Cove Rangers need only one point from their remaining two away games, at Clachnacuddin and Turriff United this week, to reclaim the Press and Journal Highland League title
Two goals inside the opening 15 minutes at Lossiemouth’s Grant Park sent the Aberdeen side on its way to a comfortable victory and it would have been more but for the woodwork and fine goalkeeping.
Cove manager John Sheran said: “We emphasised to the players they needed to be on to the task from the start.
“Getting the two early goals settled everybody down a bit.
“We did take our foot off the gas a bit before half-time, but the goal right after the restart ended it.
“We needed everybody to perform and work hard and it was a really good team performance.
“Jamie Watt popped up with two goals again with good finishes and I was delighted Johnny Smith scored as well.
“In the first half Connor Scully showed excellent movement, and that left foot of his is like a magic wand to set things up.
“Some of the players left out or on the bench have injury issues lingering, we even had the luxury of resting Eric Watson in the last half hour and it was great to have Dean Lawrie on the park for the final 20 minutes.
“Credit to Fort William, they were well organised, made it hard and kept working to the end.”
Watt is determined to wrap up the title at Clach Park on Wednesday night and said: “It is a massive game for us. We have done brilliantly to get to this stage and the last thing we want to do is to need a point on the final day at Turriff. I’ve been in nervy situations like that before, so we will be going up there with the same spirit we have shown all season, get the three points on the night and see the job through.”
Cove went ahead in the second minute when Scully’s cross from the right found Smith in space in the box and the Liverpudlian scored in style.
It was 2-0 soon afterwards when Watt was quickly on to a through pass and the veteran carefully placed his shot past goalkeeper Douglas MacLennan.
Scully ran the Lochaber side’s defence ragged in the opening period, he had already hit the crossbar before the second goal and later in the half also rattled the underside of the woodwork.
MacLennan also made great saves from Scully and Blair Yule while Watt had a goal chalked off for offside.
Within two minutes of the resumption the crucial third duly arrived when Watt ran on to a pass from Harry Milne, jinked for space in the box and coolly chipped over the goalkeeper. The scoring was completed midway through the half by Sam Burnett with a low, left-footed curler into the net.
Fort manager Ally Ewan had no complaints about the outcome and said: “There were a lot of positives to take, although we had wanted to contain Cove as long as we could.
“If we had done that there was a chance. It was only a matter of time though. Cove are a very good side, certainly the best we’ve faced. They dominated from start to finish, while we were living off scraps throughout.”