Formartine United 2 - 3 Huntly 

League - HFL
Saturday, March 14th, 2015, 3:00 PM at North Lodge Park, Pitmedden
Attendance: 150
Referee: Thomas Shaw
Formartine United v Huntly, Mar 14th 2015, North Lodge Park, Pitmedden
Formartine United  Huntly

Goalscorers
Graham Hay (7)
Calum Dingwall (11)
David Booth (2)
Ian Cruickshank (23)
Ian Cruickshank (44)

Team Managers
Steve Paterson Gregg Carrol

Starting Eleven
Andy Shearer
Calum Dingwall
Craig Duguid
Graham Hay
Stephen Jeffrey
Stuart Smith
Stuart Anderson
Hamish Munro
Cammy Keith
Marek Madle
Paul Napier
Fraser Hobday
Blair Johnston
Gary Davidson
John Urquhart
Mark Lawson
Murray McCulloch
Ian Cruickshank
Gary McNamee
Neale Davidson
David Booth
Craig Dorrat

Bench
Errol Watson
Gary Clark
Neil McVitie
Liam Paterson
Stuart McKay
Thomas Johnston
Alex Thoirs
Aaron Shand
Adam McNamee
Sam Harrison
Lewis Ingram
Jamie Fraser

Substitutions
Neil McVitie for Hamish Munro (46)
Stuart McKay for Marek Madle (73)
Gary Clark for Stephen Jeffrey (84)
Alex Thoirs for Blair Johnston (61)
Adam McNamee for Ian Cruickshank (82)
Thomas Johnston for David Booth (90)

Bookings
Paul Napier (34)
Neil McVitie (76)
Craig Dorrat (27)
Mark Lawson (50)

Red Cards
Paul Napier (34)
Craig Dorrat (90)
Appearances & Goals To Date
Andy Shearer (GK) 58 apps -
Calum Dingwall 34 apps4 goals
Craig Duguid 24 apps1 goal
Graham Hay 33 apps8 goals
Stephen Jeffrey 43 apps1 goal
Stuart Smith 61 apps1 goal
Stuart Anderson 46 apps8 goals
Hamish Munro 56 apps2 goals
Cammy Keith 61 apps43 goals
Marek Madle 29 apps16 goals
Paul Napier 49 apps4 goals
Gary Clark (sub) 40 apps1 goal
Neil McVitie (sub) 50 apps10 goals
Stuart McKay (sub) 56 apps17 goals

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Calum Dingwall (22 years 30 days)
Oldest Player:Graham Hay (2016 years 228 days)
Average Player Age:26 years 349 days
Domestic Players:9 (81.82 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Calum Dingwall (22 years 30 days)
Oldest Player:Graham Hay (2016 years 228 days)
Average Player Age:27 years 75 days
Domestic Players:14 (87.50 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones
Neil McVitie played his 50th major competitive game for the Club.

Formartine have been flirting with disaster for quite a while now: this was the game where flirtation was consummated into a display of self- indulgence, indiscipline and frequently ineptitude against a side whose lowly league position reflects their capacities. It was a performance and result for which Formartine can and should have the decency not even to attempt to offer any excuses. They simply got from the game what their amateurish efforts deserved.

With little over half an hour gone they had overcome the set back of conceding a soft early goal to get on top of their visitors and were on course to extend a 2-1 lead when, in the middle of nowhere, a yard or two beyond the centre circle Huntly picked up a free kick from a fairly innocuous challenge. Napier with the petulance of a prima donna elected first to stand over the ball, then after being directed by referee Shaw to withdraw the requisite 10 metres, failed to do so promptly enough to avoid being hit by the ball within the required clearance zone when the kick was taken. He was booked for encroachment. Perhaps a tad officious on the ref’s part but only a mug would give him the opportunity to exercise his authority like that in the first place. Aggrieved at the imposition of such Shavian punishment, the wee wide man proceeded to dispute the yellow card in such a manner that a second was added to the original and Formartine were reduced to ten men – a disadvantage which they signally failed to overcome over the remaining 56 minutes.

