St Duthus qualify for second cup final of the season by beating Inverness Athletic
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St Duthus marched through to the Football Times Cup final after an impressive 5–0 victory against Inverness Athletic in their final south section match at Inverness Royal Academy.
Saints just needed to avoid defeat to progress to the final but they won with something to spare thanks to a Liam Rostock hat trick and a late Ben Bruce double.
“The boys were brilliant today,” said Saints’ manager Stuart Ross.
“A clean sheet away from home and some really good goals as well, we can be happy with that.
“The boys are purring just now. We are delighted to get to our second cup final of the season.”
Rostock opened the scoring in the 20th minute.
The Saints’ forward hit the target again on the stroke of half time when his rising shot just evaded the outstretched hand of Athletic keeper Sandy Stephen.
Saints stretched their lead early in the second half from the penalty spot after Bruce was fouled by Athletic defender Liam Symonds. Rostock converted from the spot to complete his hat trick.
Bruce struck twice in the dying minutes to take his goal tally for the season to 15.
Invergordon got back to winning ways with a no-nonsense 5-1 victory against Lewis and Harris.
It was a welcome return to form according to Invergordon manager Gary Campbell.
“It was a good win, probably our best display for a while,” he said.
“We were dominant throughout and even managed to miss a penalty.”
A Shaun Kerr header and a Joe Sutherland goal put Invergordon 2-0 up at the break.
Kerr missed from the spot early in the second half but Kyle MacLean added a third shortly afterwards.
Hamish MacDonald pulled one back for Lewis with a superb curling effort but further goals from Jordan Knight and Darran Goller wrapped up the win.
In the north section, Golspie Sutherland defeated Halkirk United 4-0, while Bunillidh Thistle eased to a 6-0 win against Bonar Bridge.
Meanwhile in the North Caledonian League, Orkney and Thurso drew 2-2.
