Marcus Murray treble fires Aberlour Villa to victory over Thunderton while Craigellachie strike in injury time to match Cullen
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Marcus Murray was Aberlour Villa's hat-trick hero in a 4-2 Moray welfare league win over Thunderton on Tuesday.
Murray found the back of the net after just three minutes to get the home side off to a dream start.
A foul on the Thunderton keeper saw a Villa goal ruled out, before Murray netted his second on 14 minutes.
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Home pressure continued with another strike ruled out for offside, and the Thunderton keeper made two top class saves to keep the score at 2-0 by half time.
It looked like game over when Murray completed his hat-trick five minutes after half time, but Kevin Stewart quickly pulled one back for the Elgin side, who then struck the underside of the bar in their next attack.
There was some breathing space for Aberlour when James Grant restored the three-goal gap on 79 minutes.
Thunderton at least managed the final goal of the game with top scorer Raymond Anderson adding to his five-goal haul on Friday with an 88th minute consolation.
Craigellachie struck right at the death to steal a point in a 2-2 draw at Cullen.
After a decent opening spell for Cullen, they took the lead though Logan Mill, who drove past the defence to slot the ball past the goalkeeper.
Craigellachie were gifted an equaliser before half-time, with Cullen goalkeeper Cameron Bruce spilling a routine catch to allow Jacob Imlach to nip in an tap into the empty net.
Cullen started the second half on the front foot, and retook the lead on the hour mark. Kris Geddes showed great vision on the half-way line seeing the goalkeeper off his line, and fantastic execution to lob the ball over him.
Cullen were looking comfortable and creating chances to kill the game off, but a resurgent Craigellachie in the final five minutes put pressure on the home side.
Deep into injury time with the last kick of the ball, Colin Coutts shot from the edge of the box made its way through a number of bodies before sneaking under the body of the Cullen goalkeeper to find the back of the net, and secure his side a dramatic equaliser.
