Fraserburgh boss Mark Cowie was ‘delighted’ with how his side coped with top-flight opponents Kilmarnock.
The Broch were defeated 3-1 at Bellslea in their Premier Sports Cup Group B opener.
The Highland League champions went 2-0 down early, via a Ross Aitken own goal and Fraser Murray free-kick, but then got a handle on Derek McInnes’ Championship winners.
After the break, the part-timers took the game to their full-time visitors, getting a deserved goal back when Sean Butcher slotted past Zach Hemmings, but then immediately conceding again when Northern Ireland international Kyle Lafferty finished from close range.
Despite missing out on League Cup points in their season opener, Cowie felt pride at the performance in front of an upgraded Bellslea, packed to the gunnels with both Broch and Killie fans.
And, had the likes of Highland League player of the year and top scorer Scott Barbour been available, he thinks they would’ve come even closer to causing a shock.
Cowie said: “Definitely (proud), even the first half – the goals were stupid goals we conceded, but in the overall play we limited them to very little.
“Paul (Leask)’s maybe made a couple of saves, but you expect that against Premiership opposition.
“Second half we just went for it. We were 2-0 down with nothing to lose, and just tried to give them a scare. I think we definitely did.
“We conceded too early once we scored – they’ve gone right up the park and made it 3-1, but, even then, we were more aggressive, more athletic, and that’s with five or six missing from the first team. You throw them in and we’d maybe have given them a better game.
“I’m delighted with how things turned out. The result didn’t go our way, but everything else was perfect.”
Cowie’s biggest disappointment was the Broch couldn’t keep Killie at bay for “10 or 15 minutes” after Butcher pulled one back, which would’ve meant the favourites for Group B went into the dying embers of the game with a slim, perhaps nerve-inducing, lead.
The Bellslea boss knows a tight, dry pitch worked to Fraserburgh’s advantage, but also thought they should have scored another goal on the balance of chances.
Tips and tricks from pros will do Broch players ‘world of good’
But he hopes coming up against some of Kilmarnock’s experienced Premiership players will have taught his players a thing or two.
Smiling as he made the following admission, he said: “I know it’s competitive games – but we’re not going to win this cup.
“So it’s still part of pre-season for us and we’re learning. I said to the guys there: ‘coming away from these games, you’ve got to learn something’.
“Kyle Lafferty there, every time he went up for a header, he nudged my defenders, whereas my attackers are too honest and just go for the ball.
“There’s little bits like that you’ve got to learn from pros and it’ll do them the world of good.
“They’ll come off of this on a high and we’ll go into Montrose on Tuesday and see if we can do a wee bit better.
“I’ve got maybe two back and guys have got tired legs, so we’ll have to see how they recover.
“There’s young kids we’ll maybe have to throw in and guys who didn’t get on (against Killie) because they were maybe just a bit too young.
“Hopefully we’ll get Scott Barbour back on Tuesday and maybe Aidan Combe.”
Killie assistant Tony Docherty, the former Aberdeen number two, was pleased to get the job done, saying: “Mark Cowie’s got a good side here, they’ve won a league, so it was always going to be a difficult game on a tight pitch. We had to adapt to that and make sure we did the job.
“It was a sticky pitch, but I think by and large we’re pleased with the outcome. We could have had more goals, but I would have preferred to keep a clean sheet.”