Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Shearer (GK)		34 apps	-
Craig Duguid		2 apps	-
Graham Hay		3 apps	-
Mark Smith		5 apps	-
Stephen Jeffrey		25 apps	-
Stuart Smith		31 apps	1 goal
Stuart Anderson		18 apps	5 goals
Neil McVitie		26 apps	4 goals
Cammy Keith		32 apps	25 goals
Paul Napier		22 apps	2 goals
Sam French		1 app (debut)	1 goal
Hamish Munro (sub)		28 apps	1 goal
Callum Bagshaw (sub)		31 apps	3 goals
Marek Madle (sub)		3 apps	-

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Sam French

(Signed August 12th, 2015)

Milestones

Formartine were expected to win this, their first home game of the season, at a canter: they did just that. They have won every previous encounter against a team which generally completes its season as near to the foot of the league as Formartine do to the top. The destination of the points was unlikely to be a significant issue but the nature and extent of the home victory would be an indicator of early season form of a side with aspirations to the title. In the end, the scale of the victory was reasonably reassuring while the manner of its execution pointed to a limited extent to difficulty in converting pressure into goals.
Captain McKeown sat this one out as an automatic suspension following his red card at Keith in midweek. This prompted some rearrangement in the ranks of the rearguard with Duguid coming in at right back and Jeffrey moving into the centre alongside Hay. The splendidly consistent Stuart Smith retained his usual left back role. Midfielder “Biscuits” McVitie had the Captain’s arm band and Munro dropped to the bench. Although the degree of change may seem significant, that starting eleven would not be too distantly related to the manager’s first preference.
The pairing of Napier and Keith is a new one but it seemed to offer some positives against Keith and certainly did so in this game. Napier is fast, with a low centre of gravity and drags defenders about the park and out of position creating at times the space that Keith needs to exercise his lethal finishing capacity. In the end this was more than Rothes could contain and the pair produced three goals between them. That must be a positive.

So, too, is the arrival of Sam French. He is a big loose-limbed lad with obvious pace and upper body strength who, as the game progressed, made more and more demands of Lamberton and Dunn and topped off his 70 minutes or thereby with a simple but calmly executed goal.

Formartine had the whip hand from start to finish but for the greater part of the first half, Rothes maintained shape and discipline enough to provide a decent level of midfield resistance to their hosts. Formartine were the slicker and sharper side but not at that stage by an awful lot. “Rusty” Smith’s prolonged absence meant that in this game he more than lived up to his nickname. From a holding midfield position his distribution often failed to reach his usual higher standard, but French, Anderson and McVitie buzzed about and generally set shape and tempo. Most Formartine pressure came down the right where Napier had the legs on Ewen. This yielded a couple of early chances when a thumping Keith drive from Napier’s feed rebounded to safety from Horne’s left post and another from a similar twenty yardish range, went just over the top. A crisp drive from Anderson fizzed centimetres past the left post. Formartine were well on top and Rothes, although playing quite competently with decent shape and composure were doing little to threaten the home side. In the 16th minute another period of slick pass and move stuff carried out at a blistering tempo was completed by the striking pair both getting in behind the visiting defence. This time the move came down the left. Sam French got past Lamberton and out- muscled the challenge of Winton to bring the ball into the box, working almost along the bye line before cutting it diagonally for Napier whose drive was beaten out into KEITH territory and the striker banged home his third goal in as many games.

Anyone who thought that would lead to a swift demise of Rothes was badly mistaken and the visitors kept their shape and form and although pressed back for most of the time made a few creditable forays into Formartine territory. Keith, Napier and Anderson each had close efforts but failed to get the ball into the net. Corner kicks yielded a couple of decent but slightly too high headers from Hay but Formartine were unable to make a quick addition to their lead. In the 29th minute instead of increasing it as planned, they lost it. Hesitancy by Mark Smith near the centre circle let in the quicksilver McINTOSH who took off like a stoat with a turbo, slithered his way between defenders and unleashed a peach of a shot from a bit over twenty yards out. The ball curled and dipped beyond the reach of Shearer and hit the back of the net before Formartine really knew what had hit them.

Stunning though that goal was, it had little more than a transitory effect on the game and the pattern of Formartine pressure and a decently organised visiting side trying to sit in hoping to pick up something on the break was maintained. Something had to give but it took Formartine until just before the interval to get their noses in front. A one two between French and Keith ended with the latter’s acutely angled drive hitting the side netting and another Hay header went just wide before NAPIER got the goal that settled his side. A period of sustained pressure by Formartine desperate to regain their lead before the break, was completed when the born again striker, his doup on the deck, got a fully extended right leg to a low ball that came fizzing right to left across the goalmouth out of a ruck of players to the right of the box. He managed to somehow get enough control and leverage to chip the ball over the advancing Horne for a peach of a finish.

The second half saw a significant change as increased tempo by an altered Formartine side raised their game. Anderson had limped off before half time to be replaced by Munro and Rusty Smith was replaced at the break by Bagshaw. The second half was only three minutes old when Sam French demonstrated his finishing prowess. The move was initiated by pacy new full back Duguid breaking down the right flank to feed Napier who got the ball to McVitie to the right of goal. A jink and a turn made the space for the Captain of the day to deliver a perfectly judged pass to bustling forward on his left. FRENCH had the composure to pick his spot and deliver the ball from about 5 yards out well beyond the range of the keeper.

This was really the death knell of Rothes who began to lose shape and rhythm as Formartine proceeded to pummel them. Wave upon wave of Formartine attacks pinned the visitors down into their own final third. A combination of 8 or more behind the ball, panicky finishing attempts by Formartine and sheer fluke prevented the absolute rout that initially looked to be on the cards around the hour mark. Every Formartine forward had shots at goal some were poorly struck, others diverted by last ditch defending and at least once by the woodwork and some saved by Horne. The harder Formartine tried the worse it got. Sub Madle had two excellent chances: the first, to the right of goal, ended as he tried just too hard to do the right thing by taking a touch to control the ball before leathering it first time. He just gave that split second for a defender to nudge him wide. The second was when facing an open goal he managed to scoop the ball over the top from 8 yards out.

A 4-1 win is respectable in any circles and it was Cammy KEITH completing his double that also completed the score line in the 69th minute with a classical downward header from a corner on the left. The ball struck the goal line and rebounded high into the net.

The score line was decent and so too most aspects of the performance. A bit more confidence up front will help the goal difference stats as the season progresses, but this was a decent display on the splendidly newly re-developed pitch that augurs well for the season ahead.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

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