Pictures: East End claim Northern Region Junior FA Cup title with a win over Dufftown
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Aberdeen's East End emerged as 3-1 winners over Dufftown on Sunday in the final of the Northern Region Junior FA Cup which was played out at Rothie Rover's ground in Rothienorman.
A crowd of around 250 travelling fans has barely settled themselves around the railings at the side of the pitch when from kick-off East End's Connor Wood made a straight run at the Dufftown goal to see it rebound off the woodwork, but less than 30 seconds later and with under a minute on the clock, team-mate Lewis Masson chipped it home from close range to open the scoring.
Aiming to capitalise on the outstanding early lead, East End sought to pile the pressure on Dufftown who in turn quickly sought to level the scores again.
With eight minutes on the clock, the first corner of the game fell to Dufftown with a solid play across the face of the goal failing to find anyone to connect with it.
Two minutes later a free kick saw Dufftown's Shaun Gair make a diving header in the box only to see it sail past keeper Zack Ellis' right hand side goal post.
Build up from East End led to a speedy attack from Adam Joji who fell foul of the offside trap, for the first time in the game, a scene that would be repeated several times.
East End were again caught by the offside trap on 18 minutes as Dufftown tried to build up an attack and on 20 minutes James Stables would take a crack at Ellis in goals from 25 yards out, only to watch it sail over the top of the goal.
A repeated attack lead to a corner for Dufftown on 24 minutes, which while played in directly into the box was easily claimed by Ellis.
With half an hour played, Dufftown's Calum Clark and Benjamin Cullen worked in parallel to set up a opportunity on the edge of the box only to be denied by Ellis once again.
The second goal would come on 31 minutes with Dufftown's Michael Dunn the culprit on the edge of the box taking down Joji with the ref having no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
Stepping up, Josh Bolton confidently sent it low to the left past Black to double their lead.
In a fairly even tempered match, the first yellow was handed to Dufftown's Gair for almost man-handing Matthew Stewart off the pitch.
With 40 minutes now played, Dufftown would claim their first and only goal when Benjamin Cullen struck from around 12 yards out in a one-on-one with Ellis which he deftly chipped over the top of the keeper who could do nothing to stop it.
The last play of the half came from Gair who sent it low to Ellis' left but the keeper managed to get a hand to it to save the shot from heading in.
Attempting to repeat the early goal, with 47 minutes on the clock, East End's Lewis Masson levelled one from just outside the box on the midline only to see it just tipped over by Stewart.
The resulting corner would do just that when East End's Finlay Johnston connected perfectly to send it in past Stewart to make it 3-1.
Two minutes later Josh Bolton would have his shot on goal for East End, but it veered off to the right for a goal kick.
With play remaining mostly static in the midfield, it took till the 63rd minute for Dufftown to break the deadlock when James Stables found himself with a clear shot on goal only for it to rattle off the woodwork.
Again they would make a firm attack two minutes later, with Shaun Cameron seeing his header just go over the bar leading to a lot of worried East End on-pitch commentary.
The somewhat unseasonally good weather being experienced at Rothie, lead to a short break on 70 minutes as several players on both sides were showing signs of cramp that head to be dealt with.
With play resuming Dufftown would again try to claw their way back and Cameron came up just short in a one-on-one with Ellis.
Efforts to increase their lead then saw a long range effort from East End's Connor Wood powered at Black from 35 yards out, but heading straight at the keeper, proved an easy stop.
Scott Kerr for East End made the next attempt on Black's goals but the ball ran wide to the right as they continued to pile the pressure on leading to team-mate Josh Bolton finding himself face to face with Black who only just managed to take it off him on the edge of the box.
With the end almost in sight, Dufftown were not for giving up and a corner played in by Cullen was unlucky not to connect with any of his team, but it was not to be, ending 3-1 to East End.
Commenting on the win East End manager Stuart Whicher said: "It's amazing to win today, its been a long journey to get here but its been a great league cup campaign and we were on top today from the off.
"The opening goal when we saw the first touch come off and rebound I thought, oh its early doors and its going to be one of those games, but the early goal was fantastic and while we did switch off a bit, I think we played better in the second half."
