Appearances & Goals To Date

Greg Sim (GK)		10 apps	-
Jevan Anderson		25 apps	-
Craig McKeown		82 apps	16 goals
Jamie Michie		76 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		87 apps	5 goals
Stuart Smith		183 apps	16 goals
Graeme Rodger		126 apps	42 goals
Andrew Greig		9 apps	4 goals
Archie MacPhee		33 apps	27 goals
Scott Barbour		118 apps	53 goals
Conor Gethins		59 apps	20 goals
Liam Burnett (sub)		37 apps	6 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

There were plenty of good reasons why this game turned out to be as tight and fiesty - as it turned out to be (7 yellow cards (5 to Brora) and 1 red): earlier in the season United embarrassed Brora by skelping five without reply past them at Dudgeon Park. Since then Brora arrived for this one on the back of an outstanding run in the William Hill Scottish Cup that ended only the Saturday before with a 5th round reverse against Premier League Kilmarnock. Not only did they fancy their chances of avenging their home defeat by United, they had decent cause to do so. United however, had different ideas entirely.

Inevitably the game started at a very high tempo and Brora were the first to show when Brora went straight for the jugular with an attack that yielded a couple of successive corners both negated by the powerful presence o McKeown at the heart of defence. A minute later Pickles let fly with a drive which was high and wide but never handsome. This wee salvo showed Brora intent but it did not reveal any actual or potential frailty on Uniteds part and their flexible 4-2- 4 like formation with Barbour and Greig wide on the flanks soon picked chinks in the visiting defence. In the 6th minute, a strong run by Rodger to the edge of the box set him up for a powerful drive that Malin could do no more than parry. Sadly for him it was parried to the lurking BARBOUR on the left side of the area and driven well beyond his reach and into the net.

That set the cat among the pigeons in a side that negotiated 4 rounds of the Scottish Cup without conceeding a single goal. They seemed riled and two minutes later Rodger was again doing damage in midfield and robbed Morrison whose response was to charge the United midfielder down. On the rise, and doubtless keen to make an impression he clearly stamped on the United man. A few from each side saw this as grounds for a fight but after the stooshie settled, and consultation with the assistant, ref Soutar issued a straight red to Morrison.

At a goal up and with numerical superiority it looked like United had it made – that they would be on Easy Street thereafter but these encounters seldom follow such conventional logic. Brora seemed to be energised by all of this and, initially at least, looked little inconvenienced by the loss of a player. Rodger was playing a blinder in the middle and in the 16th minute produced a superb defence splitting pass to set up Barbour one on one with Malin but despite massive odds in his favour, the forward managed to send the ball wide of target.

You cant afford finishing that slack against Brora and they immediately took the hint and delivered a couple of goals in the next three or four minutes. The first was an 8 yard header by Maclean in the 18th minute and the next, a Brora version of the one from which United failed to score. A defence splitting pass by Pickles found McKAY with only keeper Sim to beat. The wily striker simply rounded the goalie and passed the ball into the unguarded net. This really confounded expectations: the ten man side had not only come back but managed to get their noses in front.

Showing a recently developed sense of professionalism United sensibly refused to press the panic button and instead tried methodically to work hard at maintaining possession forcing their numerically inferior opposition to cover as much extra ground as possible, as often as possible for as long as possible. Rodger and Michie were consistently energetic and combative in the middle and as time went on a patient United saw the tide gradually turning in their favour. Rodger produced a thumper of a shot that was scrambled away after rebounding from the left upright. Gethins held up the ball before releasing it to Barbour whose shot was again wide of target and three minutes later, on the hour mark, MacPhee flighted a corner into the 6 yard area. It caused Brora problems until Duff managed to hack the ball clear. The momentum was now clearly with United and Brora knew it, demonstrating that by increasing attempts to slow the game down with every little time wasting trick they could produce such as ensuring that substituted players were at the furthest point of the pitch before leaving it as slowly as possible, dithering for ages over throw ins etc. Sadly the ref failed to take any action to deal with this.

However United had the patience, nous and confidence their abilities and match plan to keep on doing what they were. It took until the 83rd minute for them to reap the first reward of their patience and perhaps unsurprisingly it was Man of the Match Graeme Rodger who turned the tide irrevocably in Uniteds favour. From just inside the box he let rip with a full-blooded drive that simply whizzed past Malin and into the net. The effect of this single strike was not just to level the game but also to put an end to the Brora slow down.

Since the 75th minute when attacking midfielder Burnett replaced centre back Jevan Anderson United had effectively changed to three at the back to push more attackers at Brora. Burnetts high pace, high energy approach and strategy of running hard at the tiring legs of Brora defenders paid off and the only doubt after Rodgers equaliser was whether or not there was enough time for united to take all three points. There was. Burnett at pace delivered a perfectly weighted, delicately flighted cross straight to Archie MacPhee. Being closely marked MACPHEE still had a lot to do but, with a shimmy and a turn he mastered time and space like Dr Who, to create himself just enough latitude to fire a sizzling shot into the net inside the far left upright.

That was just what United needed. The momentum was with them, Brora were deflated and all but defeated. Three minutes later, the points were all Uniteds. It had not been easy and there were times when Brora, playing with ten men, had been difficult to manage – they had even got their noses in front and kept them there for more than an hour - but United did the business in the end and consigned them to the embarrassment of 7th spot in the League while retaining 4th themselves.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

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