West hails Fraserburgh spirit

WILLIE WEST hailed spirited Fraserburgh for keeping up the pressure on title favourites Brora Rangers.

The Broch stalwart was thrilled by the character shown as his team twice recovered from losing the lead against rivals Buckie Thistle to win 3-2.

In a cracking match, Paul Campbell’s second of the day sealed it for Fraserburgh with seven minutes left.

After having their previous game postponed last week, the Broch went into the match three points adrift of Inverurie in second and six behind leaders Brora.

West was delighted they emerged from a tough home fixture with the situation unchanged. The 31-year-old said: “Brora are definitely the team to beat, you can see that by their results so far this season.

“They’re the favourites for the league title and they’ve strengthened since we played them by signing Andrew Macrae from Forres.

“They are a quality team, but we want to stay close to them. If we can keep pushing them then you never know what can happen.

“Buckie was exactly the sort of result we need to be gaining on a more regular basis if we are to maintain a genuine challenge, so we’re delighted with what was a very gutsy performance from all of us. Unfortunately, with a lot of the teams just behind Brora, we take points off each other and drag each other down.”

Buckie, still fifth in the championship fight, went behind to a great finish from Scott Barbour after only 11 minutes.

But Sam Urquhart fired Buckie level just before the break to set up a tense second half. Campbell restored the lead eight minutes after the restart, before Andy MacAskill again hit back for the Jags.

However, Campbell had the last laugh, sealing the victory when he struck again seven minutes from time.

Fraserburgh now sit six points behind leaders Brora with a game in hand.