Turriff United and Formartine were locked after 90 minutes as last night’s Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup quarter-final at the Haughs went to extra time.
Scott Miller’s header had given Turriff the lead before Formartine captain Stuart Anderson cancelled out the opener with a fine long range effort before the break and with no further scoring, an additional 30 minutes was required.
Formartine scored four times on their previous visit to the Haughs a week ago on league duty and they were eager to continue where the left off, putting the home side under pressure from the kick-off, with Stuart Smith seeing his shot from an Archie Macphee corner blocked inside the first minute.
The visitors carried a threat at set-pieces and they went close from their second corner, with Turriff clearing Macphee’s delivery as far as midfielder Liam Burnett, who saw his well taken effort deflected over the crossbar.
The home side responded with a header from Kevin Flett which found the side-netting but most of the pressure was towards Kevin Main’s goal and the Turriff goalkeeper was forced into his first save when he dived low to his left to keep out Macphee’s eight-yard shot following Graeme Rodger’s low ball into the box.
For all the visitors’ pressure they were fortunate not to find themselves a goal behind in the 18th minute when David Ross found himself through on goal but he dragged his shot wide of Greg Sim’s left post and Turriff created another chance midway through the first half when attacker Louis Myers ran on to a throw-in only to fire wide.
Formartine failed to heed the warnings and Turriff eventually made the breakthrough in the 27th minute when David Booth crossed and midfielder Scott Miller rose at the back post to beat Sim with a looping header.
The lead lasted just six minutes with Formartine captain Stuart Anderson equalising with a spectacular strike, gathering a Turriff clearance from a free kick 25 yards from goal before firing the ball high past Main.
Turriff started the second half the stronger side and Ross struck the side-netting after cutting in from the right and driving into the box before Scott Barbour fired wide for Formartine.
They were rare goalmouth incidents in what was a competitive second half between two well-matched teams.
It was the final delivery from both sides which was lacking.