Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Shearer (GK)		50 apps	-
Craig McKeown		48 apps	10 goals
Graham Hay		19 apps	4 goals
Stephen Jeffrey		30 apps	-
Stuart Smith		47 apps	1 goal
Stuart Anderson		32 apps	7 goals
Neil McVitie		41 apps	8 goals
Hamish Munro		44 apps	1 goal
Paul Napier		36 apps	4 goals
Cammy Keith		49 apps	38 goals
Marek Madle		16 apps	9 goals
Calum Dingwall (sub)		22 apps	2 goals
Gary Clark (sub)		32 apps	1 goal
Stuart McKay (sub)		47 apps	16 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Although there has been the odd sighting of some green shoots of recovery at Christie Park, the expectation always was that Formartine would win this one by a comfortable margin and so it came to pass that they did. However until such time as Huntly revive sufficiently to take points from Formartine’s rivals at the top end of the table, the main consequence of this game derives from the influence it brings to the goal difference statistics. In that sense this represents a decent return for Formartine’s efforts.

Three goals in each half, a Cammy Keith hat trick included, combined to show a significant gap in quality between the sides. Formartine simply had too much pace, guile and firepower for a decently organised, hard -working but ultimately pedestrian Huntly side, and it is good news for the North Lodge faithful that Cammy Keith’s marauding ways are clearly back. Doubts have been expressed at times about Formartine’s lack of hunger when the going gets tough and Cammy’s tendency to do much better against poorer teams than Formartine’s chief competitors. This was a game that was, by its very nature, unable to illuminate such contentions. But a big win at Christie Park remains a big win at Christie Park and a hat trick is still at hat trick.

In bright conditions the game began with the pattern that was sustained more or less throughout: Formartine moved the ball about with pace and precision as Huntly tried to match this in their own terms with well- intentioned endeavour. Within a minute or two the substance of this brought the question of how long would it take Formartine to score or how far would hard work alone take Huntly in the face of Formartine pressure. Twice within the opening five minutes Madle attained a one on one position with the keeper. First time out he was denied by the feet of keeper Hobday and next time he drove the ball wide of target. Even then the pressure was on as Madle driving on from a perfectly weighted Anderson feed let fly with a vicious goalward drive that Lawson did well to divert. Reverting for this game to the more familiar 4-4-2 line up Formartine were already well in charge. A break by former FUFC starlet, Booth saw him take on the back four before Jeffrey, returned from quite a spell out from injury, made a simple but hard and effective block to end the red heads temerity.

McKeown, part of a four rather than a three pushed up and his well- timed ball towards the striking pair was, with wind “assistance”, only marginally too far in front of them. The advance of defenders into Huntly territory was the foundation of the opening goal in the 20th minute. McKeown swung the ball right to left across the home defence and Stuart Smith headed the ball immaculately into the path of KEITH, poised to deliver the coup de grace before he was unceremoniously bundled off the ball by Dorrat. He took the inevitable penalty himself and sent the keeper the wrong way as he drove the ball low into the corner of the net.

The next question to be raised was would the floodgates now open; the answer was yes but slowly at first. The Formartine blitzkrieg continued and so too –as far as was possible - some Huntly resistance. A McKeown cross set up Keith for a dangerous looking header that grazed the right upright and Formartine mounted and sustained wave after wave of attack. Centre backs Hay and McKeown were instrumental in several of these demonstrating the extent to which Formartine had squeezed Huntly into their own territory. Napier and Anderson were combining to carve open the home rearguard and created a number of corners in the process. After setting up both Madle and Keith for shots that troubled the defence without yielding a goal, they found the ball that did the trick when in the 44th minute, as Napier fed Anderson whose drive was turned away for another corner where Anderson crossed the ball directly to the head of HAY whose header crashed past the despairing keeper. A minute later, Hay was back in on the act again and again it was the product of an Anderson cross from wide but this time centre back head-flicked the ball to MADLE who simply banged it into an effectively unguarded net.

A three nil first half can beget a less than enthralling second half but this one began just as the first had ended and Formartine increased their lead in the opening minute. McKeown threaded a clever ball to Napier who picked out KEITH on the move. The perfect cross allowed the perfect header and Formartine were four goals to the good.
The game as a competition was by now dead in the water but Huntly had enough pride about them to keep battling on. Around the hour mark, they went through a pretty decent spell of possession and asked a simple question or two of their visitors as a Johnston break resulted in a pass to McKenzie whose shot was on target but not vicious enough to seriously stretch Shearer and about ten minutes later Davidson, from wide on the right got the ball across to Cruikshank who headed wide.

Booth had a couple of flurries in the Formartine box running at defenders, doing enough to work them reasonably hard but not quite enough to create a real goal threat. He did manage a pop at goal from one on one with the keeper but Shearer was the one in charge there and made a decent block with his feet. Maybe not quite a turning point in the Huntly revival but this was about as close as they got before Formartine exploited the gaps left by the Huntly advance to continue their own.

In the 68th minute Keith and Madle playing off each other created the opening for the always busy McVitie to steal in at the back post with a firm, accurate header for number 5. Still the Huntly heads refused to drop and the game went through a predominantly midfield based phase. The problem with that from the Huntly side was that they had no-one to match the organisational skills of Anderson who comfortably, even elegantly orchestrated things from there. The score line was completed with a cleverly worked goal with a sweeping move that showed “Ando” in full flow as he exchanged passes first with MacKay [on as sub], then Smith pressing forward from defence before flipping the ball over for Cammy KEITH to complete his hat trick.

This was a good performance by Formartine where Anderson pulled a host of strings and Male and Keith proved too hot for the home back four to handle. The score line was a pretty accurate reflection of Formartine’s superiority.

Match report by Colin Keenan