Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		56 apps	-
Joe MacPherson		1 app (debut)	-
Johnny Crawford		99 apps	5 goals
Craig McKeown		94 apps	19 goals
Stuart Smith		197 apps	18 goals
Graeme Rodger		141 apps	48 goals
Paul Lawson		72 apps	19 goals
Ryan Stott		3 apps	3 goals
Conor Gethins		72 apps	30 goals
Archie MacPhee		46 apps	34 goals
Garry Wood		105 apps	53 goals
Andrew Greig (sub)		21 apps	8 goals
Gregor Whyte (sub)		1 app (debut)	-
Gary Fraser (sub)		3 apps	2 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

	Joe MacPherson	(Signed July 25th, 2018)
	Gregor Whyte	(Signed August 28th, 2017)

Milestones

Churlish though the question may seem, it is difficult to determine how much this performance by United was a cause for confidence or anxiety. The case for confidence is clear: it was their 19th win in a row, their third successive 4-1 win in succession and takes them to the top of the Highland league for the first time in pretty much nearly a year. They were too good for Vale and won this game with plenty in reserve. The case for anxiety is that for the third game in a row, they conceded a soft, slipshod goal and that for noticeable spells (e.g. for twenty minutes after the first goal, a fair chunk of the second half and the last ten minutes) United appeared to be doing little more than going through the motions. They were well in charge and knew it and consequently seemed to adopt a casual approach where the tempo dropped and passing was frequently less than crisp. It takes some chutzpah to do that against Vale and get off with it. Only a team confident in its abilities can do that. However those that do usually find their cumuppance when the chips are down.

Uniteds long winning run has been based on a policy of squad rotation and at this part of the season when games come thick and fast (two a week at the moment) spreading the load is an essential part of the strategy. There were four changes of personnel since Saturdays defeat of Turriff. MacDonald displaced Main in goal with S.Anderson, Greig and Fraser dropping to the bench to be replaced by Lawson, MacPherson and Gethins. Wood moved up to the forward line and Crawford from right back to central defence. You would expect a rearrangement on that scale to take a wee while to bed in but it took only two minutes and twenty six seconds for them to open the scoring. They had already exerted a bit of pressure in the final third before a ball worked out of defence by Lawson was played forward to Garry Wood who muscled his way down the inside right channel. Dunn and Dunbar did what they could but were unable to shackle the big striker who despite being forced almost to the goal line still got the ball across to STOTT who had made a run at breakneck pace to collect the ball at the other side of the box and slam it into the net from about 15 yards range.

This goal certainly settled Formartine – perhaps too much a cynic might say – and the urgency seemed to drain out of their play. They still retained probably the majority of possession and knocked the ball about cooly enough but certainly did not establish a pattern or tempo that prevented a fairly pedestrian looking Vale from asking a few questions. OK they were answered competently enough but Ballard got a couple of shots in both comfortably taken by MacDonald and by and large the home side were made to play most of their stuff about thirty or more yards out. Uniteds main contribution was more episodic and to be fair there were flashes of real class and menace as in the 8th minute when Wood and Gethins combined for the latters crisp 20 yard shot through a crowded penalty box slipped only inches past Watson's right upright.

However these flashes did not really add up to sustained pressure and the 1-0 scoreline hung around until almost the half hour mark - until GETHINS produced a quick-fire double that put the result irrevocably beyond Vale. Vale were beginning to find a bit of shape, largely by playing two banks of four and looked to have confidence that they were still in the game.

Once or twice they had got 4 on 4 with the United rearguard but were unable to get beyond that apart from a Gauld shot from about 15 yards that MacDonald did well to grasp. In the 30th minute United worked the ball down the right with full back MacPherson advancing to the right corner of the Vale box before feeding the ball on to Wood who slipped it on to Rodger who, shrugging off a dubious tackle from behind by MacLennan, got the ball over left to Stott who chipped it across the goal face where GETHINS, the smallest on the park at the time, headed home from no more than a couple of yards out. United kept up the pressure for a few more minutes during which time they all but sealed Vale's fate. In the aftermath of a corner on the right, the ball had been cleared away almost to half way but was quickly played back into the area just short of the right corner of the vale box where Lawson burst through between Allan and Dunn before clipping the ball left into the path of GETHINS who was onto it in a nano second, skelped the ball furiously past Watson and into the net at his right upright.

That set the Vale gas at a peep and effectively guaranteed all three points for United. It killed any possible apprehension about the outcome and with the Locos derby ahead on Saturday United were not going to be risking much on the injury front either. The previous pattern of competent but not overly dynamic possession play resumed until the interval: United doing what they needed to keep on top of Vale, achieving that quite comfortably but not really busting a gut to do a lot more.

The second half continued in much the same way yielding little to enthuse either set of spectators. Again there were flashes of decent stuff: a 54th minute charge through the middle by Rodger who then slipped the ball on to Stott whose fierce drive was beaten down by Watson and hoofed to safety by Dunbar. And the goal was quite a cute effort too. Gethins had the ball virtually on the goal lineabout 8 yards left of the left post. There were defenders a few yards in front of him and a shot simply was not on and there was no one he could pass the ball to on the deck without it being intercepted The veteran Irishman is not short of creativity and scooped the ball almost vertically up over the defenders in front to land in space for the speedy STOTT to reach and hammer home, still from a pretty tight angle beyond the back post.

The game again faded into a rather languid possession phase as United more or less ran down the clock for the remaining 24 minutes. They knocked the ball about enough to keep most of the possession in areas where they wanted it to be but as with the best laid schemes, they were reminded that if you do not do this with full attention or get a bit too casual you get caught out. It happened and it cost them a goal – a token one for Vale but a lesson too for United. For the third game in a row they conceeded a soft goal. In the 84th minute after swinging the ball left to right and right to left back and forth about 30 odd yards out their goal they lost possession and were forced into panic stations in their own penalty box: a Ballard drive was blocked virtually on the goal line but before the ball could be cleared to a safer place DUNBAR was onto it and bundled it across the line from close range.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie