Tayport FC: Port are victorious in “crazy” nine-goal thriller at Lochee Harp

Lochee then scored twice to pull it back to 3-2 by half-time, before Sturrock struck his hat-trick on 47 minutes and further drama saw Harp net again on 62 and 87 minutes to level it at 4-4.

But one final twist saw Sludden score four minutes into stoppage time to seal the three points and put Tayport eighth in the table with 50 points from 27 games.

“The committee fed back to me to say it was a crazy game,” Tayport player/manager Daryl McKenzie – who wasn’t in attendance as he was at a family holiday in Wales – told the Herald and Citizen.

"I think if we could have put our foot down a bit more we probably could have won the game about 6-0.

"But we let them back into it and once it went 3-2 it became a bit of an end-to-end game and I think it could have actually ended 5-5 because I think Lochee Harp missed a chance after we went 5-4 up.

"I’m glad I wasn’t there in one sense because I think I would have been pulling my hair out. But I think the boys showed a lot of resilience to keep going.

"Getting pegged back to 4-4 so late and then having the character to go and get that fifth goal was really pleasing from my part.”

A league double header sees Tayport visit Carnoustie Panmure this Saturday, kick-off 2.30pm, before hosting Dundee St James next Wednesday, kick-off 6.45pm.

"Carnoustie are the reigning champions,” McKenzie said. “They’re probably going to win the league again this year.

"They’re a very strong team, very experienced, very resilient, hard to beat and score a lot of goals.

"We played them on March 11 and it was 0-0 at half-time. We arguably thought we had the better of the game.

"But after conceding 10 corners within 10 minutes of the start of the second half we were 2-0 down and the game was taken away from us (it ended 3-0 to Carnoustie).

"So I think we will face a very experienced, very driven team.

"But because we’ve been winning and scoring so many goals it’s a challenge we’re looking forward to and we’re confident.”