Scottish Cup & Highland League round-up
Saturday August 25th
Super Scorries Send Spartans Crashing Out
Wick Academy pulled off one of their finest Scottish Cup results with a superb 2-0 away victory over the highly rated East of Scotland League side Spartans.Two goals in quick succession just before half-time, from Grant Steven and Lukasz Geruzel, secured the Scorries' place in the second round – much to the delight of the travelling black-and-white army.
Academy took a little time to adjust to the artificial surface at Edinburgh's Ainslie Park but they made the breakthrough two minutes before the interval when Steven slammed the ball high into the net after a scramble in the box.
It got even better for the Scorries a minute later when Sam Mackay passed to Geruzel and the big Polish striker nodded it into the bottom left-hand corner of Chris Flockhart's goal.
Academy held on comfortably in the second half and had a strong claim for a penalty when Flockhart appeared to have brought down Davie Allan. It was Academy's first away success in the Scottish Cup since the 4-1 win at Girvan in October 2009.
On a good day for north sides, there were wins for the two Highland League teams making their Scottish Cup debuts.
Formartine United claimed a 3-2 victory over Brora Rangers at North Lodge Park, while Turriff United eased to a 6-1 home win against Burntisland Shipyard from the East of Scotland League.
Brora were punished for making a slow start at Pitmedden. Hamish Munro put Formartine in front after six minutes and he added another seven minutes later. Daniel Park increased the lead from the penalty spot after 21 minutes. Brora got themselves back in contention with goals from Steven Mackay after 64 minutes and Craig Campbell in the 70th minute, but Formartine had done enough to secure their passage to round two.
Over at The Haughs, there was no looking back for Turriff after they established a three-goal lead within the opening 12 minutes courtesy of Ross Anderson and a Paul Campbell double. Gary Harris also weighed in with a brace and Stephen Gauld added Turriff's sixth after Craig Hutt had pulled one back for Shipyard.
Inverurie overcame the challenge of East of Scotland League side Whitehill Welfare at Rosewell. Andy Bagshaw, Ryan Broadhurst (penalty), Steven Park and Stuart McKay got Locos' goals.Deveronvale also impressed in winning 4-1 away to the North Region junior champions Hermes. Scott Fraser struck twice for Vale, the first from the spot, while Graeme Watt and Kris Duncan got their others.
Clachnacuddin beat Lossiemouth 2-1 in one of two all-HFL ties. Clach's Scott Graham opened the scoring just after the break and Blair Lawrie doubled their lead with 10 minutes to go. Ross Archibald pulled one back for Lossie late on.
Fraserburgh swept to a 4-0 win against Coldstream at Bellslea Park with goals from Ryan Christie, Mark Cowie, Scott Barbour and Graham Johnston, while Nairn County had a 2-0 victory away to Preston Athletic courtesy of Robbie Duncanson and Conor Gethins.
Barry Somers scored twice as Huntly staged a second-half comeback to draw 2-2 with Wigtown & Bladnoch at Christie Park. It was looking bleak for the home side as they trailed 2-0 at the break, but Somers scored with a header just before the hour mark then grabbed the equaliser with a quarter of an hour remaining.
Buckie Thistle and Rothes will also have to do it all over again after they fought out a goalless draw at Victoria Park – a surprising result, given that the Speysiders had conceded seven at home to Formartine the previous week.Golspie of the North Caledonian League had an excellent 4-2 away win against Hawick Royal Albert. Shane Sutherland (penalty), Ronnie Jones (2) and Shaun Kerr were on target for the Sutherland side.
In the day's only Highland League fixture, Cove Rangers went to the top of the table after first-half goals from Jordan Leyden and Paul Emslie sealed a 2-0 away win against Strathspey Thistle. Cove played the second period with 10 men after Blair Yule was red-carded.
