Banks o’ Dee co-manager Josh Winton was thrilled to reach the Morrison Motors (Turriff) Aberdeenshire Shield semi-final with an emphatic win against Formartine United.
The Aberdeen outfit triumphed 5-0 in the quarter-final tie at North Lodge Park against a United side who played for more than an hour with 10 men.
Dee will face Huntly at Christie Park in the last four on Wednesday November 8.
Winton said: “We’re delighted to be in the next round, that was the aim at the start of the night.
“When the chances came in the first half we took them and then at half-time we spoke about a clean sheet being the most important thing for us in the second half.
“The boys managed to do that so we’re really happy.
“We knew the cups would be an important part of our season, it gives you the opportunity to have big games to look forward to.
“That’s what we’ve got in the next round. It will be tough, Huntly are doing really well in the league. But we’ll look forward to it and try to go again.”
Visitors go nap
After a bright start from Formartine, Dee took the lead after quarter of an hour.
Michael Philipson released Max Alexander and although home defender Kieran Adams made a good challenge the loose ball broke for Lachie MacLeod to hammer a shot into the left corner.
In the 29th minute Formartine lost a man. Mark Gilmour got in behind on Dee’s left flank and had his heels clipped by Aaron Norris inside the box.
Referee Joel Kennedy showed the United midfielder a red card for denying a goalscoring opportunity with Alexander slotting the resultant penalty into the right corner.
On the stroke of half-time the visitors made it three with Kane Winton looping a header into the left corner from Gilmour’s corner on the left.
In the 52nd minute Gilmour found Hamish MacLeod from a drop ball and he angled a finish across goalkeeper Ewen Macdonald from the left side of the area to make it 4-0.
Just after the hour mark Dee sub Dayshonne Golding, who joined on loan from Cove Rangers at the weekend, went through and rounded Macdonald before slotting into the net.
Although, United were unhappy and felt Golding had shoved Kieran Adams in the build up.
Uncharacteristic United
Formartine boss Stuart Anderson said: “It’s very disappointing and it was uncharacteristic in terms of the goals we gave away.
“Anything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. We’ve played with 10 men before and dealt with a lot better than we did on this occasion.
“Sometimes you’ve just to put your hands up and give credit to Banks o’ Dee because they were ruthless.
“We had a couple of chances at 0-0 and if we take them it’s a different game.
“But we need to pick ourselves up because we’re top of the league and you don’t become a bad team after one result, how you react to it is the important thing.”