Banks o’ Dee win 5 v 3 on penalties
Harlaw Park, Aberdeenshire Shield Final, 16/2/22
Entrance – £10
Attendance – TBC
Pie – Didn’t bother
Pint – Many had around Inverurie pre and post
Founded -1991/92 season
Random Fact – Fraserburgh are the most successful club in the competiton with eight wins
Cup final on the doorstep for the third time of the season. I would have been rude not to. This is a derby personally for me in terms of my personal life and like in life I will always route for Banks o’ Dee. With my other plans put to the sword I headed out to Inverurie for a beer or two and a soaking at Harlaw Park. To be honest it was a miserable night and not pleasant at all physically. But similar to Sundays visit to Arbroath the goings on on the park made up for the wetness. This game was a cracker. It took a while to get going but once it heated up it was a great watch
Many thought this was to be a routine win for the Dee, this was well off the mark and Huntly were the better team in the early stages. They took the lead in fortuitous circumstances when a speculative effort from Greg Buchan took a horrific bounce off the turf and wrong footed Sweeney in the Dee goal. The goal mouths were in not he best of shape as were other parts of the pitch and this freak goal showed what the weather had done to the park. Huntly, despite being in the lead chased the game a bit from here and the Dee took control of the possession for large parts of the half with Sweeney being largely a soaked spectator. But in terms of incident there was not much to note barring the goal, a decent save from Storrier from a Crosbie effort from point blank range , a mad game of pinball in the Huntly box, and Huntly hitting the bar late on with what was clearly a cross. A heat in the social club was sorely needed.
HT 1 v 0
The game came to life in the second half as the Dee came out looking for the equaliser but it did not come and the Black and Golds doubled their lead on the hour through Robbie Foster from close range. The “Banks o’ Dee will scoosh it” crowd were now starting to look well off in their predictions. But with Banks o’ Dee you can never write them off when it comes to scoring and three minutes after conceding they halved the deficit through Kane Winton who put the ball through Storrier off a headed knock down. This got the Dee’s tails up and Lachie MacLeod was soon on the scoresheet when after his initial effort hit the post, he scored from the resulting corner. It was well and truly game on and the horrible weather had somewhat forgotten about as the game was now a proper spectacle. At 2 v 2 i couldn’t see past the Aberdeen side going on to win it and the took the lead within ten minutes of their first when MacLeod again struck home off a cross into the box. Would the Dee go on to lift their second trophy of the season? Huntly had other ideas and equalised with around ten minutes to go when Sweeney couldn’t hold a shot leaving Clark to score from a few yards out. At this point I had the realisation that there was to be extra football and in all honesty i could not be assed with extra time, but the PA announcer made me feel a bit better when he told the crowd this was straight to pens if a draw, A bonus and this made we want the scores to stay level as I hadn’t seen a penalty shoot out live for a long time. I got my wish and we headed to penalties at the railway end not before McAskill was sent off in the last minute for a challenge. I didn’t really see it so I cannot comment if it was merited.
The Dee went on to score five out of five and Sweeney saved from Buchan. The winning kick coming from Marc Young who blasted home infront of the Huntly faithful earning the Dee the bragging rights and also the claim of holding both Aberdeenshire cup and shield.
Champions League, I don’t even know the scores last night, I don’t need to and never will need to when I have non league fitba on the doorstep.
A very wet and pissed night but enjoyable all the same. Not often I get a night to myself or a blowout. Well earned
Me still 222
FITBAWBAG 