Programme cover / Team sheet
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Queen of the South 4 - 1 Formartine United
Scottish Cup - 3rd RoundSaturday, November 24th, 2018, 3:00 PM at Palmerston Park, Dumfries
Attendance: 931
Referee: Gavin Ross
| Queen of the South | Formartine United |
| Goalscorers |
|
Stephen Dobbie (2) Stephen Dobbie (8) Lyndon Dykes (42) Scott Mercer (67) |
Garry Wood (28) |
| Team Managers |
| Gary Naysmith | Paul Lawson |
| Starting Eleven |
|
Jack Leighfield Scott Mercer Jordan Marshall Callum Fordyce Michael Doyle Andrew Stirling Kyle Jacobs Josh Todd Stephen Dobbie David Norman Lyndon Dykes |
Kevin Main Jevan Anderson Johnny Crawford Stuart Smith Stuart Anderson Graeme Rodger Andrew Greig Archie MacPhee Aaron Norris Kieran Lawrence Garry Wood |
| Bench |
|
Alan Martin Callum Semple Connor Murray Owen Bell Robbie Ivison Daniel Irving Ross Irving |
Ewen MacDonald Craig McKeown Joe MacPherson Paul Lawson Liam Burnett Conor Gethins |
| Substitutions |
|
Connor Murray for David Norman (69) Callum Semple for Michael Doyle (71) Owen Bell for Kyle Jacobs (80) |
Liam Burnett for Kieran Lawrence (80) Conor Gethins for Garry Wood (84) Joe MacPherson for Johnny Crawford (84) |
| Bookings |
| None. |
Stuart Anderson (66) |
| Red Cards |
| None. | None. |
Appearances & Goals To Date
| Kevin Main (GK) |
|
29 apps | - |
| Jevan Anderson |
|
56 apps | 2 goals |
| Johnny Crawford |
|
116 apps | 6 goals |
| Stuart Smith |
|
218 apps | 20 goals |
| Stuart Anderson |
|
190 apps | 33 goals |
| Graeme Rodger |
|
162 apps | 57 goals |
| Andrew Greig |
|
42 apps | 18 goals |
| Archie MacPhee |
|
66 apps | 45 goals |
| Aaron Norris |
|
12 apps | 1 goal |
| Kieran Lawrence |
|
39 apps | 2 goals |
| Garry Wood |
|
121 apps | 63 goals |
| Joe MacPherson (sub) |
|
13 apps | - |
| Conor Gethins (sub) |
|
89 apps | 36 goals |
| Liam Burnett (sub) |
|
61 apps | 7 goals |
Starting Lineup
| Youngest Player: | Jevan Anderson (18 years 270 days) |
| Oldest Player: | Kevin Main (36 years 255 days) |
| Average Player Age: | 27 years 48 days |
| Domestic Players: | 11 (100.00 % of starting eleven) |
Matchday Squad
| Youngest Player: | Joe MacPherson (18 years 85 days) |
| Oldest Player: | Kevin Main (36 years 255 days) |
| Average Player Age: | 27 years 109 days |
| Domestic Players: | 16 (94.12 % of matchday squad) |
First Team Debuts
Milestones
The team bus left North Lodge Park at 5pm on Friday and by 8 minutes past 3 on the Saturday afternoon, Formartine's cup dream was shattered more or less beyond redemption. The long hurl from North East to South West had led to the team being put swiftly to the sword by the “Doonhammers” favourite son, ace striker Steven Dobbie delivering a cruel demonstration of difference between a team of full timers in the top half dozen of the Championship and a part time one at the same level in the Highland League and it came down simply to sharpness. If United were going to take anything at all from this game, they were going to have to deliver at their absolute best from the first kick of the ball through to the final whistle. Sadly, they demonstrated what has become to be almost their norm of late, a slow start. In their previous game, closely watched by a member of Queens coaching staff, they conceded two early goals before clicking up through the gears and cruising to a 5-2 doing of the detested Locos. Queens had obviously noted that deficiency and had set out their stall to exploit it as ruthlessly as possible and before the game was ten minutes old Formartine were left with a mountain to climb and super striker Dobbie had a brace under his belt and looking for a hat trick.
The home side hit United hard and early and although the first goal had an element of luck to it in that it was the product of a vicious deflection, it nonetheless proved that you can't really let Dobbie get on the ball anywhere near the box without subjecting your side to severe danger. In the second minute, down near the right edge around five yards from the goal line with both Jevan Anderson and Stuart Smith in very close attendance he managed somehow to spin off them and check back enough to find a chink through which to strike a fierce, angled, rising shot off his left foot. Main looked like he had it covered but it struck the shoulder of one of a ruck players on the way and changed course from a saveable destination left centre of goal to the extreme top left corner where Main may have just got a fingertip to it but certainly not enough to prevent DOBBIE opening his account.
