A flurry of red cards and penalty awards were the order of the day as Inverurie Locos advanced in the Scottish Cup at the expense of Keith at Kynoch Park.
Both sides ended the match with 10 men and four penalties were awarded, with Locos notching five goals.
Locos assistant manager Kenny Coull said: “We were happy with the performance and are delighted to be into the next round. We did our job in the first half, we were quite clinical and were in control.”
Keith had rearranged their defence due to injuries and absence and they were up against it after only 13 minutes when Stewart Hutcheon was red-carded for upending Joe McCabe inside the penalty area.
Although Daniel Bell pulled off a fine save to keep out Andy Hunter’s effort, the forward followed up to net the rebound. The same player then scrambled the ball over the line in the 27th minute with Davie Ross converting another spot kick five minutes later, to shatter Keith’s cup dreams.
Seven minutes into the second half Ross sidefooted home from close range but Keith grabbed a crumb of comfort on the hour mark when Locos’ Mark Souter was ordered off and Craig Cormack scored the resulting penalty.
A fourth penalty was give when Keith’s Stuart Massie toppled Ryan Keir but Bell denied Martin Bavidge with a fine save. Deep in stoppage time Colin Charlesworth strode through unchallenged to slot home a fifth goal for the visitors.
Keith assistant manager Jim Stables said: “The first red card changed the game, it made it hard for us. Credit to the players, in the second half they didn’t fold and competed to the end.”