Bridge of Don Thistle remain on course to finish in the McBookie.com Superleague runners-up spot after a 1-0 victory over Culter at Crombie Park.
The only goal of a very tense 90 minutes came with just 13 remaining when Tom Yeats, just on as a substitute, took advantage of a mix up in the home defence to score.
Deep into stoppage time, visiting defender Ross Forsyth picked up a second yellow card, but the Jags held on for a big three points.
“It was a good win, although not much of a football match,” admitted Thistle boss Steve Dolan. “I was delighted for Tom, he was unlucky not to start as he played well last week and, like a number of players, he’s been asked to play in various positions.
“Overall, we weren’t at our best, but it’s another clean sheet.
“We’re always asking for more and we still have seven more matches potentially this season.
With Banks o’ Dee confirming the title for the fifth time in a row last week, the target is now to finish the best of the rest as far as the league is concerned, and Steve said: “You always go into a season with aspirations of winning, but that ship has long sailed. They only dropped two points all season, when we drew with them, so, while it’s not great, you always want to finish the campaign as high as you possibly can.”
With just one league fixture remaining, away to in-form Ellon United at the start of next month, Thistle have no game this weekend before travelling to Ellon in the McLeman Cup the following Saturday.
Dolan added: “It’s not going to be easy, they’ve picked up and they beat Culter a couple of weeks ago, and, on their day, anyone is capable of getting the better of anyone else. We can’t afford any lapses, we’ve got to be on it in each and every single game, and if you’re not you’ll get found out – simple as that.
“We want to keep the cup runs going, including the League Cup semi-final at the end of this month. Another one that’ll be extremely tough.
“With no game this week, we’ll try and set something up for the weekend, but there’s not that many teams not playing.
“We’ve a tight squad of 16 plus two keepers so, as I’ve said, we’ve been asking players to play in different positions. Craig McKeown has been upfront recently, Darren Holt has switched from right-back to left-back and all the players have adapted well to whatever we’ve asked of them.
“While we’ve one eye on next season, were totally focused on what will be a difficult cup tie at Ellon.”
