ANNAN Athletic ended their regular season with a 4-2 defeat to Cove Rangers on Saturday.
The Aberdeen side broke the deadlock on ten minutes when Findlay Marshall pounced on a mistake from Max Kilsby, rounded Greg Fleming and slotted home.
And it was two for the visitors on 36 minutes when Josh Todd was unfortunate to clear Quinn Coulson’s effort into his own net.
It was a quiet opening to the second period until Paul Smith was given the freedom of the Cove half. He stepped forward and unleashed a thunderbolt from outside the box into the top left corner to pull one back.
Minutes later Annan should have levelled but Balint Demus made an unbelievable stop to deny Aaron Brown.
Just when Annan were in the ascendancy, away substitute Adam Emslie added a third for the visitors with a snap shot that wrong footed Greg Fleming.
The impressive Emslie soon added his second and Cove’s fourth six minutes later with a clinical driven finish, again after the Aberdeen side attacked with speed.
The hosts would pull one back late on as the substitutes combined. Tommy Goss rolled the ball to Aidan Smith who fired home.
Black and Golds boss Wullie Gibson said: “It’s one of them, you’ve got to be as professional as you can be. I knew Cove had their eyes on Tuesday night as well, I spoke to Paul Hartley before the game. It’s one of them that probably both clubs would rather not have.
“But that’s the way it goes, the league’s 36 games and it’s about getting the boys that haven’t played as much important minutes.”
