Dee draw blank against 10-man Dyce

Ten-man Dyce fought out a goalless draw with McBookie.com Superleague champions-elect Banks o’ Dee at Ian Mair Park.

With under half an hour remaining, the home side’s Jamie McAllister was sent off for a second bookable offence but the Spain Park side couldn’t break down a team it hit double figures against last month.

Defences were also on top at Lochside Park where neither Hermes nor Hall Russell United could find the net.

Banchory St Ternan boosted their survival chances with a secondhalf fightback at fellow strugglers Colony Park who led at the break before a Richard Binnie penalty and counters from Grant Munro and Aaron Thompson turned the game round.

Inverness City remain rooted to the foot of the table after losing 2-0 at home to Culter, while

“Fraserburgh United thumped Stoneywood Parkvale 6-1”

Montrose Roselea won 3-1 at Ellon United.

In the First Division (East), Fraserburgh United thumped Stoneywood Parkvale 6-1, Newmachar United drew 1-1 with Cruden Bay and Sunnybank won 2-0 at Longside.

Forres Thistle ran out 5-0 victors against Whitehills in the First Division (West) and there were wins on the road for Buckie Rovers and Burghead Thistle at New Elgin and Spey Valley United.

Nairn St Ninian reached the last four of the Domino’s Pizza North Regional Cup, progressing 3-1 against Newburgh Thistle on penalties after the sides had drawn 1-1.

At the same stage of the PMAC Group McLeman Cup, Maud won 3-1 at Dufftown, while Islavale reached the final of the Elginshire Cup, winning 2-1 at Deveronside thanks to strikes from David Clark and Kieran Day while John McLeay netted for the home team.

ELGIN PETERHEAD

J0 1

ason Brown believes beaten Elgin could do rivals Peterhead a massive favour next weekend by pulling the plug on a Links Park title party.

The Blue Toon defender’s 10th goal of an impressive campaign earned three vital points at Borough Briggs and kept alive chances of supplanting Montrose at the League Two summit.

With three points separating the top two, only a Peterhead victory at home to Edinburgh City and a shock Elgin win at Montrose would make the Balmoor club champions on the final day.

Montrose preserved the three-point cushion with a 2-0 win at Stenhousemuir but have a greatly inferior goal difference to Peterhead.

For Brown, there is still hope – and he is backing north foes Elgin to make life difficult for the leaders.

Saturday’s victory made it five derby wins from five for the Blue Toon against the Black and Whites, but the 21-year-old said: “We know Elgin are a good team who don’t make it easy for any opponent.

“I’m sure they won’t make it easy for Montrose but we will just concentrate on what we need to do.

“It was a vital win for us at Elgin. We’ve been on a good run so we can’t complain. We’ve been applying pressure.”

Brown, earlier in the match, saw a tremendous effort touched on to the bar by Elgin keeper Brett Long before netting the winner.

He said: “I had chances earlier in the match and hit the bar, so it was frustrating. But the boys plugged away and I was confident we would get more chances.”

It was a tame derby in terms of drama and, in the first half, chances were limited.

Peterhead top scorer Rory McAllister had a couple of shots at goal.

Elgin’s Darryl McHardy was denied by a fine David McCracken block in the box before, at the other end, McCracken headed wide. City finished the half well, Thomas Reilly inches away with a half volley.

Reilly forced a diving save out of Greg Fleming at the other end after the break while the visitors had a penalty claim turned down when Smith went down as he tried to round Long, who the referee adjudged to have got a touch on the ball.

Scott Brown blazed a great chance over for Peterhead on 69 minutes, but the crucial goal arrived four minutes later.

Gibson swung over a free kick from deep on the left and Jason Brown was unmarked to nod a bouncing header into the net from against the base of the post.

Peterhead survived a late scare when City sub Declan Byrne cut inside from the left and smashed a shot off the base of the far post.

“Reilly forced a diving save out of Greg Fleming”