Veteran goalkeeper turns on the style
‘Special praise must go to Jimmy Paterson, he was absolutely brilliant’
THE FORT went down 1- 0 to their Aberdeenshire visitors at Claggan Park on Saturday as they brought the curtain down on the 2015/16 Highland League Season.
It was an afternoon of high drama at the Fort–Turriff United game and the match had the fans on the edge of their seats throughout.
Fort goalkeeping coach, 51-year- old Jimmy Paterson, made his debut for the home side and turned in a man- of-thematch performance.
Paterson, playing due to injury to Fort’s regular Dougie MacLennan, produced several excellent saves early on.
But he could do nothing to stop Paul Young’s seventh-minute deflected effort giving the visitors the lead.
Play was stopped in the 31st minute after a clash of heads involving Fort’s Richard Tawse and United’s Aaron McKenna, who came off worst, suffering a serious facial injury. The game was stopped for more than 20 minutes as an ambulance was called and McK- enna taken to Belford Hospital in Fort William with a broken cheekbone and fractured eye socket.
When play resumed, the visitors were awarded a penalty but Unitied’s Artjoms Kuznecous spot kick was brilliantly saved by the Fort’s veteran stopper.
The Fort stepped up the pace in the second half, and Iain MacLellan struck the bar from a distance, and Scottie Davidson headed wide, when it seemed easier to score. But United managed to weather the storm and held on to claim the points.
Fort manager Ally Ewen said after the game: ‘Once again we started slowly and conceded a poor goal early on but we came more into the game as the first half went on and in the second half, I thought we were excellent. We were unlucky not to get an equaliser at the very least.
‘Special praise must go to Jimmy Paterson, he was absolutely brilliant throughout.’