Boss Mark Cowie felt Fraserburgh failed to fire against Buckie Thistle and admitted he treats draw like defeats.
At the end of a breathless 90 minutes at Bellslea it finished 1-1 with Kevin Fraser’s counter for the Jags cancelling out Scott Barbour’s opener for the Broch.
Fraserburgh have been the Breedon Highland League’s draw specialists this term with eight stalemates in 17 matches.
In all competitions the Buchan club are unbeaten in 10 games but they are sitting 10th in the table and Cowie felt they didn’t ask Buckie enough questions.
He said: “It’s probably a fair result, I don’t think we really got going.
“I’m not saying we were bad, but every time we had a wee glimmer and I thought we’d kick on we didn’t.
“I’m disappointed because the performance wasn’t quite there, but drawing with the league champions isn’t the worst result.
“We haven’t created too many chances, we’ve had opportunities to create things and the last pass or the final bit of quality has been poor.
“The manner of the performance needs to be better, we haven’t quite got going and the players have said it themselves.
“It’s not a defeat but it’s another draw. We haven’t shown the ruthless side of us, we need to do better and the guys know that themselves.
“Draws to me are defeats, I don’t like drawing, I don’t like losing either. But I can accept losing if we get a certain manner of performance.
“We didn’t put Buckie under enough pressure, our decision-making and quality was poor.
“It’s not the worst performance I’ve seen, but I know what the players can give us and I think they can give more.”
Positives for Jags
Buckie haven’t won in their last five matches in all competitions but manager Lewis MacKinnon took plenty of positives from their display.
He added: “I’ve got mixed emotions. I like to win but Bellslea is a hard place to come, particularly given our inconsistencies.
“But I’m also thinking what could have been because we played really well.
“We created some really good chances and their goalkeeper got man of the match which says it all.
“We just need to be a bit more clinical in the last third.
“The performance was good which was important. Either team could have won it and if you’re not going to win the game then don’t lose it.
“Some of our results have been a little bit false in our eyes. We’ve played well and we’ve been unfortunate with a few different things this season.
“The desire and work-rate is there, the boys are working hard for each other, you’ve got to pick up second balls and battle when you played Fraserburgh.”
Match action
This encounter was played at breakneck speed throughout. Early on a neat Broch move released Logan Watt and although his angled effort beat Mark Ridgers, Innes McKay cleared before the ball could reach the goal.
In the 28th minute Buckie were inches away from the opener but goalkeeper Joe Barbour tipped Lyall Keir’s low drive from 18 yards onto the right post.
At the other end Kieran Simpson shot straight at Ridgers following a Scott Barbour free-kick, but Fraserburgh struck in the 36th minute.
Marley Sweenie-Rowe set Scott Barbour away one versus one against McKay on the left. After driving into the box Barbour blasted a low angled effort beyond Ridgers.
Within 30 seconds the Jags restored parity when Andrew MacAskill’s through ball wasn’t cut out by the home backline and Fraser burst clear before calmly netting from 14 yards.
Buckie started the second period well and Joe Barbour made a great save high to his right to repel Jack MacIver’s excellent curling effort.
Keir then shot wide from a promising position and MacAskill stung Joe Barbour’s palms from 20 yards.
But the Broch were still a threat. Just after the hour mark Ross Aitken, Connor Wood and Scott Barbour combined down the right, but the move ended with Wood shooting straight at Ridgers from 15 yards.
Push for a winner
Joe Barbour tipped Josh Peters’ net-bound strike from the edge of the box over in the 71st minute and in the closing stages both teams frantically searched for a winner.
A good tackle by Paul Young gave Fraserburgh sub Sean Butcher a sight of goal, but his attempt from 15 yards was blocked by the foot of Ridgers.
In the 83rd minute Buckie’s Fraser engineered a chance for Keir but his shot from 12 yards was diverted away from goal inadvertently by team-mate Liam Harvey.
The Broch had the final chance when Butcher’s pass put Wood through on goal and his lob over Ridgers drifted just wide.
Brora Rangers 3-1 Forres Mechanics
Steven Mackay was pleased to see his Brora Rangers side bounce back from their midweek loss to Clachnacuddin by putting in a good performance against Forres Mechanics.
Victory for Cattachs against the Can-Cans at Dudgeon Park means they trail Breedon Highland League leaders Brechin City by four points with both having played 17 games.
Boss Mackay said: “The main thing was to get a reaction from midweek.
“The performance was solid enough and I’m happy with the three points to bounce back after Wednesday.”
The first half saw both sides use counter-attacks to carve out their opportunities.
Jordan Alonge threaded a pass over the backline to find Calum Frame, who was able to make some room between two Brora defenders, but goalkeeper Cammy Mackay saved his long-range effort comfortably.
Brora then countered from a corner, Ali Sutherland drove into the opposition half before finding Tony Dingwall, who then returned the ball to Sutherland, but he could not lift the ball over Cameron Farquhar in goal.
The deadlock was broken ten minutes before the break with another counter-attack.
