Golspie co-manager’s call to players to fight “to the finish” after back-to-back defeats
Golspie Stafford’s hopes of retaining the North West Sutherland league championship have been left in tatters after losing both of their opening week post-split fixtures.
The disappointment of a 2-0 defeat at the hands of league leaders Tain Thistle on Saturday was compounded by a 5-2 loss at home to Inver on Tuesday night.
The results leave Tain three points clear at the top of the table, with a game in hand and a goal difference advantage of 15 goals.
One more win for the Tain Jags could all but mathematically end Stafford’s hopes of holding on to their crown.
Golspie Stafford co-manager Scott Clark said his team have been “really struggling” to put a team together in recent weeks.
He said: “Injuries, holidays and some excuses that you would never dream of having heard 10 years ago have meant that we’ve been really struggling to get a team the last few weeks.
“The game in Tain was pretty even until the second off, but we’ve lost two bad goals which doesn’t help.
“It's going to be a tough end of season for us as it looks like we will be missing lots of players still.
“It's up to the players how they want to end the season. Push Tain hard to the finish or just down tools cause we haven't got it all our own way?”
Inver were unrelenting at Stafford Park on Tuesday evening, racing into a two-goal lead after Aiden Stainke and Jayden Loughlin, the latter scoring with a fine solo effort, had found the net.
Alexander Mackay did manage to reduce the deficit, but further goals in the second half put Inver 4-1 up, Jack Traynor and Alex Mackenzie on target.
A Cameron Sutherland strike narrowed the gap between the sides, but substitute Reece Wilson rounded off the win with Inver’s fifth.
At Culag Park, Lochinver were convincing winners in the second west coast derby of the season, atone their 5-3 defeat to Lochbroom earlier in the season with a 4-1 win.
Goals from Jake Lockett and Gary Fisher gave them the lead before a solo goal from Shaun Marshall halved their advantage.
Strikes from Duncan Matheson and Cameron Maclean made sure of the win.
At Back Park, Brora Wanderers hit Embo for six to go top of League 2.
Charlie Dunbar bagged a brace, while Luke Ainsworth, Ally Gray, Cal White and Mike Maclean were also on target.
On Saturday, Tain’s Scott MacDonald took the plaudits for goals in either half at the Links, after Golspie had been reduced to ten men.
An off-the-ball incident between Stafford forward Alexander Mackay and Thistle’s Adam Allan led to the Golspie player being shown red by referee Ian Ross.
Adding to the Sutherland side’s woes, coach Ewen Campbell was also dismissed from the touchline.
In the other top half game of the day, Lochinver snatched a late 2-2 draw after twice going down to Inver at Culag Park.
Jordan Hailes put the visitors 1-0 up and it stayed that way at the interval, before Jake Lockett levelled.
Inver’s lead was restored when Jack Corbett converted a good team move, but with five minutes to go Gary Shand struck to secure a point for the home side.
