Formartine United5–0Inverurie Locos

United utterly outclassed their visitors for every minute of the game and in every aspect of play. Newcomers Jevan Anderson, Wayne Mackintosh and Archie MacPhee went on to produce very encouraging performances. MacPhee in particular was utterly outstanding, produced a hat trick, had a hand in a fourth goal and easily won the man of the match award. Seldom have Formartine so easily and comprehensively blown aside the challenge of the Harlaw Park squad.

United started at a tempo that Locos were unable to match. Their passing was crisp accurate and varied and the ball never really entered United territory in the time from the starting whistle until the ball was in the visitors ill-defended net at the village end. A surge of United pressure had produced some backs to the wall defending before a hasty clearance in a crowded penalty area yielded a United corner on the left. Ferries struck a spinning delivery that dropped steeply in the Locos goalmouth. As defenders hesitated, MacPHEE imposed himself to pop the ball into the net from close range.The game was little more than two minutes old.

The expectation was that Locos would battle back; they did not - United were too slick to let them. Their defensive line pushed forward and managed far more than they should have been allowed to, to compress the game in Locos territory. MacPhee was utterly dominant in midfield making space for himself and conducting a master class in distribution that would put Yodel to shame. Ferries was running directly at defenders forcing them to back pedal while Rodger and MacPhee popped up in unexpectedly dangerous positions. Locos were confined to very sporadic breakaways.

Another goal was clearly on the cards and it had Scott FERRIES all over it as the young forward thrust his way through between Souter and Duff to off-load a a low shot that clipped the inside of the right upright before ricocheting across the goal line to enter the net just inside the other post. United were clearly in the driving seat and Locos looked bereft of ideas about how to contain them let alone beat them - victory looked well beyond them

Barbour was simply too mobile for Souter: in the twenty first minutes the defender had been sold one dummy too many and kicked out at the forward. The incident took place on the extreme right edge of the box and was more an act of ill-disciplined frustration than defensive necessity, but cost them dear. MacPHEE took the spot kick with aplomb; driving the ball firmly low beyond the keepers left hand. At three nil the match as a contest was pretty well over and Locos went into damage limitation mode.

The match took on a bit more of a midfield dimension: United were still getting the better of it as MacPhee and Stuart Anderson were largely in control. There was little space for forwards to get out of it and into box, a state of affairs that continued until the interval.

The early minutes of the second period were probably the Locos best but even at that all they could achieve was to stifle the high tempo pass and move football from Formartine. They were working very hard but the skill levels were weighted Uniteds way and something had to give. In the 66th minute, a frustrated Gauld lashed out at Rodger and was immediately red-carded for his efforts. It took United just two more minutes to cash in. Rodger broke down the right flank to deliver a ball over the Locos rearguard to the head of MacPHEE who completed his hat trick with a viciously accurate header beyond the reach of Booth.

In the 86th minute GETHINS, cutely spotting that Mitchell was playing him onside, nipped past defenders before clipping the ball into the net. A minute later a body check by Duff on MacPhee yielded a second yellow and immediate dismissal. There was not enough time left for United to increase their lead further, but 5-0 still says enough about the difference between the sides.