Formartine United 1 - 2 Fraserburgh 

League Match
Saturday, August 3rd, 2019, 3:00 PM at North Lodge Park, Pitmedden
Attendance: 421
Referee: Graham Beaton
Formartine United v Fraserburgh, Aug 3rd 2019, North Lodge Park, Pitmedden
Formartine United  Fraserburgh

Goalscorers
Stuart Anderson (88)
Paul Campbell (44)
Ryan Cowie (78)

Team Managers
Paul Lawson Mark Cowie

Starting Eleven
Kevin Main
Craig McKeown
Michael Clark
Johnny Crawford
Stuart Smith
Stuart Anderson
Graeme Rodger
Andrew Greig
Liam Strachan
Scott Lisle
Garry Wood
Paul Leask
Owen Cairns
Aidan Combe
Ryan Cowie
Sean Butcher
Michael Rae
Jamie Beagrie
William West
Paul Campbell
Paul Young
Scott Barbour

Bench
Errol Watson
Paul Lawson
Wayne Mackintosh
Gary McGowan
Conor Gethins
Kieran Lawrence
Jordan Leydon
Andrew Hannar
Greg Buchan
Logan Watt
Kieran Simpson
Edward Flinn

Substitutions
Gary McGowan for Liam Strachan (55)
Kieran Lawrence for Stuart Smith (72)
Conor Gethins for Andrew Greig (72)
Kieran Simpson for Sean Butcher (62)
Greg Buchan for Aidan Combe (80)

Bookings
Graeme Rodger (30)
Michael Clark (77)
Garry Wood (77)
Jamie Beagrie (30)
Paul Campbell (90)

Red Cards
None. Jamie Beagrie (56)
Appearances & Goals To Date
Kevin Main (GK) 51 apps -
Craig McKeown 121 apps19 goals
Michael Clark 2 apps -
Johnny Crawford 135 apps11 goals
Stuart Smith 238 apps23 goals
Stuart Anderson 204 apps34 goals
Graeme Rodger 187 apps65 goals
Andrew Greig 66 apps23 goals
Liam Strachan 2 apps -
Scott Lisle 2 apps -
Garry Wood 143 apps71 goals
Kieran Lawrence (sub) 61 apps2 goals
Conor Gethins (sub) 111 apps43 goals
Gary McGowan (sub) 7 apps3 goals

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Liam Strachan (20 years 270 days)
Oldest Player:Kevin Main (37 years 142 days)
Average Player Age:28 years 295 days
Domestic Players:11 (100.00 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Liam Strachan (20 years 270 days)
Oldest Player:Kevin Main (37 years 142 days)
Average Player Age:30 years 11 days
Domestic Players:17 (94.44 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones

This was, by any measure, a bad result for Formartine: last season ended with the Broch in third position and United in fourth - not a lot in it really - but on the basis of this performance in United's first home game of the season there is a significant gap between them with Fraserburgh holding the whip hand. They came with a largeish, highly vocal support and showed a greater appetite and work-rate more or less from start to finish. They were clearly the hungrier side and from the foundation of a rock solid defence ground Formartine down persistently and determinedly until the point that their hosts seemed to run out of ideas. It was only a single goal victory but it looked rather more comfortable than that margin suggests. Fraserburgh played a fair chunk of the second half with ten men after Beagrie was red carded for a second bookable offence. Formartine were unable to capitalise on this and although both sides adapted to the change, the visitors by sitting deeper and leaving only Barbour up top, relying on quick, slick but by no means frequent counter attacks exploiting the pace of Cairns and Young to bring him into attacking action and United trying to play as much as possible in Broch territory. By sitting deeper, Fraserburgh largely nullified United's numerical advantage and by failing to spread play wider than they managed, United failed to cash in on their advantage. It wasn't so much tactical deficiency on United's part but Broch's ability to impose their will very determinedly indeed on United to the extent that even with ten against eleven they were by and large calling the shots.

