The toll of playing Saturday and Wednesday was catching up with Lossie, who had Martin McMullan and Dan Smith on the bench after picking up injuries at Clach in midweek. Darren McConnachie retained his place in goals, and Liam Archibald made his first start for the club. Rothes were without Kevin Shortreed as they chased their third win in a row following victories over Turriff and Fort William, but former Coaster Franny More started for Rothes.

From the first whistle it was clear Rothes were unenthusiastic about getting involved in a game of football. The home side kicked ball after ball long towards the corner flags or even out of the ground, even before they took the lead, and the Rothes bench did their best to slow the game down by constantly refusing to throw in a replacement ball until prompted by referee Thomas Shaw.

Lossie could have gone ahead after quarter of an hour. Sam Milton slid a ball into Stuart Strathdee but the striker was stretching to reach the ball and deflected it over the bar from inside the area.

Lossie were struggling to find a rhythm of any kind, partly because of Rothes’ antics but the visitors were far from at their best throughout the first half. After strong performances seen at Clach and Deveronvale in recent weeks, Lossie should have had the confidence to take on a Rothes side yet to hit double figures in points, but frustration was getting the better of the Coasters.

The opening goal came just before the interval. Rather than adopt the tactics of his hosts and thump it downfield, Urquhart tried to walk the ball out of the Lossie penalty area but lost possession in front of Stuart FLETT, who took a touch and curled the ball back across goal and into the net at the far post.

The half ended with a nasty collision between Kris Duncan and Darren McConnachie on the edge of the area. McConnachie was left writhing in agony after the clumsy striker planted his feet on the keeper as he slid out to collect a loose ball; it was the fastest Duncan had moved all day, and he was still too slow.

Half time - Rothes 1 Lossiemouth 0

The introduction of Martin McMullan for the second half saw Lossie slowly get going, despite the efforts of Rothes to suck the life out of the game. When they weren’t kicking the ball into the air, Rothes looked like scoring a second, and Lossie had Darren McConnachie to thank for keeping them in the game when he saved a chipped shot from Flett.

 Lossie cranked up the pressure and, if it wasn’t for some poor heading, would have been ahead with time to spare. Strathdee had the clearest chance to level with his head, but nodded the ball wide, as did substitute Kevin Flett.

 Rothes eventually tired of kicking the ball as high as they could and with twenty minutes left Lossie set up camp in the Rothes half, desperately looking for an equaliser almost as desperately as Rothes were defending. Ricky Horne was doing most of the work as he thwarted goal bound efforts from Shawn Scott and Martin McMullan, and would have been tested by Steven Sim had the ball not been cleared from his toe as he looked to shoot.

And so the game entered the last minute. So many times this season it has seen the decisive moment of the game, and not always in favour of Lossie, but this time the football gods were on the side of the visitors, deciding Rothes didn’t deserve all three points from a performance that could have had football banned.

Lossie remained perched in front of the Rothes goal as time expired, still struggling to find a way through. The ball broke to Kevin Flett and, with everyone screaming for him to shoot, he laid the ball square to Martin MCMULLAN who rifled the ball past Horne. The keeper could only stand and watch as the ball sailed past him and into the net, to the delight of some of the more pessimistic Lossie fans passing behind the goal on their way out of the ground.

In the minutes of injury time that remained, Rothes displayed a kind of urgency that could have earned them a comfortable win had they applied themselves properly against misfiring opposition, but Lossie retained possession and saw out the game to secure a point.

Full time - Rothes 1 Lossiemouth 1

Teams

Lossiemouth - Darren McConnachie: Steven Sim, Sam Milton, Kevin Stuart, JJ Urquhart, Colin Charlesworth, Tony Ross, Gary Macdonald, Shawn Scott, Stuart Strathdee, Liam Archibald
Rothes - Ricky Horne: Ian Macrae, Donald Horsburgh, Greig Lamberty, Lewis Duguid, Barry Massie, Franny More, Scott Robison, Mark Dougal, Kris Duncan, Stuart Flett

Lossiemouth - Martin McMullan (Tony Ross, 46), Kevin Flett (Liam Archibald, 66), Craig Patullo (Gary Macdonald, 78)
Rothes - Graeme Bain (Franny More, 75), Richard Forsyth (Kris Duncan, 89)

Lossiemouth - None
Rothes - None

Referee

Disagree?