Formartine United 1 - 0 Inverurie Loco Works 

Highland League Cup - 1st Round
Saturday, November 16th, 2019, 3:00 PM at North Lodge Park, Pitmedden
Attendance: 261
Referee: Scott Leslie
Formartine United v Inverurie Loco Works, Nov 16th 2019, North Lodge Park, Pitmedden
Formartine United  Inverurie Loco Works

Goalscorers
Graeme Rodger (77)
None.

Team Managers
Paul Lawson Neil Cooper

Starting Eleven
Kevin Main
Johnny Crawford
Darryn Kelly
Stuart Smith
Stuart Anderson
Wayne Mackintosh
Graeme Rodger
Kieran Lawrence
Aaron Norris
Scott Lisle
Garry Wood
Andy Reid
Mark Soutar
Greg Mitchell
Sam Burnett
Eric Watson
Ryan Broadhurst
Calum Dingwall
Neil McLean
Neil Gauld
Jonathan Smith
Ryan Stott

Bench
Greg Sim
Michael Clark
Liam Strachan
Paul Lawson
Conor Gethins
Gary McGowan
Daniel Park
Jamie Michie
Tom Reid
Craig Gill
Andrew Watt
Jordan Cooper
Kyle Gordon
Morgan Cook

Substitutions
Daniel Park for Scott Lisle (64)
Gary McGowan for Kieran Lawrence (77)
Tom Reid for Greg Mitchell (54)
Jamie Michie for Sam Burnett (64)

Bookings
None. None.

Red Cards
None. None.
Appearances & Goals To Date
Kevin Main (GK) 66 apps -
Johnny Crawford 137 apps11 goals
Darryn Kelly 8 apps1 goal
Stuart Smith 249 apps24 goals
Stuart Anderson 223 apps34 goals
Wayne Mackintosh 64 apps6 goals
Graeme Rodger 206 apps71 goals
Kieran Lawrence 80 apps2 goals
Aaron Norris 41 apps3 goals
Scott Lisle 22 apps13 goals
Garry Wood 163 apps79 goals
Gary McGowan (sub) 25 apps8 goals
Daniel Park (sub) 36 apps10 goals

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Scott Lisle (21 years 198 days)
Oldest Player:Kevin Main (37 years 247 days)
Average Player Age:29 years 90 days
Domestic Players:11 (100.00 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Liam Strachan (21 years 10 days)
Oldest Player:Kevin Main (37 years 247 days)
Average Player Age:29 years 265 days
Domestic Players:17 (94.44 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones

For the North Lodge faithful, the only thing better than beating Locos is to do so with a bit of style. In this Highland League Cup encounter, they managed the former without achieving the latter, scraping home after a rather dour, albeit never dirty, battle by Graeme Rodger's crucial late winner and defending that slender margin for the final ten minutes or so.

Conditions were excellent and United opened brightly with a speedy break down the right by Norris who crossed to back post to Lisle whose header had Reid fully occupied to push the ball round the post for a corner. A couple of minutes later United pressed again. Crawford made a run down the right before slipping the ball to Rodger whose shot from the penalty spot was hurriedly blocked by Watson. The response to that was a well wide shot by Stott off a Smith feed.

The game settled fairly quickly to the pattern that persisted more or less for the rest of the tie. Locos with a 4-4-2 formation had marginally the better of possession but United set up a tad more agressively with a 4-3-3, made rather more and more dangerous attacks when they were not bogged down in midfield endeavours.

In the 14th minute Rodger powered his way forward from that midfield, exchanged passes with Norris before offloading a crisp drive that was only narrowly wide of target. Locos responded five minutes later through Dingwall whose 25 yard effort at the other end met a similar fate. For the most part though it was a midfield battle relieved by occasional flurries of excitement when the odd counter attack came together such as when a Dingwall pass reached Smith in the 6 yard box and although Main had things covered the Englishman elected to bundle him into the goal. The keeper needed some treatment before resuming.

The tempo lifted a bit as half time approached and an Anderson corner reached Wood whose shot flew over the top. This was a couple of minutes before Locos' MacLean fed Smith down the right channel but the first time shot was anticipated and saved by Main. For United, Lawrence forced his way down the left twice in as many minutes. In the first instance he played in Norris whose cross was scrambled away by Broadhurst. Next he fed Lisle who slipped the ball inside to Wood whose strong low drive could only be palmed away by Reid.

The second half brought more of the same - more huff than puff really - with Locos generally shading possession but United making rather better chances on the counter. In the 47th Anderson brought in Lisle on the right to launch a cross cum shot which slid just wide of the far post. United ramped up the pressure with their first period of sustained attacking pressure round the 55th minute. Just after MacLean had fired a Gauld feed harmlessly wide and Kelly had calmly cleared a Stott run and shot, Formartine began a mini seige on the visitors' goal. Norris smacked a shot from the left edge of the box and a struggling Broadhurst trying to head clear managed only to head the ball onto the roof of his net with keeper Reid well beaten. A minute later a raiding run by Mackintosh finished with Reid pulling down a Rodger header from just under his bar before being pushed to tip a Wood header from a deflection of a Lisle cross over the top. As this pressure continued a Smith header was blocked just shy of its destination and a Wood overhead kick forced Reid into two attempts to scramble the ball to safety. Locos survived the onslaught and the game resumed its more midfield pattern until he 77th minute when Wood, Rodger and Anderson combined for Norris to head the ball goalward only for Watson to clear. A minute later the deadlock was broken: Smith advancing from left back played in Wood who timed his release of the ball to RODGER to perfection. The midfielder shaped his shot to beat Reid all ends up and all but seal the tie.

United shut up shop, pulling Wood back to reinforce the rearguard: Locos lacked the creativity to counter this and Formartine simply ran down the clock to seal the victory.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

None.

Programme cover / Team sheet