Huntly0–0Formartine United

Formartine failed to meet expectations in failing to extract three points from Huntly and being unable to score in the process. It is a result that does serious if not exactly irreprable damage to their hopes of lifting the league title for the first time. They played not too badly at times and over the piece where they had distinct territorial advantage their inability to get the ball into the net when confronted with a number of cast iron opportunities to do so cost them dear. So too did a lack of problem solving ability on the pitch. Confronted by a team that was prepared to get right in their faces and fight for every ball every inch of the way, they persisted with pretty much the pattern they started with and showed little sign of recognising that there was a time when it wasn't working for them and a different approach was needed.

They started brightly enough: Park made a strong run through the inside right channnel, shrugging off the attentions of Still and Ross in the process and got the ball across right into the goalmouth where Wood in the midst of a ruck of players found no route to get the ball over the line before it was scrambled hastily away. Successive waves of United attack foundered as the close marking tactics of Huntly denied them space in the final third and it became gradually apparent that United who didn't use the wider areas as much as they often do were struggling to open up the home defence. They went closein the 18th minute [one occasion when they did use the width of the Christie Park pitch] when Greig jinked his way in from wide left skipping past two defenders in the proces, getting keeper Farquhar to commit himself before dribbling past him too. However his shot was blocked on the line by Murison and hacked away. Park seized on it right of centre, 15 yards out and hammered the ball goalwards but Farquhar back on station managed to push the ball over the top for an unrewarded corner.

The balance of play was with Formartine but Huntly made the odd incursion into visitor territory. In the31st Thoirs tried a long range effort but it wasn't close enough to work a rather under-employed Main. At the other end a period of United pressure saw, both Wood Rodger denied when shots were blocked by sheer weight of numbers in a severely crowded goalmouth.


United started the second half with renewed vigour and Huntly responded by even more vigorous man marking and were persistent enough in it to win more than a fair share of “second balls”. As the intensity mounted the ref struggled to keep a lid on things and resorted to heavy use of the yellow card. In the 61st Liam Strachan received a second yellow for a foul on Meres and United were reduced to ten. This did little to blunt United's attacking instincts but led to more breakaway opportunities for Huntly as when following a United attack when a Clark header went over the top Huntly attacked down the inside left route and Meres from twenty yards out and with only Main to beat smacked the ball off the left upright.

With both teams battling to break the impasse challenges became meatier still and there were more goalmouth incidents. United should have trousered the points in the 76th when a pin point cross by sub Lisle reached the head of Wood about four yards out from goal and only lightly marked. He took time with his header but still contrived to direct the ball a foot wide of target. Still was dismissed in the 84th minute for a second yellow and the game raged end to end as both sides threw caution to the winds in a fruitless hunt for victory.