A dismal first 45 minutes. An entertaining second half and finally, with just five minutes remaining, a winner for Fraserburgh from Marc Dickson’s downward header.
The Broch had played second fiddle to league champions Cove in the opening half, but after the break the roles were reversed and merited their slender victory.
Goal-scorer Dickson was delighted with his winner and said: “I am thrilled for the players and it was a great time to get the goal as it looked as though it was going to go to extra-time and maybe even penalties.
“If it had gone to extra-time it could have been tough. We lost our captain Russell McBride with a hamstring injury just moments before I scored but fair play to the lads, we dug deep and managed to cut out the threat Cove centre half Eric Watson posed from set-pieces.”
Cove had to rise from the disappointment of losing to Edinburgh City in the SPFL play-off and John Sheran’s men had the better of the opening stages at Harlaw Park and Blair Lawrie sent in a 15-yard shot, but it was straight at Fraserburgh goalkeeper Joe Barbour who gathered confidently.
Four minutes later Connor Scully took the ball down brilliantly, turned and sent a half-volley a yard wide of the target from just outside the box as Cove continued to push forward in search of the opener.
Alan Redford tested Barbour with a 15-yard volley on the half hour but moments later Cove had to replace full back Grant Campbell with former Don Stuart Duff.
It took Fraserburgh until four minutes from the break to register their first shot on target but Stuart McKenzie dealt confidently with Graham Johnston’s 10-yard angled volley.
Seconds from the interval Scully came closest to breaking the deadlock but his 30-yard effort landed on the roof of the net.
It was a bitterly disappointing first 45 minutes, Cove had the majority of possession but apart from Scully they looked devoid of ideas.
Ten minutes after the restart Fraserburgh came close when Ryan Cowie’s deep corner kick picked out veteran Broch defender McBride at the back post but his downward header could only find the side-netting.
Jonny Smith was next to try his luck but his 10-yard trundler was picked up easily by Fraserburgh goalkeeper Barbour.
The Broch finally started to take charge of the game and McBride saw another header was well-saved by McKenzie before Johnston powered a shot inches past the upright from 20-yards.
With seven minutes left Broch captain McBride was forced off, but within two minutes later Fraserburgh took the lead when Ryan Cowie’s long free kick picked out Dickson and his downward header gave McKenzie no chance.
Disappointed Cove centre forward Daryl Nicol, who emigrates to Australia next month, said: “It just wasn’t to be for us today but fair play to Fraserburgh for their win. It was a disappointing way to end the season, but we set out to win the league at the start of the season, we did that and it would have been nice to add wee cherry on the top by winning the Shield today, but it wasn’t to be. It was a scrappy game and I don’t think that the pitch helped, it made it hard to create anything. It looked as though there would only be one goal in the game, unfortunately it wasn’t us who scored it.”