Mark Cowie would like to celebrate 10 years in charge of Fraserburgh with victory against Banks o’ Dee on Wednesday night.
Today is the anniversary of Cowie’s appointment as Broch manager.
During his Bellslea tenure, he’s led the Buchan club to the Breedon Highland League title, four Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cups, four Morrison Motors (Turriff) Aberdeenshire Shields and two memorable Scottish Cup encounters with Rangers.
Although he’s proud to have done the job for a decade and to be the Highland League’s longest-serving boss, Cowie’s main focus is on this evening’s clash at Spain Park.
A win for Fraserburgh would move them up to fifth in the table, and Cowie said: “It would be good to mark the 10 years with a win – but that’s not really an important thing.
“I want to win for the players and the fans. We want to win to finish the season well, to try to finish the season as high as we can and go into the Highland League Cup final on a good run.
“It would be nice to win – but Banks o’ Dee aren’t going to just lie down and let me win because I’ve been here 10 years!
“It’s one of the most challenging games we’ll face all season because Banks o’ Dee are a very good side.
“Myself and James Duthie (assistant manager) do take pride in the length of time we’ve been here, and maybe at other clubs you wouldn’t be able to be in the job for so long.
“But I’ve been very lucky throughout my time at Fraserburgh with the folk I’ve worked with, and we’ll keep trying to do our best for as long as we’re here.”
Dee in fight for third
A win or a draw would see Banks o’ Dee reclaim third spot from Inverurie Locos.
Co-manager Josh Winton is hoping his charges can triumph in their remaining three fixtures to not only finish third, but also beat last season’s total of 72 points.
Dee have 65 points at the moment, and Winton added: “We’ve got an opportunity to get ourselves back into third spot and have things in our hands for the last couple of games.
“That means it’s a really important game for us and we need to try to get a result.
“You always want to try to show progress year on year, and if we could get past our points tally from last season, that would be progress.
“Every season is different and things happen over the course of a season, but it’s never a bad thing beating your points total from the previous season.
“There are no surprises with Fraserburgh. They’re always hard-working – there’s always an intensity to their play. They’ll look to put us under pressure and we’ll need to stand up to that.”
Dee are missing Liam Duell and Mark Reynolds, but Hamish MacLeod returns. The Broch welcome back Willie West, Bryan Hay, Paul Young, Greg Buchan and Connor Wood.
News from around the Highland League
Elsewhere, Lossiemouth take on Forres Mechanics in a Moray derby at Grant Park.
James Leslie and Saul Phimister are out for the Coasters, while Jared Kennedy is a doubt. Kaiden Connolly is missing for the Can-Cans.
Nairn County are minus Millar Gamble, Wayne Mackintosh, Kenny MacInnes, Alan Pollock and Gary Kerr for Turriff United’s visit to Station Park.
Tyler Eadie and Kenny McKenzie do return for the Wee County, while United have Glen Donald available again, but Andrew Watt, Ewen Robertson, Keir Smith and Lee Herbert are out.
Thoirs’ pride at Huntly stint
Alex Thoirs is proud of what he’s achieved at Huntly after hanging up his boots – but the Black and Golds stalwart is already relishing his new role with the club.
The full-back arrived at Christie Park from Dyce in 2011 and made his final appearance as a player in Saturday’s home loss to Inverurie Locos.
Thoirs featured 254 times for Huntly – a number which would have been far higher had he not been working offshore for many years.
But the 36-year-old has now taken on the role of joint-assistant manager, and will be in the dugout when the Strathbogie side tackle Deveronvale at Christie Park on Wednesday.
Reflecting on his playing career, Thoirs said: “Saturday was an emotional rollercoaster. I was nervous and excited and then the reality that I was stopping started to kick in – it felt surreal and a bit weird knowing that was my last game.
“Looking back, I wish I’d been able to win silverware with Huntly.
“As the years went on, I thought we were going to get there. We got to two finals and unfortunately we came up against a very good Banks o’ Dee side who pipped us on both occasions.
“It’s a bit of a regret that we couldn’t get over the line.
“However, I’m really proud to have spent so long playing for Huntly.
“For a lot of years I was also working offshore, so I’m proud that I was able to keep myself fit and ensure I was able to play at Highland League level.
“Everyone knows trying to balance your personal life, your work life and part-time football is a huge commitment. I’m proud of what I’ve done after doing it for so long.
“I had a couple of opportunities to move on to other clubs in the past, but I’ve always stayed with Huntly because I’ve enjoyed it so much.
