Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Shearer (GK)		32 apps	-
Craig McKeown		30 apps	7 goals
Graham Hay		1 app (debut)	-
Stephen Jeffrey		23 apps	-
Stuart Smith		29 apps	1 goal
Mark Smith		3 apps	-
Stuart Anderson		16 apps	5 goals
Hamish Munro		26 apps	1 goal
Callum Bagshaw		29 apps	3 goals
Paul Napier		20 apps	1 goal
Cammy Keith		30 apps	22 goals
Calum Dingwall (sub)		14 apps	-
Marek Madle (sub)		1 app (debut)	-

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

	Graham Hay	(Signed )
	Marek Madle	(Signed July 25th, 2014)

Milestones

Encouraging though it was for Formartine to open their season by bringing back three points from Nairn, the circumstances in which they did so and the manner in which they achieved the win battling through against the odds to snatch victory at the end of a closely contested was, frankly, impressive. They arrived at Station Park, where they were beaten last season by the team that finished three points above them in the league without the services of new defender Duguid (with an eye socket injury) or midfield ball winners McVitie and Clark (both suspended for indiscretions during the latter part of the 13-14 season).

Formartine made the livelier start: Rusty Smith playing in front of a back four of Jeffrey, Stuart Smith, McKeown and new signing Hay, linked with Munro to release the effervescent Napier who forced MacDonald into a sliced clearance that yielded the first corner of the game. Anderson curled the ball in to near the back post. Again it was partially cleared but only as far as McKeown lurking out near the far corner of the box. He whipped the ball in to the head of Hay but the header flew marginally high and wide.

A minute later Nairn forced their first corner and it yielded a pop by Duncanson from the edge of the box. Shearer took it with languid ease. There was an end to end characteristic to the game at this stage, but Formartine were marginally ahead in terms of possession and territory. Cammy Keith and Napier were playing surprisingly well off each other, the former making a number of telling passes around the edge of the box and the latter hurrying and scurrying all over the place, was a menace to his markers. In the 11th minute the latter found the former with a well- timed diagonal ball that allowed Cammy to provide Anderson with a chance at the left side of the area. MacDonald was just sharper than the midfielder and hoofed the ball to safety.

Bagshaw was more industrious than effective in midfield, with a tendency to hold onto the ball until he ran into trouble rather than playing an early release, pass and move game. With Anderson looking a wee bit out of sorts (not as imperiously dominant as usual) there was something of a disconnect between the Formartine wider midfield areas and the front two. That said, the midfielder did provide Rusty Smith with a 21st minute chance which ended with Donaldson just managing to pluck the ball off the ginger mop of the big midfielder. A decent one two between Keith and Napie was completed by a hard low ball driven right to left across the goal face by the latter. Webb got just enough of a touch to divert the ball out for an unrewarded corner.
The home contribution at this stage was a route one effort from 30 yards out when the ever alert Gethins took a pop at a ball that Pollock and knocked into his path from a goal kick. It went wide.

As the first half ran out, Nairn were in the driving seat. Pushing for an interval lead they had Formartine pushed back into their own territory and worked the ball quite neatly around the edge of their penalty area. The Formartine back four were looking reliable. Hay at centre half was highly impressive, reading the game well, organising calmly and tackling immaculately –hard as nails but clean as a whistle – great signing. Possibly as a result of this influence or maybe by a quirk of fate, Jeffrey looked very reliable and began to put together what was probably his best ever performance for Formartine (but then with the arrival of Duguid and Hay as well as the return from an injury lost year of Rusty Smith, there is suddenly competition a plenty for berths at the back). Stuart Smith was his uber reliable self, defending solidly and making well timed breaks down the left flank. He did well to clear a Webb header from a corner and McKeown made a couple of last ditch clearances at this stage too.
This was probably the best Nairn had to offer, but Formartine, not always all that comfortably, dealt with it effectively.

The second half began with Formartine back on the front foot. McKeown slipped the ball to Munro who broke forward powerfully through midfield before releasing the ball to Anderson for a long range trundling shot that went inches wide. Bagshaw had picked up a knock in the first half and having failed to run it off was replaced by Marek Madle. He was deployed up front with Keith and Napier was pulled back to a more familiar wide midfield role. The game now had something of an end to end characteristic although Formartine were looking marginally the more dangerous. There wasn’t a lot in it but Madle was occupying defenders quite fully and sometimes doing this to more than one at a time. “Squish” Munro was getting through a power of box to box work and Webb had to resort to increasingly desperate measures to contain him. This ultimately resulted in a booking for the defender, but Nairn breaks were sharp and with Gethins there or thereabouts danger was never far away. The game was finely balanced.

A 58th minute shot from the wee Ulster man was blocked by McKeown as was a drive by Duncanson shortly after.
Nairn introduced two trialists but deadlock persisted and still both sides struggled to get the ball into the opposition penalty area. A good cross after a run down the left by Stuart Smith was cleared just before Keith reached it. Madle made an opening or two but Nairn were able to get bodies in to block.

A ball cut back from the bye line reached Pollock almost exactly on the penalty spot. The shot was venomously struck waist high and to the left of Shearer. The big keeper was down in a flash to turn it round the post for a stunning reflex save.

The game needed something out of the ordinary to divert its apparent course towards goaless stalemate and it was a bold final shake of the dice by Formartine manager Paterson that created the conditions for last gasp victory. With ten minutes to go, he introduced Dingwall for the tiring Rusty Smith. The sub is an out and out forward and was deployed as such, giving Formartine a 4-3-3 formation. They took the gamble that their defence was fit for what Nairn had left to offer and made a last push for victory -- and they had the remarkable Cammy KEITH.

Perhaps the striker had taken the hump at having recently been compared to a ruptured camel, but he answered this critic in the best possible way with an 89th minute winner: a goal out of nothing like only he can score. From a cross from virtually on the bye line by Napier the predatory striker slid in at the base of the near post and got just enough onto the ball to force it very narrowly past the keeper and into the net at the opposite corner.
That was it. Smash and grab. Three points to a Formartine side who chased and harried for every one of the 90 minutes and did just enough to merit a victory at a place where few of their competitors are likely to emulate them.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie