Cove Rangers 3 Forres Mechanics 3
Firhill for thrills, Allan Park for attitude. Cove go top of the HFL by a point. Inverurie Locos (now 3rd, 42 pts) beat second-place Buckie (44 pts) and did the Aberdeen side a massive favour.
Cove started well and won a largely unspectacular first half 1-0 when Robbie Henderson scored from an Eric Watson cut-back in 12 minutes. It was expected mid-table Forres would fold under second-half Cove pressure after the home side bossed the last 10 minutes of the first 45.
But the visiting team in chocolate and gold hoops (picture it!) came out fighting after half time and goals from Ryan Green (51), Neil Whyte (62) and Kevin Duguid (74) had Mechanics ahead 1-3 and Cove on the fringes of a shock defeat as they went close to collapse.
New signing from Arbroath Kevin Webster came on as a sub for Cove after the third Forres goal and was busy on both flanks right away. Barrie Stephen made it 2-3 with 12 minutes to go and then the inevitable goalscoring machine that is Martin Johnston, in his third spell now at Cove, scored a last gasp equaliser from a Webster cross to complete the scoring in a highly entertaining match.
Forres full-back ,Liverpool-born, RAF-employed John 'Scouser' Mutch, refused to shake Cove boss John Sheran's hand at the end of the game and that caused a stramash on the touchline but as Sheran said afterwards "that's football" certainly that's Highland League football!
Enjoyable, energetic and unpredictable that was this six goal thriller at Allan Park.