Cans bounce back against the odds

Fort William 1 Forres Mechanics 3

Forres bounced back from their narrow midweek defeat with a 3-1 away win at Claggan Park, to maintain the Mechanics standing within the top half of the table ahead of their trip to face title favourites Formartine United this weekend.

It was three points that satisfied manager Charlie Rowley who felt his side dealt with a variety of factors in the right manner, “When you are going to Fort having come off of a good performance still a defeat the mindset isn’t ideal. The pitch was like a pre season pitch, it was bone dry and bobbly and there was a strong, swirling wind. Add in that there was no atmosphere and altogether it was difficult to lift ourselves.

“Despite all that we applied ourselves well enough and did more than enough to win the game. We toiled at times to break them down but when you take everything into consideration I can’t be too critical.

“Fort William had a good shape, they were very contact and we found it difficult to play around them at times but we got 90 minutes from Lee Fraser, Nathan Sharp came off the bench to make his comeback, we scored three goals and we won the game pretty comfortably so you can’t complain about that.”

Lee Fraser returned to the starting line up for the first time this season replacing the injured Ross Archibald. Stuart Knight returned in goals having missed the midweek match with Chris Stuart dropping onto the bench alongside Charlie Brown.

Steven Fraser’s shot from range was the first shot on target of the game just on the quarter hour mark and soon after Lee Fraser drilled a shot past the post as Forres began to take the initiative.

It was to be third time lucky as the Mechanics took the lead when Scott Moore collected the ball as it was cleared from the Fort box and he placed a high curling shot into the net from 25 yards.

Fort William never really threatened the Forres goal with the defence keeping Stuart Knight well protected. Meanwhile at the other end the prompting of Scott Moore lead to a second goal just before half time.

In the first of four additional minutes Moore danced his way into the penalty area before being felled by Ryan Macdonald. Simon Allan trotted forward to slot the spot kick past Kyle Robertson to give the Mechanics a two goal cushion.

That cushion was increased to three early in the second half with Lee Fraser making his mark with a knockdown that allowed Ryan Mackintosh to run in behind the defence and he took a couple of touches before placing the ball beyond Robertson.

It should have been 4-0 just minutes later during an incredible spell of play. It began with a thumping effort from Ross Macpherson, his shot from the edge of the box struck the bar. The ball worked it’s way back to Kyle Scott who also struck the bar and as the scramble continued Lee Fraser tried his luck but his ten yard shot was saved by Kyle Robertson.

The home team struck back in the 57th minute when Martin Groat managed to manoeuvre around Stuart Knight before playing the ball across for Andy Maclean to turn the ball home from close range.

While this goal never sparked any suggestion of a comeback it did take the sting out of the Mechanics attack and prevented the scoreline from stretching. Now the attention turns to the weekend trip to Formartine (weather permitting) which Charlie Rowley believes will be a tough test.

“We have recent experience of them having beaten them a couple of weeks ago. They are a strong team who are doing very well but we are capable of beating any team if we play to our potential, whether we can defeat them twice in such a short space of time is what we will have to see.”

Fort William: K Robertson, R Macdonald, L Campbell, I Foggo, D Quigg, M Gillespie (L Morrison 71), M Groat (Trialist 75), G Farquhar, D Forbes, S Hunter (Trialist 85), A Maclean Subs: R Lewandowski

Scorer: A Maclean (57)

Booked: M Gillespie (29), D Quigg (45), D Forbes (53), G Farquhar (67) Sent Off: -

Forres Mechanics: S Knight, G Fraser, S Allan, G Grant, S Fraser, R Macpherson (M McMullen 65), S Moore, R Mackintosh (D Howard 87), L Fraser, K Scott, C McGovern (N Sharp 79) Subs: C Brown, C Stuart

Scorer: S Moore (23), S Allan (45+1 pen), R Mackintosh (52)

Booked: - Sent Off: -

Referee: M Kerrigan

Gazette Gold Star: Scott Moore was the catalyst for success, scoring one and winning a penalty with a typically impish display.