Appearances & Goals To Date

Errol Watson (GK)		3 apps	-
Stephen Jeffrey		33 apps	1 goal
Calum Dingwall		24 apps	2 goals
Craig Duguid		16 apps	1 goal
Stuart Smith		50 apps	1 goal
Graham Hay		22 apps	4 goals
Stuart Anderson		35 apps	7 goals
Callum Bagshaw		43 apps	4 goals
Neil McVitie		44 apps	9 goals
Marek Madle		19 apps	10 goals
Stuart McKay		49 apps	17 goals
Gary Clark (sub)		33 apps	1 goal
Cammy Keith (sub)		52 apps	38 goals
Paul Napier (sub)		39 apps	4 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

After a month or so of faltering performances that curtailed their title challenge by eleven points, managerial patience with under-performance reached the tipping point where radical change was indicated. It was delivered in no uncertain terms as three of those who started in the mid week debacle at Fraserburgh - Keith, Napier and Munro were dropped to the bench to be replaced by McKay, Bagshaw and Dingwall. The most dramatic action was however the fact that Captain McKeown was dropped not to the bench but to the transfer list, the armband going to centre back Graham Hay. Rearrangement of personnel was accompanied by a change from the 3-5-2 system to a 4-3- 3. with Duguid starting at right back and Jeffrey moving alongside Hay in the middle.

It is impossible to pinpoint which of these changes created the dramatic improvements visible but cumulatively they transformed the side from a leaden, dis-spirited looking bunch to one playing with verve and eventually exuberance. Those promoted from the bench all played very well indeed and again the team is infused with the elixir that competition for places in a winning side brings about.

Effort and work rate were set at a high level from the outset and both sides got stuck into each other from the start. Initially Nairn playing a pressing game in midfield with Gethins and Urquhart ahead looked marginally the slicker side, but what Formartine lacked in polish, they compensated for with effort. Bagshaw revealed his full potential with an incredibly industrious contribution in midfield closing down opponents running into space off the ball and generally pulling opposing midfielders to places they’d prefer not to visit. McVitie who partnered him covered a phenomenal distance too and for the first 15 minutes the play had an end to end character to it. Nairn perhaps held the ball for marginally longer at a time than Formartine but even this early the home side on the break looked dangerous. Madle’s pace and power was balanced by McKays tenacity and explosive bursts past defenders. A break into the left side of the box by danger man Gethins was dealt with by Hay who dispossessed him with a perfectly timed tackle and another attempt by the wee Irishman brought a decent smothering save from Watson while at the other end an exchange of passes between Madle and McVitie ended with the former clipping a tight angled shot to the near post that tested Antell.

McKay turned MacDonald and bore in towards the left post before firing off a crisp low shot that was very marginally to the wrong side of the upright. Formartine were getting more fluent with each passing minute and by the mid point of the half had turned a possession rate of about 52/48 in Nairn’s favour to about the same their own way. This increase in possession in which Anderson’s skill and vision was instrumental provided the platform for a well worked opening goal in the 27th minute. Bagshaw dispossessed Halsman and fed the ball to Anderson who clipped it over the top diagonally to his right. Madle and McVITIE were breaking at pace, exchanged passes and the latter quickly reached the right side of the area. Antell advanced to narrow the angle but with absolute precision “Biscuits” drove the ball between keeper and post into the net.

Formartine were growing in confidence and were putting together a high tempo pass and move game that bit by bit forced Nairn from the front foot to the back. Inevitably the visitors pushed for a quick equaliser, but the home defence were, by and large, fit for them. A wee spell that yielded Nairn three corners in a couple of minutes was eventually contained by well organised defending by Smith, Jeffrey, Hay and Duguid and ended with an Urquhart shot from 18 yards that went over the top. Formartine resumed their slight midfield dominance and probed down the flanks with alternating runs by full backs Duguid and Smith. These provided some ammunition for Madle and McKay but the visiting back four were a dour lot and gave little away.

With Formartine beginning to look comfortable, they lost a goal at a devastatingly bad time – a minute before half time. Pollock managed to get past Smith, almost on the bye line to the right of goal and floated a cross just beyond the back stick where Duguid harried by Wilkie and Gethins poked the ball out for a corner. This was taken short and eventually whipped into a densely populated goalmouth by Webb and a scramble ensued. GETHINS, slippery as ever, managed to get enough of a toe poke on the ball to force it over the line to equalise.

The second half opened with Formartine looking pretty well undaunted and continuing to take the play to Nairn who were forced to concede a number of midfield fouls generally by MacKintosh and MacDonald although they were wily enough to take it in turns to share out the risk of the yellow card. It was tight throughout and although Formartine were delivering a much more spirited performance than recently, it didn’t look like Nairn were going to yield. A jinking run along the 18yard line by McKay, who looks to be back to his lethal best, ended with a turn and fierce shot that Antell did well to beat away.

In the 62 nd minute Nairn got their noses in front after a break down the left initiated by Morrison. Pollock and Wilkie combined to get the ball across to URQUHART who drove it cooly home from ten yards out. It looked like this could be the goal that turned the game – it had been tight enough to suggest that there wouldn’t be many – but the response it brought from Formartine was superb. From somewhere they found the capacity to raise their already impressively high tempo and work rate and batter back at their visitors. Five minutes after going behind and the same period of sustained pressure on the Nairn rearguard, MADLE levelled the game with an exquisite finish. A wave of attack down the right that Duguid, Bagshaw and MacKay contributed to saw the striker free in the box but very close to the bye line right of goal. Antell advanced but MADLE somehow found a tiny gap into which he drove the ball an inch beyond the keeper’s reach and an inch inside the back post for a supremely accurately delivered finish.

Game on! With adrenaline coursing through the veins of this newly reconstructed side a three minute Formartine goal fest followed. Callum Dingwall, persistence itself just kept niggling away at the defence and from left of centre managed to get the ball to McKAY who still with work to do split Morrison and MacDonald to earn the space he needed to hammer the ball home from about fifteen yards range.

From behind to ahead in barely over a minute, Formartine were still not finished. BAGSHAW who was delivering one of his best ever performances for Formartine really deserved a goal as a return for effort expended. It came in the next minute when a sustained attack supported by Hay whose captaincy seemed exemplary found Formartine encamped round the Nairn box. In this densely populated area space was at a premium but Baggie had the tanner ba’ skills to jink himself into a spot where he could thread the ball through the melee and into the net for number 4.

From 2-1 down to 4-2 ahead in the space of three minutes is a remarkable turnaround but Formartine for sheer spirit and endeavour fully deserved it. It won them the game and although Nairn pulled one back at the very end when a sustained late push by Nairn had Formartine pushed back down at the village end. After a couple of corners had been more or less defended, centre half McIntosh got a shot at a loose ball rebounding his way and managed to drive it past the diving Watson. Formartine still had it well won though.

Match report by Colin Keenan

None.