Appearances & Goals To Date

Kevin Main (GK)		8 apps	-
Jevan Anderson		33 apps	1 goal
Craig McKeown		90 apps	19 goals
Johnny Crawford		94 apps	5 goals
Stuart Smith		192 apps	18 goals
Stuart Anderson		166 apps	29 goals
Graeme Rodger		134 apps	44 goals
Andrew Greig		14 apps	5 goals
Archie MacPhee		42 apps	33 goals
Kieran Lawrence		23 apps	1 goal
Garry Wood		100 apps	53 goals
Wayne Mackintosh (sub)		34 apps	5 goals
Scott Barbour (sub)		127 apps	60 goals
Conor Gethins (sub)		65 apps	21 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

As little as a month ago, the idea of Formartine being right in the mix in the final stages of the battle for second place in the league would have been regarded as rather fanciful: now it is decidedly up for grabs. If they win their remaining 4 league games against Fort Williaim twice, Keith and Wick then irrespective of what any other club does elsewhere, second place is theirs. This trouncing of the reigning champions at North Lodge showed with absolute clarity the extent of Uniteds determination to achieve that end.

This was by no means the Buckie side that swept all before them last year, but it was nonetheless a young, hard working and well organised unit who on their day are capable of beating any other team in the league. Although the score line did not really flatter Formartine, on finishing alone they were worth the margin of victory and although they were (for an hour at least) made to work for their win, they were well worth it and in each department showed a degree of superiority.

They started by pushing forward and seeking to establish and then maintain a fairly high defensive line. Buckie were not too keen to let them do this but with the way United swung the ball about and with the runs made by the wing backs in particular there was not an awful lot Buckie could do to stop them. Andrew Greig playing mostly out wide on the left, ensured that the visitors were both stretched wide and well occupied in the final third of the pitch. Garry Wood was a continuing marauding presence up front and Archie Macphees capacity to work the ball around the Buckie box contributed much to keeping the pressure on the visitors. In the fourth minute Stuart Anderson threaded a ball through a defensive chink to Greig on the left who jinked past Murray and into the box before rattling off a crisp low drive that had Bell stretching to take the ball at the second attempt.

In response, Buckie managed a foray into United territory - a more or less solo effort by MacAskill who did well to get to about twenty five yards out from the united goal before being neatly dispossessed by McKeown. For a player of his size, he can at times, be surprisingly dainty at picking the ball off the toes of his opponents. This was one of them. He is equally capable of the full blooded way when needed.

It was not at this stage a case of United having Buckie hemmed right in in their own rear area (that came later) - but they had the better of possession and sustained pressure which as time went by, they increased. Buckies main danger came from MacAskill and in a 7th minute breakaway he managed a firm drive from the edge of the box. Main was well placed and took it comfortably.

In the 14th minute GREIG – as he had been threatening, suckered a couple of defenders - Murray and Mackinnon - and was off into the left side of the box. The angle was still tight when he let fly from about twelve yards out but such was the power and precision of the shot that it fizzed past Bells outstretched left hand and into the far corner of the net .

For a few minutes after that Buckie tried to raise the pace of their game and push United but they met with only very limited success. United were generally sharper, quicker to the ball and Buckie were denied space and time in possession, but they were hard and willing workers and although they never really mounted any sustained pressure on United, kept the deficit to a single goal until almost half time. However containing United was only achieved by considerable physical effort – they moved about very slickly indeed and trying to get the ball off Stuart Anderson in particular was like trying to get hold of a bar of soap in a warm bath.

In the 27th minute United showed superb fluency as they shuttled the ball initially down the right from Crawford to MacPhee and then via Anderson over to Greig on the left before it was delivered to Wood by the near post. Despite close attention from two markers he got off a cunning wee shot that deserved a better outcome than to rebound off the keepers right upright.

After forty minutes of this sort of stuff from Formartine, Buckie were flagging a bit and United had them pinned well back. They conceded a corner on the right which was taken by Anderson and hit slightly in - swinging to a point just beyond the back stick where McKeown was able to protect a bit of space to allow SMITH behind him to rise to the ball and bang a fierce downward header beyond the reach of Bell for number two.

This time Buckie were unable to mount much of a counter and United resumed their offensive in time to grab a third a minute before the interval. Much like the passage of play that ended with the one off the woodwork, this saw a patient build up that went from one flank to the other before Greig from the left played in WOOD who was left with the simple task of side-footing the ball home from five yards out.

The second half followed roughly the pattern of the first with United the slicker side and Buckie working very hard to stay with them. Quite quickly United applied the squeeze and had Thistle confined largely to their own part of the park. Graham Rodger was getting through his usual phenomenal workload and caused increasing headaches at the back for Thistle and combined with elegantly sinister left pegged MacPhee, was making life increasingly difficult for Buckie in what was becoming an increasingly crowded final third.

Bell dealt well with efforts from Greig, Wood and Rodger but they yielded no more than a couple of corner kicks. In the 57th minute Stuart ANDERSON swung one of these over for it to be headed out of the danger area, but following in on it he collected the product of the header and sent the ball curling and dipping left to right across the goal face where Wood sold an outrageous dummy to the keeper as he nipped in from the right, stepped right over the ball and thereby deceived the keeper who could only watch as the ball continued its way into the net.

The game was well won by now but Buckie still mounted the odd breakaway. These were generally through the middle and there seemed to be a bit of an over reliance on MacAskill to do the business. He got no cuttance from the home centre backs, McKeown and Jevan Anderson who maintained concentration well enough to ensure a hermetically sealed United defence. United pressure was sustained and there were periods when it looked like the score could go higher than it eventually did.

The final score line was completed in 71 minutes when pressure from the right ended a prolonged period of United hammering away round the edges of and sometimes within the Buckie box. It was fitting that Graeme Rodger got his name on the score sheet – he had certainly worked hard enough to earn his place there. This time he got there by completing a move down the flank started by wing back Crawford. Taking the ball over to the inside right channel he brushed off a challenge from the left, to face the advancing keeper and skelped the ball low and hard into the far corner of the net.

United did not really ease up after this but although Buckie were again looking a tiring team the punishing schedule of two or more games a week saw some of the sharpness ebb from United too. They remained the dominant force but their previous clinical level of finishing faded enough for the score line to remain where it was until the end.

Match report by Colin Keenan

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