Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		26 apps	-
Jamie Michie		52 apps	-
Calum Dingwall		111 apps	8 goals
Stuart Smith		151 apps	12 goals
Scott Henry		17 apps	1 goal
Stuart Anderson		133 apps	27 goals
Jamie Masson		61 apps	12 goals
Graeme Rodger		89 apps	25 goals
Scott Barbour		84 apps	35 goals
Scott Ferries		29 apps	2 goals
Garry Wood		76 apps	41 goals
Johnny Crawford (sub)		66 apps	3 goals
Liam Burnett (sub)		12 apps	-
Conor Gethins (sub)		38 apps	17 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

The outcome of this game was as crucial to Buckies title aspirations as it was irrelevant to Formartines. Defeat for Buckie would open the championship door to Cove Rangers at Buckies expense while more or less whatever happens to United they will now finish fourth, behind Buckie, Cove and Brora (probably in that order). In such circumstances the expectation could be that Buckie would be highly incentivised while there was little in it apart from possible win bonuses and professional pride for the players for Formartine.

In the event, a large crowd of around 600 saw a fiercely competitive game where two top end Highland League sides slugged it out almost to a standstill. A hard, fiery pitch and a strong wind blowing from the Oldmeldrum side towards the village end made silky, passing football difficult to achieve and even harder to sustain, but what killed this game as an art form was less to do with the conditions and much more to do with the pressure of the occasion. There was not the slightest doubt that Buckie were well up for it their energy levels and enthusiasm were boundless, but the consequences of defeat must have been at the back of many minds too and it was pretty clear that they were not up for taking too many risks.

Formartine matched the visitors energy levels every inch of the way for every minute of the game and from quite early on it was apparent that the teams were so evenly matched that the possibility of victory for either was most likely to arise from the result of an error by the other rather than the outcome of any superiority. No real mistakes were made. No goals were scored.

This was a game where defences and weather conditions dominated. Buckie had the better of possession and territory playing with the wind at their backs in the first half while Formartine assumed that position after the interval. The outcome was as near to a stalemate as football can produce. There were only five shots on target throughout (three to Buckie and two to United).

Formartine have struggled not least as a result of injuries (repeated in some cases and long term in others) to centre backs, McKeown, Henry and Crawford and have on occasion been a bit leaky there. However with the return to the fold of Scott Henry the back four of Michie, Dingwall, Smith and Henry while forced by the high scoring Buckie side to work hard for their keep, maintained form and shape enough to utterly neutralise the efforts of the visiting forwards. It can also be said that the visiting defence coped just as well with Wood, Masson and Barbour.

Buckie were the first to show and for the opening five minutes or so produced a furious level of activity around the Formartine penalty area. Fraser and Cheyne were fast and tricky but for all that, all Buckie really produced were a few corner kicks none of which troubled the United rearguard. A tricky run by Fraser in the 10th minute was halted by a rearward and rather belated tackle by Smith who was booked for his pains. The resultant free kick from 35 yards out was comfortably cleared. The breakneck pace of the Buckie opening had to settle and settle it did as Formartine breaking at pace from the back managed three or four times to get the ball forward to Gary Wood but Shaun Wood, Hamish Munro or Lewis MacKinnon were always in close enough attendance to keep him shackled.

By the midpoint of the first shift, United were more of a presence than formerly. Masson made a strong run through the inside left channel, cut in from near the corner flag and tried a tight angled shot that fizzed past keeper Bells left upright. A three way pile up at the left hand corner of the United box saw keeper McDonald, Smith and Angus all in some pain on the ground. They all recovered although Smith was unable to come out for the second period.

With defences so dominant free kicks from distance assumed more than ordinary importance. Pile drivers by Uniteds Masson and Buckies Munro were all too high to trouble the keepers and a couple by Angus and Barbour rebounded from defensive walls.

The second half was pretty much a mirror image of the first. United now with wind advantage, had Buckie pinned back a bit particularly during the first ten minutes or so, but found the visiting defence just as resolute as their own had been in the first forty five. The fired up Buckie team began to look like they were running short of ideas – they had applied plenty of pressure but United had not yielded and were beginning to apply slightly increasing amounts of their own. Around the 60th minute they sustained a bit of an onslaught in and around the Buckie box, but its conclusion was a free kick from twenty five plus yards by Masson that was high, wide and anything but handsome.

At the other end, Wood concluded a box to box run on the left with a shot that was blocked by sub Crawford. In the 76th minute a decent piece of pass and move involving Dingwall, Anderson, and Rodger prised open a half chance for Masson from about twenty yards out but he seemed to be unsure whether to choose power or placement and ultimately delivered an understruck, bobbly one that went about a foot wide of Bells left stick.

Three minutes later the game yielded the nearest it got to a goal when MacLeod fed from the left by Maitland got past the keeper and managed to squeeze the ball from about 6 yards out just inside the far post, but Dingwall was on hand to boot it to safety.

The huff and puff continued but there were no goals forthcoming. The result was fair enough and Buckie remain hot favourites for the title.

Assistant manager Jerry O Driscoll thought so too: I do not think we ever looked like losing the game. I thought we controlled it well without maybe creating enough shots on the keeper when we had the wind behind us, but the boys worked as hard as they could have. They gave everything they had. You cannot deny the occasion either Buckie came here not to lose the game. That led to quite a tight, nervy game.

There was no dispute about from the Buckie end either: manager Stewart said that the draw was a fair result. We had the better of the first half and they did in the second half with the wind. I will take that. I am happy.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

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