Dingwall was the driving force initially with the ball finding Connor Bunce following neat play from Craig MacKenzie. Bunce then crossed and Sutherland was able to slot smartly underneath Farquhar.
Two quick goals make the difference for Brora
In the second half, Brora started brightly and were rewarded with two goals in two minutes.
Firstly, with Forres failing to clear a cross from the left, the ball dropped for Bunce to hit a first-time effort into the bottom corner to double the hosts’ advantage.
A change followed as Max Ewan replaced Dingwall and within a minute the substitute found himself on the scoresheet, knocking the ball into the empty net after great work by Alex Cooper on the left side.
With five minutes to go, Shane Sutherland found himself in the box, aided by a smart flick from Bunce, but could not find a way past Farqhuar.
Forres created one last chance in the final moments as Aidan Cruickshank’s long-range effort found a way through and evaded Cammy Mackay to reduce the deficit.
Can-Cans manager Steven MacDonald said: “I was pleased with the performance, after a tough result a fortnight ago (6-1 loss to Turriff United). It was good to get that out of our system.
“It was good to get a goal at the end to make it respectable.
“I didn’t think there was much in it in the first half, but in the second half they killed the game off and their quality shone through.”
Turriff United 2-2 Formartine United
Turriff United ensured that their 70th anniversary match would not end in defeat as a late goal from substitute John Allan gave them a share of the points against Formartine United.
The game was give the green late after a late pitch inspection and, following a goalless first half, the home side went ahead after 63 minutes when Callan Gray’s effort was blocked by Formartine goalkeeper Ewen MacDonald but the ball rebounded off Lewis Wilson for an own goal.
The visitors made a number of changes and got back level after 72 minutes when Aaron Norris picked out Stuart Smith at the back post and his header beat Lee Herbert.
Six minutes later Julian Wade capitalised on poor defending to round Herbert and slip the ball into the empty net to put Formartine ahead.
Allan pulled the teams level eight minutes from time when Gray’s pull-back from the left was fired beyond MacDonald from twelve yards.
With Warren Cummings serving a two match suspension, his assistant Graeme Taylor felt a draw was the right result.
He said: “I am a little bit disappointed we didn’t win the game as we let Formartine back into it after going 1-0 up.
“We sat a bit deeper and you know what you are getting from them as they fire the ball forward time and time again.
“If we had managed to hold onto our lead for a little bit longer things could have been different.
“But over the 95 minutes that were played a draw was probably a fair reflection of the game.
“Dylan Stuart and John Allan have been on the periphery of the team recently but both came on and did well.
“That helps us maintain the run we are on and with games coming up that we are looking to win hopefully we can come out the other side of the festive season in a better position.”
Formartine manager Stuart Anderson felt his side dominated in large spells and would have ran out winners if they had been more clinical.
He said “In the final third we couldn’t make that final pass to create the opportunity to score.
“We lost a goal and then did well to get ourselves ahead before losing a poor second goal.
“You can’t expect to lose two goals like that and win a football match.
“It’s frustrating as we haven’t lost a lot of goals recently and we should have defended far better at both of them.
“You are only as good in football as you are in both boxes and today we weren’t clinical going forward and at the other end we gave away two cheap goals.
“I can’t complain about the effort from the players along with their excellent workrate but you need to be that bit more streetwise to win games like these.”
Nairn County 2-2 Clachnacuddin
A stoppage time equaliser from James Anderson earned Clach a share of the spoils in a thrilling 2-2 draw against local rivals Nairn County at Station Park.
Ben Cormack gave the Lilywhites the lead but two goals from Ben Barron saw the home side, playing their first game in a month, take the initiative before Anderson’s late leveller.
Nairn County manager Ross Tokely said: “We certainly didn’t look like a team that hadn’t played for four weeks. I thought we were excellent – really good.
“If we can show that heart, that desire and that workrate in the upcoming games we will win more than we lose.
“I knew it would be a difficult game, we had to match them and I thought we did that. But we were a bit naïve in not to seeing the game out that is the only disappointing thing for me.
“I’m happy with the performance, but I just thought we could have taken all three points.”
Clach started brightly and they deservedly took the lead in the 26th minute. The home defence failed to deal with an Ally Gillies free-kick into the box and Cormack fired home from close range.
But Nairn were back on level terms 10 minutes later when Barron bustled his way into the Clach penalty area and beat on-loan keeper Logan Ross with a clinical finish.
There were chances at either end before Nairn took the lead in the 72nd minute. An inch perfect cross from Andrew Greig on the right was headed into the net by the unmarked Barron.
It looked as if the Wee County had done enough to claim victory but seconds into time added on Anderson rounded off a breakaway move with a stunning finish.
Clach player-manager Conor Gethins said: “We were very much in control in the first half then gave away a stupid goal.
“We let them back in the game, and it gave them a wee lift. The second half was end to end.”
On the late equaliser, he added: “James did well with the goal, he took a good touch and it was a good finish. It shows we don’t give up when we go behind any more.
“If somebody told us at the start of the week we would have seven points by the end of the week then we would have taken it.
“It probably should have been nine with the amount of control we had in the first half – but you can’t win them all.”
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