North of Scotland Cup round-up
Tuesday and Wednesday September 3rd and 4th
Nairn and Brora reach the NOS Cup final
3rd September – Nairn County 2 – Forres Mechanics 0
Current
Cup holders Nairn County played Forres Mechanics at Station Park on Tuesday
night and bagged their place in the final thanks to a Conor Gethins double.
County
started with Gethins supported up-top by John Cameron and Stuart Leslie, while
Forres fielded new on-loan signing from Formartine United, former Huntly and
Peterhead forward Stuart Soane, with attacking midfielder Kyle Scott dropping
into a central defensive role.
County
opened the scoring in the 41st minute, Gethins turned his man, ran on and slid
the ball under the advancing Stuart Knight from 10 yards.
Forres
were reduced to 10 men in the 57th minute when full back Simon Allan was shown
a straight red card in the 57th minute for an off-the-ball incident on the far
touchline. He was joined by Can-Cans coach Charlie Brown for remarks made to
the stand-side assistant two minutes later.
In
the 89th minute Forres were reduced to nine men when Knight picked up his
second yellow card of the night for bringing down Leslie in the box, Chris
Stuart went into goal but Gethins notched his second of the night from the
spot.
4th September – Brora Rangers 6 – Wick Academy 2
Academy's
hopes of reaching the final for the second consecutive season were dashed by
Brora Rangers at Dudgeon Park on Wednesday night.
All
eight goals came in a pulsating first half in which the Scorries were twice
ahead and Brora's Zander Sutherland notched a hat-trick.
In
the fourth minute Wick shocked the home support. Davie Allan ran onto a long
through ball and beat Joe Malin with a sweet low drive from just inside the
box.
Academy's
lead was short-lived as a minute later Steven Mackay set up Sutherland to
score.
Academy
regained the lead in the 9th minute. Davie Allan picked up the ball and squared
it to Richard
Macadie, who steered it wide of Malin.
Two
minutes later Brora levelled again when Sutherland capitalised on a mix-up in
Academy's defence and within four minutes the Cattachs were ahead Ross Tokely
nodding home from a corner.
Brora
increased their lead in the 17th minute when Academy failed to clear their
lines and Steven Mackay had the simplest of tasks to score.
It
was 5-2 just before the half hour mark when Martin MacLean pounced from 16
yards. Seven minutes before the break Brora added another. Michael Steven
brought down Andrew Greig and Sutherland completed his hat-trick from the spot.
