July 15th 2024
RONNIE Sharp was frustrated to see his Nairn County team go from being a goal in front to 2-1 down in the space of six minutes at Station Park as Fraserburgh fought back to claim all three points. Callum Maclean saw a header flash straight into the arms of Fraserburgh goalkeeper Edward Flinn before the Broch stopper made a stunning save to keep his side level as both teams went into the break having yet to breach the other’s defences. But six minutes after the restart, Adam Naismith stroke home from the penalty spot after he had been fouled in the box by Marc Dickson to give Nairn the breakthrough. The hosts failed to kick-on from there though and the Broch struck back to level the game on 55 minutes through substitute Greg Buchan. And just two minutes later, fellow sub Paul Campbell netted a rising effort from just inside the box to bag what turned out to be the winner. “We gave the points away,” exclaimed Sharp. “I thought it was pretty even for most of the game but they were clinical and we were not. “In the first half, we should have been ahead with the header from the free kick and the save from another free kick. We just keep doing this all the time and in our last two games we have been ahead but we cannot take a lead.” It was the second week in a row where Nairn had gone in front only to be pegged and eventually end up empty-handed having twice led Clachnacuddin last week in a 3-2 defeat. Sharp added: “I thought we played really well in the first half and it was the same at Clach last week. But when you are on top, you have to take chances and at the moment, we are really struggling to take chances. Mentally, we have not been strong enough when we have gone in front in games. And when teams get level with us, we seem to collapse. We just keep feeling sorry for ourselves when we need to be stronger mentally and sort these things out.” Graeme Macleod
