Invergordon 3
Fort William 0
North Caledonian League
Controversial refereeing decisions were at the heart of Fort William’s 3-0 defeat to Invergordon on Saturday, writes Peter Newman.
The game was tight in the opening quarter. Fort recovered from their insipid performance last time out and were playing with thrust and purpose.
Winger Marty Munro was denied what looked like a stonewall penalty as his shirt was nearly cleaved from his back. The man in charge waved play on to the anger of the away cohort.
As Fort William continued to attack, the Recreation Ground hosts broke away and scored via a Ryan McFee goal against the run of play.
A booking for a two-way tussle saw centre half Farquhar Macrae go into the book and the referee award a penalty.
Goalkeeper Kit Fletcher denied the home side striker with a top notch save.
Things went from bad to worse after canny play from the Invergordon forward saw Farquhar Macrae dismissed for a second bookable offence in the softest and most controversial fashion.
As the game progressed, frustration with the officiating continued.
Finally, Invergordon ensured the Lochaber men were truly ‘Les Miserables’ as first finishes from Cameron Mackintosh, on the hour, and Dean Wallace ten minutes later put them out of touch despite a spirited performance.
Manager Alan Gray said: “I was proud of how the boys battled for 60 minutes while down to ten men.
“For me, the scoreline didn’t reflect the performance. It was always going to be tough against a side as decent as Invergordon with only ten men. We need to eradicate individual errors and recapture our early season form.“