Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Reid (GK)		12 apps	-
Craig McKeown		63 apps	13 goals
Johnny Crawford		13 apps	1 goal
Stuart Smith		80 apps	5 goals
Stuart Anderson		66 apps	12 goals
Neil McVitie		64 apps	14 goals
Graeme Rodger		13 apps	4 goals
Paul Lawson		12 apps	4 goals
Scott Barbour		13 apps	5 goals
Neil Gauld		9 apps	2 goals
Garry Wood		13 apps	8 goals
Jamie Masson (sub)		1 app (debut)	-
Cammy Keith (sub)		79 apps	58 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Jamie Masson

(Signed October 6th, 2015)

Milestones

After a game which Formartine started on the front foot and finished on the back, they learned the difficulty of regaining momentum once it has been lost and the cost of that in terms of the outcome of a match. On a day where arch rivals Cove utterly gubbed Nairn (at North Lodge Park ironically) and other title rivals Brora and Turriff fought each other to a draw the ultimate cost of that loss of momentum is difficult to fully determine beyond the statement of the obvious that it was better news for Cove than for Formartine. It emphasises the dog eat dog nature of the league this season and evicts Formartine, hopefully on a temporary basis, from their brief tenure at the top of the league.

The match started with Formartine at full throttle and definitely looking on song as they immediately made breaks down each flank – a combination of Smith and Barbour on the left with a classic down the line move matched on the other side by a more angled overlap involving Rodger, Lawson and McVitie. Both attacks yielded awkward crosses into the box and visibly stretched the home defence to the point of creaking if not actually breaking. This level of swift incisive attacking play had Clach well pinned down into their own territory and it wasn’t until the 5th minute that they managed any sort of incursion into Formartine territory. That was a simple speedy solo break by Robertson that started in the inside left channel and continued diagonally to the opposite channel before he was dispossessed on the point of shooting by Crawford. Although this was a low threat affair, there was a lesson to be heeded: that the pace of Robertson was greater than any of the Formartine rearguard could fully match.

Formartine dominance continued with the visitors apparently in almost full control of possession and bossing each significant sector of the park. The expectation was that they would go on to extend their lead. A dipping drive by Wood went close as did a diagonal chip from Gauld and the hatches were firmly battened down with a succession of corners – all of which caused some sort of difficulty but none of which yielded a save from former Formartine keeper Errol Watson.

That was the singularly one-sided nature of proceedings until the 26th minute when after two corners in no more than a minute, McGurk, standing on no ceremony, simply lumped the ball as far up the park as he could. Formartine – rather over committed to attack for the corners, were barely covered at the back as the ball landed in a no man’s land between McVitie and the pacy ROBERTSON who was onto it in a flash and drew Reid to the edge of his area before clipping the ball low and hard past him to equalise. A yield of 50% of the goals for 80% of the dominance is bad enough, but to go behind within another minute was the event that turned what seemed to be set fair for a Formartine romp into a grim struggle to extract an away result of any sort.

Almost straight from the resumption Clach regained possession and Finnis chipped the ball forward into space but the move was read and neutralised by Lawson who intercepted. With the ball under control he sought to slide it sideways in the direction of Smith. The pass was woefully understruck and was picked up by McLennan who joyfully accepted his good fortune by skipping forward before drilling the ball past Reid for number two.

Much energised by their reversal of fortune Clach were a team transformed as they began to match (or nearly match) their visitors across the park and started to ask the kind of questions that a team with the sort of belief that a couple goals can inspire are able to. From that point on Formartine had to work far harder for everything. The fact that they did so is to their credit and also –at least from a neutral perspective- made for an interesting and more closely matched encounter. They had lost momentum and although it hadn’t gone entirely to Clach either, their task had become a whole lot harder.

They stuck to it willingly enough but were unable to sustain anything like the same level of pressure that they had prior to going behind. They still had a bit more than Clach who continued to play predominantly on the break but now did so with greater frequency and the breaks that they did produce were maintained for longer than formerly. Formartine were finding it harder to get the ball into the box. Barbour saw quite a bit of the ball out wide and was able generally to tie up both McIntosh and another [usually Fitzpatrick] when he did so. Problem was that when he did that, he had the ball but struggled to get it away into the danger area.

As the interval approached, Formartine began to get more cuttance and again had the Invernesians pinned back in their own penalty area. Corner followed corner until in the 44th minute of elapsed time, one on the left by Lawson was played short before being pinged over to the back stick straight to the head of McKeown who powered his way to the ball, outjumped McGurk and Lawrie to deliver a thundering header that flew back across the line of the despairing Watson and in at the opposite corner for a well- deserved equaliser.

The expectation at the start of the second half was that Formartine would get back on top and dominate. Clach thought otherwise and the game fell into the pattern of a tightly contested box to box affair where although Formartine had a distinct edge in terms of possession and pressure they struggled to do anything in the final third that seriously threatened Clach. They racked up a corner count of 18 to 7 by the 70th minute but still Watson was within his comfort zone. Keith replaced Gauld as striking partner for Wood but never really got a sniff from a home defence that knew a lot about damage limitation. As Formartine pressed, Clach shut up shop with 7 or 8 at a time behind the ball and in efforts to beat this Formartine were forced to retreat far enough to get the space in which to carve out openings. Clach were not to be easily drawn unless they thought a break was on and United were forced increasingly into playing longish balls up to Wood as target man. He was closely marked at all times and was therefore reduced to dinks and flicks that tended to be gobbled up in the stramash around him.

Formartine could not be faulted for either effort or ambition but they lacked the guile to get the breakthrough they sought. Newcomer Masson came on for Rodger over the last 15 minutes or thereby. He looks to be a find and added a distinct ball winning dimension to midfield. However without the familiarity of how team mates operate he will need a game or two to settle in.

As the clock ran down, Clach threw caution a little to the winds and went for a sustained period of attack over the last 5 minutes or thereby. It required a couple of top drawer saves by Reid from Robertson and Ingram to save serious embarrassment to Formartine. Had he not pulled of these close range saves – one at each post – the result would have been even more of a travesty than it was but this was a display by Formartine where a number of players were not performing as well as they usually do and where having lost momentum, they also lost two points.

Match report by Colin Keenan