Stenny maintain unbeaten record against Aberdeen

The Warriors travelled to Pittodrie in the William Hill Scottish Cup Fourth Round as massive underdogs.

However, they have previous of defying such odds and did so again as Mark McGuigan's diving header in the second half cancelled out a Max Lowe opener to send the tie to a replay at Ochlview a week on Tuesday (January 29).

The first half would have gone to plan for Aberdeen as Stenny were limited to very little possession and next to no chances.

The Dons looked keen to get Scotland winger Gary MacKay-Steven on the ball as often as possible as Ruaridh Donaldson and Alan Cook must have though they would be in for a long afternoon defending that channel.

The Premiership side took the lead on 20 minutes in fine fashion as some good passing around the box saw Greg Stewart pick out Shinnie who drew Graeme Smith off his line and cut back to Max Lowe who tapped in from six yards.

The Dons had dominated possession up to that point and, for the rest of the half that did not really change.

Stenny began to get a foothold in the game in the final five minutes of the half, stringing together passes in the final third and seeing more of the ball in general.

So half time came at just the wrong time for the visitors but boss Colin McMenamin took the opportunity to tell his players to stick to their game plan and that a chance would come along, and that it would be up to them to take it.

As the second half got underway though it was the same story as the first with the Dons in control and Stenny rarely getting forward.

Graeme Smith did not exactly have a quiet first half but other than the goal the Dons never came particularly close to another.

He did well to cut out a Stewart opportunity early before making two big saves, the first from MacKay-Steven blocking a shot from a tight angle and a second spectacular block from Stewart who would have doubled the Dons lead had he gone either side of the centre of goal, but his shot was down the middle and Smith got down low to block.

Smith produced another fine save shortly after, Niall McGinn's curling a shot from inside the box right at the far corner with Smith parrying the shot at full stretch.

His block fell to the feet of Stewart who took a touch and fired off the underside of the cross bard from 18 yards before Stenny cleared.

It was in the 70th minute that 'Magic' Mark McGuigan pulled a rabbit out of the hat for The Warriors.

Stenny had not been in the game for all of the second half but with their first decent spell of possession since the break Ruaridh Donaldson put in a fantastic cross from the left channel, splitting the Aberdeen centre halves and McGuigan attacked the ball head first from 10 yards to power his diving header past Joe Lewis.

That goal, there only shot on target of any note all game, was enough to take the game to a replay and secure another famous result for Stenny against Aberdeen.