Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Reid (GK)		16 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		17 apps	1 goal
Calum Dingwall		47 apps	4 goals
Stuart Smith		84 apps	5 goals
Paul Lawson		16 apps	5 goals
Stuart Anderson		69 apps	12 goals
Jamie Masson		5 apps	1 goal
Graeme Rodger		17 apps	7 goals
Scott Barbour		17 apps	6 goals
Cammy Keith		82 apps	59 goals
Garry Wood		16 apps	11 goals
Max Berton (sub)		3 apps	-
Neil Gauld (sub)		13 apps	3 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Formartine approached this second round William Hill Scottish cup tie in exactly the right manner: they had to really, because the odds were stacked against them. When the bookies were offering odds of 2/1 against a home victory they were unaware of the woeful catalogue of injuries that beset the home side who were forced into pulling Garry Wood back from his striker’s role to centre half to cover the loss of captain Craig McKeown and bring in Callum Dingwall [also a forward] to cover for the missing right back Neil McVitie. These deficits were spectacularly overcome by a performance of high tempo, in your face, pass and move football conducted with such a level of flair and determination that the League 2 side were comprehensively dismantled and roundly beaten. Not the slightest doubt about it, Formartine were the superior side in every aspect of the game and each quarter of the field. They had better players, were far better organised and displayed a real commitment to progressing to round 3 where the top level clubs join the competition.

To begin with it looked like Formartine might just struggle: Clyde were pretty smartly out of the traps and for the first few minutes, applied pressure of a sort. They rattled up a couple of corners in the first five but neither yielded any threat. The first was confidently grabbed by keeper Reid and the next went no further than Johnny Crawford who seized the opportunity to use the possession as a platform for attack.

By the time ten minutes had passed Formartine were looking the slicker of the two albeit the big back four of the visitors did look mean. Mitchell, Linton, Bolochoweckyj, and McGlauchlan looked the part although mobility did not seem to be their strongest suit. Formartine were beginning to get the upper hand, on the flanks. Linton was partial to a foray down the left but lacked the skill to get the ball past Dingwall who playing probably his best ever game for United, repeatedly dispossessed him before using superior pace to exploit the space left open to carry the ball down the touchline before delivering some telling crosses. Much the same was happening on the other side except that Mitchell had far less chance to progress towards United territory as he was constantly pressured by Smith and Barbour. In the end it all got a bit much for him and he more or less gave up any idea of attack before being substituted.

Clyde tactics were simple in that the big centre backs tried to hoof the ball forward and wide to McLauchlin, Ferguson or Higgins. However the Formartine back four for all that it was assembled as much from necessity as choice, was in superb form with the two centre backs, Crawford and Wood going on to tie the man of the match award. Danger man Scott Fergusson was barely given a sniff by them. Formartine building from the back and mounting repeated waves of speedy attack were playing the more coherent football although both sides were trying to operate faster than absolutely necessary and there were phases of scrappy play.

However more of the scrappy stuff came from Clyde and Formartine settled into a clearer pattern and definitely kept shape better. The midfield four of Lawson, Rodger, Anderson and Masson provided much of it and an increasing supply of balls to Cammy Keith up top. Barbour was also a beneficiary and in the 21st minute got in a crisp low drive that went inches past Gibson’s right upright. Two minutes later Masson. who is really beginning to show his talent, went just as close with a twenty yarder on the other side. Formartine looked by the half hour stage that they were near to scoring with Clyde increasingly pinned back into their own territory.

A drive by Higgins flew past Reid’s right upright but the keeper was well placed to cover it had it been on target. At the other end, another skinning of Linton by Dingwall set up Masson for a drive that rebounded from the base of Gibson’s left upright before an offside decision for some part of the move let Clyde off the hook. The respite was, however, minimal. Another interchange down the left saw Smith reaching a position eighteen yards from the goal line and a couple in from the side. From there he delivered a perfectly judged, slightly outswinging ball that utterly foxed the rather statuesque defenders before being met at the back post by Graeme RODGER who, well aware of developments on his left, had made a consummately timed late run through the channel to beat the keeper all ends up with a classic Roy of the Rovers style diving header from five yards out.

This goal settled any residual Formartine nerves and created panic in the visitors ranks. Clyde tried more of the same lump it up the park stuff and attempted to do so with more intensity; Formartine played with even better shape and discipline and began to really dictate. They demonstrated that however mighty the visiting rearguard they could be prey to skill and cunning. Lawson’s passing can be viciously accurate and increasingly he delivered balls for Masson Keith and Barbour that forced levels of exercise and contortion with which they were clearly uncomfortable. At this stage – possibly fatal having just gone behind in a cup tie - Clyde sat in and although Formartine were unable to extend their lead before the interval, they looked in precious little danger of relinquishing it.

Clyde really had to do something in the second half and began with two substitutions: withdrawing Campbell and Ferguson in favour of Gormley and Brisbane and changed their set up to what looked more like 3-4-3 than 3-5-2 and certainly not the 4-4-2 they began with. Whatever the theory employed by Barry Freguson it didn’t really work. There was an urgency not far short of panic in it all and all though Clyde managed some territorial advantage at times, Formartine shape and discipline absorbed whatever the west coasters had to throw at them.

Clyde could not find a way of getting the ball into the Formartine box with one of their players on the end of it and were reduced to firing from long range. Drives from Mitchell and McLauchlan flew over the top and a couple of others went wide but that was it. For whatever pressure Clyde tried to exert, it was Formartine that were bossing the game. They simply set up their headquarters about twenty five yards out, contained Clyde comfortably from there and when the omens looked good, launched speedy and cohesive attacks. One in the 58th minute should have won the game when Scott Barbour did the hard bit of getting the ball between big Bolo and the rather thuggish Smith to reach a one on one with Gibson, but the finishing shot from about 15 yards out was driven rather nervously past the keeper’s right stick.

Another well -orchestrated attack down the right by United saw Rodger coming agonisingly close to completing his double with a flashing right to left diagonal drive that went only fractionally wide of the far post from around 18 yards range. Clyde were running out of ideas and the only one they did have wasn’t a good one. By trying to put four up front they clearly left the back door under-attended. Formartine were looking the fitter side anyway and welcomed the opportunities thereby awarded them and exercised even more control. They were able to hold the ball in Clyde territory and force severe back pedalling from the over committed visitors when they did so.

Nearer the end Formartine rubbed salt into the wounds by introducing first the very pacy Berton and the tricky Gauld to run at tired legs. This was a very good idea and within a couple of minutes of his introduction Gauld completed the scoreline by picking up a loose ball from a ruck of players to the right of the box and jinking his way across the 18 yard line before turning like lightning to skelp it low and hard beyond the reach of Gibson’s grasping right hand.
Manager Hunter was well pleased: “delighted with the performances the players put in – overall the desire and the work rate was tremendous from the off” and was also optimistic: “I think there’s even more to come from this team -- the hunger was there”. He wants Rangers in the next round!

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

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