Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Shearer (GK)		53 apps	-
Graham Hay		28 apps	6 goals
Stephen Jeffrey		38 apps	1 goal
Stuart Smith		56 apps	1 goal
Stuart Anderson		41 apps	7 goals
Callum Bagshaw		49 apps	8 goals
Neil McVitie		48 apps	10 goals
Gary Clark		35 apps	1 goal
Cammy Keith		56 apps	40 goals
Marek Madle		24 apps	15 goals
Paul Napier		44 apps	4 goals
Calum Dingwall (sub)		29 apps	2 goals
Hamish Munro (sub)		51 apps	2 goals
Stuart McKay (sub)		52 apps	17 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

To put three past Cove without reply is a rare and major achievement: to do so when they are on a long run of victories [including beating Brora at Dudgeon Park] must rank as one of Formartine’s greatest achievements since beginning their SHFL career. Significant though the result was, it must be the manner in which it was achieved that brings the greater satisfaction to management and players. The team performance was of a very high standard throughout and try though Cove might, they simply could not match the pace and work rate of a silky home side firing on all cylinders.

Initially Cove gave just as good as they got from their hosts: they passed the ball about confidently and accurately probing for openings in the home defence. However a very resolute rearguard of McVitie (who was given freedom to push on at times), Smith, Jeffrey and the absolutely immaculate Hay saw to it that Cove could probe all they wanted, but were not going to achieve any penetration. This was arguably the best defensive offering from Formartine this season and set the foundation on which the victory was to be built. Not only did Formartine control things at the back, they were able to build from there and push forward through midfield and up front to sustain periods of pressure on their hosts.
Initially Redford looked like he would control Bagshaw and MacBain would do likewise with Napier, but early perceptions are not always reliable and these two Formartine midfielders, superbly supplied by Anderson in particular slowly but surely put more on more pressure on their markers until they eventually got [slightly but tellingly] the upper hand. This opening phase of poking and probing in search of a way to goal lasted about twenty minutes. By then McBain was reduced to illegal means of trying to control the thrawn wee Napier and was booked for his pains while Bagshaw had got into shooting positions on the other side and forced a couple of decent saves from Kinnaird.

Formartine pressure mounted and Cove were getting hemmed in for increasing periods and conceded a couple of free kicks and corners in fairly quick succession. An Anderson free beat the wall but Kinnaird just managed to finger- tip the ball round the base of his right upright. A corner on the left was not convincingly cleared and the ball was knocked back into the mix by McVitie and more pressure was put on the Cove defence. This yielded another corner, again on the left. Anderson curled the ball in not far beyond the near post and HAY with immaculate timing got in ahead of the keeper to fire a fierce header well beyond his reach into the back corner of the net. This 25th minute goal was consistent with the run of play at the time and seemed to engender in Formartine the belief that they could go on to win the game.

Things were still tight but with Formartine’s defence in parsimonious form, midfield increasingly became the site of competition. While there was little to choose between the sides in terms of creativity in there, the quick- footed Gary Clark [who was awarded the sponsors’ man of the match award ] put himself about to such effect that he was able to break up play enough to thwart any real fluency in that department from Cove. He simply saw to it that they did not develop any rhythm or fluency.

Marek Madle has developed into a real defender’s nightmare. He has the pace, strength and tanner ba’ skills to rumble up defenders and get himself and/or the ball into dangerous areas. For all that Cove battled to get back on terms, Formartine definitely held the upper hand for the second part of the first half and continued more or less with the same level of pressure on their visitors that had led to the goal. A minute before half time a break by Madle down the right was tracked by a blisteringly fast late run by Napier. As Madle turned to break into the box he found his way blocked by Watson and Yule. The arrival of Napier behind him allowed him to slip the ball back to the relatively un marked midfielder who then drilled it low and hard along the 18 yard line into the path of BAGSHAW who had also made a run on the other side. Barely breaking stride, he skelped the ball low and very, very hard past Kinnaird for his fifth goal in six outings.

The two goal interval lead was very welcome indeed but there was still apprehension that Cove would find a way of raining on Formartine’s parade in the second half. The fact that they didn’t had nothing to do with lack of effort to that end: they tried and tried. They tried to assert themselves with an extra body in midfield and this did them no harm. It forced bookings for Clark and McVitie and stifled Formartine a bit – enough for Cove to establish some limited territorial advantage. A twenty five yard drooping shot by Duff had Shearer furiously back pedalling to tip the ball over the top in the 66thth minute. For all that Cove had possession and territory, they did not look as if they had the penetration to trouble Formartine. Hay’s organisation at the back was exemplary and shape was maintained enough not only to frustrate Cove who swapped Park and Watt for Smith and Selfridge but to set up a number of piercing counter attacks by Formartine. These were mostly by Madle and each carried its own menace. One ended with a good block on his line by Kinnaird, another with a shot that was only inches wide left. In the 88th minute with Cove over committed up front, the ball was lofted out of defence to MADLE in the centre circle. He went off at breakneck speed by the most direct route to goal, rode two tackles almost lost the ball when the advancing keeper got something onto the ball to deflect it a yard or two right, but big Marek reacted the faster, retrieved the ball and flipped it from a tightish angle, right to left into the far corner of the net.

That sealed a well worked and fully deserved victory over the club that most see as the form side of the league just now. Formartine’s league chances were probably blown by careless draws against lower level sides like Rothes and Lossiemouth but if they were to continue in their present post McKeown renaissance and win every game (including those at home against Brora and Turriff) there has to be just a wee glimmer of hope.

Match report by Colin Keenan

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