Proud Fraserburgh boss Mark Cowie insists he can’t blame striker Scott Barbour for passing up the moment his Highland League outfit had dreamed of.
The 85-1 outsiders knew they were coming to Ibrox with only the slimmest of chances to cause an upset. But they might have stood a chance had Barbour taken his big moment just before half-time. Pouncing on a mistake by kid Gers keeper Mason Munn, the club’s record top scorer with 270 strikes couldn’t snatch the biggest of his career as he dragged wide.
But Cowie had no complaints after seeing his side suffer a 5-0 whallopping as Philippe Clement’s men turned the screws with four second-half goals. He said: “Normally Scott puts them away. There was a lot of weight on his shoulders to do it. We knew we wouldn’t get many chances, for him it’s probably more important to score at Ibrox, but for me he’s scored X amount of goals that are more important than that.
“As a club we wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for players like Scott and others. We played Falkirk a few years ago when I was first in the job.
“They were riding high in the Championship and we went 1-0 down, but we scored an equaliser and that feeling of going 1-1 against Falkirk with 20 minutes to go was one of the best I’ve had in football. Had Scott put that in then it would have topped it because you start believing you’re going to get something.
“Against Falkirk Lee Miller took five minutes to make it 4-1 and that squashed any dreams. You don’t get many moments like that and it would have been great for us to score, but regardless of the score the experience for the players has been one of joy.”
The Brock brought 1800 fans with them to Glasgow and Cowie admits that even with the heavy scoreline, it will be a day to live long in the memory. “Proud is an understatement,” he said. “We were always going to come and sit in and try to get the chance.
“When you realise what you’re up against and what the occasion was like, the players were immense. That’s our first game this year, we haven’t played since December 28 so to come to Ibrox and put in that performance was unbelievable.
“It was brilliant and I’m sure we’ll have the calculator ready at some stage. Financially it’s great, but memories and being here as a group is probably more important to us.”
Boyhood Rangers fan Barbour may have passed up a glorious chance to net at Ibrox, but the Broch striker took to social media to share photos of the big day.
Barbour shared a picture of himself getting his hands on James Tavernier’s Light Blues jersey and also posed for a snap with Philippe Clement and other Gers supporting members of the Fraserburgh squad after the game.