Brave Fort William battle all the way against Turriff
Fort William 3 Turriff United 5
Highland League
There was plenty for both sets of fans to cheer about in this Highland League clash at Claggan Park on Saturday, with some exciting football being played by both teams.
Turriff was first to get the scoreboard ticking over thanks to a calmly taken Michael Ewan penalty in the 10th minute which sent Fort keeper Martin Mackinnon the wrong way.
But the home side did not let the early penalty rattle them and kept playing good football with the pressure finally paying off 10 minutes later after Ross Gunn delivered a superb corner effort that was met by the head of Gabriel Hastings to make it 1-1.
The 24th minute and Turriff went 1-2 ahead thanks to Ethan Smith heading home from a corner.
Gunn, who played superbly for the entire 90 minutes, clawed one back in the 27th minute, hitting the equaliser from the edge of the box to make it 2-2.
And it was than Gunn again nine minutes later when he found the net for a second time after Iain Maclellan played the ball across the box and Gunn blasted it home to make it 3-2.
Fort nearly went two up just before half time but Jack Brown had his effort in the 39th minute denied.
The visitors denied Fort the chance to go into the halftime break in the lead when they equalised in the 44th minute with a cracker from Robert Ward.
That made the half-time score 3-3 and there was a great atmopshere as the teams settled down to business after the restart.
The 47th minute saw Turriff take the lead at 3-4 and the scoreline looked set to remain that way until the last 20 minutes when Fort had several chances to tie the score. Unfortunately they were denied by fantastic work from the visitors’ keeper.
In the 80th minute Turriff stretched their lead to make it 3-5 but the Fort players refused to quit. However, the home side was unable to convert the pressure into further goals with the best chance coming in the 81st minute, only for the ball to glance off the Turriff crossbar.
The Fort players and officials will have been disappointed not to come away with a win from this match but their many fans took heart from the committed display on show.
In the crowd were Fort fans who had travelled from as far afield as Essex and Derbyshire.
Steve Buscall posted: ‘We were in the crowd all the way from Essex. What a great first half display and so unlucky in the second. Have to say the Turriff keeper was the difference in the end. Great experience being there.’
While Meryl Fears added: ‘We had a fab time. Came up from Derbyshire. Hold your heads up high lads, you are doing great.’
Fort were due to take to the road for their league match against Forres Mechanics last night (Wednesday) and will welcome bottom-placed Lossiemouth this Saturday.