Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Reid (GK)		51 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		50 apps	3 goals
Calum Dingwall		86 apps	6 goals
Stuart Smith		125 apps	10 goals
Shane Jamieson		6 apps	-
Paul Lawson		47 apps	15 goals
Stuart Anderson		103 apps	24 goals
Jamie Masson		33 apps	4 goals
Graeme Rodger		59 apps	19 goals
Scott Barbour		54 apps	26 goals
Garry Wood		56 apps	38 goals
Jamie Michie (sub)		29 apps	-
Max Berton (sub)		25 apps	1 goal
Neil Gauld (sub)		48 apps	29 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Points are never easy to come by at Lossiemouth, but for most of the first half of this game, it looked as if they might be. Formartine, having dominated the proceedings throughout the first session, were expected to kick on in the second and rack up a high scoring win, but the home side, managed by that wily old fox amongst SHFL managers, Charlie Charlesworth put paid to that with a beautifully orchestrated riposte to United’s early dominance and tested their defensive capacities to their utmost for a big chunk of the second 45.

The game began with Formartine at their blistering best imposing a very high tempo pass and move game supported by a tigerish determination to immediately regain any lost possession and stifle any hint of offence from their hosts. Immediately following the kick off they made inroads that concluded with a break down the left and the ball being delivered into the box by Roger and knocked out again by Bellingham before Masson delivered the first of his man over the bar shots. Lossie responded with a break through the middle that ended with McMullan offloading a trundler from twenty yards out. Reid gathered with ease.

United then begin to pin Lossie back into their own play pen and started a siege on their penalty area. Anderson, Rodger and Lawson provided a plentiful supply to what amounted to almost a front three of Masson, Wood and Barbour. Wood was a torment to the two centre backs, Hamilton and McCulloch, taking the ball in close to them, holding it, twisting, turning, battling and generally out-muscling them at every turn. It was only a matter of time before this was going to create the space for a colleague to exploit and the opening goal in the 9th minute was a product of this approach: the ball had been worked forward down the inside right channel by Rodger and given to Wood to hold up at the right corner of the box. He did this with enough presence to fully occupy two defenders before releasing the ball a couple of yards to his left to meet the run of right back DINGWALL who collected it and delivered a precisely struck low shot past another defender and into the left corner of the net.

United maintained momentum and imposed their shape and tempo on Lossie and in the process demanded that their hosts be confined solely to a counter punching position. That said, Lossie despite being heavily dominated in the possession and territory stakes still managed to stick one past United. Against all the odds they managed a breakaway. After sustained United pressure was relieved by a goal kick after another drive by Masson ballooned over the top (that loon keeps choosing the nine iron when what he needs is the putter), pressure by Rodrigues and McMullan forced a corner on the left taken by Farquhar and played deep beyond the back post where CHARLESWORTH rose to crack home a fine header over Reid into the far corner of the net.
This 19th minute leveller was countered immediately by even more intense Formartine pressure.

From the restart they forced a corner down the left. Barbour having benefitted from the support from full back Smith thumped in a fierce tight angled drive that McConnachie did well to turn round the base of his right upright. The ensuing corner was taken by Barbour and the ball bobbed back and forth between United forwards and Lossie defenders before eventually finding its way back out of the left side of the area. Barbour knocked it straight back into the goalmouth maelstrom and WOOD rose above Smith to bang home an unstoppable header and restore United’s lead.

United continued to hammer away at Lossie and although the home side worked very hard to contain their hungry visitors, it was clearly Formartine who were calling the shots. Realising that simple direct siege tactics were only yielding an over populated final third that suited defence more than attack, they were cute enough to play the ball from deeper and wider positions, drawing Lossie out of their defensive lair.

This laid the foundation for the next goal. With the back four of Dingwall, Smith, Jamieson and Crawford playing the ball around and probing for openings, Jamieson slipped the ball ten or so yards forward left to Lawson who struck it with power and precision fully forty yards down the inside left channel and behind Smith who had to turn. WOOD from slightly deeper, and therefore onside when the pass was made, outpaced the defender to the ball and seeing the keeper advancing, cheekily lobbed the ball past him from the left corner of the box and into the net for number three.

The second half was a different affair entirely as Lossie set about trying to salvage what they could from the match. They changed their format to 3-5-2 gambling on killing Formartine threat in the middle of the park and stretching play wide enough to push the United full backs back to their own territory. To some extent this paid off. It was enough to force Formartine onto the back foot for quite prolonged periods of the first thirty or so minutes of the second 45. Although the pressure was intense it was well managed by United who although playing from much deeper than they had, still managed to prevent Lossie managing a single significant shot on target and in the process gave as assured a rearguard performance as they have been forced to deliver for long enough.
After sustained pressure around and at times within the United box, Lossie’s best chance came when Rodrigues managed to clip a ball across the 6 yard line towards Scott who had the goal at his mercy. Crawford spotted the danger and managed to get his head to the ball fractionally before Scott’s and headed over fizz own cross bar for an eventually unrewarded corner.

Formartine adapted to the changed circumstances by withdrawing Wood to a deeper position and replacing Masson and Anderson with Gauld and Michie. This seemed to balance things up a bit and for the last 15 minutes or so United without reaching anything like their first half dominance, began again to impose themselves on Lossie. A position they sustained to the end.

Match report by Colin Keenan