Elgin City manager Allan Hale and Deveronvale player boss Garry Wood give their views on City’s last-minute Scottish Gas Scottish Cup victory at Borough Briggs
Scottish Cup relief for Elgin City - and heartache for Deveronvale.
At a gale lashed and rainy Borough Briggs, SPFL Elgin overcame a brave effort from Highland League Deveronvale to seal their place in the third round.
The Black and Whites were nearly made to pay for a procession of spurned opportunities when ex-City man Cammy Angus forced in a Vale equaliser with his first touch on 85 minutes, cancelling out Jack Murray’s opener.
But home sub Ryan Sargent struck on 90 minutes to hand victory for the League 2 men, who played the last half hour with ten men following Ally Spalding’s red card.
“You've got to give credit to Deveronvale,” said Elgin manager Allan Hale. “They were always going to make a game of it.
“We spoke to the players about that all week.
“They've had a good season. They've got good young players. They're going to fight and work and run all the way to the end of the game.
“In any game of football, you've got to earn the right to win it and I felt we earned the right to win it.”
Deveronvale player manager Garry Wood, whose senior playing career began at Elgin, praised his team’s efforts in difficult conditions.
“It's disappointing. I thought we gave a really good account of ourselves and matched Elgin for a long period of the game,” he said.
“Physically, we were aggressive all over the park. I thought we limited them to a few chances.
“We also had a few chances ourselves, we just couldn't quite take them. I guess that's the difference in these games, where they were a bit more clinical than us to get the winning goal.
Elsewhere in the cup, four Highland league clubs joined Buckie Thistle in the third round draw following jags’ 2-0 win at Formartine United on Friday night.
Josh Peters and Aaron Cummings netted for Buckie in front of the BBC Scotland TV cameras at North Lodge Park.
Also into round 3 are Clachnacuddin, who edged out Sauchie Juniors thanks to a James Anderson second half double.
Turriff United and Banks o’ Dee won two all-Highland League clashes, much like Buckie had done the night before.
Dee scored four times in the first half to defeat Fraserburgh 4-0 and Turriff were 2-1 winners at Nairn County.
Brechin City are the fifth Highland league side in the draw, following a 3-1 success over Dondonald Bluebell.
As well as the three Highland League losers to divisional rivals, and Vale’s late exit at Elgin, Wick Academy lost on penalties at home to Benburb.