Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		21 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		57 apps	3 goals
Stuart Smith		138 apps	11 goals
Paul Lawson		54 apps	17 goals
Stuart Anderson		120 apps	26 goals
Jamie Masson		48 apps	8 goals
Graeme Rodger		76 apps	24 goals
Derek Young		19 apps	3 goals
Scott Barbour		71 apps	33 goals
Neil Gauld		64 apps	37 goals
Conor Gethins		25 apps	15 goals
Scott Ferries (sub)		19 apps	1 goal
Garry Wood (sub)		63 apps	38 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

This rearranged Breedon Aggregates first round tie saw a rather stuttering Formartine struggle to impose themselves on a largely youthful and very spirited home side in conditions which were less than conducive to the kind of slick passing game to which United aspire and generally deliver. The pitch which had been frost bound and under a couple of inches of snow at the weekend, had recovered sufficiently for this game to proceed but despite having been rolled prior to kick off, cut up significantly as the game progressed and Formartine did not adapt well to it.

Of course the conditions were the same for both sides, but the deterioration of the pitch was a bit of a leveller and United failed more or less throughout to achieve any degree of fluency. Passes went astray, moves which started promisingly fizzled out and some players, Masson in particular, failed to perform at a standard that is reasonably expected of them. In fact, few earned pass marks – perhaps Gauld and Rodger and keeper MacDonald can escape condemnation –and United will be relieved to progress to the next round. Over the piece they did just enough to deserve it, but the operative word in this instance is just.

The tie started with the home side taking the game to United and tying them up in their own territory for the opening five minutes or so Brown and Maley caught the eye with some slick inter passing. This was enough to put some pressure on the visitors – at least to the extent of pinning them back a bit, but not really enough to penetrate the danger area. After this opening flurry, United showed their teeth for the first time. A well weighted ball from Lawson twenty yards or so out from his own goal line was hoisted over the left of the Rothes midfield and into space for Barbour, who after an exchange of passes with Anderson got the ball over to Gauld whose fifteen yard effort through a ruck of retreating defenders flew not too far wide of McIntosh’s left upright. United showed what they were capable of, but the problem was that they lacked the fluency to make that sort of move on a regular basis. Very determined chasing and harrying in midfield by the home side added to their difficulties and as the half continued, the pattern of Formartine moves ending in either self destruction, through poor passing or their progress being thwarted by the sheer workrate of the home midfield, persisted.

It took until the 30th minute for United to open their account. It came about after a corner on the right looked to have been successfully thwarted when the ball was cleared by a prodigious left footed hump up the park by the equine Munro. However, the astute Young having pressed forward from the right back berth and picked up the ball, and progressed with it almost to the corner flag before pumping it in low and hard towards the back stick. In a thicket of legs, GAULD , was first to the ball and forced it home over the line from close range.

For a few minutes after this it looked as if United having prised the lock open once were going to do so again as briefly, they started to move forward in a couple of waves of fluent attack that yielded reasonable shots at goal from Gethins and Rodger. Home composure was soon restored and the original stuttering pattern returned until the interval.

The second period began with a flurry from United : Barbour forced his way through the inside left channel and into the box. His cross over to the area beyond the back post looked to be heading for the head of Gethins but was fractionally too high for the wee Ulsterman and was hoofed clear by Munro. A minute later, Barbour again made headway through the inside left route, but this time took a pop from about ten yards out. Keeper McIntosh, as much by good luck as good guidance, got the heel of his right boot to the ball to deflect it to safety.

This opening salvo faded out in a few minutes and the original pattern returned and with the narrowest possible cushion, United’s lead began to look increasingly less secure as the pitch deteriorated. The ball was bobbling unpredictably and keeping it down and playing short passes was becoming ever more of a lottery. The more Formartine struggled in these conditions the more confident Rothes looked.

Although it was a bit against the run of play, their equaliser was no real surprise when it arrived in the 69th minute. Rothes had managed to sustain a wee spell of pressure in and around the United box and had got players in numbers into the United box. A header over the goal face by Brown was met at the back stick by SMITH who nodded the ball home while visiting defenders struggled to circumnavigate Munro .

It took a deal of professionalism from United to pull the fat out of the fire. Rothes were clearly buzzing after getting back on level terms and reining them in was no easy task, but by dint of initially marginal but gradually increasing midfield dominance, engineered predominantly by Rodger, United began to squeeze their hosts. A couple of snapshots by Gethins missed the mark but the signs were that Rothes were finding United pressure increasingly uncomfortable. It had been a sticky 12 minutes for United [and probably a heady one for Rothes] but GAULD dug United out of the hole in which they found themselves. It was a goal typical of the predatory striker when after the second of two corners from the left by Barbour, he nipped in behind the first defender and in front of the keeper to bundle the ball over the line at the base of the near post.

United were able to see out the remaining eleven minutes with determined ball winning in the midfield and although they never really looked like increasing their margin of victory they did enough to ensure that it is they who face Clachnacuddin at home in the next round.

Match report by Colin Keenan