Forres Thistle go down in North Region junior football season opener at Burghead Thistle in Grill League Cup

Forres Thistle tasted defeat in their opening match of the new north region junior football season.

Jags made the short trip to Burghead Thistle for a derby clash in a Grill League Cup group which also contains Dufftown and Whitehills.

The home side threatened first with Jamie Davidson heading over and Ryan MacBean nodding an effort down into the ground before bouncing inches above the target.

It didn’t take long for Burghead to score when James Fraser latched on to a long ball forward and took the ball past the advancing Forres keeper Rian Wilson before rolling into an empty net.

Within five minutes it was 2-0, Craig Ellis lobbing Wilson from a ball down the left side on 24 minutes.

Forres were under the cosh and it needed a superb point blank save by Wilson to deny MacBean a third Burghead goal.

Within a minute the Forres keeper was in action once again, making a great stop from Davidson as the visitors were perhaps slightly relieved to be only two down at the break.

Forres threatened more in the second half with home keeper Kyle Rowe first called into action to save easily from Toby Clark.

Rowe could do nothing midway through the half to stop Craig Robertson’s powerful free kick from tearing into the top corner to pull back a goal.

Burghead then missed a simple chance to seal victory, but were deserved 2-1 winners in the end.

Forres are back in action on Saturday at home to Dufftown, who had a 12-0 win over Whitehills, Jags’ final opponents next Tuesday in Banffshire.