That was a hammer blow and United needed to settle but Queens, eager to cash in, were throwing a lot forward and had United if not quite under the cosh, certainly firmly contained within their own final third. Over the next 5 minutes they pushed three up front, spearheaded by Dykes with Todd and Dobbie feeding off him. Shots were frequent but at this stage, the United rearguard supplemented by Kieran Lawrence who did a power of work breaking up play round the fringes of the box, seemed to be coping. However in the 8th minute that was shown to be deceptive when a well worked goal – almost certainly a product of the full timers' training ground went a very long way to put them in the draw for Round 4 of The William Hill Scottish Cup. After a chase by Main to prevent the ball going out for a corner he managed to get it to the relative safety of a throw in about 7 or 8 yards in from the goal line. Mercer threw the ball to Dykes near the corner of the 6 yard box who turned initially away from goal, creating just enough time for a couple of team mates to help disguise the run of DOBBIE as he sneaked into space about 15 yards out and in line with the left stick. Crucially he had gained the time and space to collect the ball there. Fatal. He'd already tasted blood and scented more as he delivered a viciously accurate drive beyond the reach of Main into the net for number two.
OK, United had come back from two down against Locos the previous week and gone on to win, but it wasn' Locos they were playing this time but a highly efficient side that had put 3 past Caley thistle the week before. Despite that Formartine entered their best phase of the game and showed that not only could they find answers to the questions that QOS asked of them but that they were well able to ask some of their own. They began to press forward and as they did put enough pressure on the home midfield and defence to start winning a commendable percentage of second phase balls thereby ramping up the pressure on the Palmerston side. United weren't quite bossing it at this stage but were certainly giving at least as good as they got and perhaps just a wee bit more. A cross from MacPhee in the inside right channel found the heavily marked Wood and the ensuing header had keeper Leighfield scrambling to push it away from near his right upright. Greig managed a couple of sneaky low balls across the goal face and with Rodger pressing hard through the middle, mistakes were being made at the back. These resulted in the odd optimistic try from the 20 plus yard range but efforts of that nature by Rodger, MacPhee, Norris and left back Smith failed to draw any effort from the keeper. Wood remained a constant thorn in their flesh and was double tagged by Doyle and Fordyce every step of the way.
The pressure was there and sustained. Just before the half hour mark, it reached a crescendo when a barrage of shots from Greig, MacPhee, Norris and Wood were scrambled away with increasing difficulty by the home defence. Enough pressure was put on the defenders to impede their capacity to get the ball away from the danger zone and on the 30th minute WOOD bursting in from the right, shaking off his markers got the ball about ten yards from goal and from a tightish angle, thumped it past the keeper for 2-1 and at that point with an hour left to play, United could dream again.
Over the next few minutes their pressure was sustained and the home rearguard didn't look nearly so impregnable. Woody had another go and flashed a header across the goal face that went inches wide of the back post and a dipper from MacPhee was only slightly too high. It looked like Queens were on the back foot. However United were still behind and what they needed most to do – hold the score line and sustain the momentum until the interval they just couldn't quite manage. It was all about sharpness really – or that and Dobbie.
Just before the interval, United had quite comfortably contained a sort of route one attack by QOS and Jevan Anderson, on the ball left of centre 30 yards out, was rather languidly looking around to size up his options when out of the blue, popping up on his blind side is Dobbie who did enough to discombobulate the teenager and pick his pocket. He then simply squared the ball across the box to give strike partner Lyndon DYKES an easy finish at the back post for 3-1.
The second half was almost all about Queens. United worked away but truth be told, they were largely dancing to the tune that Queens played. The home side remained the sharper of the two and without utterly dominating proceedings, they still had the lion's share of possession ánd Main was beyond any doubt the busier keeper. An amazing sprint off is line to tackle Dobbie who had been set through by Marshall won the ball and cleared the danger and two low diving saves from the same player helped to keep the score line in respectable limits until after a period of sustained pressure round the United box where shots from Stirling and Dykes were blocked in the 6 yard area, the ball broke to be picked up thirty yards out by MERCER who, standing on no ceremony, simply hammered it high into the far corner of net. That was it. United's remaining challenge was simply to stop the margin of defeat increasing. Queens ran down the clock relatively untroubled thereafter.
Overall, United did themselves some credit by showing that at their best, they were fit to handle a side at QOS level. They were able to do so for about fifteen minutes either side of the interval but not overall enough to beat a full time side as slick as Queens over 90 minutes. It was a big ask and they did well but slow starting is clearly an issue they have yet to successfully address.
Match report by Colin Keenan
Photography by Ian Rennie