Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		36 apps	-
Jevan Anderson		8 apps	-
Jamie Michie		63 apps	-
Calum Dingwall		121 apps	8 goals
Stuart Smith		163 apps	13 goals
Stuart Anderson		143 apps	28 goals
Graeme Rodger		102 apps	29 goals
Kieran Lawrence		12 apps	-
Archie MacPhee		11 apps	12 goals
Scott Barbour		96 apps	42 goals
Scott Ferries		41 apps	4 goals
Max Berton (sub)		41 apps	3 goals
Liam Burnett (sub)		24 apps	1 goal
Conor Gethins (sub)		48 apps	18 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

A four hundred mile round trip after a midweek cup tie that ran to 120 minutes on an energy sapping pitch did little to help Formartine cause against old rivals, Wick. Nor it, might be said, did referee McFarlane who granted the home side two penalties that seemed to many to be softer than thistledown. The sending off of the angelic looking Jamie Michie for a second bookable offence later in the game pretty well put the tin lid on it as far as the visitors were concerned.

For all the energy sapping precursors that faced United they made a bright enough start. Playing up the Harmsworth slope they moved the ball about quick and sharp and looked lively enough. Wick though were the first to show real menace when Anderson and MacGregor out wide left combined to get the ball past Dingwall for the former to get in a clever swerving ball that struck the cross bar on its way out of play. The game was only a couple of minutes old then and the pattern of quick close passing play from both sides was set. It was apparent even then that there would be a few goals in this one.

The first, from Formartine, in the 6th minute and was a well worked effort that started on the left with a run by Smith to feed Barbour who tried to jink his way via the inside left route to the box and despite being crowded out was able to direct the ball back to wide left where Lawrence stretched the defence before whipping over a low hard ball from near the bye line across the 6 yard area where RODGER muscled his way to the ball and skelped it well past keeper McCarthy.

The response from Wick was to keep shape and discipline and try to keep United hemmed in at the bottom end of the sloping pitch, an endeavour that was only partly successful as Formartine could still break at pace and did so on either side but a little more on the left than the right. The shape of play at this stage was end to endish and conducted by both sides at a crisp tempo. The pace was such that more goals looked on the card and it took only another ten minutes for the next to come. It was a leveller that resulted from what from at least the Formartine perspective was a gie saft looking penalty award. The forward when finding progress blocked by two defenders went down (almost in instalments) in an attempt to get through. There may have been a hint of a jersey tug as he went but there were no apparent claims for a penalty. The ref cried foul and MacADIE wasted no time in burying the spot kick slotting the ball low and hard to the right of MacDonald.

The game levelled, it became bit by bit more of an absorbing midfield battle although there were still significant breakaways by each side. There was still goalmouth action though and in the 21st minute Wicks Anderson played a cunning looping ball over defenders and forced MacDonald into a full stretch leap to tip the ball over the top for an unrewarded corner.

At the other end, young Kieran Lawrence came close to claiming his first top team goal with a fierce low drive drilled from the edge of the box that fizzed past defenders before almost removing the paint from the outside of the keepers left upright. Pressure was fairly even at this point with Formartine looking just marginally the sharper side. Four minutes before the interval they regained the upper hand with a peach of a free kick by Fig BARBOUR. Figs peach came after Hardwick felled Rodger 20 yards out towards the right side of the box. With the skill and precision of a master craftsman, he struck the ball with just enough spin for it to slowly clear the 5 man wall before dipping under the bar at the extreme right side of the goal.

Wick set about restoring their fortunes before the interval but United were having none of it and kept them fully occupied in midfield and wider areas until the interval.

The second half initially continued the closely contested midfield tussle and with neither side being able to maintain possession for anything like as long as they would want, players began to push at the margins and bookings began to be issued. However with defences largely on top it was going to take something out of the ordinary to change that. This came in the form of another penalty for the home side for a handball offence that was as clear a case of ball to hand on a player turning away from the ball who made no movement of his hand towards ball he patently could not see coming. MacADIE again did the honours from the penalty spot in the 73rd minute.

At this point it looked like the home side could sense the tide turning their way but Formartine were still in there pitching. They had replaced Lawrence with Burnett but most of the action remained in an increasingly towsie midfield. 5 minutes after the equalising goal, a second yellow card was issued to the angelic looking Jamie Michie. Prostate on the ground after having been felled by what he clearly thought to be an illegal tackle he grabbed at the ball. The ref saw nothing wrong with the tackle that had laid the wee terrier low and promptly issued another yellow for deliberate handball a technically correct decision but one that a more mature ref might well have seen in a different light.

United were really up against it now and Wick absolutely buzzing with their bonuses took only another couple of minutes to get their noses in front with a goal fit to win this or any other game. Gary MANSON played in by a ball from the back streaked off through the inside left route and despite being jockeyed wider than he would have liked, still had just enough of an angle to get a fifteen yard sight of goal. From there he struck a superb, swerving ball that flew past MacDonald on its way to the net just inside the far post.

Uniteds last throw of the dice was to bring on the fresh and frisky by replacing Ferries and Barbour with Gethins and Berton but it with against the cock a hoop Wickers who had the upperhand numerically they lacked both the time and the bodies to restore their fortunes.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie