Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		62 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		120 apps	7 goals
Joe MacPherson		18 apps	-
Stuart Smith		223 apps	21 goals
Paul Lawson		76 apps	19 goals
Stuart Anderson		195 apps	33 goals
Graeme Rodger		169 apps	60 goals
Liam Burnett		67 apps	8 goals
Archie MacPhee		73 apps	54 goals
Scott Ferries		63 apps	9 goals
Conor Gethins		96 apps	39 goals
Ryan Stott (sub)		21 apps	7 goals
Aaron Norris (sub)		19 apps	2 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Last time out, up at Wick, Formartine struggled for goals before emerging victorious with the game's only goal which took until the 93rd minute to arrive - possibly the latest opening goal in the club's SHFL history. This time around, North Lodge experienced a veritable goal-fest that saw a number of existing club records (within the context of their time in the Highland League) broken. This bonanza saw them rack up their biggest ever goal tally in a game (previously 11) and the largest winning margin (also 11). Ironically, if not surprisingly, all the previous records were set in a home win also against Fort William, back in the 2010/11 season.

Fort manager Kris Anderson was initially optimistic about his youthful players' capacity to give United a run for their money with a pre match quote that unless quickly forgotten, is likely to haunt him for a while when he said he had ”a hungry young side travelling to Pitmedden, vastly improving and keen to impress”. In the event it was really more a case of boys against men. It was not that Fort were devoid of talent or fitness, it was simply that they were nowhere near street wise enough to cope with United's squad of seasoned professionals who had all been around the block often enough to know how to offset whatever the Lochaber boys could bring to the party. The difference could be seen in seconds when straight from the kick off United blazed their way down the left flank with Burnett and Ferries overlapping before the latter forced the first corner before the game was a minute old.

This was ample notice of the Formartine firestorm that was to follow where the pattern of fast, well patterned attacking play by United had the visitors hemmed well into the final third at the Oldmeldrum end. Fielding a starting 11 with 8 changes from the one at Wick, a number of those returning from injury like full backs Crawford and Smith at the back and those more recently starting from the bench like Gethins, Burnett and Ferries up front. United were fresh and invigorated by competition for places that meant they had plenty of players out to battle for a regular starting berth.

They opened the scoring in the 11th minute when MacPhee and Rodger combined to spring FERRIES who burst in from the left to clip the the ball home from 12 yards out.
A minute later Gethins having cooly taken a forty yard pass from behind with his instep, went down in obvious pain and was substituted by STOTT. The sub took a minute or two to slot in up front before opening his account in emphatic style with a quick fire double. Both came through the inside left channel and with two goals hammered home in as many minutes from near the left corner of the box it was clear that the visitors were vulnerable in that area. Optimism trumped caution and rather than choosing to shore things up in that department, they tried naively to fight fire with fire and managed one promising break through the middle by Rennie with Grant and Knowles inside him to the right, forced prompt action by keeper Macdonald who was out in a flash to boot the ball clear. The attack had left a gap through which scorched FERRIES to collect his second bang on the half hour with a blistering drive from a yard or two right of the left corner of the box. The game was well won now and the only issue at stake was the eventual scoreline. At four nil down away from home, most other teams would either “park the bus” and go for damage limitation or give up. Not so Fort William, they battled on trying to put their hosts under pressure.

Five minutes later began the Archie show with the first of 7 goals in 45 minutes. The move for this started with Crawford breaking down the right flank before flipping it over to MACPHEE unmarked and onside a yard or two beyond the back stick. Neat as ninepence he slid the ball from that acute angle past Burstow into the far corner of the net. Number 6 came from Liam BURNETT in the 38th minute just after a Rodger piledriver rebounded off the right upright. It was a solo goal as the speedy forward slipped inside MacIntyre and outpaced McKillop before slamming the ball left to right into the net. Yet another from the inside left route.

The half time score line was established at 7-0 when a bit of a rammy in the box found RODGER on hand to bang home a rebound from Stotts shot from the left central edge of the box.

The second half saw no change to Fort's determination to make a game of it and that inevitably left United with an embarrassing number of opportunities. Fort had not really invested much in the idea of doing their defending further up the pitch and were largely content to leave it to designated defenders in the final third. This was meat and drink for United, MACPHEE in particular, who proceeded to rattle in half a dozen goals in the space of about half an hour. A quick fire hat trick with goals in the 50th , 55th,and 58th minutes took United's tally into double figures. The first two were a result of his slipperiness on the edge of the box as he dragged the ball right to left before turning to beat a marker and firing a crisp ping into the net from that range. The third was a tap in at the back stick following a Stott feed.

The record equalling eleventh completed STOTT'S hat trick in the 70th minute when in the aftermath of a corner on the right, he picked up a loose clearance wide left, broke forward into the box and banged the ball home from fifteen yards range. Not to spare the cliché, but against the run of play, Fort pulled one back two minutes later and it must be said that it was a cracking good goal too. With United committed to attack a clearance found its way to sub Morrison who exchanged passes with MacIntyre. He slipped the ball into the pacy CARROL who still had forty yards or so to go. Continuing his drive through the centre until MacDonald approached he cooly slotted home from the edge of the area.

Another couple by MACPHEE in the 75th and 82nd minutes was split by one from full back CRAWFORD in the 78thminute. Fort were tiring by this stage and United had brought on the fast fresh legs of Norris to further torment them. His pace and persistence in the area short of the Fort box set up the first of the pair for MacPhee and the second was a fair replica of a couple of other trademark ones where he spun off a marker to turn and shoot through the gap he had created. Crawford's was a result of the right back foraging in forward areas, dragging defenders wide and taking a return near the edge of the box and driving it home.

Although this was a decent run out for United that let them field a number of players that for various reasons have seen limited top team game time of late, none of them was significantly tested in the process. It's to Fort William's credit that they never showed any signs of trying to spoil the game to protect the scoreline, but there was enough naivitee about it that made for a rather less than challenging experience for United players all of whom showed profesionalism in their commitment in never letting up throughout the 90 minutes.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie