Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		8 apps	-
Scott Henry		12 apps	-
Shane Jamieson		9 apps	-
Calum Dingwall		89 apps	6 goals
Jamie Michie		32 apps	-
Stuart Anderson		106 apps	24 goals
Paul Lawson		50 apps	16 goals
Graeme Rodger		62 apps	19 goals
Scott Barbour		57 apps	27 goals
Scott Ferries		7 apps	-
Neil Gauld		51 apps	31 goals
Johnny Crawford (sub)		52 apps	3 goals
Jamie Masson (sub)		36 apps	4 goals
Liam Burnett (sub)		1 app (debut)	-

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Liam Burnett

(Signed July 29th, 2016)

Milestones

This was, as they say, a turn up for the books: historical precedence as well as the form book were heavily in Cove’s favour: Formartine had only ever beaten them once in their HFL career and had never, over the same timescale, prevailed in a penalty shoot out. They did not start the game as if they had the weight of history upon them but took the fight as far as it was possible straight to their visitors in this first round tie in the Morrison Motors Aberdeenshire Shield trophy.

In the absence through injury of Gary Wood Formartine began with a reconstructed strike force of Gauld and Barbour to face the defensive might of Duff and Watson each of whom towered over the forward he was marking. Unpromising though it may have initially appeared it turned out to be a key ingredient in the reversal of United’s fortunes as the two wee buzz bombs exposed limitations in pace and mobility in their markers in ways that bigger players might struggle to achieve. It was a night for the smaller guys as full back Michie merited the sponsors’ man of the match award and Scott Ferries playing off the front two caused all sorts of mayhem and must have run Michie close for the accolade.

Despite a bright opening spell by United where, crosses into feet had defenders turning more regularly than they would wish, it was a defensive lapse by Formartine that gave Cove an early opener. Just as it looked like a Cove attack was being dismantled, Paul Lawson produced a woefully hemipygic attempt at a pass out of defence. It was a reasonable pass if the intended recipient had been Cove’s Mike Megginson, who gleefully accepted the gift slipped the ball a yard or two left into the path of MacDONALD who hammered the ball home from about fifteen yards out.

United grafted away and kept themselves in the game and although Cove had periods of pressure they did not really look like increasing their lead in a game where the blood and guts aspects played an increasingly prominent part as it progressed. In the 29th minute GAULD levelled the tie. A break down the left by Ferries was completed with a cunning cross behind Watson who chose to leave it for Milne but the hyper vigilant wee striker saw his chance and nipped in between the two to drive the ball past the left hand of McCafferty and high into the net.

The game got towsier still and simmered away at 99 degrees Celsius until the interval. The second session began just as fervently as the first had finished but for the first 15 minutes or thereby, Cove were making more headway than they had earlier and although they played more of it in United territory than they had, the home defence remained solid enough to deny them many opportunities from closer than twenty odd yards out. United were quick down the flanks and their front two continued intermittent pestilence. During this period, 11 minutes after the resumption, Cove got back in front. MEGGINSON, hunting down a long ball played from a deeper position by Duff, managed to split the central defenders, to get one on one with MacDonald and from a step or so inside the box, leathered the ball at about shoulder height to the right of the keeper for number two.

United didn’t crumble and simply ramped up their pressure in search of an equaliser and it didn’t take them long to get it. After a period of siege to the Cove box a furious bombardment followed: an Anderson drive from the edge of the box rebounded off the inside of the right upright, spun across to bounce off the left before being hacked away by one of the many boots on the goal line. The ball was banged straight back into the maelstrom beating the keeper all ends up but was “saved” by Walker. The ref spotted the handball, awarded the penalty and red-carded the miscreant defender. GAULD rattled the spot kick low and hard into the left hand corner. The game had swung United’s way but despite having twenty five minutes against ten men failed to turn pressure into goals. This was intense at times and McCafferty was driven to pull off a few top drawer saves, but Cove knew how to kill the game and by leaving only one up front were able to match United numerically in midfield and defence.

Their hopes of pinching another were seriously depleted but it looked like they were playing the long game and prepared to take their chances in a penalty shoot out. They needed to get through 30 minutes of extra time to do this and despite United pushing them harder and harder as the additional time progressed they battened down the hatches and rode out the storm. United went very close several times during this period - sub Burnett had a header saved and Barbour, Gauld and Ferries all went very close but it looked like – given United’s history in penalty shoot outs - that their chance had gone when it was still 2-2 after 120 minutes.

It hadn’t: Cove went first and former United forward Daniel Park slammed his effort wide of MacDonald’s right upright. United sunk every one of theirs, through Anderson, Masson, Rodger and Dingwall and when MacDonald saved Smith’s effort, the monkey was finally removed from United’s back. They face Banks O’ Dee in the second round. This was a battling performance by United and showed levels of determination, persistence and resilience far above any shown earlier this season.

Match report by Colin Keenan