At the other end MacKenzie turned his defender up the wing and whipped in a wicked cross that whistled straight through the Locos penalty box with no-one on hand to turn it home.
Five minutes from time MacMillan pulled off another of a fine series of saves as he got his feet to a Milne attempt to again deny the Locos from scoring.
In the dying seconds of the first half the Locos managed to open the scoring. Bisset did well up the right side to get to the bye-line and he crossed for Singer to power a downward header on target. MacMillan managed to get a good hand on the ball to make the block, but the ball agonisingly sneaked over the line.
0 – 1
Half time 0 – 1
Academy started the second half with the perfect response. Manson drove up the right wing and cut the ball back across goad where Macadie rifled home on the half-volley from 18 yards out leaving Reid rooted to the spot.
1 – 1
Within three minutes Locos regained their lead. Gauld latched onto a loose ball at the edge of the Academy box and his looping shot seemed to be clawed back off the line by MacMillan but the far-side linesman flagged for a goal.
1 – 2
Macadie then had two attempts that came very close to levelling the game. First he pulled a Cowie cross just wide of target later was released through the middle by Manson and he tried to chip keeper Reid who was off his line but his attempt went agonisingly just wide of the left post. It was a piece of skill that really deserved better.
MacMillan probably made his best save of the game in the 69th minute when he managed to get finger-tips to a Smith pile-driver to turn it round the post for a corner.
A minute later and Smith again held his head in his hands as MacMillan pulled out another fine stop to deny him for the umpteenth time in the game.
Weir came on for MacKenzie with about 10 minutes left in an attempt to provide some additional Academy fire-power, but it was the Locos that continued to threaten as that man Smith was again on hand to rifle a 20 yard attempt on target that MacMillan got finger-tips to and turned it over the cross-bar.
With five minutes left Academy worked the ball info the box with some great passing play from Shearer, Manson and Cowie. It fell for Weir in the middle of the box and he made room to have a shot, but then took and extra touch on the ball instead of pulling the trigger and the Locos defence managed to get a foot in and cleared the danger.
As MacMillan was announced as the sponsor man of the match Academy almost rescued a point when Weir's shot was blocked by the out-rushing Locos defence but Gunn fired the re-bound over the top of goal.
Final score 1 – 2
So a really hard fought game and Inverurie were made to work very hard for the three points. Academy did enough to deserve a point, but it just wasn't to be.
Sponsors Man of the match Don MacMillan
Pictured receiving his award from Steven Coghill on behalf of match sponsor M M Miller