Almost predictably the game started at a superfast tempo and rapidly took on the end to end characteristics associated more with a cup tie than a league game. Within a couple of minutes Barbour had forced his way down the left, cut in and tried a shot that the alert Main blocked comfortably with his feet. A minute later Wood and keeper Leask challenged for the ball near the left front corner of the box ā€“ it was a bit like the meeting of the irresistible force and the immovable object as the ball spun away to relative safety. In the eight minute, Greig did just enough to squeeze half a yard out of Cowie and get the space for a shot on the turn that forced Leask into brisk but effective action to take the ball.

The game was still going on at its initial furious pace maintaining its end to end nature but by the mid point of the first half United who had seemed to be forced to dance, however slightly, to the visitors' tune began to impose themselves a bit more. Wood was asking the Broch defence a few questions some of which were answered with tackles of dubious legality. One such led to a free kick twenty yards out in the ā€œDā€ in front of 18 yard line. McKeown elected to take it but made a proper Horlicks of things, booting the ball way too high and all but into the car park.

A fair old niggle had been developing between the no 7's ā€“ (Beagrie and Rodger) and following a right goalmouth stramash when Leask looked like he had brought Wood down illegally near the base of his right post a few fists were raised. Penalty claims were waved away and both Rodger and Beagrie were booked before normality resumed.

However much of this match had end to end characteristics, defences dominated and it looked like goals were going to be at a premium. United probably had slightly the better of possession in the latter part of this first period and it came therefore as some surprise when with almost the last kick of the ball before the interval Fraserburgh forced the opening goal. A move from deep on the right initiated by Cairns took him thirty or forty yards up the park before he picked out CAMPBELL ahead of him to the left. The striker found enough space to launch a fairly speculative looking shot that Main pushed away to only temporary safety as the striker following up on his initial effort leathered the ball home.

Formartine started the second half on the front foot and began, initially at least, to squeeze the Broch down at the village end. Their most common ploy was to play longish balls up to Wood for him to run fairly directly at defenders The visiting defence was well enough organised and also regularly supplemented by midfielders to make room in which the 6'.3'' striker could manoeuvre rather restricted. However United were battering away to limited avail and the Fraserburgh defence held out fairly comfortably. United's moves were repetitive enough to become predictable and something had to change. McGowan came on for Strachan who seemed to be having limited impact, but the pattern didn't change much However the pressure was sustained enough for Beagrie, already booked for his contretemps with Rodger to be dismissed following a high late challenge on Wood in the 57th minute.

There should have been enough time left for Formartine to press home their numerical advantage and in the 63rd minute, they all but equalised when Greig having made headway wide on the left, cut in and from only a few yards in from the goal line hammered a fierce angled drive that had Leask at full stretch to get just enough of his left hand on the ball to touch it away for a corner. However the Broch plan was to sit deep, suffocate the life out of United attacks and respond with occasional very fast counters. Each time they did this they carried some sort of menace: twice Main was in action once to deny Barbour with a block that sent the ball spinning up and onto the roof of the net and another to hold a firm accurate shot from Campbell. However in the 80th minute, United's inability to seriously penetrate the Fraserburgh defence cost them dear. Another period of pressure on the visiting rearguard was relieved by a swift break through the middle started by Cairns and enough to draw a foul on Campbell about twenty five yards out. COWIE took the free kick and leathered it at the goal. It took a slight defection but enough to shift the flight of the ball beyond Main's reach. It also shifted the chances of victory beyond United's reach.

They weren't short of spirit and kept plugging away. A Lisle run into the box followed by a fierce shot from 25 yards almost paid off but the ball flew a couple of inches wide of Leask's right upright. The 88th minute gave United the consolation of a rather scrappy goal when an uncharacteristic misunderstanding in the visitors' back line allowed ANDERSON, in the wake of a corner on the right, to force home a cross cum shot from McGowan at the back stick.

It was too little and far too late: United had lost a not just a crucial three points but they had been bettered by a side that looked hungrier than they were.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

None.

Programme cover / Team sheet