Appearances & Goals To Date

Errol Watson (GK)		5 apps	-
Craig McKeown		123 apps	19 goals
Michael Clark		4 apps	-
Stuart Smith		240 apps	23 goals
Stuart Anderson		206 apps	34 goals
Graeme Rodger		188 apps	65 goals
Andrew Greig		68 apps	24 goals
Wayne Mackintosh		51 apps	6 goals
Gary McGowan		9 apps	5 goals
Scott Lisle		4 apps	3 goals
Garry Wood		145 apps	72 goals
Liam Strachan (sub)		4 apps	-
Kieran Lawrence (sub)		63 apps	2 goals
Conor Gethins (sub)		113 apps	44 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Formartine have played remarkably well in winning three of their first four games of this season which makes last week's defeat against Fraserburgh, when they didn't reach anything like that standard, a bit of a mystery. Every team has the odd blip but in this League those who have serious title aspirations can afford precious few of them. However the way this side went about it's business against a team who trousered all three points the last time they met sent out a clear statement about their ability to impose themselves on a decent side with enough force and conviction to all but overwhelm them and to show in the process that their appetite for honours remains undiminished.
Wick are one of those teams who on their day pick up points against top end sides with their own brand of slick, quick pass and move football and few teams go to Harmsworth Park without a degree of apprehension. Formartine showed none of that as they set out from the opening whistle to run them ragged. Setting out their stall in what was effectively 4-1-4-1 formation they mounted a succession of slick attacks down each flank. Almost straight away they had Wick in trouble. A move down the right started by Mackintoh brought in McGowan and Greig and concluded with a rather desperate last ditch challenge on the wide man that produced an unrewarded corner. The pressure was sustained and another couple of corners quickly followed. In the 9th minute and in response to an attack from the left, Rodger weaving his way into the box was tripped from behind barely a yard in from the left corner. LISLE sunk the spot kick blasting the ball hard and low past the keeper.
United had tasted blood and liking it, mounted wave upon wave of attack in the quest for more. Wood was the spearhead who held up the ball while aggressive midfielders flooded forward to feed off the spoils. Rodger and Lisle did it from the left while McGowan and Greig completed them on the right. Ten minutes later Greig having created mischief with a mazy run in from the right flank got on the end of a blocked drive from Wood that rebounded to him before he lashed the ball past McCarthy from little more than 10 yards out. The home side were in deep trouble and had only limited influence on the course of events. They could and did occasionally break at pace but most of that was from Gunn and without colleagues to match that pace he was reduced largely to speculative efforts from relatively long range. Holding up the ball was not his forte and McKeown and Clark weren't in any mood to let him try anyway.
33 minutes in and LISLE doubled his tally with a fierce 20 yarder that put the result beyond the slightest doubt. United sustained the same level of pressure with repeated waves of attack and were a tad unfortunate not to have extended their lead by the interval.
Wick made no personnel changes to start the second half and suffered accordingly as United simply continued to boss them about all over the park. It took them little more than ten minutes to elevate a victory to a bit of a tonking as in the 55th and 58th minutes. First McGOWAN who astutely drifted off Steven who was trying to mark him in a densely populated box and rifled home a ball in from his right from 15 yards out and then LISLE clipped one home from pretty near the penalty spot. It could have been more but Wick went into damage limitation mode and Wood was twice denied by the woodwork. However, 5-0 at Wick is not a scoreline that many have or will in future achieve, but the difference was that great.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie