Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Reid (GK)		15 apps	-
Stuart Axten		4 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		16 apps	1 goal
Jamie Michie		8 apps	-
Calum Dingwall		46 apps	4 goals
Stuart Smith		83 apps	5 goals
Paul Lawson		15 apps	5 goals
Jamie Masson		4 apps	1 goal
Graeme Rodger		16 apps	6 goals
Neil Gauld		12 apps	2 goals
Cammy Keith		81 apps	59 goals
Callum Bagshaw (sub)		60 apps	8 goals
Max Berton (sub)		2 apps	-
Scott Barbour (sub)		16 apps	6 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Manager Kris Hunter kept his promise to “freshen things up” in the wake of the previous Saturday’s narrow defeat by league leaders Cove; however with his hand being forced by injuries to Captain McKeown and right back McVitie the anticipated light shuffling of his pack looked more like something measurable on the Richter scale. In addition to Axten and Michie replacing the injured defensive pair, Keith, Dingwall and Masson were given the nod over Wood, Barbour and Anderson. Formartine have never failed to win at Claggan Park, but have usually struggled more than anticipated and have rarely achieved their end without living through a few hairy moments. With Fort reputedly delivering decent performances of late, the possibility of Formartine slipping on the proverbial banana skin was at the back of a few minds. Fort had proclaimed that they had as many as eight absentees but they’ve made that sort of call before and most of the familiar names like Moffat, Hardwick, Quigg, Broomfield, Foggo and MacLeod duly trotted onto the pitch at 3 p.m sharp.

Formartine went for them right from the off with Lawson orchestrating things from deep midfield spraying about the passes that brought the front pair into action. Within a couple of minutes a move down the right from a ball clipped down the line by Michie brought in Keith to thread it through to Rodger who danced along the 18 yard line before releasing a fierce shot on the turn that fairly fizzed past trialist keeper Hunter’s left upright. The intent was clear: Formartine were out to bully this lot from the outset. The pattern that was to persist more or less throughout was clear from that moment on: Formartine were out to lay siege to them with a constant bombardment that the home side attempted to contain more than counter by setting up two banks of four. Given the intensity of the Formartine pressure, these two banks of four were regularly crushed into one of eight. Fort were prepared to defend deep and pursue the occasional break if and when Formartine made a slip [which given the degree of change was not altogether infrequent] or when they got lucky, or both.
In the 6th minute, Cammy Keith knocked a feed from Rodger back a few yards to Lawson who drilled a hard low drive between defenders. It looked net-bound until keeper Hunter produced a top drawer dive to his left to touch the ball round the post for a subsequently unrewarded corner.

Formartine continued to ratchet up the pressure. Breaks by Stuart Smith down the left flank stretched the home back eight until, from one that had been continued virtually to the corner flag, the ball was delivered via Rodger to Gauld. The wee striker drove the ball on a low diagonal from left to right and just as it was about to make its way into the net inside the back stick KEITH nipped in to enhance his personal tally and applied the last touch.
With just over half an hour of the first half remaining things were set fair for Formartine to set themselves up for a biggish win. A break through the middle by McLeod supported by Taylor on the end of a clearance caught Formartine napping and Fort showed a vicious streak that brought them within a micron of equalising. McLeod’s shot was low and hard and Reid did very well to parry it – it carried far too much venom to be dealt with any other way. Taylor was in like a cobra for the rebound which was hoofed to safety from the goal line by Michie as Axten looked on rather nonplussed by the suddenness of it all.

Normal service was immediately resumed and Formartine returned to the offensive. Masson had been causing some anxiety in the Fort ranks by taking on players one to one in the crowded confines of the box and play was confined predominantly to and around the Fort penalty area.

Something had to give and Formartine’s persistent pressure yielded a second goal in the 23rd minute. There had been a succession of corners none of which had been really cleared and the area around the goal was a heaving maelstrom of striving bodies. Fort eventually got the ball partially clear –to about twenty five yards out but it was promptly knocked back into the mix which had thinned out just a bit as Fort tried to push out and regain some shape. Dingwall in the inside right channel got the ball over to a point beyond the back stick where MASSON brought it under immediate control before a cute drag back side-lined Moffat and gave him the space from which to clip the ball neatly beyond the reach of the keeper.

The pattern of near incessant Formartine pressure continued until the interval. The home keeper did well to contain the deficit to two goals with decent saves from Keith, Gauld, Rodger and Lawson. The best of the bunch was after a twenty yard free kick by Lawson from a central position. The shot hoodwinked the wall and looked to be on course to enter the net at about shoulder height and a foot or so inside the right post before a spectacular dive by Hunter positioned him to touch the ball away to safety. Fort managed two breaks in this period neither of which concluded with shots on target but the game was beginning to look a bit stale as the Fort back eight clogged up the final third enough to constipate Formartine attempts to extend their lead.

The second half started with a wee flurry from Fort. This was better news for Formartine than Fort as it gave the visitors more space in which to operate. The first Fort William flurry was simply dealt with by the immaculate Crawford who simply pinched the ball of McLeod’s toes at the edge of the area and set up a neat counter attack and the next ended the same way except that it was Foggo whose pocket Crawford picked. However it was the home side’s temerity in trying to have a go for the first ten minutes that put the game completely beyond their reach as Formartine took their haul to four. Lawson took it to three in the 49th minute following a corner from the left. The ball had been partially cleared but United regained possession almost immediately and Rodger hoisted the ball back into the goalmouth. Gauld had a go but the ball was hacked away but only as far as LAWSON who cooly and precisely slotted it beyond the reach of the keeper.

The comfortable victory became a big win five minutes later as Graeme RODGER finished a fast free- flowing interchange of passes by Lawson, Gauld and Keith by ramming the ball home from fifteen yards or less out from the right post. Fort returned to their single bank of eight and concentrated on damage limitation as Formartine threw everything at them. They made chance upon chance and Masson beginning to slot in to the side now, had a hand in many of these, a large percentage of which fell for Gauld. The striker has done little wrong, at least as far as is known, in this life but it is clear that he must have transgressed majorly in a previous one, as the gods had clearly chosen this sunny Saturday in Lochaber to mete out their punishment. There was no spate of toads or casting of teeth but every time he got sight of goal there was a sign from the gods that he would not score – there were slips, miraculous tackles, bobbles of the ball and the odd wild miss. You can’t blame Gauldy the gods had decreed the punishment and it won’t last forever. Substitutions were made with Barbour, Bagshaw and Berton replacing Michie [Dingwall moving to full back], Lawson and Keith. Berton looked the part skinning Macrae , Campbell and Hardwick and setting up a couple of chances for the gods to torture Gauld.

In the very last minute Fort got their consolation goal – a well taken one that came from a lapse in Formartine concentration when in their eagerness to get a fifth goal they had over- committed to attack. Macleod broke through the middle with TAYLOR to his right and completed the move with a cross ball that the wide man completed with an immaculate diving header to ram the ball in at Reid’s right upright.

This was a strange looking Formartine team that performed quite decently in the circumstances. It is unlikely that the same eleven will start against Barry Ferguson’s Clyde in the next game but however messy it looked at times, this team went to Fort William and got all the points as usual but – and few other Formartine teams have done so – taken them easily and without going through a rocky patch to do so.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie