Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		50 apps	-
Jevan Anderson		20 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		83 apps	5 goals
Craig McKeown		77 apps	16 goals
Stuart Smith		181 apps	16 goals
Wayne Mackintosh		22 apps	3 goals
Graeme Rodger		121 apps	38 goals
Archie MacPhee		28 apps	23 goals
Scott Ferries		56 apps	6 goals
Conor Gethins		54 apps	19 goals
Garry Wood		90 apps	49 goals
Jamie Michie (sub)		72 apps	-
Andrew Greig (sub)		6 apps	2 goals
Scott Barbour (sub)		114 apps	51 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

With a near faultless display Formartine collected all three available points at least as comfortably as the scoreline suggests. Often enough they have struggled at Grant Park but with the spirit of competition for berths in the team to play for a place in the last 16 of the William Hill Scottish Cup running throughout the squad, there was a strong possibility of the team firing on all cylinders this time out and fire on all cylinders they most certainly did. The standard of opposition was by no means the stiffest they have faced this season and although the general impression was frequently that of men versus boys, Lossie worked hard throughout to make life as difficult as they possibly could for their visitors.

It took United until the mid point of the first half to open the scoring but only 8 more minutes to put themselves in the nigh on impregnable position of a three goal lead. It did not look like United were using this as a dummy run for the forthcoming cup match – they set themselves out in a 4-4-2 formation which from the way they played had elements of the 4-2-4 about it with both Ferries and MacPhee regularly joining the front pair of Wood and Gethins in attack.

Initially Lossie looked to have an air of calm assurance about their defence, containing competently whatever United brought to bear in the final third and that, even in the early stages, was a force with which to be reckoned. In the second minute Rodger had a drive on the half volley from just inside the box blocked by a defensive buttock and Wood had begun the business of dragging defenders all over the place and often to places they would rather not have visited. Gethins, fly as a barrowload of monkeys, kept popping up unexpectedly sniffing out half chances. The danger, even this early was that the Lossie box would become too congested and United would be crowded out, but they showed some patience and maturity and devoted time and effort to shuffling the ball around in midfield drawing Lossie players out of their box and opening things up in the process. Stuart Anderson, missing through injury, is usually the architect of that process but on this occasion Archie MacPhee with a wonderful capacity for ball retention was hugely influential in opening out the play.

In the 11th minute, Lossie showed a flash of their fire power when a lightning break worked the ball from just forward of their 18 yard line to the corresponding position in the other half before Farquhar, harried by Anderson and Crawford was bullied into snatching at his shot which trundled harmlessly wide of goal. Pressure resumed at the Lossie end and United forced three corners in fairly quick succession. These were defended with varying degrees of difficulty and United managed each time to recycle the ball through two or three phases of attack. Lossie were beginning to rock and play was confined almost entirely to their half of the park.

The only unexpected aspect of the United breakthrough was that it took until the 22nd minute to arrive. A corner on the right was swung over by McPhee to Wood near the penalty spot who rose above defenders to deliver a strong glancing header beyond the reach of keeper Farquhar. Whether or not this would have reached the net just inside the far post will never be known as GETHINS was onto it in a flash to stab the ball home from a few feet out.

To use the cliche that this opened the floodgate would be unfair on Lossie who stuck doggedly to their thankless task for the full 90 minutes, but they had a torrid time of it over the next ten minutes or so. In the 28th minute MacPhee about 35 yards out from the goal line and only a few in from the right touchline launched what looked like a speculative cross directed towards the area in front of the far post. Farquhar, a couple of yards off his line failed to reach the ball and watched despondently as it flew over his head and into the corner of the net. McPhee may well claim it was an act of sublime skill initiated by noticing that the keeper was forward of his line but the more cynically inclined would suggest that he hit a back stick cross and just got lucky. Either way, they all count.

United wanted to have the game home and hosed by half time and two minutes later they effectively did that when another period of sustained pressure had yielded an unrewarded corner or two. Big Craig McKeown still lingering in the Lossie box in the aftermath of these applied a fiercely struck and perfectly placed header to a ball clipped over from his right by Rodger from a McPhee feed and left the keeper rooted to the spot as the ball flew into the net inside his right upright. Lossie must have noticed by then that all three goals had entered the net at roughly the same position by not too dissimilar routes. Whether they did or not, they worked hard still in defence and kept United at bay until the interval.

The second half followed the same pattern as the first: Formartine moved the ball about with more pace and finesse than Lossie could match or counter and there were periods of superbly orchestrated and sweetly executed pass and move football from the visitors. Lossie were often left simply chasing shadows. United looked to have a good balance between silk and iron in there. MacPhee and Rodger, no shrinking violets themselves, could hold the ball up, move it around sweetly and thread it through the gaps and provide the silk, while the very determined and highly industrious Mackintosh was the perfect foil as a ball winner. Ferries playing wider has a direct and pacy approach that ensured the balls won by MacKintosh or threaded through the channels by MacPhee and Rodger were rapidly carried forward.

Scoring resumed within 5 minutes of the restart. Trying to hold the ball and move it around in positions deep enough to draw out the home defence payed off again. A break through the inside left channel by Rodger set off Gethins who slipped the ball onto WOOD. Collecting the ball near the edge of the box the big striker still had to get the better of Hamilton and Wilson which he duly did before slamming the ball low and hard past Farquhar for number 4.

Lossie battled on doggedly making life as difficult as they possibly could for United, but it was as flatulence compared to a thunderstorm and the United onslaught continued. Barbour on as a sub for Wood about ten minutes after he scored, got himself on the score sheet with a very well worked finish. Rodger did the fetch and carry before squaring the ball left to right along the 18 yard line. BARBOUR still had a bit to do and as defenders rushed to block his progress the sub jinked between two and around one before hitting a low, angled 15 yard shot between the keeper and his right upright in the 65th minute.

United continued to dominate and Lossie continued, the best they could, to frustrate them. It took another 15 minutes before the final scoreline was completed. This time Rodger was the scorer. In a crowded penalty area, in the aftermath of a brief onslaught on the home goal just as it looked like the attack had been neutralised he intercepted a slightly understruck clearance and struck the ball very accurately through a forest of legs and into the net. He had grafted all afternoon and richly deserved at least one goal to his name.

A clean sheet, 6 goals, all by different players and some very well worked midfield play – thats as good a platform on which to base a challenge to Cove for a place in the last 16 of the cup as could be expected.

Match report by Colin Keenan