Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		49 apps	-
Jevan Anderson		19 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		82 apps	5 goals
Stuart Smith		180 apps	16 goals
Andrew Greig		5 apps	2 goals
Paul Lawson		67 apps	19 goals
Stuart Anderson		158 apps	28 goals
Wayne Mackintosh		21 apps	3 goals
Graeme Rodger		120 apps	37 goals
Scott Ferries		55 apps	6 goals
Conor Gethins		53 apps	18 goals
Jamie Michie (sub)		71 apps	-
Craig McKeown (sub)		76 apps	15 goals
Calum Dingwall (sub)		129 apps	8 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Games between these two are usually much closer affairs than this. In what turned out to be a thoroughly one-sided encounter, Formartine dictated terms and controlled proceedings from the first minute until the final whistle. There were really only two significant points of interest: how it took them until the second half to open the scoring and (possibly because of that) how they managed to score no more than three goals. A measure of their dominance can be found in the tally of corner kicks won – 15 to Formartine, 1 to Turriff. That more or less says it all.

Formartine manager Paul Lawson has a large squad of players not only to choose from but also to keep happy. Ringing the changes after a more than respectable, albeit losing, performance in midweek against Cove he not only fielded himself but also gave starts to Andrew Greig, Connor Gethins (first this season) Jevan Anderson and Scott Ferries. It looked like this was a case of shuffling the pack more from a position of strength – to keep players involved and promote competition for places rather than an attempt to shore up deficiencies. What did not change was the style of play which is all about getting the ball down and playing a high tempo pass and move game.

Despite the personnel changes the signature style of play was apparent from the outset as United passed the ball about with a level of assurance and organisation that forced the visitors on to the back foot within no more than a minute of starting. The strategy was clear: both wing backs: Crawford and Smith were encouraged to press on down the flanks – usually alternating and the base line for the back four was quickly established along the halfway line – squeezing Turriff into their own territory where they remained- with the exception of very few breakouts – for the entire first period. It might be said that they set out their stall to defend in depth and hit on the break, but if so they appeared to neglect both the breaks and the intention of hitting the opposition having done so. In the third minute United gained a free kick about 35 yards out. Lawson took it and hit the ball an outrageous skelp that saw it dip just fractionally too late to avoid flying inches over the cross bar. The pressure was on: a couple of minutes later Greig jinked in from the left and delivered a crisp low shot that Main gathered near his right upright. They went even closer in the 8th minute when some slick inter-passing between Smith, Lawson and Greig concluded with the last named striking a fierce low left to right ball that eluded the keeper but also very narrowly the back stick.

Shots from further out flew high and wide- sometimes by a narrow margin and sometimes by a much wider one. Before the visitors had managed to mount their first incursion to United territory, Greig, Ferries, Rodger, Gethins, Crawford, Lawson, Mackintosh and Stuart Anderson had all managed shots on goal. One by Greig prompted a save by Main and so too a decent effort by Gethins but all the others were off target albeit some rebounded off defenders (e.g. a couple or more from Rodger and Crawford looked goal bound before some limb of a desperate defender got in the way). A header by Jevan Anderson was saved by Main. Turriff attacks were as frequent and fertile as the droppings of a rocking horse but in the 24th minute they managed to sustain a brief period of pressure after a break down the left by Chalmers prompted some brief defensive activity by the North Lodgers. The attack petered out when Jevan Anderson dispossessed Myers and booted the ball unceremoniously over the stand.

United pressure resumed almost unabated and for a minute or so either side of the half hour mark they delivered 6 successive corner kicks 2 left and four right. Each did enough damage to force another but none ultimately yielded more than that. The series was broken by a crisp drive by Gethins which fizzed past Mains left upright for a goal kick that briefly broke the spell of pressure.

With the exception of another Turra break which concluded with a header by Myers being taken comfortably by MacDonald the half reached its conclusion with Formartine trying everything they new to navigate the ball through the densely populated Turriff penalty area to the net. How it failed to reach there even once was a mystery beyond the realms of normal understanding.

The anxiety for United supporters was that if their side – with all that pressure and significant wind advantage had failed to score what fate might await them when they had to play against the wind. Briefly it looked like there was a change to the Turriff match plan – they seemed for a minute or two to have opened out a bit – either that or wind advantage had helped them out. Whatever the reason, the final third was not quite as congested quite as often as before and it suited United – they had more space in which to operate and found openings easier to create. It did not take them long to cash in. In the 51st minute after they had stretched the Turriff defence wide and thin with Rodger running from inside right to wide, Mackintosh and Greig moving in on the left and Ferries making a menace of himself to defenders, the ball was whipped over to the goal mouth from Rodger out right. Gethins run to the goalmouth was perfectly timed but BOWDEN was tracking him. The big defender got to the ball just ahead of the wee striker but was so hurrassed by the pressure he was put under that he turned the ball past his own keeper from about 3 yards out. It was pretty clearly an o.g but the striker will console himself with the knowledge that if Bowden had not put the ball into the net, then he certainly would have.

This changed the game – Turra had to come looking for Formartine if they were to get anything at all from it. Formartine got even more space and within five more minutes had another. Andrew GREIG was off at pace down the left – pursuing, then collecting a canny through ball from Lawson. Outstripping the ageing and occasionally cumbersome McBride, he turned in towards goal getting past Wood before driving the ball accurately home beyond the reach of the diving Main for number two. Another consequence of the increased space was that Turriff got into Formartine territory a bit more often. Perhaps the nearest they got to scoring was a break a bit right of centre that concluded with Ross thumping a twenty five yard effort at the United goal. MacDonald took it comfortably enough.

The game as a contest was beyond any possible redemption for the visitors in the 68th minute. The third goal, by RODGER, had much in common with Greigs effort. Blistering pace and direct running down the right by the midfielder left defenders in his wake before he reached the edge of the box and cracked a fierce low drive that left the keeper without a hope of doing anything before retrieving the ball from the net.

From that point on United knew they had it won and played accordingly. They sensibly kept the ball from Turriff and conducted most of their business in midfield where Stuart Anderson gave a master class in ball retention, and Lawson controlled pretty well everything. Subs came on to aid tired legs but United, on cruise control continued to make the visitors dance to their tune.

This was a very comfortable win for a team that looks to be one on the rise every bit as much as their opposition looked to be in decline.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

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