Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		17 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		54 apps	3 goals
Calum Dingwall		98 apps	7 goals
Stuart Smith		134 apps	11 goals
Stuart Anderson		116 apps	26 goals
Jamie Masson		45 apps	8 goals
Graeme Rodger		72 apps	24 goals
Derek Young		16 apps	3 goals
Neil Gauld		60 apps	33 goals
Scott Barbour		67 apps	32 goals
Scott Ferries		15 apps	1 goal
Liam Burnett (sub)		5 apps	-
Conor Gethins (sub)		21 apps	12 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

This game had, because of the festive season a 1p.m. kick off but by far the most festive aspect of it was in the seasonal giving of cards: referee Smith gave them to all and sundry - I think 8, in total - although such was his enthusiasm for flashing the yellow laminated job it was sometimes difficult to discern the intended recipient[s]. His liberality scarcely knew bounds as they were issued in situations where others less imbued with Christmas spirit failed at times to discern a foul let alone a bookable one, but as Santa would say, hey ho.

This was a good win for Formartine that will have gone a long way to offsetting the deficit of their disappointing draw at Fort William the Saturday before. There were patches where they were at their best – delivering successive passages of fluent, high tempo pass and move football that all but flummoxed their opponents and the two goal winning margin certainly doesn’t flatter, but there were lacklustre periods particularly between the two goals when Nairn demonstrated, or were allowed to some threat of getting back into the game.

United made such a positive start that the visitors simply couldn’t get the ball into the home box while Formartine attacked them down each flank and through the middle to boot. Ferries, Gauld, Barbour,Anderson,Rodger and Masson all pushed on at the slightest opportunity while full backs Young and Dingwall weren’t shy about doing a spell of fetch and carry in support of midfield ambitions and that is more than enough to occupy any defence in the league. It took no more than a minute for the first shot, a low trundler from about 12 yards out by Barbour to have the keeper scrambling along his line while the ball went narrowly wide right.

In the 6th minute Nairn finally got the ball into United territory as Wayne Macintosh made some headway down the right flank but his ball into the box went well wide of the back stick before any of his colleagues could reach it. Formartine resumed the offensive and took the lead within two minutes of that. Gauld was pivotal in the successful move, first by holding up the ball in the face of the combined efforts of Calum Riddell and Glenn Main before releasing it wide to Ferries jinking over into position to get it back again to flick it onto RODGER who had timed his run through the inside right channel perfectly. He collected the ball and slammed it shoulder high past the left hand of keeper Dylan Maclean from about 12 yards range.

At this stage United were calling all the shots and already a goal to the good so early, it was incumbent on them to force home the advantage and run Nairn ragged, but they either couldn’t or didn’t. Whether they took their collective foot of the pedal or Nairn had changed gear is hard to determine but United’s early impetus faded to the extent that for the next twenty minutes or thereby the game became a much more evenly balanced affair conducted predominantly in the box to box area.

During this period each side had a couple of reasonable chances: Nairn’s first and best fell for Jack Maclean who, fed by Kenny MacKenzie, made himself enough space to get in one on one with keeper MacDonald about five or six yards out. The keeper was on him in a flash and got close enough to block the ensuing shot at ground level before Dingwall intervened to hastily boot the loose ball to safety. Their other decent chance was squandered by Kenny MacKenzie who elected to go to deck in the box whenever he got near enough to Rodger to create the impression of having been fouled. The ref, in no mood for a festive game of charades, simply booked him for simulation.

Formartine more than matched this with a Smith header from a Barbour corner that crashed off the bar before being booted away by Riddell, a neat Gauld drive from the edge of the box that was deflected for an unrewarded corner and a dipping drive from Masson that went not too far at all over the top.

In the 39th minute, Formartine increased their lead after Barbour had executed a successful foray down the left that had first drawn and then left stranded out in no man’s land both Steven MacKenzie and Glenn Main before delivering a perfectly weighted and cutely judged cross that GAULD headed neatly home at the back stick. A slick goal, well executed.

Just prior to this United had shown that they again had the upper hand – their periods of possession were longer than Nairn’s were and the quality of much of their pass and move stuff was superior. The goal came at the right time psychologically – shortly before half time and Nairn were beginning even then to look like a beaten side – not one that had given up, far from it, their work rate was impressive, but they didn’t have the creativity and invention that United had up front and although their defence didn’t give much away United had the better, most of the time in midfield and in time that erodes defences.

The second half opened with a determined flurry from Nairn and for the first few minutes, they had more possession than their hosts. Most of the game was being conducted in United territory but the possession did not create as much penetration as it might have been expected to. Crawford made his return from injury in the centre half berth and with the steady, experienced Smith alongside him and Young and Dingwall in the wing back berths the back four conducted its defensive duties well, sustained the early flurry from Nairn and less than ten minutes later, United were back if not utterly dominating proceedings, still in fairly comfortable control of them.

The game became more of a midfield battle in the second half and although United generally looked like extending their lead, the nearest to a goal came from Nairn when an absolutely thundering 20 yard drive by Gregg Main in the 74th minute looked net bound all the way until MacDonald produced an absolutely spectactular rightward dive to get part of a mighty paw onto the ball and pushed it to safety.
Both sides rang the changes in the efforts to freshen things up. Gethins (on for Gauld in 60 mins) came near on the back of a neat one two in the box with Barbour but the keeper got just close enough, just early enough to block the final shot.

The more United pressed and press they did, the more Nairn remained on the back foot. To their credit they never resorted to the long ball as an antidote, but with the amount of possession United had it was going to take something freakish to let Nairn back in. That didn’t materialise and the game ended rather tamely with United running down the clock without looking in any danger of relinquishing their grasp on all three points.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

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