Cove Rangers inflicted what could be a very damaging first home Highland League reverse on champions Buckie Thistle at Victoria Park on Saturday.

After a first half devoid of clear-cut chances, the Aberdeen side came out strongly and opened the scoring within a minute of the restart.

Cove assistant-manager Colin Milne felt if was a well deserved outcome.  He said: "We dominated the game from start to finish.  We needed a reaction from the players to the midweek defeat by Keith.  The players worked for each other, were up for the game and we dictated it.  Martin Johnston and Danny Milne were different class with their movement and got their rewards.  We're trying to climb the league, have had our bad spell and it's a massive three points for us."

The heavy sleet showers and high winds made it a miserable day for playing and watching but Cove netted in the 46th minute.  Murray McCulloch slid a pass for Martin Johnston to go one-on-one with Kevin Main and he poked the ball through the goalkeepers' legs.

The lead was doubled in the midway point of the first half, Danny Milne ignoring Buckie shouts for offside to shoot home off the post with the ball running along the line and trickling in.

Buckie were back in the game after pushing Lewis MacKinnon up front.  He headed a Michael Morrison cross over Stuart McKenzie, who could only help it into the net.

The champions missed a penalty on 75 minutes when Craig MacMillan was brought down in the penalty area by McKenzie, but the goalkeeper was the savior, diving to his left to save David MacRae's spot-kick.

Cove killed off the game in the final minutes when a long through ball was flicked on to Milne, who fired the ball home with Main rooted to the spot.

Buckie assistant manager Gary Hake said: "We gave them the two goals to start with, the penalty save was a turning-point and the third didn't make any difference.

"This team is still good enough to go on and win the league and we all believe we can still do it."

Report from Press & Journal