Supersub Skelly clinches last eight replay for the Fed

Broughty Athletic’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the Macron Scottish Cup for the first time in their history remain intact after they battled back from two goals down to earn a quarter-final replay against Darvel.

The Fed got off to a terrible start by losing a goal in the eighth minute after Daryll Meggatt headed the hosts in front.

Things looked even bleaker when Darvel doubled their lead shortly afterwards, with Darren Miller scoring direct from a corner.

The Fed responded strongly with home keeper Chris Truesdale making three great saves to prevent the visitors getting a foothold back in the game before the break.

Bryan Duell did get them back into contention, however, heading home just after the hour-mark. Despite that ramping up the pressure on the home side, the Ayrshire outfit looked as though they would hang on to go through.

But substitute Josh Skelly – a surprise inclusion after a spell out through injury – emerged the hero with a stoppagetime screamer for the equaliser.

Meanwhile, the other scheduled quarter-final between Auchinleck Talbot and Hurlford was postponed, not due to the weather, but after an Auchinleck player suffered an outbreak of respiratory illness. The tie has been rescheduled for next Saturday.

North Region Montrose Roselea returned to action with a bang, though their 5-0 home win over Deveronside was more than aided and abetted by the visitors’ reckless indiscipline which saw them finish the match with seven men.

In a bizarre couple of minutes before halftime, two Deveronside players were red-carded for dissent after Kieran Thomson was brought down.

Five minutes after the restart, 17-yearold Fraser Jamieson bundled the ball into the net with Deveronside remonstrating with the match official that it hadn’t crossed the line.

Roselea made it two a minute later when Robertson walked the ball into the net pretty much unchallenged.

It went from bad to worse for the visitors when they were reduced to eight men after Mckinnon received a second yellow card for kicking the ball away.

Midway through the second half Roselea added a third thanks to a great strike from David Beedie and then Thomson slotted home the fourth.

Another dissenting Deveronside player became their fourth dismissal.

A soft-looking penalty in stoppage-time was taken by Connor Yeats and though the keeper saved his kick, Yeats netted the rebound to compound a dreadful day for the visitors.

Daryll Meggatt opened the scoring for Darvel.