“It’s a great club. The fans and the people at the club have always been great to me.
“I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else, and for a number of years I wanted to end my playing career at Huntly because I felt it made sense.”
Trophy target in new role
Thoirs is pleased to be staying on at Huntly as part of manager Colin Charlesworth’s coaching staff and hopes in the future he can help the Black and Golds claim a first trophy since October 2007.
He added: “I’m excited for the new role. I’ll just try to share my experience of the last 14 years in the Highland League with the younger players in the squad.
“I know the league really well and I’ll try to put that to good use with the lads.
“The goal for us going forward is to try to win a trophy.
“We need to try to keep improving in the league and try to bring some silverware back to the club.
“We know everyone wants to win trophies, but I think it’s been too long for a club of Huntly’s size without winning a trophy.”
Deveronvale’s Wood claims innocence after red
Deveronvale have appealed player-manager Garry Wood’s red card ahead of Wednesday’s Breedon Highland League encounter with Huntly at Christie Park.
The Banffers boss was sent off by referee Scott Donohoe for dissent in the dying embers of Friday’s victory against Keith.
However, Wood insists he didn’t make an abusive comment towards the official and believes it came from a supporter.
If a referee feels they have been the subject of abuse from the technical area and they are unsure of the culprit, the manager, as the most senior person in the dugout, receives any punishment.
Wood said: “We’ve sent an email to the compliance officer outlining the situation, because I didn’t do anything wrong.
“It was surprising to be red carded because I didn’t say anything.
“I spoke to the referee after the game and he said he heard a comment from somewhere – but it didn’t come from me!”
Victory against Keith ended a run of nine straight losses for Vale, and after recovering from 2-0 down to triumph, Wood hopes to see the same character from his side against Huntly.
He added: “We’ve known we’d have spells where we were inconsistent and confidence might be low.
“Looking at the season overall, it’s been good ,and it was nice to get the monkey off the back and end the losing run on Friday.
“The guys showed great character to come from 2-0 behind and get the victory.
“There’s still plenty for the guys to learn, but they showed the character we want to see.
“If we can continue that and also eradicate some of the defensive mistakes we’ve been making that will hopefully lead to more positive results.”
Keith have lengthy absentee list
Keith are without 10 players for their clash with Rothes – but boss Craig Ewen has called for improved game management from those available.
The Maroons face the Speysiders at Kynoch Park in the Breedon Highland League on Wednesday night and are missing Callum Robertson, Craig Gill, James Brownie, Murray Addison, Craig Reid, Liam Duncan, Ryan Robertson, Joey Wilson, Cammy Wilson and Jake Stewart.
In their last two outings, Keith have given up two-goal leads. Last Tuesday against Nairn County they eventually prevailed 3-2 after being pegged back to 2-2, but on Friday against Deveronvale they were defeated 3-2.
Ewen said: “Regardless of the last two results and the personnel available, our game management has to improve.
“Hopefully we can continue in the same vein in terms of goalscoring. But given our inconsistency this season, there’s no guarantee we will.
“We’ve had a tough schedule with the amount of games we’ve played recently and the squad is hanging together a bit when there’s so many boys missing.
“But I know the boys that are playing will be right up for it and will give it their all.”
With goalkeeper Reid injured, Rodrigo Vitols will be in goal for Keith, having joined on a week-long loan from Aberdeen.
Speysiders still aiming to climb
Rothes are three points adrift of Strathspey Thistle at the foot of the table and also trail the Grantown Jags on goal difference.
With three games left, Speysiders manager Ronnie Sharp would like to try to get off the bottom, even though it looks like there will be no relegation play-off.
North Caledonian League champions Invergordon don’t meet the licensing criteria for promotion, while Midlands League side Lochee United – who are eligible to compete in a play-off – were defeated by leaders Dundee North End at the weekend and trail North End by seven points with only four matches left
Sharp added: “We’ve got to try to get off the bottom and we need to be consistent in our performances.
“But it’s hard when we’ve had to keep rejigging the team week to week.
“If we are to get off the bottom, we need a couple of results, and that’s our main concern at the moment, to try to get those results.
“It looks like things may have gone our way with results in the Midlands League, but we need to make sure the club isn’t in this position in the future.”
Sharp is missing Ross Logan, Ruairi Duncan, Robbie Urquhart, Liam McDade and Jamie Young, while Owen Alexander is a doubt.
As a result, he is keen to involve Gregor Shand, Cameron Corson and Lewis Bower from their under-18 squad in Rothes’ final three matches this term.
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