Formartine United1–4Cove Rangers

Although played at North Lodge, this semi -final tie in the Morrison Motors Aberdeenshire Shield was drawn as a home game for the currently itinerant Rangers. Formartine must be sick of the sight of the side that seems to be an absolute bogey for them and who have now beaten them three times this season. Both sides had experienced lengthy periods of weather enforced idleness and were expected to be a tad ring rusty but it was Cove who got the better of opening exchanges and within 5 minutes managed to have United pinned back into their own territory. In the 9th minute a Nicol drive from 20 yards out – just right of centre was deflected off a defensive boot and spiralled into the air. Somehow Reid back-pedalled enough to fingertip the ball on to the roof of the net for a corner on the right that Formartine eventually cleared with some difficulty.

The early pattern was of sustained Cove pressure on the Formartine rearguard and Formartine defending in depth, at times rather desperately, but managing somehow to keep a rather rampant and anything but rusty Cove side at bay. Some heroics by Smith, Dingwall, Henry and Crawford eventually had the effect of turning the tide somewhere around the twenty fifth minute as Formartine developed increased fluency and began to exert pressure at the Cove end.

A break down the right by Barbour set the wide man to slip the ball left to Masson whose pile-driving shot was barely parried by McKenzie. The ball broke left and was played back into the box and headed goalwards by Smith before rebounding from the bar to be nudged away by a relieved keeper for a corner on the right. This was taken short to Anderson who let fly with a thunderous drive that stretched McKenzie to his limit to block. In the 34th minute Wood blazed through the middle right and unloaded a vicious shot well to the left of the keeper who did well to get down and get a hand to the ball. Gauld was in on him in a trice but the keeper had just enough of a hold on the it to save the day.

By half time Formartine were giving as good as they got and it seemed that the impetus of the game was going their way, but any hopes of turning the run of Cove defeats into a victory started to evaporate very early in the second half when Cove started to really stretch the Formartine midfield. Using the full width of the pitch they put Formartine under a different kind of pressure as they set up successive waves of attack and it didn’t take long for them to set the foundation for their victory. Two quick goals in as many minutes, [both by Jonny SMITH] did the damage – the first in the 52nd minute was a grubby wee poacher’s effort when he got in on the end of a goalmouth melee to force the ball across the line just ahead of the outstretched paw of the grounded keeper at the left hand upright. Coming in the aftermath of an unproductive Formartine attack the ball was quickly worked through the channels by Yule and Kelly to Nicol on the right who let fly with a shot that was hard enough to make Reid parry. Sadly Smith beat his valiant attempt at retrieval and poked the ball home.

His next was a more elegant affair as he broke through just right of centre and running hard to the box drove the ball hard and low left as keeper and full back Dingwall collided with each other. This clinical twelve yard finish left Formartine with a mountain to climb. To their credit they worked their way back into contention again and pulled a goal back in the 61st minute. A couple of sweeping attacks down the flanks including one where Anderson drifted left before whipping the ball over to the right side of the box where Gauld jinked in menacingly towards the right upright ,drawing the keeper towards him before clipping the ball goalwards from close range. Rodger was in to deliver the kill but WATSON just beat him to it but could do no more than assist the ball in its net bound progress. There were serious hopes of a revival and a Cammy Keith header which had the keeper beaten all ends up flew just past the wrong side of the right upright kept them alive.
However Jonny SMITH completed his hat trick in the 75th minute to put the match beyond doubt with an edge of the box finish. Cove were utterly dominant at this stage and looked almost as if they could score at will. NICOL completed the scoreline by breaking through down the middle, drawing the keeper and smacking the ball hard and accurately home from about 15 yards out.

Overall this was a towsy, bruising encounter where Cove set most of the pace and although made to work hard enough for it were in control for lengthy periods. Formartine did well to draw Cove’s early sting and develop a bit of impetus in the twenty minutes leading up to the interval. Cove were too wily and street wise to let this continue and changed pattern and tempo enough to regain the upper hand which, apart from a brief period before and after Formartine’s goal, they held onto thereafter.