Saturday 28 January
Nairn County 1 Huntly 4

Huntly made it four wins on the trot and handed a first home defeat to Nairn since early October to move up to second in the table six points behind leaders Deveronvale writes Grant Turner.

The home side welcomed back Steven Edwards following a lengthy suspension as Iain Brooks, Tony Low and reserve keeper John Campbell were ruled out.
The visitors were without Scott Anderson while Neil Reid started a 2 game ban which saw Alan Redford and lee McGregor drafted into defence.

The reigning champions controlled the first half and were first to threaten after 4 minutes. A bad pass from Johnny Seaton broke to Mark Gray who quickly found Russell Guild with a pass. The Huntly skipper's effort skimmed over the crossbar.

Huntly took the lead a minute later. Matty Gairns got into space on the right flank and his cross landed nicely at the feet of Richard Craig to tuck the ball away from 14 yards.

The lead was doubled in the 9th minute when Mark Gray showed great determination to win the ball and feed a ball through the defence for Richard Craig to calmly side-foot home his eighth goal this season.

Just before the half hour mark Guild ran onto a Craig pass and his powerful shot clipped defender Martin Sanderson on the way through, forcing Jim Calder to deny with a fine stop.

The visiting defence had managed to contain the home strikers for 41 minutes before conceding a shot on goal. A bad slip by Alan Redford played in Willie Barron through on goal only to be denied from Ryszard Gorski's point blank save.

Half Time: Nairn County 0 Huntly 2

Both teams made changes at the break with Nairn bringing on Andrew Allan and Brian MacLeod for John Mackay and Steven Sanderson while Huntly put on Graham Green for Levi Stephen who appeared to take a knock in the first half.

The changes from the home side seemed to make a difference as they attacked the opposing goal from the restart. Gorski was tested once again with a save from a David Macrae header before Barron saw an effort deflected round the post.
Former Aberdeen youngster Duncan Jones tried his luck shortly after receiving a Scott Kellacher corner as his shot took a deflection behind for a corner.

Huntly made it three in 56 minutes as Simon Scott got clear on the left before cutting back from the by-line for Russell Guild to net his fourth of the season smashing home a great shot just inside the area.

Nine minutes later, Gary McGowan cut in from the left and drilled in a low shot forcing Calder to tip the ball round the post. McGowan sent in the resultant corner for sub Graham Green to net his third goal in the last five games.

The Wee County pulled a goal back with 18 minutes remaining. John Macaskill opening his account for the club, beating Gorski at his front post after Duncan Jones played in from the right.

The woodwork came to the home sides rescue two minutes later when Redford saw a shot touched onto the post by Calder.

Two minutes from time, Mark Gray made a goal-line clearance from an Andrew Allan shot before Jones fired over.