Buckie Thistle goal hero Josh Peters earned Scottish Cup tie at Celtic with dramatic double at Broxburn Athletic last season and is now gunning for revenge over Clydebank to land another dream Jags draw
The hero of last season’s famous Buckie Thistle Scottish Cup run is on a revenge mission to try and repeat Jags’ achievements this year.
Twelve months ago, Josh Peters rescued ten-man Buckie’s third round cup efforts at Broxburn Athletic with two last minute strikes to trigger a victory which earned the Highland League side a dream date at Celtic.
Peters rates the Broxburn win as an even greater memory than his experience of trooping out in front of 40,000 fans at Celtic Park and a live TV audience in January.
This term, Jags are back in round three where this weekend they make the trip to high-flying Clydebank, a club who ended Peters’ cup hopes with his previous club Elgin City in 2021.
The striker wants to put Buckie’s stuttering league campaign to one side and says there is enough top quality in the Jags ranks to seize more cup glory - and perhaps another plum draw.
“It’s brilliant being in the third round and obviously getting into the fourth is a huge incentive because if you get there, you can get anyone in the draw,” he said.
“It will be interesting, and we want to put ourselves in that position. Hopefully we can be in that draw again this weekend.
“To get to the fourth round two years in a row would be brilliant for any lower league Scottish team, especially a Highland League team.”
The 28-year-old netted a unique ‘hat-trick’ in an against-all-odds Buckie triumph at Broxburn to earn their money-spinning Celtic game.
Jags had Scott Adams sent off midway through the first half against their Lowland League hosts, but battled to keep the score at 0-0 until the 81st minute when Broxburn took the lead.
Heading out of the competition deep into stoppage time, Buckie turned to Peters for a dramatic strike to force extra time.
Penalties were on the cards until the home side scored in the final minute of extra time, seemingly the winning strike. But that man Peters produced another goal in time-added-on, forcing the shoot-out.
He netted for a third time in the shoot-out which Buckie won to go through - 24 hours later they pulled Celtic out of the draw.
“The boys still speak about that Broxburn game to this day,” Peters said. “I don't think anyone will forget that game, and this is the same round that we find ourselves in again.
“Although the Celtic game was an amazing experience, the Broxburn game maybe topped it in the way the game went and the scenes at the end, and the whole weekend leading to the Celtic situation.
“That Broxburn game, if you speak to anyone in our team it’s probably one of the greatest memories we’ve had and one of the wildest games I’ve ever played in.”
Buckie will have to be at their best to overcome a Clydebank side which had yet to taste defeat in the West of Scotland League this season.
They sit three points clear at the top having won eight and drawn one of their nine games so far, and have three games in hand over their nearest rivals.
They won 3-0 in the last round of the Scottish Cup at Keith, who recently defeated Buckie 3-1 in the Highland League.
Peters twice played against the Bankies three years ago, and knows some of their players well.
“When I was at Elgin, we played them down there on a Monday night when it was on TV, we drew 1-1 and it went to a replay and they beat us up in Elgin.
“They are a good side, they are top of their league and they have a couple of former league players,” he said.
“Nicky Low was at Aberdeen, he’s one of the bigger names and there’s a couple of boys who I played with when I was at Queen’s Park.
“They’ve definitely got quality in their team and Lewis (Jags manager Mackinnon) and Squish (assistant Hamish Munro) will be doing their homework on them.
“They will fancy themselves but we do too. It’s going to be a good tie, they’ve got a good support from what I remember from the Elgin game so it will be tough.
“But we can be confident that we have done well in the Scottish Cup so far and we just need to try and do that again.”
While Buckie’s season has been a disappointing one so far, Peters has also had to contend with injury problems which he hasn’t fully overcome.
He was sidelined for several weeks with a painful knee injury which turned out to be bone bruising.
“It took a while to go away. It is still there and I am managing it at the moment, I’ve got through it in games and training but with the recovery in between I’m still a wee bit sore.
“But it’s definitely better than it was. It’s been a frustrating first half of the season for myself and the team, and the injury definitely didn’t help my case.”
Fellow striker Lyall Keir is also back in training for Buckie, and will be assessed to see if he could return to the squad for the Clydebank clash.
