Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Reid (GK)		50 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		49 apps	3 goals
Calum Dingwall		85 apps	5 goals
Shane Jamieson		5 apps	-
Paul Lawson		46 apps	15 goals
Stuart Anderson		102 apps	24 goals
Jamie Masson		32 apps	4 goals
Graeme Rodger		58 apps	19 goals
Derek Young		9 apps	1 goal
Scott Barbour		53 apps	26 goals
Garry Wood		55 apps	36 goals
Stuart Smith (sub)		124 apps	10 goals
Max Berton (sub)		24 apps	1 goal

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Like many derbies, this one had too much at stake in terms of local bragging rights for it to be a showcase of the finer skills of either side. This was for the most part a test of endeavour and will to win against a back drop of anxiety about defeat. Formartine already back in the pack trailing high flying Buckie most certainly did not want to drop a point to their arch rivals under any circumstances and to begin with they looked nervy. There was pace and commitment to their play but it lacked fluency at times and it was clear that Locos were not going to be pushed aside anything like as easily as Huntly had been in midweek. The game started and progressed for the first fifteen minutes or so in a rather stuttering way. Both sides were keen to get the ball forward: Locos perhaps favouring a bit more of the direct long ball approach over Formartine’s more patterned build ups from the back. Either way it came to pretty much the same with plenty box to box action but not an awful lot to stretch either of the goal keepers.

Early on, in the 6th minute, Souter was booked for a tackle - some might describe it as a two footed assault - on United pivot, Shane Jamieson and the after-effects of the bone crunching stayed with the hardy defender for a fair wee while after. In the 13th minute Formartine who had posed some threat in wide areas came close to opening the scoring after a swift foray down the left by Barbour took him clear of Rennie with the space from which to hit a loopy cross into the far side of the goalmouth where it took the combined efforts of Jeffrey and Keeper Mathieson to prevent the predatory Wood from turning the ball into the net. In the 19th a lump up the park by Anderson reached CHARLESWORTH who made off through the inside right channel and got past Jamieson (possibly still recovering from his earlier clogging) and between Crawford and Dingwall to deliver a very precise shot beyond the right hand of the rapidly advancing Reid and into the back of the net from about 15 yards out.

United tried to respond immediately and Masson forced himself on the home rearguard within a minute. He got a sniff off goal from about 25 yards out but his finish lacked composure and the ball skited high and wide. Formartine continued to press and although having probably the better of possession, struggled to convert it into penetration. They had a certain territorial advantage but with Locos deploying two banks of four and prepared when needed to pull the forward one to supplement the rearguard, United struggled to threaten the keeper. His best save during this period was to grab a headed pass back from Anderson that was high over his head, before it reached the net. Formartine pressure continued unrewarded until the interval. The concluding act of the first half was a header from Anderson from about 8 yards off the left post that cannoned from the crossbar to safety. Thus far, there had not been a lot between the two - Locos had the only goal but did not mount and sustain the level of pressure that suggested that they were likely to get another while Formartine despite shading things in terms of possession and territory, had few shots on target.

The second half began with a wee flurry of Locos pressure where they managed to move the ball about around and sometimes within the Formartine penalty area but the visiting defenders supplemented by others kept their hosts, fairly comfortably at bay until creating the conditions for a charge at the other end. This came on the back of a clearance from Reid flicked on by Anderson to Barbour and eventually to Masson who let fly from 20 yards out and a bit right of centre. He struck the ball hard and kept it low, but it was slightly mis-directed and fizzed past the base of the left upright. Formartine were beginning to mix things up alternating long balls from the back directed mostly towards Wood, who did his usual sterling job in leading the line, and some quick tempo short passing moves. This combination started to pressure Locos and the prospect of United gaining at least an equaliser looked increasingly likely.

For Formartine supporters waiting for goals is a bit like waiting for a bus - nothing appears for long enough before two come along at once. It took until the 54th minute for the first to arrive. A long ball out from Andy Reid was quickly nudged forward left by Wood to Barbour. Souter, Crisp and Rennie were all on him but the wee forward spun off the first before wrong footing the other two. By this stage he was about 3 or 4 yards in from the goal line and roughly in line with the left side of the box from where he whipped in a vicious low drive beyond Mathieson at the near post and into the net near the far one. A despairing goal mouth lunge at the ball by Jeffrey was knocked back into the net by Anderson who was keen to claim the goal but the consensus was that it was really BARBOUR’s and that the ball had crossed the line before Jeffrey got his boot to it. The second in the 56th minute came from a slightly more patterned build up down the left where sub Smith (on for Young) had worked a couple of overlaps before taking a free a few yards shy of the left corner of the box. He hoisted the ball into the maelstrom surrounding the back post where a perfectly timed run by the immaculate Rodger met the ball to slam it home from close range.

This quickfire one-two fairly knocked the stuffing out of Locos whose attempts at chasing the game thereafter looked increasingly forlorn. Formartine were now in charge and their pressure and possession continued. Although it was probably not that much more than it had been before the goals it was certainly enough to ensure that their possession of the points was hermetically sealed. The downside of the sustained pressure was congestion at the Locos end. That meant shots on goal were infrequent but rebounds from goal directed attempts were commonplace. Mostly it was a bit of a bourrach round the bottom goalmouth and from the perspective of damage limitation it suited Locos but for Formartine it helped ensure victory albeit by a lower margin than it might otherwise have been. Over the last ten minutes United dominated increasingly by simply retraining possession, knocking the ball into wide areas and keeping it there to run down the clock. Not a game for the connoisseur but for United, three valuable points gathered in potentially difficult circumstances.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie