Rothie Rovers and Banks o’ Dee JFC fought out a pulsating six-goal McBookie.com Championship thriller – a 3-3 draw leaving the pair level on points in third position in the table.
Although the hosts who started the game better, it was the visitors Dee who scored through their first attack via Harvey Yeats.
Rothie levelled when Jamie McKinnon headed home, but, straight from the restart, Dee went in front again through Calum Somers.
Not to be outdone, completing three goals in as many minutes, Rothie’s Andi Bremner followed up a fierce strike from Kenny Mair to square the game at 2-2.
A scrappy deflected Ewen Robertson strike put Dee back in front with 15 minutes remaining.
But Rovers responded by throwing everything forward and Craig Smith saw an effort chopped off for offside when it looked perfectly legitimate.
However, not to be denied, they struck at the death when Smith drove down the left and his cross found the far top corner to secure a late point.
Rothie manager Kevin Beaton was impressed with their opponents but felt his side were worthy of a point.
‘Overall, a draw was fair’
He said: “It could have gone either way. They are a very young side who will only get better and their front two will cause a lot of problems.
“It was an even first-half, but I felt we were the better team and their keeper made some very good saves.
“Sixteen-year-old Jamie Thompson, on loan from Inverurie Locos, played the entire 90 minutes and was excellent and it was great to see Stuart Hodge get some game time after being out for a while.
“We were very fortunate with the stoppage time equaliser, but I felt it was no more than we deserved.
“This is a very competitive league and any one of five or six teams could win the title.
“We’ve Islavale at home in the Regional Cup next and, while the league is our bread and butter, we want to go as deep in cup competitions as we possibly can – but we’ll be treating Islavale with respect and taking nothing for granted.”
Dee boss Mark Robb agreed that a share of the spoils was about right, saying: “Overall, a draw was fair and it must have been exciting for any neutrals watching.
“It was end to end, I thought we started really well and we competed well throughout, although I’ve seen us play better.
“We lost Connor Osprey early on and then Josh Robb at the break and that upset things a bit, but no complaints.
“Rothie have a great set-up and are a really good addition to the Juniors.
“We now go to Aberdeen University in the Regional Cup and that will be another experience for our young squad.”
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