Aberdour 1 Lochside Rovers 4

ABERDOUR’S promotion hopes are over after Lochside Rovers all but secured the Marine Harvest South Division One title on Saturday.

Lisa MacColl’s team were beaten by the recently crowned Aberdein Considine Sutherland Cup winners but she felt the scoreline was harsh on her players.

The home side had to win to keep their faint championship hopes alive and started strongly, forcing Lochside’s goalkeeper into a number of saves.

But the visitors took a 22nd minute lead when Michael MacQueen converted a penalty award that MacColl felt was “soft” and, although ‘Dour continued to give as good as they got, they lost a second to Lewis Buchanan shortly before half-time.

A superb save denied Roddy MacColl before the goalkeeper was finally beaten with 11 minutes to go when Angus Thorburn netted the rebound after Alec Mitchell’s shot was saved.

The goal set up an exciting finale but, with the Silver Sands team tiring, Niall MacFarlane and Ross Campbell netted twice for Rovers to give them a flattering margin of victory.

It means that Aberdour, with two games to go, can’t catch the leaders but MacColl said: “It was a tough one. It was a really good game and the score doesn’t reflect how close it was.

“We started strong and had a few chances, but they got a penalty, which was unfortunate. I thought it was a fairly soft kick, but they scored and I knew with the way the game was going that if someone got a goal, it would give them confidence to go on and dominate.

“When we scored to make it 2-1, it was wee bit more exciting because you think we are in it and we can do it.

“It was back and forward and remained like that until the last 10 minutes when we flagged a wee bit. When they came off at the end they couldn’t give anymore; it was just that they were the better team. They’re champions and deserve it.”

Aberdour are still looking to secure second spot and MacColl added: “I think we were victims of not having played for 4-5 weeks, but we can’t make excuses – part of that is down to us keeping our fitness levels high.”

Meanwhile eight of the club’s players were involved in the Women’s Camanachd Association’s annual North v South representative games on Sunday.

Taryn Neilson, Rosie Mulligan and Kirsty Fraser were part of the South under-21 team while Katy Smith, Katie Booth, Gillian Brown, Niamh Donnelly and Kathryn Moultrie were in the senior squad.

The South 21s lost 10-0 while the seniors were beaten 5-0 in their match.