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Big wins and more Cammy Keith records dominated Keith's curtailed Highland League season


By Craig Christie

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THE Highland League season may have been cut short, but Keith can take great pride from their continuing rise up the rankings.

Michael Selfridge in high flying action for Keith against Rothes. Picture: Daniel Forsyth..
Michael Selfridge in high flying action for Keith against Rothes. Picture: Daniel Forsyth..

Manager Dean Donaldson has operated on a shoestring budget but steered the Maroons to ninth spot before the campaign ended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Captain and club record scorer Cammy Keith kept on rattling in the goals in his testimonial year, netting 22 times including his 250th strike for the club.

Season highlights included a stunning 7-1 victory over Strathspey Thistle, a 4-1 thumping of Moray rivals Forres Mechanics and a first victory at Formartine United in almost a decade.

Boss Donaldson unveiled defenders Kieran Yeats and Adam Clark as new signings at the start of the campaign, with young striker Josh Bolton climbing aboard from Inverurie Locos in August.

Skipper Cammy had his testimonial match against his beloved Aberdeen during pre-season, with a good turnout paying tribute to the Maroons star on a night when the Dons won 2-1.

Cammy Keith celebrated his testimonial match against Aberdeen. Picture: Becky Saunderson.
Cammy Keith celebrated his testimonial match against Aberdeen. Picture: Becky Saunderson.

A sticky start to the term saw Keith beaten 5-0 at home to Formartine in their opening league game, before crashing out of the Aberdeenshire Cup to Inverurie at Kynoch Park in match two.

A thrilling comeback win from 2-0 down at Clach, sealed by Cammy’s stoppage time winner, got the first points on the board for Deano’s boys.

That high was quickly followed by a resounding low, as Banffshire rivals Buckie Thistle arrived at Kynoch Park and posted a crushing 8-2 win on a sorry afternoon for the Maroons.

Keith bounced back quickly, winning their next match at improving Fort William then making it back-to-back successes by seeing off Turriff United to move up to eighth in the table.

Another victory at Lossiemouth, followed by draws with Nairn and Huntly, kept Keith in the top half of the league, though their interest in the William Hill Sxcottish Cup was all-too-brief.

For the second year running, University of Stirling ousted the Maroons, who led 2-1 at home to the students before crumbling to a disappointing 3-2 exit.

The defeats kept coming, albeit through a tough run of league games which saw Rothes, Fraserburgh, Brora and Inverurie all beat the Maroons to send them on a seven-match winless streak.

Donaldson asked for a response from his team, and on October 26 he got it in some style with seven goals against Strathspey including a four-goal haul from Cammy Keith.

Cammy Keith scores one of his four goals in the 7-1 win against Strathspey Thistle. Picture: Becky Saunderson..
Cammy Keith scores one of his four goals in the 7-1 win against Strathspey Thistle. Picture: Becky Saunderson..

Even the skipper’s blitz of scoring was overshadowed by an incredible overhead kick volley by defender Jamie McAllister which won Highland League goal of the month - and surely the best of the season.

Loan deals were brokered to take in three SPFL teenage stars in Ross County pair Jack Grant and Gregor MacDonald, along with Elgin City kid and Keith lad Lee Scott.

Jamie McAllister celebrates his overhead kick wonder strike against Strathspey. Picture: Becky Saunderson..
Jamie McAllister celebrates his overhead kick wonder strike against Strathspey. Picture: Becky Saunderson..

Cammy’s goals kept coming, as a brace earned a 2-0 win at Deveronvale which built on the Strathspey success.

It should have been three wins in a row for Donaldson’s side when they led Wick Academy 2-0 with five minutes to go, only to concede twice and settle for a share of the spoils.

The Maroons were knocked out of a cup competition on home soil for a third time, despite leading Fraserburgh in the Aberdeenshire Shield then going down 3-1.

A fourth Kynoch Park cup slump became a possibility when Lossiemouth forced extra time in the Highland League Cup against a Keith side with a string of teenagers in their starting eleven.

Ross County youngster Gregor MacDonald had a successful loan spell at Keith. Picture: Becky Saunderson..
Ross County youngster Gregor MacDonald had a successful loan spell at Keith. Picture: Becky Saunderson..

It took a winning goal from Max Berton, recalled from a loan spell in the juniors, to land a 3-2 Maroons’ success in a competition they have won a record ten times in the past.

A surprise home loss to Clach sparked another run of good Keith form, led by the finishing power of their club skipper.

Cammy Keith scored from the spot in a 4-0 win against Fort William to reach his 250-goal milestone, before netting twice in a 3-3 draw at Turriff.

The goal ace was on target for a fifth consecutive game in a superb home success over Forres, then added his 19th of the season at Nairn in the next match, albeit in a 2-1 loss.

For the first time in their history, Keith signed a player from Nigeria as 19-year-old striker James Olumofe put pen to paper after a trial spell.

January ended with another terrific Maroons win, a 2-1 success away to Formartine where they hadn’t tasted success since 2010.

Hopes of League Cup success number 11 were ended by Rothes, one of four consecutive defeats for Donaldson’s men against top four opponents in a tough run of games.

Again a losing sequence was ended by a meeting with Strathspey Thistle, as teenager Olumofe grabbed his first Keith goal in a 3-1 success at Grantown in what turned out to be Keith’s final outing of the season on March 7.

The premature shutdown of the season saw the Maroons in ninth place, just three points short of the previous season’s points tally with seven games less played and four places gained.

There was still time for the club to celebrate Cammy Keith’s goal-laden ten years at Kynoch Park with a testimonial dinner, where Keith’s most famous football son Colin Hendry and former Scotland boss Craig Brown were special guests.


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