Fraserburgh boss Mark Cowie feels his side have silenced any critics with their 4-1 win over Inverurie Locos.
Cowie said he and his players had been upset by some recent remarks made about his side, despite them having two trophies under their belt already this season.
They won impressively at Harlaw Park on Friday night, through goals from Scott Barbour, Ryan Sargent, Paul Campbell and Ross Willox. They face Huntly tonight and are firmly in the hunt for second spot, with six games in hand on Locos, who currently sit best of the rest.
Cowie hopes the manner of the win can put to bed any scepticism about his side’s credentials.
He said: “Things have been said recently that upset us a wee bit. People have said things like they should be beating us, or taking games to us, and it upset us a wee bit.
“We’ve went and answered it and showed we are a good side and up there with the best in the league. It fires the players up. They don’t want people commenting on us. I don’t see why you need to comment on other teams.
“We look after ourselves, that’s what every manager and player should do.
“When we play like that we give teams problems. We’ve now got three Wednesdays on the trot, so there’s a lot of games.
“There’s a long way to go but we need to make sure we keep producing results.”
Barbour delivered another starring performance against Locos on Friday night, setting up Campbell’s goal in the second half, as well scoring his own. It follows up his man-of-the-match display in the 3-1 Aberdeenshire Shield final triumph against Locos earlier this year.
Cowie said: “He’s a great player. The first half there was very little happening then Scott produces a moment of brilliance from nothing to go in 1-0 up at half-time. Defenders hate playing against him.
“But by the same token, I can’t fault any of the attacking players. We got a good reaction from a couple of bad things.”
Huntly boss Martin Skinner appreciates the size of the task they have on their hands tonight but insists his side will give their all to try to cause an upset.
He said: “I watched them against Locos and it was a typical Broch performance. They are strong, aggressive and can be direct at times but they’re good at it. A few teams try to play that way but they’re not as good at it.
“We drew with them at our place and managed to contain them pretty well. It’s going to be difficult but we’ll give it all we’ve got.”
Kai Ross and Nathan Meres will miss out for Huntly through suspension and Paul Esslemont is suspended.
Huntly are 12th in the Highland League table, with 24 points from their 26 games.