Forres Mechanics cruised to victory against North Caledonian League club Halkirk to set up a North of Scotland Cup semi-final at Dudgeon Park against Brora on Saturday.
Mechanics’ manager Charlie Rowley said: “We went up there with a some trepidation as we didn’t know all that much about them before the game, but on the day we were as good as we could have been.
“We were dominant and when we had the strong wind blowing straight down the park at our backs in the first half we used it to great effect and it should have been five or six up at half-time, rather than just 2-0.
“We managed to get a third goal in the second half and after that it was really comfortable. They had two shots at goal in the whole game, both of them missed the target, and that says it all about the game. We were thoroughly dominant and deserved to go through.”
The Can-Cans opened the scoring within two minutes, on-loan Caley Thistle youngster Andrew Macrae netting from 12 yards, and it was 2-0 to the visitors in the 23rd minute when Craig McGovern took a Stuart Soane pass to beat former Wick Academy goalkeeper James More.
More was in excellent form and kept the score down, including a penalty save to deny Soane after Macrae had been brought down in the box early in the second half. But the goalkeeper could do nothing about Callum Howarth’s 80th minute rebound which effectively killed off Halkirk.
