Appearances & Goals To Date

Shaun Barney (GK)		1 app (debut)	-
Stephen Jeffrey		35 apps	1 goal
Calum Dingwall		26 apps	2 goals
Craig Duguid		18 apps	1 goal
Stuart Smith		52 apps	1 goal
Graham Hay		24 apps	4 goals
Stuart Anderson		37 apps	7 goals
Callum Bagshaw		45 apps	6 goals
Hamish Munro		48 apps	2 goals
Cammy Keith		53 apps	39 goals
Marek Madle		20 apps	10 goals
Stuart McKay (sub)		51 apps	17 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Shaun Barney

(Signed )

Milestones

No need for an eye test - the score line is correct: Rothes, for the first time ever, really did manage to extricate points from Formartine. If ever there was a time when they would start a match with this as a realistic possibility, this was it. Formartine, continuing a run of disappointing (to put it mildly) results faced their hosts with a squad that was injury ravaged and further depleted for other reasons to the extent that the starting eleven included an on-loan goalkeeper (Shaun Barney formerly at Culter) and the bench comprised one squad regular in McKay, still on his way back to full match fitness, a promising youngster, from the under 17’s but untried at this level in Mathew Tewnion, and goal keeping coach Doak who is only marginally younger now than Methuselah ever was.

However despite the shortage of resources, they didn’t really have a player forced to play out of position and at the end of the day, the factors contributing to the dropped points seemed to be more attitudinal and psychological. More than anything, it was one of those days when luck was against them throughout.

This was a game that Formartine dominated from the start and where overwhelming advantage in terms of territory and possession simply failed to yield the third goal that they pursued resolutely for over an hour. Rothes rode their luck like a jerky roller coaster but held on for the draw that they would value like a victory; Formartine confirmed that they are in the throes of a slide that needs urgent reversal.

The game started with Formartine pressing down the right flank and inside right channel where the combination of Munro and Madle offered pace and muscle enough to rattle the home rearguard. Breaks down the other flank were less frequent but still looked menacing enough to get the ball to the predatory Keith in a position from which he could despatch the ball to the net. The Rothes tactic was simple enough: get the ball to McIntosh and hope his pace would be enough to get him and the ball in behind the Formartine back four of Smith, Duguid, Jeffrey and Hay where it could be fed to MacMillan to finish.

With 16 minutes gone and very little previous incursion into Formartine territory, Rothes snatched an opening goal that derived indirectly from that pattern. McIntosh was off at pace down the left and clearly had the legs to trouble Jeffrey. As the nippy wee forward looked to be getting away from the defender a yard or two in from the left corner of the penalty box, Jeffrey decided to slow him down by grabbing a handful of orange lycra and yarking him back into range. The inevitable penalty was delivered hard and low in at the base of Barney’s right upright by MacMILLAN after Jeffrey had been shown the yellow card.

This looked like little more than a blip in Formartine’s forward progress and they resumed their onslaught in pursuit of what at that time their supporters saw as eventual victory. That belief was fostered for a few minutes while Anderson pulled strings and orchestrated play in a way that no one in the home side could emulate. Bagshaw made a couple of powerful runs through the middle, one of which extended literally from box to box and the home side was pretty well pinned back in the final third. There were shots from Munro, Madle and Keith that went close and one from a tight angle on the right by Madle that brought a good save from home keeper Horne.

It seemed only a matter of minutes before Formartine pressure would deliver the passport to respectability but the fates and match officials decreed otherwise when both contributed to a bizarre second goal for Rothes. Again it was the Macintosh/ MacMillan combination spearheading a Rothes breakout that was at the heart of the attack but with a back four well orchestrated by Hay pushing forward, MacMillan was left about two yards offside and MacIntosh about the same again further ahead when Dunn lofted a ball in their direction. Assistant Farquhar raised his flag and play more or less stopped (at least it paused identifiably) in anticipation of the offside whistle everyone but ref Watt assumed was inevitable. It never came, and almost embarrassedly, more in hope than expectation, MacINTOSH skelped the ball into the net from about twelve yards out. The ref, well behind the action throughout, was surrounded by protesting players consulted his assistant but inexplicably let the goal stand.

To be two goals adrift away from home at any ground in the SHFL is serious stuff and Formartine were left with an hour ad ten minutes in which to pull the fat from the fire. They resumed their forward momentum, but Rothes who are very well versed in damage limitation, set up their stall to protect their goal at all costs even if attacking play was sacrificed in the process. Initially it seemed that this would be their undoing and Formartine managed to steady the ship quite quickly. With almost their first attack Bagshaw forced his way into the box before going to deck under a challenge from Dunn. There was some contact but the extent of its illegality might be debated.
However, if some atonement for the previous execrable refereeing decision was indicated it may have found expression in a charitable responses to Formartine appeals for penalty which was willingly and promptly given. Cammy KEITH sent the ball hard and low to Horne’s left as the keeper flung himself to his right.

At only one goal adrift and over an hour left, Formartine were restored as favourites and the odds shortened considerably when BAGSHAW scored his third goal in successive games with a swift accurate delivery in a crowded penalty area from a position right centre of goal about fifteen yards out in the 29th minute. A further goal before half time would probably have set things up for a comfortable Formartine victory but Rothes, digging in, got bodies behind the ball [generally 8 or 9 at a time] and frustrated Formartine quite successfully until the interval.

In fact they frustrated Formartine quite successfully until full time too. The second half saw incessant Formartine pressure with Rothes making no more than five brief incursions into their territory during that period. Formartine tried and tried and tried to get their noses in front but Rothes were having none of it. They were the masters of getting something, anything really, behind the ball at crucial moments. Anderson, Keith, Munro, Hay, Madle, Duguid and Dingwall all had fleeting moments when they looked like being able to get off a shot before it was somehow blocked by some part of some Rothes player. Keeper Horne had in fact little of note to contribute as his team mates protected his domain tenaciously.

What Formartine lacked most in all this was confidence. When this is low, players are frightened to make mistakes and tend to take that extra cautious touch before letting fly with a shot. It is that extra caution that gives the marker the time to get the block in. The more frustrated Formartine got, the easier things were to defend. MacKay replaced a tired looking Dingwall and did a bit to rejuvenate Formartine’s attack by getting in a snapshot that Horne did well to beat away from the base of his right upright and a cutely flighted diagonal ball that grazed the cross bar before being turned away for an unrewarded corner. A twenty odd yard free kick by Duguid looked net bound all the way before it too was pushed out for another corner. An indication of Formartine dominance is to be found in the tally of corner kicks 19 -1 in their favour.

However, the fact that 19-1 in corners still ended up 2-2 in goals says it all. Formartine are battling their way through a rather nasty slide at the moment. Time will tell whether their players have the appetite, resilience and character to pull them through. Their luck, and that was part of it in this game, has to change too.

Match report by Colin Keenan