ANNBANK United Community FC have secured their place in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Amateur Cup.

The New Pebble Park side defeated Ayrshire rivals, and former winners, Shortlees 2-0 in a sixth round replay at Grange Academy in Kilmarnock on Saturday.

A tight affair was expected in Saturday's replay after a 1-1 draw in the first tie - and that was how it proved in the first 45 minutes as the opening half ended goalless.

Annbank made the breakthrough on 51 minutes when the ball broke to the feet of Yusuf Ulukus some 22 yards from goal, and the in-form striker lashed a thunderous shot beyond the Shortlees keeper.

Heroic goalkeeping from Daniel Sloan kept the visitors ahead before Ulukus put the tie beyond Shortlees in the closing stages, latching on to a long clearance kick from his goalkeeper and doing well to hold off the Shortlees back line before slotting home his second.

It's the third year in a row that Annbank have made it to the quarter-finals since the club was formed, with the win denying 2018 winners Shortlees a shot at winning the trophy in the showpiece Hampden final for a second time.

The Bankies - formed in 2021 as a merger of Annbank United, who played in the junior ranks from 1939 onwards, and Annbank Amateurs - are the second Ayrshire side to make it to the quarter-finals of the country's premier amateur football competition after Prestwick-based Glenburn Miners' Welfare booked their last eight place last weekend.

Annbank will now face Garrowhill Thistle of the Greater Glasgow Premier AFL for a place in the semi-finals, where they'll face either Glenburn or Edinburgh's Sandys AFC.

 

The last eight matches will take place on or before Saturday, March 30.