Moray & District Welfare F.A.
Mike Simpson Memorial Trophy Quarter Final
Tuesday 15th July 2025
Kick Off 19.30 On Time!
Fochabers 2 Buckie Rovers 1, attendance 97
14’ 0-1
45’ + 1, 1-1 (pen)
75’ 2-1
@ Fochabers Playing Field
Ordiquish Road
Fochabers
IV32 7EX
No Admission or Programme.
Tonight’s game was a quarter final in the Mike Simpson Memorial Trophy, between two teams in the Premier Division of the league, with 2nd hosting 3rd in the table as far as league positions go. It was no problem finding out information regarding the game, as the league website was bang up to date, as were the Facebook pages of both clubs.
Fochabers is a small town just off the A96 Aberdeen-Inverness road, roughly midway between Elgin and Keith. The football club play at Fochabers Playing Field, which is just a basic pitch, which still has the old style square goal posts and has raised grass banking along one side, with mesh fencing lining the path leading to the primary school, which offers a good vantage point. The changing rooms are part of a building that also houses the public toilets, with overhang on the rear, which faces the pitch, but is a good 40-50 yards behind the goal, so not really of use. You’re certainly in luck if churches are your thing though, as there are four visible from pitch side.
It was a cracking game, that could have gone either way. Buckie were ahead after fourteen minutes, when a corner from the right was headed in at the near post. Late in the half they also saw a skewed cross come back off the crossbar, before conceding an equaliser in stoppage time, scored from a really softly awarded penalty, for a nudge in the back that was nowhere near enough to send the home player sprawling theatrically to the ground. Fochabers saw a header, from a free kick wide on the right, come back off the crossbar with seventeen minutes left, before grabbing what turned out to be the winner just two minutes later, when a corner from the left was cleared to the angle of the eighteen yard box, where it was met with a first time shot, that somehow managed to find a gap between defender and crossbar, on its way into the top far corner.
