Strathspey Thistle fail to convert pressure to goals as they lose to Keith
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A battling performance from Strathspey Thistle was not quite enough to secure a maiden home win of the Highland League campaign against Keith.
The Jags were on top for large parts of the first period, but went down to a 1-0 defeat to the Maroons after Matty Tough's 72nd minute strike.
Coming into the match, Thistle – rooted to the bottom of the table – had the league's poorest home record, with Keith having the fewest points on the road of all 18 sides in the Highland League.
Eager to secure a first home win in the last home game of the campaign, the first chance went to the Jags on two minutes when Jack Davison turned wide from five yards after good work from livewire winger Ross Logan down the right.
The Maroons' first chance came on 20 minutes when Gavin Elphinstone turned a Liam Duncan cutback wide from eight yards.
Davison had another chance to give the home side the lead on 27 minutes when Owen Paterson advanced through the centre of the park and played a cutting through ball to him, but his finish was tame and easily saved by Craig Reid.
There was a hairy moment for Strathy keeper James Kendall two minutes later when his low clearance rebounded against Elphinstone and bounced just wide.
The final chance of the first period went the way of Daniel Whitehorn, who jinked past two defenders and fired a yard past the post from the corner of the box.
The home side went close again at the start of the second period, with Michael Grimes' flick bouncing through to Michael Mackenzie who fired a yard over the bar from 12 yards.
But that was to be the last big opening for the Grantown side and on the hour mark it was the turn of the visitors to go close again as Liam Duncan found space and fired a shot a yard wide from the edge of the box.
The winning goal came for the Maroons on 72 minutes when Matty Tough was left with the simple task of knocking into an empty net after being set up by Ewan Murray following good interplay down the left.
Keith managed the the rest of game well, with goalkeeper Reid only having to keep out Michael Grimes' effort from 20 yards in the 93rd minute.
Afterwards, Jags boss Rob MacCormack said: "I thought the first half we were much the better team and created the better chances and should have probably scored a couple but went in 0-0 at half-time.
"I told the boys to keep going and we had a very, very good chance early in the second half but didn't take it. We had another chance and failed to take it again and these things generally come back to haunt you and it did.
"To be fair to Keith, they kept plugging away and they got their reward at the end."
The Jags have been much improved defensively since MacCormack's arrival after regularly shipping large number of goals earlier in the season.
But the boss said: "I don't think we defended like we have been in recent games and their goal was a poor one to give away but we'll go back and work on it."
