Formartine United player-manager Paul Lawson hailed his side for taking the scalp of Peterhead in the Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Cup.
The Pitmedden side triumphed against the League One side 7-6 on penalties after a 0-0 draw in the second-round tie at Balmoor.
North Lodge Park gaffer Lawson said: “I’m delighted and I thought the boys acquitted themselves very well.
“Going to penalties is a bit of a lottery, but I think we probably deserved to go through.
“I felt we could have made more of the chances we had in the first half. But in the second half there wasn’t really much goalmouth action from either side to merit winning it in 90 minutes.
“We kept our shape well and we did what we had to do to stay in the game.
“But in the first half we did have a couple of chances but the final pass sometimes let us down and the keeper had a couple of good saves.”
Goalie Kevin Main saved two penalties in the shootout and made a vital intervention at the end of the game to deny Jack Leitch a certain winner.
Lawson added: “He spilled the initial shot but then made amends with Leitch’s rebound.
“His handling was solid all night and he did what he had to do. In the last minute you panic when you see something spilt, but he made up for it. Kevin showed his worth in the shootout but from him right the way through the team everyone was excellent.”
The draw for the third round of the cup was set to take place at 12.30pm today with sides from England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the hat.
After facing Northern Ireland’s Coleraine last season, Lawson said: “A home tie is all we’re looking for, you want to progress in the cup, but you’re scared of getting a tie in another country, so we’ll see what happens.”
Peterhead had early efforts from strikers Aidan Smith and Rory McAllister. At the other end, Scott Lisle burst beyond Jamie Stevenson and Gary Fraser on 18 minutes but shot just wide from 12 yards.
Another turn of pace from Lisle in the 36th minute allowed him to set up Jordan Leyden on the left side of the box, but goalie Greg Fleming smothered the low shot.
Fleming also bailed out Gary Fraser before half-time with Stuart Anderson and Gary McGowan trying to pounce on the midfielder’s short back pass.
Just after the hour, Peterhead lost Jamie Stevenson to a hamstring problem and had to play with 10 men having made all three subs, with debutant Ryan Conroy filling in at left-back.
Formartine then controlled the game without creating much and in stoppage time Main spilled a Scott Brown shot, but amazingly tipped Leitch’s follow-up wide at point blank range.
In the shootout, Fleming saved from Michael Clark and Main from Gary Fraser and at 6-6 Liam Strachan scored for United and Cammy Eadie was thwarted by Main to send Formartine through.
Help support quality local journalism … become a digital subscriber to the Evening Express
For as little as £5.99 a month you can access all of our content, including Premium articles.
Subscribe