Buckie Thistle (1) vs Fraserburgh FC (2) – Victoria Park, Buckie – Highland Football League 17/08/2019.
Picture: Daniel Forsyth. Image No.044617
Highland League by Craig Christie
THE cups look like Buckie Thistle’s best bet for silverware this season after Saturday’s first league defeat, reckons manager Graeme Stewart. Stewart said his team failed to match the standards of their early winning run when they lost 3-1 at home to Fraserburgh at the weekend. He will ring the changes for tomorrow night’s Aberdeenshire Cup quarter final against Turriff United – a tournament the manager would dearly love to win this term. “The cups might be the best opportunity we’ve got this season for winning something, so we’ll be doing our best to win this competition,” he said. “However, we know Turriff have come off a good win against Strathspey so their confidence will be up.” Jags’ long-term injury list has shortened significantly and Stewart has a bigger squad to chose from, meaning he can mix up his team for the home Turriff clash and Saturday’s league trip to Wick Academy. “We’ll be changing it anyway because we got beat on Saturday and didn’t play well,” he said. “The squad is big now so if people aren’t playing well or there’s injuries, we’ve enough strength in depth to change it about. That’s a good position to be in.” Fraserburgh took the lead at Victoria Park inside two minutes through a close range Sean Butcher finish. But it didn’t take Buckie long to level as a handball in the box saw them given a penalty which Sam Urquhart calmly slotted home. Scott Barbour restored the visitors’ advantage midway through the first half, while Urquhart limped off with a hip injury for the home side. Try as they might, Buckie couldn’t find an equaliser in the second half and were stung by Broch in stoppage time when Lewis Davidson scored. “I’m disappointed after the start we’ve had but I guess the only positive we’ve had is we played so badly yet they struggled to beat us,” said Stewart. “In the 90th minute we were in the game and we were pushing on. We then got Keiran Adams injured and he should have come off but we didn’t have any other subs. He stayed on, and made a mistake for the third goal.
Full story in Banffshire Advertiser 20th August 2019