Banks o’ Dee braced for Fraserburgh showdown as Aberdeenshire Shield gets underway

Jamie Watt believes Banks o’ Dee can take another scalp in the Aberdeenshire Shield – but is wary of fired-up Fraserburgh.

The North Junior kings meet the Broch in the first round of the Shield at Spain Park tonight.

Dee have reached the final of this competition in the last three seasons, but have fallen at that hurdle on each occasion.

On their runs to the finals the Granite City outfit have caused upsets against numerous Highland League sides.

Co-manager Watt, who is in charge along with Tommy Forbes, is hoping to spring another shock.

But he expects Fraserburgh to be fired up after losing 3-2 to Inverurie Locos on Saturday and 3-1 to Banks o’ Dee in the semi-final of the Shield last term.

Watt said: “The Broch have been going well this season, but we’re expecting a reaction from them after losing on Saturday.

“We know Mark Cowie will be expecting them to put that wrong right.

“We also knocked them out last season as well and that will probably be on their minds as well.

“Due to those two things I’m sure we’ll get a fired-up Fraserburgh side.

“Fraserburgh will start as favourites because they are a top team, but we always fancy ourselves at home.

“Reaching the final three years in a row is an unbelievable achievement for a Junior club.

“It’s a pity we haven’t been able to go the next step.

“The aim for us is to try to get a good result against Fraserburgh and look to get back to the final again and try to go one better.

“But it will be a really tough ask against Fraserburgh who are a very good team.

“We believe we can cause another upset, but we’ll need to perform at our best.”

Fraserburgh defender Bryan Hay is looking for an improved performance after Saturday’s loss to Locos.

The Broch are also keen to challenge for more silverware after winning the Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup this month.

Hay said: “We probably got what we deserved. It wasn’t good enough from us on Saturday.

“Locos were better than us for most of the game. We put them under a little bit of pressure late on, but the quality wasn’t there.

“We were shocking at the back and going forward it wasn’t much better so it was a bad day all round.

“We’ve got to bounce back. It won’t be easy against Banks o’ Dee away from home.

“But we have to be confident and we know we can get a good result and a good performance – hopefully we can do both.

“I don’t think about last season too much, but we did get embarrassed at Spain Park last season which really hurt.

“We’d like to put that right, but we’re not thinking about that so much.

“After losing on Saturday this is a big game and one we really need to win.

“Any competition we’re entering this season we are aiming to go far and try to win it.

“The Shield is definitely a competition we feel we can win. We’ve also won the Aberdeenshire Cup and we want to push on in the league as well.

“The Broch historically do well in the cups so hopefully we can push on in this one.”