Appearances & Goals To Date

Greg Sim (GK)		6 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		77 apps	4 goals
Scott Henry		30 apps	2 goals
Wayne Mackintosh		16 apps	1 goal
Stuart Anderson		154 apps	28 goals
Graeme Rodger		115 apps	34 goals
Paul Lawson		64 apps	18 goals
Archie MacPhee		24 apps	22 goals
Scott Barbour		109 apps	48 goals
Garry Wood		85 apps	45 goals
Liam Burnett		34 apps	6 goals
Calum Dingwall (sub)		128 apps	8 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

This third round tie in the William Hill Scottish Cup resulted in what is Uniteds most significant victory since its election to the ranks of the SHFL. This was the first time they had overcome a club from as high a position in the pyramid as League 1. Notable though that achievement is in its own right, the manner in which it was achieved was the real story. From start to finish United dictated their terms, on their own territory to the higher status club who eventually seemed to run out of ideas and inspiration and despite the single goal margin were convincingly defeated by a side that bettered them in terms territory, possession, goal chances and general football nous. Although Forfar occupy a relatively low League 1 position since their promotion at the start of this season they came into this game on the back of gaining 7 points in their last 3 games. It was a clear and convincing victory.

Conditions were windy, and having won the toss, United elected to play with it at their backs during the first half. Their old injury hoodoo surfaced again with both Stuart Smith and Craig McKeown being unfit for selection. However manager Paul Lawson fielded himself as playmaker, pulling the highly prolific striker Archie MacPhee to left back and returning captain Stuart Anderson from midfield to defence. Wayne Mackintosh came into midfield and the changes although to some extent forced, worked just fine.

United took the game to the Loons from the outset and had early success in pinning the visitors back. Within five minutes some slick interplay between Mackintosh, Barbour and Wood saw a drive from the latter deflected for a corner taken by MacPhee. The wind assisted in-swinger caused such mayhem in the Forfar goalmouth that there were claims that the ball had crossed the goal line before it was desperately hacked away. The pressure was on. Another corner on the other side by Lawson hit Wood forcing McCallum into a rather desperate scramble to get the ball clear. Pulling a lot of strings in midfield Lawson was providing copious ammunition for those ahead of him. In the twelfth minute he picked out Barbour who worked a neat one two with Wood before finishing with a crisp shot that was only marginally too high.

The pressure was increasing and Lawson and Anderson forced a brace of corners before the breakthrough arrived in the 15th minute. Full backs CRAWFORD and MacPhee were a significant part of the attacking strategy and it was the former who was on hand amongst the visiting defenders to deflect a Burnett drive beyond the keepers reach after Wood and Mackintosh had carved out the chance.

The goal was consistent with the run of play and United were dominant enough to continue their pressure thereafter. Two minutes later a Rodger shot was beaten away for a corner that caused a fair stooshie in the visiting goal mouth. The first half continued in this vein with the League 1 side struggling to impose anything of significance on their hosts. In the 28th minute a Barbour shot from wide left rebounded from the cross bar and was scrambled away and the next minute Rodger fed Lawson whose viciously struck shot rebounded off keeper MacCallum who appeared to know little about the arrival or departure of the ball before it went safe.

In midfield Mackintosh picked a fair few pockets as well as preventing the visitors from establishing any consistent shape in there. Wood and Crawford both had decent efforts denied later in the first half before in the 42nd minute Forfar finally showed their teeth with a foray into United territory that yielded their first corner of the game. It was simply dealt with by a solid looking home defence and United went back on the attack until the interval.

There was some expectation that with the wind behind them after the turnaround, Forfar would come out all guns blazing for the second period. Perhaps they tried to but whatever they could muster was less than was needed to pressurise a still dominant United. Within a minute United had them on the back foot when a rasping drive by Wood was parried uncomfortably and unconvincingly by MaCallum. Forfar were trying to use the wind to their advantage but found only limited success in doing so and it was clear that it was going to take more than what they had on offer to shift the balance of the game. They had what was probably their best spell for about ten minutes or so around the hour mark. They managed a corner by Cox that keeper Sim managed to push away to safety and shortly after a twenty plus yard effort from the same player that Anderson got a boot onto. Bain got to the rebound at the edge of the box but thumped the ball well over the top. Kennedy did much the same a couple of minutes later and it became clear that Forfar were not using the wind to best advantage and were repeatedly over hitting balls forward as well as shots on goal. Formartine kept them pretty well out of the danger area anyway and there was no sustained goal threat

It was United that still largely controlled events – they looked strong and hungry throughout and playing into the wind played a decent controlled and patterned game and continued to ask questions. A Mackintosh piledriver after Wood and Barbour had combined to carve out an opening whizzed past MacCallums right upright kept the pressure on and in the 75th minute an Anderson through ball found Barbour whose cross was met by Burnett causing something of a flap before being scrambled clear.

Formartine were in enough control to start running down the clock holding possession and pushing the ball around to frustrate the visitors who were looking increasingly like a spent force. Their last desperate throw of the dice came deep in stoppage time when a long loopy Bain cross swirled over to Cregg at the back stick but his full stretch header was both high and wide.

United were comfortable winners and although their conversion rate of chances created might have been better, they played the 90 minutes with their most prolific striker MacPhee at left back and another (Gethins), returning from injury, on the bench. Round 4 of the Scottish Cup is heady stuff – bring on the big guns.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

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