Inverurie Loco Works 0 - 1 Formartine United

Scottish League Challenge Cup - 1st Round
Tuesday, August 14th, 2018, 8:00 PM at Harlaw Park, Inverurie
Attendance: 278
Referee: Mike Roncone
Inverurie Loco Works v Formartine United, Aug 14th 2018, Harlaw Park, Inverurie
Inverurie Loco Works Formartine United 

Goalscorers
None. Conor Gethins (60)

Team Managers
Neil Cooper Paul Lawson

Starting Eleven
Andy Reid
Connor Rennie
Greg Mitchell
Stuart Duff
Mark Souter
Chris Herd
Daniel Crisp
Joe McCabe
Neil Gauld
Chris Angus
Jordan Leydon
Ewen MacDonald
Jevan Anderson
Johnny Crawford
Craig McKeown
Stuart Smith
Graeme Rodger
Andrew Greig
Ryan Stott
Archie MacPhee
Gary Fraser
Conor Gethins

Bench
Thomas Reid
Andrew Watt
Jordan Cooper
Ethan Grant
Morgan Cook
Kevin Main
Joe MacPherson
Gregor Whyte
Stuart Anderson
Paul Lawson
Garry Wood
Liam Burnett

Substitutions
None. None.

Bookings
Greg Mitchell (7)
Stuart Duff (57)
Archie MacPhee (34)
Jevan Anderson (39)

Red Cards
None. None.

Appearances & Goals To Date
Ewen MacDonald (GK) 58 apps -
Jevan Anderson 38 apps1 goal
Johnny Crawford 101 apps5 goals
Craig McKeown 96 apps19 goals
Stuart Smith 199 apps19 goals
Graeme Rodger 143 apps49 goals
Andrew Greig 23 apps9 goals
Ryan Stott 5 apps3 goals
Archie MacPhee 48 apps35 goals
Gary Fraser 5 apps2 goals
Conor Gethins 73 apps31 goals

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Jevan Anderson (18 years 168 days)
Oldest Player:Conor Gethins (34 years 295 days)
Average Player Age:27 years 292 days
Domestic Players:10 (90.91 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Gregor Whyte (17 years 118 days)
Oldest Player:Kevin Main (36 years 153 days)
Average Player Age:27 years 196 days
Domestic Players:17 (94.44 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones

This was the second encounter between these two within 72 hours. After Formartine fairly comprehensively overturned the home side on league duty on the Saturday they faced them in the new look Irn Bru League Cup at the same venue on the Tuesday. They won again albeit without the same level of comfort as previously in a game that yielded commensurately fewer goals, goalmouth incidents or even levels of excitement. In “double header” situations such as this, the second game is often something of an anti climax. The sides start with a very good up to the minute knowledge of what their opponents are all about and adjust their approach accordingly. The result of that is often something not far off a stale mate as each has enough knowledge to stop the other playing to their strengths.

For long enough (most of the first half at least) this looked like being one of these and Locos had set out their fairly injury ravaged squad with what seemed like damage limitation in mind by putting two markers on to Greig who had run riot last time out and to try largely to stuff the midfield enough to stop Formartine getting the ball to their men up front. They nearly pulled it off.

Formartine shuffled their pack a bit by resting captain Stuart Anderson and Gary Wood and bringing in Connor Gethins as an out and out striker and returning Jevan Anderson to central defence alongside McKeown who took the captain's armband. To accommodate these changes, some redeployment was needed particularly in pulling MacPhee back from leading the line to a midfield general's role based just forward of the back four. That left a diminutive front pair of Gethins and Greig with Fraser playing much deeper. Anderson and McKeown came up for set pieces to add height and muscle to the strike force. That was fine apart from the fact that there were not many set pieces.

The game still had a brisk pace to it and each sided tested the others defence from distance – a shot on the turn from 25 yards out by Greig flew past Reid's right upright at one end and not dissimilar effort from Angus did like wise another at the other. After 10 minutes or so it was clear that United were not enjoying the same kind of possession and territory they had in the previous game and Locos, this time were giving as good as they got: in the 10th minute Leyden broke into the box after a run from midfield and delivered a low hard ball left to right across the goal face only a foot or so too far in front of Gauld. A minute later another left to right cross had MacDonald at full stretch to push the ball away for a corner. This led to enough sustained pressure to yield three more corners in as many minutes before United could properly clear their lines.

However they did so and produced some sustained pressure around more than in the home penalty area. A free kick by MacPhee found McKeown's head but although the contact was good the direction was out and the ball flashed past the keeper's left upright. The game continued in this fairly evenly balanced way until the interval. Gauld had a couple of decent chances in the 21st and 34 minutes when on each occasion he shot wide from just inside the area from relatively unchallenged positions.
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At the other end Reid was relatively under worked but he did have took lively to block a low cross from Stott at his left upright. The nearest to a goal came when in the 39th minute a cute over the top ball from MacPhee took out Duff and Souter and left Stott to produce a lob over the advancing Reid. As the ball reached the goal line a desperate retreat from Rennie allowed him to hoof the ball to safety from inches short of the vital line.

The second half saw Formartine right from the start resume the kind of quick fire, crisp passing game with which they had controlled the Inverurie team on Saturday. They never let up and Locos were in the end fairly fortunate to complete the game only one goal behind. It is hard to point to what made the difference – it was at least until well after the hour mark and they were ahead by then that they made in change to personnel. It was the same players in the same positions – albeit MacPhee pushed forward a bit further and more frequently - but one way or another they were generating a lot more pressure building up a good enough head of steam to burst the Locos boiler.

The game was played largely in Loco territory, so the defensive line was higher and midfielders were nearer to the forwards and Locos were struggling. In the 47th a MacPhee free kick about 30 yards out, right of centre beat all the defenders but ended with the diving Reid just managing to push the ball away from Rodger's boot for a corner. This ended with the same Reid at full stretch to tip the ball away after a Jevan Anderson header crashed in on goal. Locos eventually broke loose for a brief interlude in United territory but were unable to make anything of it and the pressure at the other end increased.

In the 58th minute a free kick about thirty five yards out to the right of the D was struck by Gethins to find its way past the wall and beyond the reach of the keeper. It was well worth a goal but rebounded off the base of the right upright to safety.

Pressure was still being ratcheted up and a chipped ball into the box by Gethins had Reid at full stretch to save by pushing the ball to safety off the face of Rodger.

Greig was stretching the defence and also delivering a number of teasing balls across the goal face. In the 60th one of these had Reid fully occupied to beat away his stinging low drive. However with the pace on the ball making it too hot to handle all the keeper could do was to deflect it forward left, but straight towards GETHINS who struck like a rattlesnake and had the ball in the net before anyone else moved a muscle.

United were well enough in command to sit out a one goal lead but they kept the pressure up and only some heroics in the home goal, the odd deflection and a lack of composure here and there in finishing kept the score where it was. It might have been different a couple of minutes from the end when a free kick thirty yards out looped over the wall and took a very late goal bound deflection before MacDonald with a superb reflex save dived right to push it away for an unrequited corner.

Who knows where the next round of this Cup which includes teams from England and Wales as well as “colts” teams from Premier League sides will take United.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie