Formartine United 5 - 2 Fort William 

League Match
Saturday, January 11th, 2020, 3:00 PM at North Lodge Park, Pitmedden
Attendance: 150
Referee: Paul McAvinue
Formartine United v Fort William, Jan 11th 2020, North Lodge Park, Pitmedden
Formartine United  Fort William

Goalscorers
Graeme Rodger (11)
Aaron Norris (23)
Aaron Norris (49)
Graeme Rodger (56)
Graeme Rodger (79)
Roddy Kennedy (4)
Ross Gunn (80)

Team Managers
Paul Lawson Calum McLean

Starting Eleven
Kevin Main
Michael Clark
Johnny Crawford
Darryn Kelly
Andrew Greig
Graeme Rodger
Liam Strachan
Scott Lisle
Aaron Norris
Kieran Lawrence
Garry Wood
Matthew Kilboikai
Gabriel Hastings
Ryan Fyffe
Harry Nicholson
Donald Morrison
Jack Brown
Kieran Chalmers
Ross Gunn
Roddy Kennedy
Jordan Morrison
Raffal Mendyk

Bench
Errol Watson
Stuart Smith
Paul Lawson
Wayne Mackintosh
Conor Gethins
Jordan Leydon
Gary McGowan
Ruiradh Munro
Ruaridh MacDonald
Dylan Wilson
Athors Ludrorzs
Josh Knowles
Daryl Taylor
Craig McKay

Substitutions
Jordan Leydon for Garry Wood (60)
Conor Gethins for Aaron Norris (65)
Gary McGowan for Andrew Greig (72)
Josh Knowles for Jordan Morrison (65)
Ruaradh MacDonald for Raffal Mendyk (85)
Ruiradh Munro for Ross Gunn (85)

Bookings
None. None.

Red Cards
None. None.
Appearances & Goals To Date
Kevin Main (GK) 74 apps -
Michael Clark 20 apps3 goals
Johnny Crawford 145 apps11 goals
Darryn Kelly 16 apps1 goal
Andrew Greig 84 apps25 goals
Graeme Rodger 214 apps74 goals
Liam Strachan 21 apps -
Scott Lisle 30 apps14 goals
Aaron Norris 49 apps5 goals
Kieran Lawrence 86 apps3 goals
Garry Wood 170 apps79 goals
Jordan Leydon (sub) 16 apps2 goals
Conor Gethins (sub) 133 apps48 goals
Gary McGowan (sub) 29 apps8 goals

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Liam Strachan (21 years 66 days)
Oldest Player:Kevin Main (37 years 303 days)
Average Player Age:27 years 97 days
Domestic Players:11 (100.00 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Liam Strachan (21 years 66 days)
Oldest Player:Kevin Main (37 years 303 days)
Average Player Age:29 years 240 days
Domestic Players:17 (94.44 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones

From United's perspective, the prospect of this game had a large element of “hiding to nothing” about it. They were clearly expected to beat Fort by a comfortable margin despite missing Smith, Anderson and McKeown from defence and Daniel Park from the forward line, while Fort had the potential boost of both a new manager and the presence of John Robertson, manager of Inverness CT to run a proprietorial eye over his youth players who comprised the bulk of the starting eleven. These last two factors could well have been enough to bring about a boost to their performance and United were only one game beyond as poor a run of form as they had endured for long enough. It was not without risk.

This game originally scheduled for Claggan Park was re-arranged for North Lodge because of waterlogging at the Lochaber ground, started ten minutes late after the Fort William team bus was delayed by an accident on the A96. The delay mattered not a whit to the West Highland youngsters who rocked United right back on their heels with a stunning early goal. A break through the inside left channel by Kennedy and Morrison split a dithery looking central defensive pairing of Clark and Kelly leaving the former isolated in no man's land about 12 yards beyond his right corner of the box and KENNEDY with clear sight of goal at the edge of it. Without any second invitation he hammered the ball left footed off the underside of the bar and into the net.

That 4th minute bombshell set the cat among the pigeons dispelling any thoughts that the youngsters would be easy pickings. United had to respond and needed to do so quickly. They immediately began a pattern of running hard and direct at defenders and pushing them onto the back foot. In the 7th minute, Strachan slipped the ball through the inside left channel to Wood. As Nicholson moved to tackle the big striker, he was nutmegged leaving Wood in space on the left side of the box. RODGER blazing his way down the inside right path, collected Wood's cross near the back post and cracked it home low to the keeper's right.

United settled quickly and with superior physique in most parts of the park began to really impose. The visitors nonetheless showed that they could break with pace, skill and shape. Chalmers and Kennedy were impressively quick but just a tad short of the guile needed to get the better of the older heads in the home team. In the 24th minute United deservedly got their noses in front after some sustained pressure. They had worked the ball left to right and back again in front of the box. Both Norris and Greig had managed to get crosses in but these had been more or less dealt with until NORRIS whipped a low one right to left towards Lisle and quickly followed in behind it. Before it was fully cleared, he was alongside Lisle to clip the ball into the net from about 10 yards.

Formartine were in control by now but still needed to be wary of quick breakaways by Fort William. In the 41st minute Morrison cracked in a vicious dipping 25 yard effort from beyond the right corner of the box that Main was relieved to see fly narrowly over the top. Wood on the back of a Lisle feed hammered one that had keeper Kilboikai at full stretch to finger-tip away from the base of his left upright.

United had all but secured their points four minutes after the interval when an attack initiated by Greig on the left set up an assault near the right corner of the box with Wood, Lisle and Norris all threatening. NORRIS was nearest to Greig's cross and from 20 yards skelped it viciously past the keeper into the far top corner.
United’s domination continued and Graham RODGER doubled his tally 7 minutes later capping off a strong run from midfield past a couple of defenders before slotting the ball accurately past the keeper.

He was in man of the match form and scenting a hat trick completed it in style in the 79th minute with a blistering run through the inside right channel, that almost transfixed those who tried to dispossess him. After leaving three or four defenders for dead he capped his display by ripping a 30 yard drive that the keeper had no hope of touching let alone stopping on its way into the top left corner of the net.

A minute later a speedy break through the middle by GUNN caught United over- committed to attack and gave the speedy forward the time and space to get on one with Main to make the scoreline a touch more respectable.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

None.

Programme cover / Team sheet