Alness United 1
Fort William 4
North Caledonian League
Fort William Football Club maintained its position at the top of the North Caledonian league with an impressive 4-1 win on the road over Alness, writes Peter Newman.
Hosts Alness have, traditionally, been near the top of the table but this year find themselves languishing in the bottom half.
In the event, they belied this discrepancy in league position by taking the lead in the first five minutes through Luke Mackay’s fifth finish of the season.
However, this was a day of full flowing attacking football from the Claggan Park men and they were not to be denied. Performances were impressive across the squad but particularly noteworthy were the roles played by senior players.
The veteran pair of winger Martin Munro and midfielder Dave Forbes saw the pair terrorise the Dalmore Park defenders.
Mallaig man Andrew Sneddon equalised for the visitors after 20 minutes and it was all square at the break.
In the second half, the Lochaber lads let rip. First Munro moved them ahead, full back Ross Peters whipping in a cross converted by Munro.
Then, with the score 2-1, Alness flooded forward. Just as it looked like they would score, Peters, covering his central defenders, blocked the shot and Fort countered up the park to score the third as Andrew Mclean beat his marker by a furlong to bag his sixth goal of the term.
Finally, substitute Davie Neil proved that goals, like buses, come in pairs hassling and harrying defenders for his second goal in as many games to make the final score 4-1.
Manager Alan Gray was delighted. “What a result today and a top notch performance – one of the best in our time at Fort William,” he said.
“I thought in attacking areas, we were excellent – moving the ball wide and making the right runs. Defensively, as the game went on, we tightened up. I thought Kit Fletcher was inspired in goal while the back four gave us class and determination.
“Overall, Darren [Duncan, assistant manager] and I are very proud of the boys today and we look forward to building on this next week.”
Fort William host Halkirk United at Claggan Park on Saturday November 11 at 1pm.