Top two are pulling clear in Strathspey & Badenoch Welfare League
The David Ritchie & Sons Ltd League campaign entered its fifth week on Tuesday with Aviemore and Grantown Utd maintaining their tussle for dominance.
The two clubs have now opened up some daylight between themselves and the rest of the pack.
Cromdale 1-6 Grantown Utd
Buoyed by their Scottish Cup success, United made the short trip to Cromdale with their sights very much set on keeping Aviemore within touching distance.
Dale too were riding high following their demolition of Grantown Rovers the previous week.
But after only six minutes Liam Grant opened the scoring for United.
He cut in from the right before unleashing a powerful drive into the top corner.
The game then became embroiled in a midfield battle with neither side creating any meaningful chances.
It would remain that way through to the half time whistle.
However, the second half brought much more goalmouth action.
Cairn Giles came close to levelling matters shortly after the restart.
An opportunistic free kick from halfway was somehow tipped onto the crossbar by United’s keeper.
The Grantown side was spurred into action from the break and doubled their lead soon after.
A slick one-two on the edge of the box ended with Grant sending in as shot which rebounded kindly off the keeper for the hitman to knock in his second of the night.
United were in the ascendency now, and shortly after the hour Dafydd Simon made it 3-0 with a composed finish.
Cromdale fought for a way back into the game. Ian Brooks had a glorious chipped shot cleared off the line before Callum Mackenzie was clattered inside the box, with the referee pointing straight at the spot.
Brooks was the man charged with the task and made no mistake for 3-1.
But United took charge of the closing stages. Fraser Greenlees netted a fourth for the visitors before Scott Stewart made it 5-1.
Grant then capped off his evening’s work with a deserved hat-trick just before the final whistle.
Grantown Rovers 0-9 Badenoch United
The challenging playing surface at Carrbridge made any kind of flowing football difficult.
But that did not prevent Badenoch from flying out the traps.
Sam Cairns put the visitors one-up within five minutes when he collected a through ball from Finlay
McBain and drilled a shot low into the bottom corner.
A second goal soon followed in similar fashion, with the same two players combining once again with Cairns once more finding the bottom corner but this time via the aid of a defensive deflection.
Rovers then rallied and United found it hard to break down a far more stubborn defence. But that finally changed in the 35th minute as a corner from Charlie Taylor was whipped across the area to the front post where Scott McDonald nodded the ball home for 3-0.
There was to be no more scoring in the first half.
Ten minutes into the second half another corner from Taylor found Dougal Cameron and he was wiped-out and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
Rovers were far from happy with the call, and in the resulting protests they were reduced to 10 men with John Fowler shown red for being over-vociferous.
Cameron himself stepped up and made no mistake.
United quickly exploiting their numerical advantage and soon found themselves five goals to the good.
Some nice play down the side of the park led to Ollie Macfarlane whipping over a cross which found McBain at the back post, and he cut the ball back for Cairns to knock in for a deserved hat-trick.
Rovers were all over the place by now.
Goal number six arrived within 10 minutes when a free kick from Taylor could only be parried by the keeper back into the path of the Badenoch player who finished well.
Cameron neatly fed Svend Pedersen just outside the box, and he took one touch with his left foot before slotting it low into the corner.
Arran Miller delivered a long ball to McBain but his effort cannoned off the post. However, Macfarlane was on hand to tap home the rebound for his first strike of the season. And with the referee’s whistle poised, United scored again.
Millar and Cameron combined well to set up Macfarlane for his second of the night to make it 9-0.
Aviemore Thistle 7-1 FC Abernethy
Thistle maintained top spot with a commanding performance over Nethy at home.
This sees them remain unbeaten in the League as the sides reached the midway point of the season.
On the scoresheet for the Jags were Craig Macleod (2), Neil Macwean (2) Demot McKenna, David Robertson and Jason Minard. Ben Buckler got the goal for Nethy.
The Jags’ 4-2 win over Grantown Utd in the opening week keeps them three points clear of their title rivals.
A lack of available referees has meant tomorrow’s cup ties have had to be moved back by a week.
The first round of the McCook Cup will now take place on Tuesday with Cromdale hosting Aviemore Thistle and Badenoch away to Grantown United.
The league fixtures are not being affected.
