Forres Thistle beaten 5-3 by Nairn St Ninian as striker Mark MacDonald nets hat-trick

Forres Thistle were on the wrong end of an eight-goal thriller in Saturday’s derby loss to Nairn St Ninian at Showfield.

Nairn had a couple of chances in the opening 20 minutes - and took the lead with their third big chance on 18 minutes when Charles Fonweban controlled and scored from 10 yards.

Glenn Main’s 30-yard shot was tipped away by Adam Crichton after half an hour, and he denied Fonweban from scoring his second four minutes later.

Thistle were level at the break thanks to a free-kick from Craig Robertson, scored from the right-hand corner of the Nairn penalty box.

Liam Taylor put Nairn back ahead on the hour mark when he nodded in from six yards - but that lead only lasted two minutes.

Ross Murphy’s free-kick was punched by Nairn keeper Liam MacKenzie to Neil Owen, who scored from 20 yards.

Nairn’s Mark MacDonald scored three times in the next quarter of an hour to put the game beyond Forres.

A long kick forward from keeper MacKenzie went all the way through to MacDonald to score from eight yards on 68 minutes, and he slotted home a penalty after Robertson was deemed to have handled in the box four minutes later.

The forward then got free in the box to finish a quickfire hat-trick on 77 minutes.

Thistle grabbed a consolation when Josh Stephenson scored from 10 yards out on 83 minutes.

The Jags are away to Lossiemouth United this weekend.