Appearances & Goals To Date

Greg Sim (GK)		1 app (debut)	-
Jamie Michie		57 apps	-
Calum Dingwall		117 apps	8 goals
Stuart Smith		157 apps	13 goals
Paul Lawson		56 apps	18 goals
Max Berton		35 apps	3 goals
Kieran Lawrence		7 apps	-
Scott Barbour		90 apps	37 goals
Archie MacPhee		5 apps	6 goals
Liam Burnett		18 apps	1 goal
Scott Ferries		35 apps	4 goals
Johnny Crawford (sub)		70 apps	3 goals
Graeme Rodger (sub)		96 apps	27 goals
Wayne Mackintosh (sub)		5 apps	-
Conor Gethins (sub)		45 apps	18 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Greg Sim

(Signed July 28th, 2017)

Milestones

A reward for clubs finishing in the top four of the SHFL is automatic admission to the following seasons Challenge Cup (aka the Irn Bru Cup) which gives the part timers an opportunity to measure themselves against cream of the big team pro clubs developing talent. To prevent the wily old heads that populate the top end SHFL sides from exploiting youthful inexperience in the opposition, the full time clubs are allowed to field two over age players. In the event these two teams were so evenly matched that it took a full period of extra time, and, the more partisan of the United support would insist, a number of bizarre refereeing decisions in the visitors favour to achieve the final result.

The contrast was very visible in the first half which United dominated throughout. They were quicker to the ball and very persistent in closing down opponents. They chased and harried the Gorgie guys and were unfortunate to reach the interval only two goals to the good. What most believed to be a penalty after 2-0 had been achieved by the rampant homesters was construed by ref MacFarlane to have been a dive by Archie MacPhee. He clearly had failed to notice the clip to the forwards heels and the shove in the back that propelled him forwards and to the ground. Instead of taking a spot kick he had to take a yellow card and it took all his happiness away.

This was not a conventional Formartine starting eleven but a judicious mix of youth and experience: Kieran Lawrence, Liam Burnett, Max Berton and Greg Sim are not regulars in the top side but were not only offered but grasped with both hands the opportunity to gain experience and lay claims to starting berths. In the event they looked every bit the equal of their Premier League opponents. Liam Burnett in particular produced an outstanding performance in every aspect of midfield play. His energy was phenomenal, his tackling tigerish and his reading of the game shrewd enough to ensure that he was virtually unmarkable. Scott Barbour, a top team regular, is in a rich vein of form at present scoring two crucial goals against Vale on Saturday and despite being the guts of a foot shorter than the two central defenders assigned to mark him, he simply ran them ragged splitting them, turning them inside out and generally giving them a fair old roasting.

With a superior workrate United had more and better possession and pressed hard enough to make their opening goal a logical consequence of having more and better chances than the Jambos. After a good minute of sustained pressure on the visiting rearguard with Barbour twisting and turning on the edge of the box and fully occupying both centre backs in the process. Ferries was doing a power of work linking with Burnett and Barbour both of whom had shots blocked by keeper Masson. Just as it looked like Hearts had cleared their lines, and the ball had been worked out to a place about twenty five yards out, right of centre but Lawrence who had chased it down was fouled a yard or two forward of that point. MACPHEE took the free but the ball rebounded from the 4 man wall and he retrieved it, burst into the box and turning left towards goal beat Hamilton and Baur before taking a superb shot on the turn from about 12 yards out curving the ball beyond the reach Masson for a 16th minute opener.

Formartine had set a brisk pace and managed to sustain it after this opener and Hearts found them generally just too hot to handle. There were phases where Hearts moved the ball about very slickly indeed – they were aesthetically superior if your taste is for silky over the more prosaically industrious, but United were decidedly the more effective at this point in the game and their next goal was surprising only in that it took as long as another 16 minutes to arrive. Like the previous one it came on the back of a phase of sustained high intensity attacking pressure on the visitors final third. The move came initially down the right as Lawrence and Dingwall combined to spring Barbour into space towards the right corner of the box. His vicious, angled, dipping cross was met around 7 or 8 yards from the back stick by Max BERTON who slammed the ball confidently home from there.

United sustained their pressure on the only team in British, if not World football, to be named after a work of fiction (Heart of Midlothian by Walter Scott). Hearts almost stopped beating when just after breaking into the box in a position just a bit left of centre, MacPhee was sent crashing to the deck. The decision to book him for simulation rather award a penalty appeared to be a miscarriage of justice.

It was a different Hearts that emerged for the second half. They were now prepared to go toe to toe with United and to their credit, it payed off quickly – within 5 minutes in fact. For the first time in the match they had United under a bit of sustained pressure and after the North Lodgers had cleared their lines but failed to sustain the counter attack enough to pin back their opponents they succumbed to a quick riposte where the ball was worked down the left by Petkov and Currie before being threaded through to Zanatta who got ahead of his marker just enough to have the space from which to very cooly and confidently side foot the ball into the net from about ten yards out.

The impetus was now with Hearts and they sustained their pressure – the full timers were pressing hard for the equalizer and five minutes after getting one back it looked like being level when in the midst of a melee in the centre of the box, Zanatta went down. No reticence about penalties this time. MacFarlane pointed to the spot and Currie took the spot kick. He drove low and left but keeper Sim was down in a flash to push it away from the base of his right upright.

The game then entered a more balanced phase and United although never as dominant as they had been in the first half, were giving as good as they got. A back post header by Stuart Smith went just over the top and by this point United were beginning to look like they could defend their single goal lead. Most of the action was box to box now but a Lawrence drive brought a great reaction save from Masson and Beith clipped the outside of the upright with a free kick.

United held their precious wee lead until two minutes into stoppage time when ZANATTA again struck gold latching onto a through ball, breaking into the box and driving the ball past Sim from 15 yards to trigger extra time. The first half of this was dramatic to the extent that 12 minutes into the first period Ferries appeared to have fouled at the left corner of the box but yes, you guessed it, ref MacFarlane saw it as a dive, issued a yellow card on top of one given to the same player for a first half foul and sent him off. Still Formartine failed to yield and still gave as good as they got right until the very last minute of extra time when sub Paton had the legs on a tired defence to break through the middle and drive the ball home from fifteen yards out and avoid the lottery of penalties.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

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