Formartine United1–1Cove Rangers

Ninety minutes of fiercely contested action was not enough to separate these two title contenders in this 3rd Round William Hill Scottish Cup tie. The score line is in some ways a decent reflection of a match wherein Formartine had the better of the first half and Cove more or less shaded the second. Cove possibly exerted slightlymore overall control but Formartine made more and better chances. An early miss from close range by Barbour and a penalty save by McKenzie from Wood prevented Formartine from progressing at this point to round four. Instead they face the prospect of doing it all over again with the significant handicap of not having Johnny Crawford available to bolster their defensive efforts. He was very harshly red carded for a tackle on Scully out near the junction of halfway and touchline. It can only be assumed that either ref or assistant saw or believed they had seen something most others didn’t.

The match started with all the full throttled and red blooded commitment that marks encounters between these two. Within a couple of minutes a crunching challenge between Smith and Redford showed the carnivorous nature of the encounter. Seven minutes in and Formartine playing more a 4-4-2 formation than their usual 4-3-3 had enough of a midfield edge through Lawson, Rodger, Masson and Anderson to provide decent fodder for Rodger and Cammy Keith ahead. In the 8th minute, Barbour broke through centrally and jinking in the box was very nearly positioned to unleash a shot from near the penalty spot when his equilibrium was crucially disturbed by what many thought was a shove in the back by Watson. The ref was either unsighted or unimpressed and play continued until the ball was cleared. Formartine continued to look dangerous going forward and Barbour had a large enough repertoire of trickery to exasperate Watson and Yule. Latching onto a through ball from Lawson in midfield the chunky wee forward got one on one with keeper McKenzie about fifteen yards out. The ball seemed to bobble as he shaped to shoot and the delivery wasn’t cleanly struck and the relieved keeper was able to gather the ball more comfortably than he might have expected.

At the other end Park slipped the ball in from wide to Watt who blasted it high and wide from the edge of the area. The game was predominantly of an end to end nature but Formartine were giving just slightly more than they were getting from the league leaders. A period of fairly sustained home pressure where Masson, Keith and Barbour were stretching defenders in the penalty area led to a blatant trip by Watson on Keith who did not have the ball at the time but was spinning away from his marker to find a position to receive it. It was a rather needless but nevertheless blatant penalty. Wood absolutely leathered the ball hard and low, just inside the keeper’s right upright: a well taken penalty kick. McKenzie had, however, guessed right [in both senses of the word] and was down in time to get a strong hand on the ball and touched it round the corner. The distance he covered in the process suggests that he may just have begun the move in advance of the ball being struck.

Despite this 21st minute set-back Formartine continued to press and Cove although mounting regular attacks, did not seem to seriously threaten a very steady looking home rearguard of Dingwall, Smith, Wood and Crawford. A resilient Formartine set aside their spot kick disappointment and continued to battle their way forward. Lawson’s distribution was of the first order and Formartine were able to stretch the visiting back line. However they did find it increasingly difficult to put pressure on the keeper and Cove managed – not as well as in previous encounters – to set themselves up with eight behind the ball around thirty yards forward of their goal line.

By the half hour stage Cove were beginning to increase their level of possession and Formartine although sustaining a high tempo, quick passing game and certainly not dancing to Cove’s tune by any means, seemed to mount less frequent or intense pressure on the visiting defence. That said, for all that Cove were pushing for the opening goal they were stoutly resisted by a Formartine side that maintained shape and discipline throughout.

This attention to discipline was enough eventually to turn the tide back in their favour and over the last five minutes or so of the half found themselves forcing Cove well onto the back foot. Keith had a half chance blocked by Redford and a swerving thirty yard free kick by Lawson beat the wall before finding a deflection that altered its otherwise net-bound progress. Formartine were pushing very, very hard at this stage and deserved some reward. This came on the stroke of half time when BARBOUR, scorching down the right, outpaced defenders before cutting in left towards goal. Keeper McKenzie hesitated fatally as the forward saw the gap and skelped the ball beyond his reach and into the net.

The game was restarted and immediately halted for the interval. You don’t get many better psychological moments than that to score a crucial goal.

The second half was different and Formartine either failed to find their first half shape and rhythm or Cove had found an additional means of raising their possession rate. Initially it looked like Formartine were trying to do what Cove have done frequently and successfully in the past and sit tight on a single goal lead. That’s not their style at all and particularly in a crucial cup tie, is fraught with danger and it is more likely that Cove simply had the strength to batter their way back into a more controlling position than they had managed for most of the first half.

Cove could press but Formartine showed that their relatively new found back four [still missing McVitie and McKeown] was more than fit for purpose. They held doggedly onto their lead and for more than twenty minutes of the half they did so more than adequately – not comfortably; but very well indeed.

It looked as if only a twist of fate or a piece of outstanding skill could get the better of them. They didn’t ride their luck, they made it with sheer determination and although all four played outstandingly well Crawford in the middle made crucial tackle upon crucial tackle. It was going to need a bit of magic to beat them and between them Scully and Nicol produced just that. In the 77th minute Scully had made a lateish run down the right and before coming into the range of Smith and Crawford, swung the ball over and beyond them to the back post. NICOL initially looked to have gone too early and seemed to be fractionally ahead of the ball, but dropping his left shoulder, he spun round and with his right foot hooked the ball over the other shoulder and into the net with a unique version of an overhead kick.

This ramped up the intensity of the game and although it was towsy at times with little quarter being asked or given, it was never really dirty. It concluded at a feverish pitch of end to end stuff but so closely was the pair matched, defences managed to predominate sufficiently to negate further scoring at either end. Scully found himself in a couple of niggly incidents and he has a repertoire of tricks that might just include some calculated to elicit otherwise unmerited decisions from officials. The loss of Crawford for the final three minutes of this game was a significant blow but his automatic suspension for the replay at Harlaw next Saturday is of vastly greater import.

There is now so little between these sides – just a tad more experience [some would say in the darker arts of the game] at Cove’s end and the loss of Crawford that the outcome of the replay is very hard indeed to call.