Appearances & Goals To Date

Kevin Main (GK)		17 apps	-
Jevan Anderson		43 apps	1 goal
Joe MacPherson		4 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		105 apps	5 goals
Stuart Smith		204 apps	19 goals
Stuart Anderson		176 apps	32 goals
Graeme Rodger		148 apps	51 goals
Paul Lawson		74 apps	19 goals
Ryan Stott		9 apps	3 goals
Archie MacPhee		53 apps	38 goals
Conor Gethins		78 apps	33 goals
Andrew Greig (sub)		28 apps	11 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Seven days before this game, Formartine beat Fort William by 8 goals to 2 and three days before it, Strathspey drew 1-1 with Fort William prompting the resignation of their manager on the grounds that his side were under performing. Managerless Strathspey then go on to take two points off United after looking for long enough like they would take all three. These were the first points they have taken off Formartine since both joined SHFL nine years ago: a week is a long time in football.

To describe this as a shock result not only underestimates the quality of Thistle's performance but is at variance with the fact that Formartine have dropped eight points out of the last 12 possible. There were warning signs, particularly in the defeat at home by Wick. However the contrast between a team so recently pursuing 20 plus wins on the trot and the extent of its recent collapse in achievement is stark indeed.

Such lapses in performance seldom have a single direct causal explanation but it is possible that a combination of injuries to key players allied to an over- adherence to squad rotation may have had a major part to play. On the current injury list are the club's three biggest players (physically): centre backs McKeown and Henry and Wood who plays either in central defence or leads the line up top. All are in the 6' plus category and also injured is who many would consider to be the hardest player in the squad, midfield ball winner Wayne Macintosh. With gaps like that in the squad some will argue that squad rotation then becomes a luxury – possibly an unaffordable one.

Without experience at the back and a ball winner short in the middle demands made on the forwards increase significantly and the rotation of Greig and Fraser to the bench at this time may appear, on reflection, to have been a step too far.

In this game United struggled at the back and also up front. When that happens in any side, they have a big problem and Strathspey, as far as they were able to do so, cashed in.

There was little sign of problems to come over the first ten minutes: United pressed hard down the left flank with Smith forcing his way forward to feed Stott whose cross into the centre yielded a free kick a few yards shy of the left corner of the box. Lawson struck a curler that screwed past the keeper's right upright. At the other side Crawford and MacPhee combined but the attack held the ball long enough for the highly energetic home defenders to crowd them out and smother it.

A Gethins header went over the top and a cross cum shot from wing back Smith had the keeper scrambling desperately back as it slipped inches the wrong side of the junction of upright and crossbar. A promising enough start for United. They definitely had the better of territory and possession and were pressing.

Thistle were however quick on the break and there were warning signs: trialist Duncan and the two Lisle brothers were prepared to cover a lot of ground and in the 10th minute on the back of a break through the left centre by Cameron Lisle Thistle got the ball to Duncan who had the time and space you get in the Tardis before thumping his shot high and wide. They had got the ball into the United box and had had a sight of goal. From that point on, by dint of a high work rate that earned them a good share of second balls, they clawed their way into a game that had initially been in United's control.

Although the balance of pressure still lay with Formartine, Strathspey breaks were conducted at pace and with numbers – it was clear that there was ambition for more than just respite for the defence – they were after a goal and they got it. It came in the 17th minute after a break that started left of centre but moved over to the inside right area where a ball into the area by Lee was only partially cleared and Mochan, quickest to react had the ball instantly under control and slipped it through to Scott LISLE whose ran unchecked into unprotected space right of goal and rifled the ball home from a fairly tight angle fifteen yards out.

That was the Formartine fat right in the fire and the effect of the goal was enormous on both sides: it looked like there was a huge transfer of confidence from Formartine to Thistle. The improvement in the home side playing with pace and belief contrasted with a big rise in back biting and disarray amongst the visitors. It was from then on that United's problems up front and at the back began to become clearer.

Up front, the play was skilled but elaborate: repeatedly United would get the ball to the final third and work it around the perimeter of the box without being able to penetrate it. Frequently this would end with it being played back out wide again before being lofted back into an area dominated by players taller and stronger than Stott and Gethins and the attack would end. What MacPhee and Stuart Anderson gave was certainly skilled and sophisticated but this was a game that needed something more simple and direct. But there was no Gary Wood (injured) or Andrew Greig (benched) on the park to offer that dimension.

At the back, the young centre backs, who look genuine prospects, sometimes played as if they expected to get more time on/with the ball than Strathspey were prepared to allow them. Grantown on Spey is a far cry from developmental football at Pittodrie as far as that is concerned.

Despite this United still made a few chances the best of which probably fell to Stott who twice got one on one with keeper MacCallum. The first time in the 28th prompted a decent stop and the next - a bit more of a half chance from about 15 yards five minutes later, wasn't far off target. Overall though, half time came as a relief to an increasingly fraught United.

They re-started in better fettle and took the game quickly to Thistle just like they had at the start of the first and it was clear that the pattern of the second forty five was to be of Thistle sitting deep and trying to hit on the break with United pressing hard. The midfield area was pretty well controlled by S.Anderson who provided a decent supply of balls to Rodger, MacPhee and Stott. Shots by Gethins and Rodger both brought good saves by the big home keeper and around the 59th minute there was period of seige laid by United on the home goal area. It yielded four successive corners each of which caused some difficulty for the massed ranks of defenders but none of which reached the net. A shot by Rodger from about 12 yards had MacCallum at absolute full stretch to finger tip the ball to safety.

Although it still looked like United would turn things around enough to take the points. The odds shifted dramatically when player manager Lawson was sent off on the hour mark for an over vigorous attempt to retrieve the ball from the home technical area where it was being detained in a time wasting ploy.

Gethins was replaced by Greig who introduced a direct element to the attack. He made repeated breaks down the left and into the home box and for all that the numbers were 11 to 10 Thistle were forced onto the back foot and with the exception of two or three breakaways that necessitated mass retreat from United, they were kept there. Pressure was ramped up and United got a deserved lifeline in the 77th minute when GREIG, cutting in from the left took the ball almost to the goal line checked back a few yards to make the angle from which to skelp the ball past MacCallum to equalise.

The remaining thirteen minutes produced more of the same as United threw lock stock and barrel at Strathspey in a vain attempt to avoid a highly embarrassing defeat. For all the pressure, it yielded few shots on target. Thistle held out well and deserved their point. For United things can only get better.

Match report by Colin Keenan