Match Report - By Steven Mew

City followed up their impressive opening day win against Lossiemouth with a 5-star showing against Keith at Kynoch Park last night.

Manager Ray McKinnon will doubtless be pleased with his sides’ showing with the goals spread around the team, coupled with another clean sheet.

City fielded an unchanged lineup from the victory over Lossiemouth on Saturday with the welcome addition of Ben Armour on the bench as he returns from injury.

At a drizzly Kynoch Park, both sides struggled to get into any kind of rhythm during the opening exchanges and the first real opportunity of the game fell to Cillian Sheridan on the half hour mark when he his header from Dugald Farquhar’s cross was superbly pushed away by Craig Reid.

Two minutes later Paul Watson glanced a header wide from a corner before City opened the scoring on the 35 minute mark. Watson tried his luck with a strike from range which deflected kindly into the path of MITCH TAYLOR 20 yards from goal and he let fly with an excellent strike which arrowed into the corner.

Just three minutes later the advantage was doubled. Grady McGrath’s shot inside the box was blocked and the ball rebounded into the path of SPENCER MORELAND who provided a calm finish into the corner.

City were now very much in the groove and it could have easily been 3 shortly before the break when McGrath played a neat ball inside the box for Macleod and his vicious effort was palmed away by Reid.

On the stroke of half time, Craig Hepburn was called into action for City when he turned a low shot from Aberdeen loanee Zak To round the post and from the resulting corner, To had another effort which was deflected and eventually smothered by the alert Hepburn.

Five minutes after the break, Mitch Taylor slipped a pass through for McGrath to run onto however Reid was quickly off his line to deny.

On 53 minutes City extended the advantage with a goal that wouldn’t look out of place in the Nou Camp. Sheridan dinked a pass in the box for Moreland who glided past his man before producing a cheeky back-heel in the path of FRASER MACLEOD who had the easy task of tapping into the net from close range.

On the hour mark Hepburn pushed away a dangerous cross from Searle into the path of Zak To but his effort was cleared off the line by Farquhar.

To give credit to the hosts they did have a go at City as they looked to pull a goal back with substitutes Liam Duncan and Arran Paterson both having efforts from range off target.

Craig Tosh and Mitchell Findlay were both introduced to the action on 71 minutes and similarly to the Lossiemouth game on Saturday they made a real impact.

MITCHELL FINDLAY, who netted his first competitive goal for City on Saturday followed it up with another as he fired a low strike into the corner from the edge of the box to make it 4-0.

Findlay continued to threaten as his low strike was spilled by the keeper before being cleared to safety and shortly after, he very nearly took advantage of an error from the goalkeeper who rushed out of his box to make a wayward headed clearance but he dragged his shot wide of target.

A minute from time City won a free kick 25 yards out which McGrath zipped just inches wide of the far post.

As the game entered stoppage time, MITCHELL FINDLAY added further gloss to the scoreline as his strike from 18 yards took a slight deflection on its way into the net.

City weren’t quite finished there and there was still time for McGrath to have a shot blocked inside the box after he collected a pass from Macleod.

Overall it was another positive performance and result for City and they will look to build on that this weekend as we host Strathspey Thistle.

Other Results - Breedon Highland League

Brora Rangers 5 Forres Mechanics 0

Clachnacuddin 1 Wick Academy 0

Formartine United 1 Inverurie Locos 0

Huntly 4 Fraserburgh 0

Lossiemouth 1 Banks O' Dee 0

Nairn County 1 Deveronvale 1

Rothes 3 Strathspey Thistle 4

Turriff United 0 Buckie Thistle 4