Formartine United boss Stuart Anderson hailed his side’s fighting spirit as they beat Buckie Thistle on penalties to book a quarter-final tie against Deveronvale in the Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup.
United booked their place in the last eight of the Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup after a 4-3 penalty shootout win against Buckie Thistle at North Lodge Park.
Following a thrilling 2-2 draw, Jonny Crawford, Julian Wade, Jonny Smith and Scott Lisle scored for United with goalkeeper Ewen Macdonald saving efforts from Josh Peters and Shaun Wood of Buckie to secure his send his side through.
Anderson was delighted to see his players rewarded for their efforts.
He said: “They won 25 games in a row last year and are a good side so to go toe to toe with them, when they put five past us here at this stage last season, is pleasing.
“But we won’t get too carried away. We’ve got a really young group and we’re trying to get better every week.
“They were by far the better side in the first 30 minutes. We were set up okay but just weren’t aggressive enough in terms of pressing the ball.
“But we got to grips with it, had a good spell, then had a great chance to make it 3-1 and they went up the park and scored.”
Buckie were the dominant side in the opening 20 minutes as they looked for a breakthrough and their hard work eventually paid off.
Fighting for a second chance
Andy Macaskill’s low ball into the box from the left wing was met by captain Kevin Fraser who had time to take a touch before firing low past Ewen Macdonald.
Macaskill then saw his looping effort headed off the line before Macdonald saved Macleod’s attempt to head home the loose ball.
It took until the 33rd minute for the home side to get sight of the Buckie goal and Tyler Mykyta went close from the edge of the box after the Buckie defence had failed to clear a ball into the penalty area but his rising effort went just over Balint Demus’ crossbar.
Formartine were back level with their second chance three minutes before the break as a corner was played short to Tyler Mykyta and his delivery was headed past Demus by Julian Wade.
Demus denied Scott Lisle at the start of the second half but he was powerless to prevent Formartine from taking the lead in the 56th minute as Lisle’s pass sent Wade clear on goal and the striker took the ball past the Buckie goalkeeper before firing into the empty net.
Josh Peters was sent on for his Buckie debut as the visitors looked to get back into the tie and he was on the pitch all of two minutes before he opened his account for the club as he turned in the box to fire home the equaliser after Formartine had failed to clear Macaskill’s ball into the box.
Buckie had a chance to regain the lead 20 minutes from time after Matthew McLean fouled Ramsay to concede a penalty but Sam Urquhart dragged his spot kick wide of goal.
McLean made amends for conceding the penalty when he cleared a Peters effort off the line and with no further scoring the match was decided on penalties.
Mykyta was the only United player to miss from the spot with Jack Murray, Andy Macaskill and Sam Pugh all netting for the Jags. However, Macdonald’s saves from Peters and Wood proved decisive.
