Appearances & Goals To Date

Shaun Barney (GK)		3 apps	-
Graham Hay		26 apps	4 goals
Calum Dingwall		28 apps	2 goals
Craig Duguid		20 apps	1 goal
Stuart Smith		54 apps	1 goal
Stuart Anderson		39 apps	7 goals
Callum Bagshaw		47 apps	7 goals
Neil McVitie		46 apps	10 goals
Hamish Munro		50 apps	2 goals
Marek Madle		22 apps	12 goals
Paul Napier		42 apps	4 goals
Willie Mathers (sub)		6 apps	1 goal
Cammy Keith (sub)		54 apps	39 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

This was a game that Formartine could and should have won by a three or four goal margin but instead squandered dominance in all aspects over the first half hour, (and a two goal lead into the bargain) to end up scrabbling about dancing to Lossie’s tune. Lossie simply worked harder for their share of the points than Formartine did for theirs and the result, in its way was reasonable recompense for effort expended.

Formartine are beginning to get a bit of a reputation for folding under well organised persistence from teams with far poorer records than theirs. Recently this has been seen against Rothes, Buckie and now Lossie and it utterly undermines any serious claims to be challengers at the top end of the table. It is clear that they have the game to cope with any side in the league the problem is that against some teams, they will dominate for a period before taking the foot of the throttle, coasting, getting caught with careless slips [often but not always in midfield] and ending up in panic mode against teams whose tails are up and are fancying their chances of claiming the Formartine scalp.

That is precisely what happened at Grant Park. For the first forty minutes Formartine were in complete command, two well worked and well taken goals to the good and had racked up 8 corners to Lossie’s nil. Lossie had a couple of pacy breaks from Farquhar and Bailey to their credit although each was dealt with effectively enough in the end. Formartine were out of the blocks like lightning and before a minute had elapsed produced a super slick move down the left as Munro chipped a ball down the line to Anderson who with the assistance of Bagshaw set Madle free to muscle his way past Rose and whip the ball hard and low towards the near post where Dingwall’s somewhat hesitant attempt was blocked by Flett at the cost of a corner. Lossie eventually cleared this and converted it into one of their few serious raids on Formartine territory ,the move ending with a Bailey drive from about twelve yards past Barney’s right upright.

However the pressure was definitely on the home side as Formartine mounted attacks on all fronts. One down the right by Napier on the end of Hay feed ended when the wee wide man was chopped down by Bel l who was booked for his pains. The resulting free by Anderson bobbed about in the box for a couple of phases but was eventually hacked clear by the same Bell. Through the middle Bagshaw who was giving whoever had the misfortune of trying to mark him a torrid time was linking with McVitie and Madle to ensure that Lossie were kept on the back foot and largely confined to their own final third of the pitch. A twentieth minute volley from the edge of the box by Anderson nudged the cross bar on its way into the crowd and a Formartine goal seemed imminent.

With Lossie prepared to get a large number of players behind the ball their penalty area was crowded as Curry’s on Black Friday, but something had to give. Almost predictably it was a flash of pure sublime skill from Marek MADLE that broke the deadlock in the twenty third minute. In the aftermath of a corner on the right, the ball was eventually half cleared to midfield before being popped back into the maelstrom by McVitie. Madle, virtually on the penalty spot had the ball under control but was surrounded by Lossie players. To his right he spotted a chink of light in the postage stamp corner of the goal and almost impudently chipped the ball , almost like a bunker shot, up over Bell and Flett but just delicately enough to dip under the cross bar for as smartly an executed finish as you’d find at any level of the game.

Initially it looked like this would provide the impetus that Formartine needed to yield enough goals to match the extent of their superiority and for the next fifteen minutes or so, it looked that way. Their pressure continued, they moved the ball about well although the odd Lossie break was conducted at pace and with commitment Smith, Hay and Munro generally looked safe enough.

Some hint of what was to come slowly emerged as Formartine pressure failed to yield the number of goals it might have deserved. The fact that this was not really a result of outstanding defending as much as sloppy finishing was the real cause of concern. McVitie, Bagshaw, Dingwall, Anderson and Madle all had decent chances in the fifteen minutes following the goal. Few if any of them required significant effort from keeper Hall.

The concerns were forgotten in the 37th minute when McVITIE, astute enough to bide his time on the fringe of the box during a period of sustained pressure, got reward for his patience as he nipped in late to pick up a panicky clearance attempt and drilled it past advancing defenders and the keeper’s left hand for two nil.

Sloppy finishing aside this looked highly promising for Formartine. However a two goal cushion particularly in the first half is something you cannot rely on in SHFL football and the illusion of comfort proved the beginning of Formartine’s downfall. Sloppy finishing led to some sloppiness in midfield. McVitie missed a decent chance and Dingwall who doesn’t look like he could score in Manor Avenue just now, missed a couple of sitters before a miss hit pass from Bagshaw was picked up by Farquhar who played a simple one two with Gordon to his left before outpacing the defence over 30 or so yards and drilled the ball past the diving Barney for the goal that turned the game.
A goal on the stroke of half time provides a huge psychological boost and Charlie Charlesworth is the just the man to milk it to the max and his side emerged for the second half fired up and prepared to challenge Formartine at every turn. Formartine still looked like they thought they could cruise to victory and generally failed to match the work rate and urgency that Lossie showed, a position they maintained on and off for the first 15 minutes of the second half. By then it was too late, Lossie had equalised and the fat was well and truly in the fire. Again a bit of slackness in midfield left the gap for a breakaway. This time it was BAILLEY who broke through the centre and outstripped the defenders before leathering the ball past Barney from about fifteen yards to equalise barely a minute after he had gone close with similar break a little further right.

Lossie tails were up and Formartine were in panic mode. The pace of the game was ramped up and it took on all the end to end aspect of a cup tie. Formartine generally did better in terms of possession and territory, but not by enough to do anything with it. Lossie treasured their prospect of a point and were prepared to get eight or more bodies at a time behind the ball – as many as it took really - to hold on to it. Formartine tried to change up a gear but not even the replacement of Dingwall with Cammy Keith could get them a goal. The contest was by then between hope for Lossie [of a point they dearly needed] and fear for Formartine (of embarrassment etc). The one cancelled out the other as hope motivated and fear inhibited. There was no way out of that for Formartine. They have been there often enough but at the moment don’t seem to have what it takes to get out of it.

Match report by Colin Keenan