Paul Young reckons Fraserburgh showed their strength in depth to beat Buckie on Saturday despite missing several players.
Young struck the winner as the Broch won 2-1 at Bellslea, despite being without Ryan Christie, Gary Harris, Scott Barbour, Ryan Cowie, Paul Campbell and Jamie Beagrie.
The result keeps Fraserburgh third in the Highland League and Young said: “I think it was quite an even game with both sides having chances.
“We probably had the better ones, but it was an even game and we’re happy to pick up the three points.
“We’ve been quite inconsistent this season. We’ve won games and then dropped points to teams we maybe shouldn’t have. We’ve had two good wins against Rothes and Buckie so long may it continue.
“We’ve got six or seven players out ourselves so it shows how good a squad we have that we can field the 11 players we did and win.”
Broch boss Mark Cowie said: “The last two weeks we have been light in numbers but the performance in both games has been what people might call a Broch performance.
“We’ve had to battle and we’ve come out on top in both games.
“I don’t think we allowed Buckie many chances, they had pressure when they were chasing the game. But they never really cut us open.”
The opener came for the Broch on three minutes.
Graham Johnston’s long free-kick was headed down by Jags defender Lewis MacKinnon straight to Marc DICKSON who fired into the bottom right corner from 16 yards.
On 19 minutes Buckie levelled when a loose ball broke to Declan MILNE 18 yards out and he lashed an excellent shot into the top right corner via the crossbar.
Seven minutes later Callum Murray slipped Allen McKenzie through but the Jags attacker’s left-foot shot clipped the outside of the left post and wide.
But seconds later it was Fraserburgh who went back ahead.
Andy Skinner’s clearance fell to YOUNG who rifled home a left-footed shot from 16 yards which went in off the left post.
The second half saw new signing Aaron McKenna make his Buckie debut and the game continued to be played at a frantic pace.
Thistle couldn’t find a leveller while the Broch passed up chances late on to make the victory more comfortable.
Buckie boss Graeme Stewart, who was sent off by ref Liam Duncan in the second half, said: “I felt we deserved something from the game.
“We gifted them two goals with poor clearances. But I’m proud of my players because we battled and I thought we were the better team.”
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