide a much-needed boost up front and they celebrated their return with the goals in the 3-0 victory.
Locos even had the luxury of leaving Colin Charlesworth on the bench and he was terrific down the right flank when he appeared. He is proving to be a sound acquisition.
The defence deserve plaudits too, but only after they contrived unsuccessfully to let Strathspey take the lead early on as Josh Peters cracked a shot off the inside of the post.
But, from that point, they held the Strathspey forwards comfortably with goalkeeper Scott Mathieson in fine form. Full-backs Greg Mitchell and John Maitland were effective and pushed forward to support the attack. Scott Begg played well and he undertakes a lot of good spoiling work in the middle.
I have been critical of referees in the past, but on Saturday I thought Ben Dempster had a good match. He laid down an early marker with yellow cards for Andy Hunter and Martin Groat for a slight skirmish off the ball, he insisted on throw-ins being taken from the correct point, and he acknowledged a couple of small errors on his part and fell in line with the advice of his better-placed linesmen and changed his decision.
That was good teamwork and the game flowed and was played in good, but competitive, spirit by both teams. Strathspey were unlucky with that early chance, but they still lack a forward cutting edge. Locos lack strength in depth, but they will win more games than they will lose this year.
Next Saturday’s match against a Forres team who have had an identical start in the league will provide another interesting benchmark.