Fraserburgh continued their 100% start to the season with a deserved 3-1 victory over a Buckie Thistle outfit who were right in the game until the second minute of injury time when the Broch scored a third.
The visitors started the better and opened the scoring within 90 seconds when Ryan Cowie skipped past Jay Cheyne to fire across the face of goal for Sean Butcher to score from six yards.
Buckie hit back 10 minutes later when Sam Robertson’s ball into the box hit the arm of Willie West as he tried to clear and Sam Urquhart made no mistake with an emphatic spot-kick high into the net.
With 22 minutes on the clock, Broch were ahead again after Paul Campbell found Scott Barbour and the prolific marksman made no mistake from 14 yards sending an angled shot beyond Lee Herbert.
Owen Cairns cleared a net-bound Kieran Adams glancing header from in front of his own goal midway through the second half before Herbert had to look lively to touch a Cowie cross over his bar.
But the Broch scored again two minutes into injury time when Barbour did the spadework for Lewis Davidson to net from 10 yards.
Substitute Greg Buchan then saw Herbert block his spot-kick with almost the last kick of the ball, the award being given for a foul on Luke Barbour by the goalkeeper.
Fraserburgh manager Mark Cowie was full of praise for his side, who have gone to Formartine and Buckie and recorded victories over two of the teams he feels will be challenging for the title.
He said: “It was a deserved victory over the piece but we weren’t at our very best. To be honest I don’t think Buckie were at their best either.
“That could be attributed to the pitch as it was really sticky but we adapted better to the conditions.
“The first 45 minutes saw us battle against the wind in a fairly even half but they started strongly in the second half and had they got a goal then it could have been a different game.
“Gradually, though, we got on top again and got the third goal. We should have had a fourth but missed the penalty.”
Buckie Thistle manager Graeme Stewart thought his team were worth a point.
He said: “We are just getting a lot of our better players back into team, such as Kevin Fraser and Sam Urquhart after being missing for most of the last year, and it takes time to gel again.
“Fraserburgh were the better team in the first half but we looked far better in the second half.
“In my view the third goal was irrelevant as it came so late in the game when we were pushing forward looking for an equaliser.”
