Late agony for Brora as Stranraer surge on

BRORA’S Scottish Cup dream was ended in extra-time at Dudgeon Park after the new Highland League champions had come close to turning Stranraer’s 630-mile round trip into a journey from hell.

Having stunned Hearts in the previous round, battling Brora almost claimed another scalp.

Leading by Dale Gillespie’s first-half penalty, Brora had largely given as good as they got, but Stranraer earned a reprieve with just two minutes remaining when substitute James Hilton equalised straight from a corner kick and the hosts looked drained going into extra-time.

As a consequence, Stranraer won fairly comfortably in the end after goals from Matt Yates and Thomas Orr, in the 100th and 107th minutes respectively.

Brora boss Steven Mackay summed up the home side’s emotions when he declared: ‘It was agonisingly close and I feel gutted for the boys.

‘I thought we were going to hold on although it looked as if we were going to concede, it would be from a set-piece.

‘But we had been dealing well with them up to that point and had put so much into the game, even though I didn’t think we were great today.

‘The second goal was a huge setback and the third just knocked the stuffing out of us.’

Andrew Macrae had earned the home side a spot-kick after being brought down by Ayrton Sonkur in the 26th minute.

Gillespie duly obliged, but the outcome remained uncertain.

Gillespie came close with a 74th-minute free-kick and Sonkur was forced to make a goal-line clearance from the resultant corner kick to deny the hosts a second.

But there was no denying super sub Hilton just when it seemed that Brora had the job all but done.

Stranraer boss Stephen Farrell said: ‘Brora beat Hearts but I am not interested in what other teams do. We came here believing we could win the tie.’