Watch Sam Pugh's Buckie Thistle goal as manager Graeme Stewart reacts to Morrison Motors Aberdeenshire Shield defeat to Fraserburgh
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Two costly errors contributed to Buckie Thistle's Aberdeenshire Shield final defeat to Fraserburgh, says Jags boss Graeme Stewart.
An 88th minute Sean Butcher header earned a 2-1 win for Broch after Sam Pugh's close range strike cancelled out Scott Barbour's first half opener for the Buchan side.
Watch Pugh's goal from two angles (below)
Stewart felt both Fraserburgh goals could have been prevented and sees weaknesses in his own team that he plans to strengthen in time for next season.
Buckie are still top of the Highland League and have a League Cup semi-final at home to Banks O' Dee coming up, giving them two more shots at silverware this season.
But it is almost six years since they won the league title in 2016-17 - their last trophy success - and Stewart plans to put that right.
"We will keep going and we will get there," he said. "This team is a progressing team and a very good team and we will add to it in the summer.
"It’s clear that we need to add or or two, maybe three or four, and we will do that and get us to the next level and once we do that, the trophies will come."
Neither side was at their best at a windy Kynoch Park but Jags had the better of the chances over the 90 minutes.
However they failed to clear their lines when Ryan Sargent played the ball into the danger zone after 25 minutes and Barbour pounced to fire home a deflected effort.
Pugh levelled just after the hour from an Andy MacAskill free kick and Buckie looked the likelier team to grab a winner.
But they couldn't even hold on for a penalty shoot-out as Butcher met a Ross Aitken cross from the right and what looked like a fairly tame header squirmed past Buckie keeper Lee Herbert.
"The first one was a ridiculous mistake and the second one, a free cross in, a free header and the goalie’s got to save it," Stewart said.
"It was two mistakes from our point of view and we had to work for our goal."
Fraserburgh's more direct style of play caused Buckie problems at times, with the Victoria Park men trying to get the ball down and play more but being frustrated by excellent Broch defending.
Stewart added: "There’s only one team playing football to be honest.
"They’ve got away with one there but that’s fine, that’s how they play and I like it. It’s direct, it’s down their throat, the pitch suits them.
"We wanted to stick to the way we play and I thought we were going to win the game.
"We would probably win it on pens but it was a couple of mistakes from us.
"We didn't do enough in the final third either and we’ve had a word about that, putting their defence and goalie under pressure.
"We’ve got to create a bit more and a lot of that is down to Fraserburgh’s defending which I thought was very good.
"You can’t fault our work-rate and the commitment, and I felt we played the better football and maybe the only team playing the football.
"Fraserburgh are a front foot team and I like that. We played like that five or six years ago when we won the league.
"You get the ball forward as quickly as you can and I’ve no issues with that. You’ve got to handle that and we did struggle to do that at times."
Stewart revealed after the match that centre back Sam Morrison is being loaned out to North Caledonian League side Loch ness United for a month.
The stopper broke his ankle in pre-season and has been on the Buckie bench for the past two games but needs match fitness.
"He needs games, he needs 90 minutes so we will do that and hopefully he can come in a month's time and have the benefits."
