Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		52 apps	-
Jevan Anderson		22 apps	-
Craig McKeown		79 apps	16 goals
Johnny Crawford		85 apps	5 goals
Wayne Mackintosh		23 apps	3 goals
Graeme Rodger		123 apps	39 goals
Paul Lawson		69 apps	19 goals
Scott Barbour		116 apps	52 goals
Archie MacPhee		30 apps	25 goals
Liam Burnett		35 apps	6 goals
Garry Wood		92 apps	49 goals
Jamie Michie (sub)		73 apps	-
Calum Dingwall (sub)		131 apps	8 goals
Conor Gethins (sub)		56 apps	20 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

The size of the crowd reflected the importance of the game: on a bitter January night upwards of 700 hardy souls forsook the comforts of home and hearth to watch this William Hill Scottish Cup 4th Round tie where the winner would face a home tie against Falkirk in the last 16. Cove have by far the superior track record against United but sitting in the North Lodge boardroom is the Aberdeenshire Cup, prised from Coves grasp after a single goal victory in the final three months back. Uniteds recent form has been impressive and the new management team of Paul Lawson and Russell Anderson have brought an air of excitement to the club.

Cove, in almost unstoppable form in the league were at full strength for this one, but rather ominously United were forced to make changes to accommodate injuries to key players. Regular left back Stuart Smith failed to recover from the injury that saw him withdrawn in the first half of the Rothes game while captain Stuart Anderson is a couple of weeks short of his return. That meant a United bench with only 3 outfield players. The squad is a strong one but a degree of re-organisation was needed and that included fielding top goal scorer Archie MacPhee at left back (where he has substantial experience) instead of his customary attacking midfield berth. In the event every United player acquitted himself very well but nevertheless the reorganisation seemed less like the result of a cunning plan and more an enforced response to circumstances.

The game started rather nervily with each side prodding and probing less concerned with making headway than avoiding mistakes, a situation that persisted for the first fifteen minutes. A long range speculative effort by Masson required nothing of home keeper MacDonald in the 14th minute before a couple of minutes later MacPhee did much the same at the other end. The game was warming up and developing a more end to end pattern – United used full backs Macphee and Crawford to develop attacks down the flanks and in the 18th minute Barbour on the end of a move started by MacPhee and developed by Rodger managed to whip in a fast dipping cross that arrived a nano-second to connect with the head of Wood.

As the end to end stuff progressed, it began to move Coves way and they managed to advance their back line further up the park and with a slight edge in possession began to squeeze United. A couple of free kicks from twenty yard range were blocked by a resolute Formartine wall and it began to look like United were frustrating the visitors until in the 31st minute a Cove attack through the inside right channel drew defenders to Megginson at the right corner of the box. Before they could dispossess him he managed to clip the ball over to STOTT at the other corner. A thumping drive looked to be beyond the keepers reach even before it deflected off Crawford on its way into the net.

Uniteds response was positive rather than panicky and they were denied an equaliser five minutes later when keeper McKenzie at full strength and struggling with the pace on the ball took two attempts to get a full blooded twenty five yard piledriver by Crawford away for an unrewarded corner. The end to end pattern returned until the interval.

The second half began with United beginning to do the pressing: Mackintosh, Rodger and Burnett were beginning to make a little more headway than they had in the first and Cove were pushed a little more onto the back foot than they had been in the first 45. Despite a breakaway and a vicious curling shot by Masson that MacDonald did well to parry, it looked like United had enough going for them to get back on level terms. They developed far enough to get a succession of balls into the Cove box. Both Crawford on the right and MacPhee on the left were able to push on from defence to provide ammunition in this area and Cove were being tested. A series of corners around the 55th minute were dealt with but it was clear that the pressure was there. In the 59th minute a corner by Lawson from the left was met full force by the head of Crawford whose powerful header deserved a better fate than to rebound off the keepers right upright to be hoofed away to safety by Watson.

This was probably Uniteds best period of the match – it would be going too far to claim that they were in control but they definitely had enough of an edge to have Cove creaking for a while. The fates however were not for smiling on them: the worst time to lose a goal is when you are just getting back into it and United suffered the killer blow of losing a breakaway goal at a time when they looked the more likely to score. A period of sustained pressure in Cove territory was absorbed before Redford found Campbell ahead. The midfielder carried the ball forward at pace before releasing it to MEGGINSON a bit short of the right corner of the box. He took a step or two forward before leathering an unstoppable shot past Macdonald into the net.

That 68th minute blow effectively sealed Uniteds fate. Any team is going to need more than 22 minutes to score twice against Cove, but it certainly did not stop United trying. They brought on all three of their outfield subs Michie, Dingwall and Gethins replacing Anderson, Lawson and Burnett respectively but Cove know how to protect a lead and kill a game and managed to shut up shop enough to ensure the right to face Falkirk on the 10th of February. Formartine pressed, their heads did not go down but they simply lacked the ability to unpick the Falkirk lock in the remaining time available to them. How they tried – they cannot be faulted for effort and attitude. They are a very good side indeed, capable of beating any in the League but to stop the Cove juggernaut they need access to their full squad. Overall the difference between the two was slight but significant. Any rearrangement of positions of established players risks a reduction in fluency - however slight. Injuries forced the re-arrangement (which made the best of a bad job) but it was probably where the difference lay.

League duties resume on Saturday against – would you believe it? - Cove, expletive deleted, Rangers.

Match report by Colin Keenan

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