Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Reid (GK)		5 apps	-
Craig McKeown		56 apps	11 goals
Jamie Michie		5 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		6 apps	-
Stuart Smith		74 apps	3 goals
Stuart Anderson		59 apps	12 goals
Graeme Rodger		6 apps	3 goals
Paul Lawson		6 apps	3 goals
Scott Barbour		6 apps	3 goals
Cammy Keith		72 apps	52 goals
Garry Wood		6 apps	4 goals
Neil McVitie (sub)		57 apps	12 goals
Neil Gauld (sub)		4 apps	-

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Scoring eight goals away from home on successive Saturdays must constitute some sort of a record for Formartine and at a minimum shows that they have overcome last season’s vulnerability to dropping points to persistent and decently organised teams from much further down the league. That constitutes clear evidence of improvement and the fact that goals are coming from all over the park [ 8 different players have contributed to this tally] shows cohesion in the ranks. Ironically, on a Saturday when Brora got rolled over, Formartine’s big win did not promote them beyond the 4th place they occupied before kick -off even if it does compress things interestingly in the top third of the table.

United got of their marks from the get go and after weathering a minor flurry from Lossie in the first minute, stamped their authority all over proceedings from the second onwards, when Barbour linking down the left with Stuart Smith cracked in a tight angled drive that crashed off the underside of the bar and via a rather fortunate goal keeper to temporary safety. Formartine were already into a free-flowing, high tempo rhythm that Lossie were struggling to contain. Big Garry Wood led the line impressively holding up the ball well and feeding those around him with with nods, dinks, chips prods and ordinary passes too and generally demonstrated sustained menace to a pedestrian but rather cynical home back line. Formartine pressure was simply so intense that it had to pay off, which it did in the 5th minute and again in the 7th. Balls played from the left to the back stick were causing mayhem in the home ranks and with Ross toiling to match the pace and trickery of Barbour, supply of these was abundant. The 5th minute opener was simply a case of a perfectly accurate delivery by Barbour to the head of ANDERSON who stooped a tad to direct the ball into the net an inch or two in from the upright from the range of a couple of yards.

The next was due reward to Barbour who Lossie struggled to pin down any more convincingly than Donald Trump can with his coiffure on a windy day, and the chunky wee forward powered his way into the box to rattle the ball past Hall from about ten yards out.

If Formartine had a weakness it may have been in what looked like a tendency to play cat and mouse and occasionally drop the tempo just enough to give their opponents a snifter of hope. Perhaps that under- estimates the commitment of a typically well organised Charlie Charlesworth side, but there seemed to be moments of casualness at times and Lossie who could possibly have been even more ruthlessly exploited than they were, got back to 2-1 after a bit of midfield laxity let Archibald loose to run into the box with only Smith between him and the keeper. The full back’s tackle was pretty well timed and there was minimal contact with the forward during it but down he went and ref MacFarlane pointed to the penalty spot. FLETT stepped up and drilled the ball low to the keeper’s right.

With three goals in the first ten minutes, this was going to be a goal fest and Formartine – killer instincts restored -produced another two goals in the next ten. They all count, but the difference in the elegance of their execution was on scale of polar opposites. Paul LAWSON’s 16th minute free kick from 20 yards had all the bejewelled beauty of Cartier egg as he curled the ball on a right to left dipping trajectory over and beyond the four man wall and neatly inside the keeper’s left upright. Two minutes later, Stuart SMITH’s back post effort, scuffed in with his knee following a corner from the left, was more of a Cadbury’s egg but just as important, as in putting his side 4-1 ahead it had the game almost hermetically sealed half way to half time.

You can hardly criticise them for going through a period of playing like they thought they had they game won because, barring miracles, that was the case. Champions don’t do that though, and the fact that there was no further scoring until the interval must reflect to some extent on the determination of the coasters to keep plugging away.
The second half began with Formartine back at full throttle and scoring twice in the opening three minutes. LAWSON completed his double with another scintillating free kick – a mirror image of the first. From roughly the same range and position about twenty yards out and a bit left of centre, he chose to squeeze this one in at the keeper’s side rather than the wall’s and did so with exactly the same precision as before and again the bemused but probably grudgingly impressed Hall was picking the ball out of the net.

Barely another minute had elapsed and Formartine had dispossessed their hosts and moving the ball about round their penalty area, set themselves up for their 6th. This time it was the turn of the silky if occasionally languid ANDERSON to complete his double. A free kick around thirty five yards out was fired in by Lawson to a densely populated penalty area and bobbed about a bit off various parts of the lower limbs of attackers and defenders before popping out to the edge of the area into the territory chosen by the crafty Ando. Seeing just a chink of light between himself and the net, he dropped a shoulder and taking the ball on the half- volley skelped it low and with searing accuracy into the left corner.
Still Lossie refused to roll over, kept their heads up and soldiered managing just enough to show hints of defensive frailty in the Formartine ranks. Leaving only Green up front they played effectively a bank of five and one of four and relied on the very occasional breakaway to pressure the visitors. One such saw sub Bellingham link with Green to set up Archibald who got one on one with Reid forcing an acrobatic rightwards leap to touch the ball onto the bar and away to safety before hesitation in the Formartine rearguard in the 64th minute – again centrally – let Archibald in for a one on one which he completed by slotting the ball past the left side of Reid for Lossie’s second and final effort.

With ruthless, clinical efficiency, Formartine took the centre and without yielding possession at all worked the ball via Lawson, Anderson, and Barbour to RODGER to draw the keeper, choose his moment, pick his spot and fire the ball home from about fifteen yards out. Formartine continued to dominate and the central defensive trio of Bell, Flett and Hector was beginning to ride its luck in taking turn about to foul Formartine forwards [ Barbour in particular] and required some talking to and card waving by ref MacFarlane.

The one sided affair continued at 7-2 until in the dying minutes Barbour raised his personal tally to 3 in two games. After another protracted siege to the home goal and working the ball along the front edge of a heavily packed box until he found the chink he needed, fired the ball through it and completed the rout.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie