Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Shearer (GK)		56 apps	-
Calum Dingwall		32 apps	3 goals
Graham Hay		31 apps	7 goals
Stephen Jeffrey		41 apps	1 goal
Stuart Smith		59 apps	1 goal
Stuart Anderson		44 apps	8 goals
Gary Clark		38 apps	1 goal
Hamish Munro		54 apps	2 goals
Cammy Keith		59 apps	42 goals
Marek Madle		27 apps	16 goals
Paul Napier		47 apps	4 goals
Craig Duguid (sub)		22 apps	1 goal
Liam Paterson (sub)		2 apps	-

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

After winning the first half comfortably enough by three goals to one, Formartine struggled to draw the second, one- all. For a club that has the ambition and funding in place for a serious tilt at the title, a capitulation of this nature against a team that has seldom risen above the dizzy heights of the bottom three in the league is really bad news. It is clear that Formartine are no longer title contenders this season and at times that showed in their play when passages of insipid, lacklustre going through the motions kind of stuff albeit these were interspersed with spells of decent pass and move football that their visitors were unable to match.

4-2 may seem a decent enough winning margin but it was the manner in which it was achieved with yet another serious drop in performance in the second half being a cause of particular concern. They had set out their stall with attack clearly in mind with near enough to 3-5-2 formation. The back three being Jeffrey, Hay and Smith; Munro, despite wearing a number2 on his back, was largely deployed on the right side of midfield. The intent was fine and Formartine have often used this formation to good effect In the past, but – initially at least – they were rusty at it and Thistle got some early cuttance by stretching the three and pressing on the flanks.

For the first five minutes United got the ball into Strathspey territory and kept it there almost continuously. They squeezed hard and Stuart Anderson was pulling the strings. One passage with the silky midfielder at the heart of it produced at least twenty passes in and around the Thistle box before Munro had a sight of goal from the right side of the box and let fire with a drive for goal. The shot was ill-directed and went wide of Keeper Steve Dunn’s left upright. From the resultant goal kick his side broke forward at pace with Kerr and Peters spearheading an attack that ended when hay dispossessed the latter with a well timed tackle just short of the box. Another passage of similar stuff with Formartine again laying siege to the Speysiders’ ended with a good Dunn save from an Anderson snapshot before another breakaway wide on the right came near to creating a shock opening goal for the visitors. McAuley managed to get away from Hay who was having to patrol a wider beat than usual (because he was part of a 3 rather than a 4). The forward got near to the right corner of the box and whipped the ball across the 18 yard line from where Peters banged the ball into the net. Offside (a pretty tight looking call) was given and Formartine breathed again.

They only did so for about a minute though before being caught out again by another quick, initially wide break. This time the ball was worked down the left before being played into the inside left channel for McSHANE to leather the ball hard and low past Shearer’s left hand into the net.

This ninth minute shock was an embarrassment and an annoyance to Formartine who simply returned to their attacking dominance. Again the ball was moved about smartly and Strathspey were well on the back foot. Again Anderson was orchestrator in chief and a mixture of some really commendable goalkeeping by Dunn and varying degrees of inaccuracy in finishing from Napier, Munro, Keith, Madle and Dingwall delayed Formartine’s inevitable equaliser by ten minutes. It came after their third corner in about as many minutes. This was delivered from the left by Anderson and the ball found its way into a forest of forwards and defenders only a step or two in front of the Strathspey goal. MADLE is a good man to have in a stramash and managed to impose himself forcibly enough but still legally to get the ball into the net from close range.

This was the platform that Formartine needed to build a victory on and over the next twenty five minutes they did just that. Strathspey were on the rack during this period but with eight or more bodies behind the ball, they did a decent job of frustrating their opponents. They are clearly practiced in the arts of damage limitation and used the inevitably crowded conditions to force Formartine out to the flanks more than they would have wished.

The home pressure was however really intense and within ten minutes of the equaliser, ANDERSON put them ahead with a blistering 20 yard drive. After various goal attempts had rebounded off legs, ankles, knees chests and buttocks Thistle had another wee breakaway. It was comfortably enough contained but had the incidental effect of clearing some of the logjam in the Strathspey box. A route one goal was the Formartine answer. Shearer punted the ball up the park, Madle got on the end of it and slid it diagonally to Anderson near the left corner of the box from where he absolutely leathered it into the net which it reached at about waist height after a slight nudge from the left upright.

Things continued as before and Dunn was in outstanding form in denying Keith and Anderson again with top drawer saves. Still the box remained over populated as Strathspey continued to batten down the hatches. Big HAY had had enough of the frustration and just on the stroke of half time took matters into his own hands as he dribbled in from the right corner of the box and using skill and strength worked his way to a shooting position about 12 yards out and banged the ball into the net for 3-1.

This looked like being enough to win the game: problem was it looked like too many of the Formartine team thought so too. Strathspey did not share that opinion and all of a sudden what had been a visibly one-sided affair returned to an evenly balanced one. Formartine failed to notice that Strathspey had far better possession than formerly and were by and large giving as good as they got. The comfort of the 3-1 margin eroded to a much nervier 3-2 within 10 minutes or so. For the third week in a row, failure to properly defend a set piece cost Formartine a goal when in the 55th minute a Borthwick corner on the right was forced home by WARDROPE.

This energised Strathspey as much as it panicked Formartine and the standard of play became scrappier and more frenetic. The tempo was high but there was little fluency. Formartine tried to get back on top but have yet to learn that getting back on top once you have let things slide is very, very difficult. They had their moments – a clever free by Anderson along the 18 yard line to Napier was inspired enough even if the finish was a miscued slice. Callum DINGWALL, celebrating a rare top team start pulled the fat out of the fire with a couple of minutes to go with a well taken goal. After a bit of Thistle pressure, the ball was played out of defence to Munro who saw the chance and played a long through ball to the young forward who outstripped Wardrope and Maley got into range and clinically slotted the ball beyond the reach of Dunn.

This added a tinge of respectability to a second half performance that barely merited it. This had all the appearance of end of season stuff from a team where some players simply lack the appetite for better than they are currently delivering.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

None.