Senior BBs battle to Scottish finals
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
BUCKIE Boys' Brigade senior squad claimed their place in the finals of the National Five-a-Side Cup after negotiating a tough semi-final group.
The lads travelled to Ardler Complex in Dundee hoping to once again be flying the flag for the north-east at the finals stage next month.
Representing Buckie were Finlay McKay, Jay Flett, Tommie Marandola, Mitchell Adam, Neil Gillies, John Reid and Brandan Aithchison.
A tough pool of opponents awaited Buckie, with old rivals 6/8th Dundee joined by 1st Lenzie and 5th Larbert in the round robin tournament from which the top two teams qualified for the finals.
Buckie’s first game was against one of last year’s finalists, 1st Lenzie, which was an extremely tight game with both teams playing well but unable to take any chances created. Finally Buckie were awarded a penalty due to an infringement in the Lenzie penalty area and Tommie Marandola stepped up and put the goalkeeper the wrong way and put Buckie one up. This proved to be the only game of the game and so this was a great start for Buckie.
Next was 6/8th Dundee, who were runners-up last year and are always a tough team to play against. The boys made a fantastic start taking an early lead and then doubling it just on half time. Then the game started to get scrappy and one boy from each team was sin binned for an altercation.
This gave Dundee an incentive and they pulled a goal back, however Buckie managed to hold on for a great victory.
The game against 5th Larbert turned out more straight forward with Buckie having a comfortable win.
That was a perfect start but this was only halfway through the series of games.
Against Lenzie Buckie gave away an early penalty then lost another goal and were really up against it. However, they dug managed to pull back a goal before half-time and this spurred them on to push forward and and managed to win 3-2.
The tie against Dundee was going to decide who topped the section and this was a far better game than the first with both teams trying to play football. Unfortunately, Dundee scored the only game of the game and try as hard as they could Buckie could not respond.
This left Larbert to play and Buckie again won convincingly, ending up level on points with Dundee but were pipped on goal difference.
Buckie coach Malcolm Smith said: "A great performance by the team with all seven guys doing their bit for the team. "They are through to the Scottish final at Grangemouth at the end of February."
In addition to the prize of the Scottish title, a further spur is on offer to the teams who finish in the top two is a place in the Uk finals.
