Fraserburgh hope to make a promotion push after manager Mark Cowie and assistant James Duthie extended their contracts until 2026.
The duo have been in charge at Bellslea for six years and have won three Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cups and two Morrison Motors (Turriff) Aberdeenshire Shields.
In the Breedon Highland League, the Buchan outfit have finished ninth, fifth, fourth, and then third and second in the last two Covid-19 disrupted campaigns.
This term Fraserburgh are leading the division after nine games and, as well as enjoying success on the pitch, Cowie and Duthie have continued the club ethos of giving youth a chance.
Chairman Finlay Noble is pleased the management team see a bright future with the Broch and says Cowie and Duthie have ambitious targets.
‘Their record speaks for itself’
He said: “We don’t insist on targets – we don’t say: ‘you must win this or get to this stage of the Scottish Cup.’
“The targets are set by the manager and the players. Until such time as they choose to leave or something exceptional happens, we’re happy to have Mark and James here.
“What we get from Mark and James is the fine balance of promoting young players into the first-team like Logan Watt and Ryan Sargent to play alongside experienced players like Willie West.
“As long as they continue to do that they’ve got a place at the Broch.
“Their record speaks for itself, we’ve never been languishing down the league, we’ve always been mid to high in the table.
“Mark and James have been excellent up to now.
“They really want to win the league and get promoted and the board shares that enthusiasm.
“We’re a sizeable town in the north-east and we think we can make that sustainable. Why would you not want to play at the highest level you can?
“We know there are limitations as to how high you can go, but we want to give that a right good shot and see how we get on.
“The hope for the next few years is to try to win the league and see how we get on from there.”
There’s still more to achieve for Cowie
Manager Cowie says there is still a lot of work to be done at Fraserburgh with winning the Highland League and earning a shot at the pyramid play-offs one of the ambitions.
Cowie added: “The fact we’ve signed a long-term extension shows that we think there’s still a lot of work ahead of us.
“There’s a lot of stuff we want to get our teeth into.
“We’re delighted with where we are now in comparison with where we were when we took over.
“I think we’ve taken the club on and we’ve been successful in some competitions, but we still want to be more successful.
“We want to take the club to the next level if we can and that’s why we’ve signed new deals.
“I think everyone’s goal should be to win the championship at their level.
“We want to do it, but we’re under no illusions how difficult it’s going to be.
“But we have to go into every season with that as the goal. It’s personal ambition of mine and a personal ambition for James to go as high as we can go.
“Thankfully Fraserburgh match that ambition and want to get up into other leagues and compete at the highest level we can.
“It’s good we’re all on the same page and that’s why we’ve agreed long-term deals.”
