Buckie Thistle came from behind to make their numerical advantage count with a 4-2 win over a Huntly side who had two players, a coach and a substitute red-carded.
Jags boss Graeme Stewart, whose men are unbeaten in their last seven league matches, said: “That’s probably one of our poorer performances. The first half was very poor from us but we were able to keep our discipline in the second half and that helped us get the result.
“I wasn’t happy at half-time. We got the goals in the second half and to be fair we should’ve scored more.”
Huntly went ahead on the half-hour mark when Ross Still reacted quickly after a Logan Johnstone header bounced back off the post.
Buckie levelled two minutes into the second half through Kyle Macleod, but the Black and Golds regained the initiative when Alexander Jack drove in his first league goal for the club.
The Jags drew level again when Andrew MacAskill’s free-kick came back off the woodwork and dropped for Lewis MacKinnon to bundle the ball home.
Huntly went down to 10 men when Kai Ross was shown a straight red in the 69th minute for kicking out at Sam Morrison. Nathan Meres followed three minutes later for elbowing MacKinnon, with Huntly assistant manager Richard Cheyne removed from the technical area after entering the pitch to confront MacKinnon, who was cautioned, while Huntly sub keeper John Farquhar also saw red in the aftermath of the incident.
Buckie made their numbers count with two goals from substitutes in the space of two minutes.
Top scorer Sam Urquhart headed in the third in the 77th minute, while Callum Murray struck a deflected shot to complete the scoring.
Huntly manager Martin Skinner said: “I’m disappointed with how the game finished. For 60 minutes I thought we were deserving of the draw after a poor start.
“We put ourselves in a good position to get something from the game then made wrong choices at crucial times.”