Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Shearer (GK)		59 apps	-
Calum Dingwall		35 apps	4 goals
Graham Hay		34 apps	8 goals
Stephen Jeffrey		44 apps	1 goal
Stuart Smith		62 apps	1 goal
Stuart Anderson		47 apps	8 goals
Gary Clark		41 apps	1 goal
Neil McVitie		51 apps	10 goals
Hamish Munro		57 apps	2 goals
Cammy Keith		62 apps	43 goals
Stuart McKay		57 apps	17 goals
Craig Duguid (sub)		25 apps	1 goal
Liam Paterson (sub)		3 apps	-
Marek Madle (sub)		30 apps	16 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

You would have had to have been blindly optimistic or seriously deluded to anticipate any other outcome from this encounter between managerless Formartine and undefeated, table topping Brora. As champions do, Brora made both their intent and ruthless goal scoring capabilities clear from the outset: it took them all of 3 minutes to get their noses in front and little more than 20 to put the match all but beyond reach with a three goal lead. Formartine had the temerity early in the season to pinch a point from them at Dudgeon Park and Brora clearly wanted to get their retaliation in early.

Formartine, set out and selected by Captain Graeme Hay and the experienced Stuart Anderson, elected to attempt a highish defensive line and push Brora, as far as possible from there but the pace and trickery of Sutherland and Greig in the wider areas made that a risky strategy. Within a minute they had stretched the home back line before Hay managed a smart clearance of a ball from Graham before it reached the advancing Mackay. A smart enough counter by Formartine saw Munro forcing his way down the inside right route to deliver a diagonal ball into the visitors box that had the Brora Munro stretching to get a clearing boot to it.

In the third minute Brora who had by then forced Formartine a bit onto the back foot exposed some lack of coherent communication in the home back four as Graham and Maclean crossed each other to expose Munro to two attackers. “Squish” managed to get close enough to Greig to prevent his making the pass but fouled him in the process. Morrison’s free was slung left to right across the box and punched well clear from top left by keeper Shearer. However the ball then meet the run of defender GILLESPIE who ruthlessly rifled it home with a crashing volley from fully 20 yards out.

Formartine were in no doubt about the pace and threat of their visitors whose movement was of a higher order than that normally encountered at this level of football and in the circumstances responded positively to the early set back. They moved the ball about well with McVitie and Munro getting some penetration and ahead of them both the quick footed McKay and the silky Anderson did enough to keep Brora defenders busy. For the next few minutes Formartine could be said to be giving as good as they got – in the box to box area anyway. Brora looked to be a smoother running outfit but Formartine were working hard for each other and prepared to earn their corn. Given the impending arrival of a new manager, they would have to show what they were capable of.

This period of high tempo midfield play concluded in the 14th minute with another slick, well worked and well taken Brora goal. The timing was disastrous from Formartine’s point of view: Greig was switching wings , stretching Formartine defence in the process but it was the combination of Morrison, Graham and Mackay that produced the goal when the first named played in the second whose perfectly timed diagonal ball met the run of the hugely prolific striker who had travelled through the inside right channel to leather the ball shoulder high beyond the reach of Shearer from about 15 yards out.

Truth be told, Formartine were probably beaten by this stage but to their credit, they refused to play like that. Still they plugged away and kept Brora busy enough in midfield. The real difference between the two was down to play in the final third. Defensively Brora were cool and mean: with centre backs Munro and McKeown in commanding form, shots on target were few and far between. Up front they needed little invitation to get the ball in the net. They didn’t make many more chances than Formartine did, but were viciously effective in converting them when they arose. In the 21st minute, they had their third shot on target and produced their third goal with the third separate player to score. This time it was the highly tricky wee Greig who got his name on the score sheet and there was some fear that Formartine would find themselves on the wrong end of a cricket score. Greig ended a brief period of sustained pressure in the Formartine box. Just as it looked like the home defence had done enough to smother the Brora offence the ball broke to the mercurial wide man who jinked his way to a chink of an opening and drove the ball right to left from a tightish angle, across the line of the advancing Shearer, to reach the net just inside the far post.

Brora were in full cry by this stage – who wouldn’t at three up in twenty odd minutes?- and a Formartine collapse was a distinct possibility but it didn’t arise. They soldiered on – a little ragged at times - as if each player was determined not to be found wanting but struggled at times to fit smoothly into a team pattern. Clark was extremely industrious in midfield and more than anyone did enough to interrupt the smooth operation of the Brora machine. Brora were champions with a second championship looming and in no mood to ease off. It was graft more than guile that kept the score down to three for the next 20 minutes. Brora were however a visibly superior outfit in virtually every respect and further goals were inevitable. MACKAY clocked up his second in the 40th minute with what was more or less a solo effort. Latching onto a clearance from central defence, Sutherland clipped the ball forward into the path of the striker who advanced goalward, drew the keeper and put the ball beyond his reach from the edge of the box just slightly left of centre.

Four goals down at half time Formartine didn’t have their troubles to seek but when they emerged from the break without Captain and interim co-manager Hay who had picked up an upper hamstring injury, the cricket score looked a distinct possibility. His replacement – about a foot shorter and half a hundredweight lighter – Duguid - looked to have a rather scary 45 minutes ahead of him but some judicious tactical rearrangement – essentially just sitting deeper in defence and pulling five into the middle worked well. In the first half Greig kept popping up all over the place but mostly in the wide areas, but now had little success against the sub. Although Duguid seldom managed to take the ball directly off the Brora futtret, he was remarkably effective at jockeying him into positions where he clearly didn’t want to be and could make little constructive use of the ball. He also had the pace to cope with him.

Although the game was well won by then, Formartine did surprisingly well in the second half. Brora still shaded it but Formartine made a couple of excellent chances and were denied solely by two to drawer saves by Joe Malin. The first of these was from a ferociously struck low fifteen yard effort by Anderson. The ball looked net-bound about a foot inside the keeper’s left upright before Malin made a spectacular full length dive to finger tip the ball away for a corner. The second saw him make an acrobatic mid air diving catch of a Cammy Keith header from about the penalty spot which also looked to be on its way to the back of the net.

The fifth goal was the result of a 75th minute penalty by SUTHERLAND who sent Shearer to his left as he buried the ball to the right. The penalty was a pretty straightforward affair deriving from a rather vigorous but slightly reckless challenge by Clark on Greig in the middle of a crowded penalty area. Nobody disputed the decision.
Brora remain undefeated, in the league, and are effectively out of reach of all bar possibly Turriff. Formartine look to have the nucleus of a title challenging team but the evidence is that they do not have enough players who are consistent enough when the chips are down to get there. Whoever the new manager will be may need to replace a number of existing players. It’s never boring at North Lodge.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

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