Lossiemouth scooped their first league point and goal of the season with a hard fought draw against local minnows Forres Mechanics. The Brown and Yellow Hoops opened the scoring after less than a minute through Charles Brown, but Lossie rallied to put Forres under heavy pressure, and equalised through Craig Morrison before both sides had chances to steal all three points.

A few familiar faces trotted out in Forres’ new home kit, with Simon Allan, Stephen McIntosh and Jordan Main all featuring before the ninety minutes were up. Lossie evidently found the new outfits at Mosset Park too big a distraction and proceeded to concede almost immediately from kick off, to the horror of the relatively large travelling support.

Simon Allan took possession on the halfway line and played the ball forward to Charles Brown, whose flick towards the penalty box caused chaos in the Lossie defence and BROWN rounded Masterton to tuck away a chance that even Snoopy could have finished. 

With Forres having pinged five past Buckie Thistle the previous week, the pensioners sitting in the stand with their tartan blankets must have been expecting a barrow load against a Lossie side who were not earning themselves a reputation as sharpshooters in from of goal. The home side, ushered along by the menacing Neil Whyte, took to passing the ball about, with Brown setting up former Coaster Stephen McIntosh for a shot at goal which was well saved by Masterton.

Half time – Forres Mechanics 1 Lossiemouth 0

Lossie were containing Forres well, with Darren Watson winning the aerial battle with Ryan Green, a Hen Broon figure of a man standing taller than everyone else on the pitch. Steven Dixon and Kevin Stuart were as solid as ever at the rear and Forres were reduced to longer range efforts, the best coming from Brown who volleyed wide of the post just shy of the interval.

Words were evidently exchanged at half time as Lossie came out for the second period looking more determined and instead of shipping the usual cheap goal, actually put one on the board themselves. A classy clearance from Masterton found the feet of MORRISON downfield, and with Knight rushing out to block, Mo lifted the ball over him to get Lossies season off and running.

Gordon Winton had not seen that coming. Nor had anyone else. And to make things worse for Forres, Lossie kept at it, refusing to give Forres the room to play, and began to look the better side. Quite how this lot put five (yes, five) past Buckie the previous weekend will go down in history as a truly unsolvable mystery.

Lossie made some changes, with Duncan Lamont appearing and almost becoming the hero of the evening, winning a loose ball in the box and turning before shooting over. The former Clach hit man Alex Bone once again let his mouth do the talking but on the rare occasion he got the ball down, he forced Masterton into a fine low one handed save at his far post, following a curling effort from the larger than life Bone. 

Full time – Forres Mechanics 1 Lossiemouth 1

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