Mark Cowie felt Fraserburgh’s performance to reach the Morrison Motors (Turriff) Aberdeenshire Shield final was their best of the season.
The Broch thumped Huntly 6-0 at Christie Park to set-up a final clash with Buckie Thistle which will be played on Wednesday February 15 at Kynoch Park, Keith.
Fraserburgh have won the Shield a record eight times and boss Cowie is thrilled to have the opportunity to make it nine.
He said: “I’m delighted, it’s not the scoreline it was the way we played from minute one.
“We’ve been inconsistent this season, some of our play has been good, but from the first minute to last we were dominant, aggressive and strong.
“I knew that performance was in us. Our aggression and press was spot on and we made it very difficult for Huntly.
“Over 90 minutes that could be our best performance of the season, in spells we’ve maybe played better.
“But for 90 minutes being dominant from the word go that’s the best we’ve played.
“It’s a really exciting final, it’s two top sides and we’re looking forward to it.
“Buckie are similar to us they’ve got a lot of energy and a lot of frightening players going forward.
“Buckie are a great side, we’ve locked horns often enough, they’ve got the better of us and we’ve got the better of them and it’ll be an exciting final.
“It’s two well-supported clubs so it should be a great occasion.”
Early goal paves the way
It took Fraserburgh 10 minutes to break the deadlock with Bryan Hay heading down a Scott Barbour corner and Ryan Sargent forced the ball into the net from three yards.
Just after the half-hour mark Sargent was on target again. Huntly goalkeeper Fraser Hobday made a good save to keep out Marc Lawrence’s shot from Barbour’s cross.
But Sargent reacted first to tap home the rebound and two minutes into the second half he completed his hat-trick by heading home another Barbour corner.
In the 55th minute, the Broch made it 4-0. Sargent’s cross from the left was headed up in the air by Kyle Dalling and Connor Wood arrived to head the ball into beyond Hobday.
Wood was on target again on 72 minutes, applying the finishing touch to Logan Watt’s left-wing delivery.
Five minutes later Kieran Simpson netted the sixth from the penalty spot after referee Duncan Nicolson gave handball against Michael Clark.
Bad night for Black and Golds
Huntly manager Allan Hale said: “I’ve got to be honest and the only way to sum it up is it was an embarrassing night for us from start to finish.
“We lacked any character, any belief, there was no work-rate and we went against all the principles we’ve embedded.
“We’ve not had a lot of these nights since we’ve been here and we won’t have a lot moving forward.
“We gave a 15-minute team talk at half-time and we’ve conceded a chance after eight seconds and a goal within two minutes and what we’ve spoken about has gone out the window.
“The players were spooked by the early goal and by Fraserburgh’s intensity.
“As poor as we were I have to credit Fraserburgh because they were very good.
“We let a lot of people down: supporters, the board and ourselves as a group because we’ve been far better than that.
“Our time will come again, I’ve got a lot of belief in this group of players, one bad result doesn’t make us a bad team.”
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