Turriff Utd1–2Formartine United

It was almost inevitable that Turriff would have learned enough from their 4-2 defeat at the same venue against the same club a week before to become more of an obstacle for Formartine to overcome in this 1st round tie in the Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup. The gist of what they seemed to have learned was that you need to keep 8 players behind the ball as often as possible, restrict the North Lodgers to shots from outwith the box and hit them on the break. This they managed well enough to stretch the game from a goal apiece after half an hour to eventual capitulation after 27 of the 30 minutes of extra time. Had Formartine failed to win this, it would have been a travesty as they dominated in terms of possession and territorial advantage for most of the game. The fact that there were 23 corner kicks in the 90 minutes of normal time and 18 of them were for Formartine gives a fair indication of how the balance of the game played out.

United were the first to show and within the opening couple of minutes set the template which shaped most of the match. A break down the right started by the wily Stuart Anderson and spearheaded by the magnificent Archie MacPhee had the home side pinned back in their own final third battening down the hatches as shots were thumped goalward by Burnett, Barbour, MacPhee, Rodger, Ferries and Anderson. Almost all that did not rebound from some part or other of one of the serried ranks of Turra loons, were on target but none did much to trouble the uber cool Kevin Main in the home goal.

The pace was brisk and Formartine were quick enough to see that they had to move the ball about quick and wide to stretch the home defence enough to earn them a crack at goal. They did this well in the main, quite impressively at times. Their work rate was high but Turra strung effectively two banks of four across the pitch around the 18 yard line and were content to do as much as possible of their defending in that area. When the omens were right, they were not above making a lightning break into Formartine territory - usually in pursuit of a long ball from the back played up to the strong and pacy Myers. These moments held a certain menace for Formartine. In the 8th minute he got a good sight of goal from about 15 yards out but his hurried shot was high and wide of target.

Turriff could not sustain periods of pressure for anything like as long at a time as Formartine could but Myers was a bit of a menace to United and two or three times got into threatening positions before being dispossessed. In the 24th minute Cameron Booth was injured in a fairly innocuous midfield joust and was substituted by Allan but the pattern of sustained pressure interspersed with occasional quick ripostes continued. In the 28th minute the ripostes beat the sustained pressure when a period of United pressure that yielded 3 corners in as many minutes gave way to a break through the left side of centre by Myers whose dangerous ball across the goal face was diverted out right. Booth returned it back across the goal face for Miller to force the ball home from close in at the back stick.

Formartine resumed their bombardment and had Turriff locked into their own penalty area or thereabouts for the next five minutes but few attempts on goal got the length of the keeper and again those that did were dealt with within his comfort zone. The pressure was however intense and sustained and in the 34th minute Formartine were back on level terms. A ball booted out of the penalty area was picked up by Stuart Anderson a little left of centre and about 35 yards out. He cruised a few yards forward before unleashing a shot of fearsome power and pace that scorched past defenders on its way past the outstretched arm of Main and into the net.

Formartine continued their bombardment with periodic, limited counters by the home side until the interval. Turra were going to be exceedingly difficult to break down. In the early stages of the second half, the pattern shifted and Turriff were beginning to give as good as they got. There was a fair contrast in styles: United playing a variant of 3-5-2 had the better of midfield against the 4-4-2 of Turriff but the home side could at times offset this by playing over the top balls and through the channels to push Formartine into a sort of 5-3-2. Either way it was not so much deficiencies in the finishing department that kept these sides locked at a goal a piece for the guts of an hour, it was simply that clear cut chances were few and far between. Towards the 70th minute or so Formartine regained the upper hand and again dominated possession and forced their hosts back onto the back foot but the home midfield four stepped back to fill out any gaps between the back four and again did enough to keep Formartine at bay until the game entered extra time.

Little changed in extra time beyond the fact that tired legs led to more mistakes and the game consequently had a bit more of an end to end character to it. United still had slightly the better of possession but the home side managed a fair wee spell of sustained pressure in the middle ten minutes of the first period but beyond a Bowden header that went just over the top and a Flett free kick that beat both defenders and forwards to be picked up by an alert keeper Sim in the no mans land behind them, their threat was limited.

United continued to squeeze and mounted wave upon wave of attack. With only three minutes remaining until the teams faced the lottery of a penalty shoot out their pressure finally breached the dogged resistance of the home rearguard. Hammering away at the tired legs in the home goal penalty area MacPHEE who had long since done enough to merit a man of the match award, clinched the game with a move he started and finished himself by getting past Bowden and one on one with Main before rifling home a pass returned from his right with his left peg from a round ten yards out. Thereafter United sustained pressure enough to keep ball in final third and holding it up in wide areas to run down the clock and ensure progression to the next round.