July 15th 2024
HOARSE Nairn County manager Ronnie Sharp recovered enough of his voice to give his views on a tension-ridden 2-1 victory over Lossiemouth and could not fail to express his delight at seeing his charges grind out another three points. The visitors took the lead from the penalty spot early on following a foul by the returning Gregg Main but Callum Maclean swept home a leveller midway through the first half before Lossiemouth were reduced to 10 men thanks to Joao Rodrigues' moment of madness a few minutes short of the break. County took full advantage to dominate the second half and Jack Maclean crashed home a header just after the hour-mark to put Nairn in front with his first senior goal. Nairn could have made the points safe but Gary Kerr hit the post with a penalty prior to Lossiemouth throwing caution to the wind and passing up one glorious chance to salvage a point. Sharp said: "We are delighted to get the win in what was a hard game. We made a bad start to the first half and lost a goal early on again but after we got over that, I thought we were the better team throughout." "It is good to get going again because we let ourselves down a bit against Turriff but you could probably to put that down to us playing four games in 10 days at that time. We were back up to good performances throughout the team today." Sharp rung the changes with to his starting eleven with no fewer than five players who featured from the off at Turriff last time out being replaced. He revealed: "We had to make a few changes to the team with Ross Naismith working, Jason Morganti injured and Jamie Mackay also suffering from a wee bit of a knock, so we changed that about from what we had worked on in training this week." "That meant it took us a wee while to settle down but I thought that the boys who came in did really well. We had two young boys in Jack and Jordan (Macrae) out wide and I thought they were both excellent. They are both only 18 years of age and they were terrific today." Maclean netted hi s second goal of the season and his first ever at Station Park since joining the club last summer. Sharp said: "It was an excellent finish from him after making a good run round the back to meet a long throw from Jordan and then showing a bit of composure to tuck the ball away. It was an excellent goal to watch and it is good to see him getting another goal." Maclean's goal came 17 minutes after the half time after County had exerted their authority at the start of the second half. Sharp stated: "It is Jack's first goal in the Highland League and it was a winner so that is extra special. Dylan Mackenzie has done that already this season as well and it is great to see these young boys making a difference. I thought he took it really well and it was a terrific ball in from Moir followed by a great header." "It is great for Jack that it was the winning goal but we should have been a lot more comfortable. We had the penalty miss and a few other chances to make the game easier for ourselves because I thought we dominated the whole second half." The major downside for Nairn was the withdrawal of Calum Riddell after just 12 minutes as the result of a shoulder injury. "He is away to get it checked it out and we do not know the extent of the damage yet," said Sharp. "He said he heard a crack as he landed and I think it was just the way he landed with their boy landing on top of him. We will wait and see but hopefully he will be OK because he has had a good start to the season since stepping up from the juniors." Graeme Macleod
