Forres Mechanics 0 Formartine United 4: Can-Cans routinely beaten as winless run continues
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
FORRES Mechanics’ winless run reached 10 games as they were routinely beaten by Formartine United at Mosset Park.
Forres went in at half-time 1-0 down after a competitive first 45 minutes, but were blown away after the break.
Goals from Paul Campbell, Aaron Reid, Julian Wade and substitute Adam Emslie secured the points for Formartine, who are fifth in the table.
The bad news began before kick-off for the Can-Cans as Cameron Ferguson - son of Duncan Ferguson - was ruled out of the game with a quad injury picked up on Friday. Shaun Morrison also got injured in the warm-up.
Mechanics manager Steven MacDonald was happy enough with the first-half efforts, but admitted his side’s second-half showing was not good enough.
“I thought first half we did OK and we were unfortunate to come in one down,” he said. “But we came in one down because we gave away a poor goal.
“We created chances and it was the same old story as we weren’t able to take them.
“But second half we were really poor and we can’t hide from that. The goals we gave away were diabolical.
“The defence has been has been doing so well in the last few weeks in general and holding us together with solid performances.
“Even though we weren’t scoring enough goals, the defence was getting us through it. But they had a really bad day. We got bullied in the second half.
“I can’t criticise the boys because the effort has been good recently, and the attitude has been good. But there has been the odd second-half performance like that.”
On Cameron Ferguson missing out, he added: “He hurt his quad so that was a big blow because there was real positivity.
“From that it felt a bit flat all round. There were plans for him to start the game so we will see how he is later in the week.”
Formartine got off to a flying start Paul Campbell fired a cutback into the top right-hand corner in the third minute.
Calum Frame passed up a big chance to level the scores on 14 minutes. Ben Kelly put him through one-on-one but he delayed and saw his shot blocked.
Formartine started the second half on top and made it 2-0 within 10 minutes of the restart. Former Elgin City loanee Aaron Reid followed up a Julian Wade shot that had been parried by Cans goalkeeper Corey Paterson to double his side’s lead.
The third goal was added by Wade as he ran through the centre of the Forres defence and finished low into the bottom-left corner.
Forres’ misery was complete in the 83rd minute when Mark McLauchlan miscontrolled a cross in his own six-yard box and set the ball up perfectly for sub Adam Emslie to hammer home from eight yards.
Mechanics are back at Mosset Park - where they are winless in 15 matches stretching back to August - on Wednesday night, when they take on Wick Academy.
Wick have won just one away match all season - 6-1 at bottom club Strathspey. They have drawn one and lost 11 of their other 12 games on the road.
Forres will be without the experienced trio of Jamie Michie, Callum Howarth and Jack Grant.
MacDonald added: “We have only got four games left and we are looking for some positivity.
“We want to finish with some wins before the end of the season, but any game is going to be difficult if we apply ourselves like we did in the second half (against Formartine).
“But I have great belief that the team will fight back from it. It’s a sore one now but it’s a good chance in the next couple of games to put that right.”
