Slack defending costs Forres Mechanics dear as manager Steven MacDonald rues six-minute lapse allowing Wick Academy's Gordon MacNab to plunder match-winning hat-trick at Harmsworth Park
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Forres Mechanics manager Steven MacDonald said losing three goals in six minutes at Wick Academy on Wednesday left his team with a mountain to climb.
Cans lost 3-2 at Harmsworth Park with the damage done by Gordon MacNab's quickfire hat-trick in the first half.
Calum Frame and Tom Brady pulled two back but Forres slipped to 11th place after their defeat.
MacDonald said: "We certainly gave it everything in the second half but the damage was done in the first half.
"We gave ourselves a mountain to climb with some poor defending.
"Fair play to Wick, they certainly took their goals well. We tried hard but I don't think we did enough at the end of the day."
MacNab hit his first-ever treble for Wick and now he hopes the Scorries can build on that result by achieving back-to-back wins in the Highland League when they go to Lossiemouth on Saturday.
The 29-year-old forward was unstoppable with three brilliant strikes in quick succession before the midway point in the first half.
"Before the game the manager and a couple of the boys said I was due a goal and I just felt up for it tonight," MacNab said. "I got my first one and then I just felt that everything I hit was going to go in – and it did, so I'm happy with that.
"Hopefully we can continue that form when we go down to Lossie on Saturday."
MacNab got the opener on 15 minutes when he broke into the box and calmly placed the ball low to the left of keeper Lee Herbert.
Three minutes later he got on the end of a long ball from Ross Gunn and charged through in the inside-right channel before firing it into the far corner.
With 21 minutes gone MacNab produced another supremely confident finish, this time after receiving a pass from Richard Macadie wide on the left and outpacing the Forres defence.
Frame pulled one back after 28 minutes when he turned the ball in at close range after a shot by Ethan Cairns had been blocked by Graeme Williamson.
Forres got a second after 65 minutes when Brady sent a perfectly placed shot into the top corner from the edge of the box.
The Mosset Park men now need to pick themselves up for Saturday's trip to second-placed Formartine United.
"That'll be a tough one," MacDonald said. "They'll all be tough if we defend like that.
"We've got a couple of players coming back for Saturday, so fingers crossed."
