Saturday 3 September
Huntly 2 Rothes 0

Seven days ago Rothes had upset the odds to knock Huntly out of the Tennent's Scottish Qualifying Cup thanks to a second half strike by Euan Grant. The question was, could they do it again or would there be a backlash from the champions? With Allan Stephen and Iain MacRae suspended the task for Rothes was made that bit harder.
Huntly too had to reshuffle their squad with Russell Guild failing a fitness test and Scott Anderson picking up a back injury during the warm-up writes Grant Turner.

Rothes were the first to threaten when, after 13 minutes, Chris Henderson raced down the right and crossed the ball which was only partially cleared. It fell to Michael Ewen who hit a left foot volley towards the top corner but Richard Bowman got across to tip it over.

10 minutes later Huntly's first chance saw Richie Taylor miss firing from an Ally Reid cross, his sclaffed effort bobbling wide of the target.
Ally Reid was the provider again five minutes later, this time feeding Jerry O'Driscoll who squared for Richie Taylor who netted only to be denied by the linesman's flag.

The last effort of note in a goalless first half was a 22 yard free kick (won by Richie Taylor who was fouled by Nathan Sharp) by Mark Gray that was drilled low towards goal although it was comfortably saved by Darren Strong.

Half Time: Huntly 0 Rothes 0

Rothes Player-Manager Gordon Winton was the first of five cards when he dived in with a wild lunge on Neil Reid.

Huntly finally made the breakthrough 8 minutes into the second half when some route one football paid dividends. A punted free kick by Richard Bowman was nodded out but only as far as Jerry O'Driscoll and the Huntly top scorer put them in front with a 25 yard drive straight down the middle that deceived Darren Strong following a deflection.

It was 2-0 just after the hour mark when Martin Fellowes, who came on in 54 and was booked in 55 minutes, won a penalty having been bundled over by Steve Sim. Ross Campbell strolled forward and hit the penalty low just off centre to give the home side some breathing space.

Steven Sim was next to be shown a yellow card following a foul on Gary McGowan while Neil Reid was booked for a soft foul in 70 minutes after it appeared he'd won the ball against Mike Ewen.

The home side came close to adding to their tally when Fellowes released Richard Craig. Craig's shot was parried by Strong but somehow both A Reid and Fellowes missed the ball from the rebound.

Huntly's defence got caught out by a high ball moments later as Ewen gathered possession only for Bowman to deny the striker a consolation with a fine save.

It was enough to secure all three points and to return Huntly to the top of the table despite the loss of Matt Gairns late on. Gairns, like Fellowes, was a second half substitute and like Fellowes it took him only a matter of minutes to find his way into referee David Watt's notebook.

Therefore when he then was shown a second yellow and dismissed after only 14 minutes on the field. It was a downside to a more positive afternoon for the champions.