Lossiemouth brought the home portion of their season to a close with a defeat to Huntly. Three late goals from the Tigers secured the points, but only after a harshly disallowed strike from, and red card shown to, Shawn Scott, and the ordering off of Lossie manager Charlie Charlesworth.

Lossie went into the game without Nikki Smith and Kevin Stuart, due to work commitments and suspension respectively. John Teasdale returned to one of many former stamping grounds with his new charges, although it was left to assistant Gary Welsh to run the show for the first half as Teasdale checked in at Borough Briggs to take in the opening stages of a rare Elgin City win. 

There was pre-match disappointment for Lossie as the match official original scheduled to take charge of the game was replaced with David Watt. Clearly irritated at having been made to wait until the end of the season for the chance to get in the way of a perfectly good game at Grant Park, Watt had spent the journey to the ground making up his mind as to how he was to referee the game and control certain individuals.

Huntly wasted no time looking for the opener and Lossie had Darren McConnachie to thank for keeping the game scoreless with less than two minutes played. The Tigers Gilbert Paterson broke down the wing before squaring to Michael Ewen, but the strikers shot was saved at point blank range by the feet of McConnachie.

Lossie didn’t hang about after that warning and set about breaking down a Huntly side who’ve not been far from a bad performance since their league challenge died away. Martin McMullan was at the centre of things, heading over his sides first chance, before Tony Ross found himself inches away from deflecting home a Shawn Scott free kick. McMullan had the hosts best chance of the half when he found himself played clean through on goal by Scott. His initial shot was saved but despite the ball rebounding to his feet, McMullan prodded the ball across the face of goal and wide.

Huntly lifted their game following the miss, and want away striker Michael Ewen came close to finding an opener but saw his shot sail over the bar.

The closing minutes of the half were marred by the sending off of Lossie manager Charlie Charlesworth. Referee David Watt took offence at an honest appraisal of his afternoon’s performance and dismissed Charlesworth, though that only served to move the Lossie manager a matter of feet behind the dugout.

Half time - Lossiemouth 0 Huntly 0

Watt continued where he left off as the second half began. Shawn Scott received the ball with his back to goal in the penalty area and, despite the close attention of Neil Reid behind him, turned on a sixpence before rifling the ball into the net. To the astonishment of everyone in the ground Watt found reason to disallow the goal, claiming Scott has committed a foul in the build up to the goal.

The idea that some officials approach Lossie games with a predetermined agenda against Shawn Scott has been gathering momentum this season following certain decisions, and on the hour Biscuits found himself in the book for swearing while interrupted in the act of trying to take a throw in – interrupted, no less, by Watt, who blew his whistle mid throw to allow a substitute.

Huntly took advantage of the home side’s frustration and took the lead with quarter of an hour remaining, Stuart SOANE passing the ball into the corner of the net as Lossie slowly deflated.

In the dying minutes Huntly added an unfair gloss to the score with another two goals. Ritchie Taylor set up Michael EWEN for a shot and the occasional striker found the target to put the game beyond Lossie. In injury time it was three, when the nephew of recently sacked manager Dave McGinley whipped in a cross that not even Martin SKINNER could miss.

In between the latter two goals, David Watt completed his afternoon by issuing a second yellow to Shawn Scott. The player had his arm raised while jumping for a header in the penalty area and the ball made contact. Watt could not get the card out fast enough – perhaps he was walking around with it in his hand, just waiting for his big moment – and Biscuits was off.

Lossie head for Fort William to complete their league campaign, and will surely be missing Shawn Scott due to a lengthy suspension. The available Lossie players must be wondering which one of them will have the outcome of their game decided for them before they take to the field at Claggan Park.

Full time - Lossiemouth 0 Huntly 3

Teams

Lossiemouth - Darren McConnachie: Colin Charlesworth, Kevin Flett, JJ Urquhart, Sam Milton, Martin McMullan, Tony Ross, Dan Smith, Shawn Scott, Stuart Strathdee, Liam Archibald
Huntly - Neil Hastie: Neil Reid, Myles Brownhill, Martin Skinner, Alan Redford, Mark Gray, Stuart Soane, David Booth, Ritchie Taylor, Michael Ewen, Gilbert Paterson

Lossiemouth - Tommy Walker (Stuart Strathdee, 0), Kevin Grant (Liam Archibald, 66)
Huntly - Michael McGinlay (David Booth, 69), Tommy Rialist (Gilbert Paterson, 90), Andy Harry Secombes (Ritchie Taylor, 90)

Lossiemouth - Shawn Scott (second yellow)
Huntly - None

Referee

Disagree?