The Haughs, Aberdeenshire Shield 1/2 Final, 12/2/25
Me still 331, Wee Man still 196
Turriff United Football Club
Founded – 1954
Nickname – Turra
Honours – Aberdeenshire Shield – 2010/11, 2012/13, 2014/15
Doon the hill under the lights on a Wednesday and it being a semi final to boot, go on then. With a rare Wednesday in the company of the Wee Man and him spotting the fixture claiming “that will be a cracker” it would have been rude not to take this on. Any excuse to visit one of the greatest non-league grounds in the country is a good excuse. With both teams having a black marks added their form guide at the weekend they were surely looking to make up for their disappointments. Turriff were in good form with Saturdays Deveronvale defeat the first in nine games and the Broch better still with defeat in Pitmedden on Saturday being one of two on a run which stretched back to September, this with the other being at ibrox in the Scottish Cup. I had a feeling Wee Man would be correct and this would be a cup(shield) “cracker”. Between the teams this trophy has been won on eight occasions this century and I wouldn’t bet against that increasing this season as I would pick the winner of this to win the final (Formartine United v Hermes the other semi).
A customary early arrival to the Haughs in order to inject a few quid into the club via a can of Tennent’s in the fan bar, this followed by a delightful sausage roll. It is rare for me to venture away from a steak pie but if you have had a Turra sausage roll you would know why this is the case. But prior to the pastrified delicacy an interesting conversation took place in the bar. Wee Man from out of nowhere announced that “when we stop going to heaps of grounds we should always come to Turriff”. A bit taken a back I asked the reasons. There were a few and all valid. One “its close”. This is true as it is only 15 minutes drive from home. “There is a sweetie shop to get our fitba sweeties from before the game”. Also a fact. “The restaurant is ace and we can go for dinner there before the games”. He was bang on again (The Kastille for the record). “It’s a good ground”. He understated it as its ace in my eyes. Then finally “we both like Turriff”. I do have a lot of time for them that is true and we visit often and he always says he likes them too. He made some solid points to be fair to him. Watch this space as a Meldrum TUSC may appear soon.
The wise little one was not right about a cup cracker though. A good game it was but a game of two halves with the hosts leaving it far too long before making a mark on it. This including finding themselves two down in the first ten minutes after a Jamie Beagrie double. The Broch were all over them from the first whistle and you could see they meant business. Beagrie’s first came from a cross on the right which the midfielder ran onto taking on the chest to open space and quickly firing low past Herbert. Well taken but from our angle he looked to be in too much space. He wasn’t to care though. He doubled his tally soon after when he bulleted a Barbour corner into the net with his head. On the goal scorer I had a brief yap with his dad, Gordon in the bar before the match and explained to Wee Man his loon had played for both Turriff and the Broch. He asked me to point him out during the game which I totally forgot. What better way to remind me than by scoring a brace. As we watched the Broch on easy street a wee boy was next to us and was striking up conversation. “I play for Fraserburgh Link-Up and have scored 990 goals” he told us. As I thought I had misheard I asked “how much?” and it turned out it was in fact 990 he said and followed up with “I’m only 12”. Keep your eyes peeled for the new superstar of world football coming your way from Fraserburgh. My worries of this game becoming a damp squib were heightened when it became three-nil. We had switched ends by this point due to Wee Man wanting chocolate and we got a perfect view of the goal. A ball was send toward the Turriff box with Logan Watt winning it sending it straight up in the air toward the full moon which kept appearing throughout the night. As it came down, Watt despite the shouts from Barbour took a touch to create a gap and poked the ball through and past Herbert from 18 yards. A tidy finish but suspect from a defensive point of view. Game over and the Broch were as good as in the final despite only a half hour on the clock. At this point a big blonde dog appeared on the side line looking as if it fancied doing a better job than the Turriff showing thus far. This while standing in front of a sponsor board saying “mon I Turra” A distinct possibility that this could have been the case too. Then from out of nowhere the home side reduced the arrears when Kieran Yeats stuck a 25 yard free kick into the bottom corner. It was one of those slow motion looking efforts that nobody seemed to go for and Joe Barbour was left stranded only being able to watch it bounce into his net. Game on I hoped, but no. The Broch took centre and went straight up the park to regain a three goal advantage. This time Scott Barbour on hand to rustle Herbert’s net this from five yards as he tapped in a Sopel cross leading to the Broch’s top scorer wheeling off in our direction with his trademark celebration.
HT 1 v 4
Half time gave me a good laugh as it saw the aforementioned big blonde dog tackle Wee Man and try to nick his yellow ball, making me think he really was up for taking to the pitch.Turriff gaffer Warren Cummings made big changes at half time with a quadruple substitution and to be fair it change the game completely(despite no canine introduction amongst the four). Turriff were far better for it and I am sure the argument is there to say they were the better team in the second half. As we stood in amongst the litter the Broch young team had disrespectfully left after their arse (I sound like an old man but there was a bloody bin literally five yards away), we could see this was a different Turra. They attacked and looked determined to make amends for their poor first half showing. A second came for them when they were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box. Previous goal scorer Yeats struck it into the wall but an immediate foul (which sent Broch manager Cowie apoplectic at his players) set up an identical free kick which this time Yeats sent past Barbour. Game on and it really was game on with the Broch goal under siege at times. Robertson missed a sitter from a handful of yards which he should have been scoring. Then the home side struck the post twice in quick succession and possibly once prior to that too, but hard to tell the latter from the other end where we were situated. In amongst this a few solid saves were needed from Barbour. The Broch were clearly toiling but they saw out proceedings and booked their place in the final. Proceedings which I have to say seemed to go on forever, it was almost 22.00 by the time the game finished. Where did the ref get that from.We didn’t get the cracker we imagined we would. However, it would have been interesting to see how it would panned out if Turra got at the Broch as they did in the second from earlier on in the match. We also didn’t get the big freeze during the game which was predicted by the Met Office, the cloud cover kept a bit of warmth on the go while simultaneously creating a sometimes spooky moon above us. Out of the sky and on the park, Fraserburgh had booked their path to the final against Formartine who scooshed the other semi 4 v 0
Entrance – £10 Me, £5 Wee Man
Attendance – 260 (Rough Head Count)
Pie -£10, Sausage Roll x 2, coffee, juice, crisps
Pint – £3, Tennent’s, fan bar
Score Prediction – Me 2 v 2, Wee Man 2 v 1
Season Score Prediction Totals – Me 2 v 1 Wee Man
FITBAWBAG 