They started poorly giving the appearance that some thought that turning up and warming up should of their own right be enough to ensure victory. It took Huntly less than two minutes to put the lie to that one and embarrass their hosts with a speedy break down the right and through the inside right channel. The powerful Dorrat combined with the nippy BOOTH to get the ball in behind the back line before the latter drove it from a tightish angle across the goal face and into the net off the far post. It was slack defending from Formartine and it caught them cold. They didn’t take long to get back on level terms and HAY one of the few of the North Lodge crew to maintain professional levels of commitment throughout, atoned for defence’s contribution to the Huntly goal by rampaging forward down the centre right route before leathering a ferocious drive twenty five yards right to left towards the back post. It did pick up a bit of a deflection en route but still looked net bound from the moment it left his boot. Two goals in the first seven minutes suggests a rip snorter of a game to come and it looked like that for a few more minutes.

At this stage, Formartine were moving the ball about quite well and had Huntly pinned down in their own back yard. To be fair, they were playing well enough without looking like anyone was willing to bust a gut to win it seemed, given the record of the opposition, that they could cruise to a comfortable enough victory. The definitely looked slicker than Huntly an impression that was bolstered when a diagonal ball, centre to right was flighted perfectly by Anderson into the path of Keith who worked a neat one two with Napier who flicked the ball on for Duguid to bring a decent diving save from Hobday. Formartine looked like they had set themselves well on track for all three points when they took the lead in the 14th minute with a well worked goal by Callum Dingwall. Again Anderson had a hand in it. Swinging the ball out wide this time to Madle, it was slipped on to Keith, held up just long enough for Duguid to arrive before being clipped smartly across to the left to DINGWALL who took careful aim before delivering a measured drive past the left hand of the keeper and inside the right post.

Formartine had the platform on which to build a win but this still required a bit more graft than they looked like being prepared to deliver. Huntly whose recent experiences at North Lodge have been of substantial defeats had nothing really to lose and were prepared to substitute what they lacked in finesse with honest graft. That contrasting with apparent lack of the same endeavour on the home side’s part led to a few wee spats in places but not enough to lead to anything major – just enough to prevent any fluency getting into the game.

Formartine still held the upper hand – a languid, lobbed corner by Anderson was met by Hay at the back stick but his firmly struck downward header just scraped by the wrong side of the right upright. Huntly had pace and the willingness to chase and harry and looked dangerous on the breaks Dorrat had height, muscle and the pace to trouble Jeffrey which he did from time to time and Booth was nippy and direct and did enough between them to hold up the ball for midfield support to arrive. This was enough to exercise Formartine and keeper Shearer had to deal with on target efforts from both as well as Davidson before CRUIKSHANK slotted into this pattern and claimed a deserved equaliser in the 23rd minute with a close range finish.
By now Huntly had belief about them and were giving as good as they got before the 34th minute turning point. The red-carding of Napier not only gave Huntly a numerical boost but seemed to act like an adrenaline shot. From that point on they played like they expected to win and to put it bluntly Formartine let them.

After an initial flurry of Huntly pressure as Formartine took time to take stock, the home side settled and began to look as if they could still do something with their reduced resources. A Duguid header had Hobday at full stretch to grasp it and a cross by the ever dependable Stuart Smith was barely a couple of inches beyond Keith’s reach at the back post. The game was in a reasonably well balanced phase until a minute before half time, exactly the wrong time for Formartine, Cruikshank delivered what was to prove to be the fatal blow. Formartine had been pressing and maintaining, in the circumstances, reasonable shape. With reduced numbers the weaker side is always vulnerable on the flanks. A breakaway prompted by a McCulloch through ball to McNamee set up a platform for a push up the park which ended with a simple enough close range finish where CRUIKSHANK applied the finishing touch to get his second, the goal that won the game and sealed the fate of Steve Paterson as manager of Formartine.

The second half was patchy in the extreme and although there was no further scoring and Shearer was the busier of the two keepers [not by much] Formartine did enough not to concede any further goals. Sadly it looked for at least some of the time that that was the summit of their ambitions. Huntly had the better of the chances. A move down the right by Dorrat and Booth ended with a crisp edge of the box drive by Davidson being pushed round the corner by Shearer. Formartine struggled to clear the ensuing corner until a Booth shot went wide for a goal kick. The substitution of Munro by McVitie, Madle by McKay and eventually Jeffrey by Clark made little difference to the desultory performance of Formartine. McKay, to be fair did play in Keith with a decent 80th minute chance from almost on the penalty spot but the finish was high, wide and not very handsome.

This was as poor a Formartine performance as North Lodge has seen in a year or two. The parting of the ways between the club and their manager has been announced as “amicable”. That is likely to be the case as the two hold each other in high regard. That performance was however of a nature that required a major change to be made. Both parties saw it the same way.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

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