Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		1 app (debut)	-
Johnny Crawford		29 apps	2 goals
Stuart Smith		99 apps	8 goals
Scott Henry		3 apps	-
Stuart Anderson		81 apps	19 goals
Callum Bagshaw		69 apps	9 goals
Hamish Munro		60 apps	2 goals
Max Berton		9 apps	-
Graeme Rodger		32 apps	10 goals
Cammy Keith		95 apps	70 goals
Garry Wood		31 apps	23 goals
Jamie Masson (sub)		20 apps	2 goals
Scott Barbour (sub)		31 apps	14 goals
Neil Gauld (sub)		28 apps	11 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Ewen MacDonald

(Signed September 3rd, 2015)

Milestones

That Formartine beat Fort William was no surprise to anyone: they always do, often by a considerable margin, but the starting line- up for this one raised a few eyebrows. There were 5 changes to the side that had set out [rather tamely it must be said] on the way to the exit door of the Aberdeenshire Shield at the hands of Cove three days before. Mac Donald, Munro, Bagshaw, Keith and Berton had of late made their contributions from the bench but on this occasion were present at kick off and, by and large made decent contributions to a good all round performance [particularly in the 2nd half] in conditions made difficult by a heavy pitch and a stiff breeze blowing towards the village end.

The message from management to players was clear enough: “you need to fight for your place or there’s some else eager and willing to take it off you”. Formartine started with a direct attack on the visitors’ goal. The ball was played forward, then left to Berton, across to Rodger and further right to Garry Wood whose tight angled drive found side netting about a foot behind the near upright. A minute later a similar venture concluded with Wood turning Broomfield before clipping the ball neatly to the head of Cammy Keith attacking the back post area. He got in a fierce header across the line of the advancing MacLennan and although the ball fizzed just by the far post, the keeper was already clear that he had a long ninety minutes ahead of him.

With the not inconsiderable advantage of the wind at their backs Fort were making a decent enough fist of it: they had young quick and fairly tricky players such as Rennie, Cameron, Davidson and MacLellan who although never dominating proceedings did enough to show that you could only take them lightly at your peril. They worked hard and were well organised and were not at all dispirited when the combination of Keith and Wood created the opening goal In the 11th minute. Some committed midfield foraging by Bagshaw led to him dispossessing Mainland and driving through the inside right route to feed Wood. Wood collected, beat Foggo and cunningly played the ball behind Porritt into the path of KEITH who clinically despatched it beyond the left hand of MacLellan to the far corner of the net. It was a clever, clinical finish from a tight angle and around 10 yards range.

Fort battled back the best they could and got the ball into the final third often enough but struggled thereafter to get much cuttance from the back 4 of Munro, Smith, Crawford and Henry. In one break in the 19th minute MacLellan broke wide left and managed to drag the ball beyond home defenders to let fly with a low trundler that bobbled nastily just in front of the alert MacDonald who did well to smother. The same MacLellan went even closer , following a similar manoeuvre less than 5 minutes later when he absolutely leathered the ball from twenty yards to rebound from the junction of the left upright and cross bar. At the other end the Wood/Keith combination looked menacing whenever it moved forward. Anderson, playing behind them was astute enough to find space in slightly deeper areas and created a supply base around five or ten yards short of the box. It was from there, a yard or two left of centre that he picked up the aftermath of Berton corner kick that was knocked about in the goal mouth before being hacked away, and volleyed the ball with searing pace into the wind and straight into the net. This given the adverse wind, was a finish of almost bewildering power. 4 minutes later in the 40th minute, the excellent, lively MacLELLAN managed for a third time to break past the left side of the home defence and get in one on one with the keeper. From twenty yards out near the left corner of the box he hit the ball rising and curling into the top corner of the net. The remaining 5 minutes of the half were dominated by Formartine in the face of hearty resistance by the Lochaber men. A superb flashing header by Crawford drew an equally superb diving save by the visiting keeper but the interval score remained 2-1.

The second half, when Formartine had the wind at their backs was an entirely different affair and it took barely a minute for the point to be made. From the kick off, the ball was played out to and down the right flank: Anderson and Bagshaw assisted its progress to the rampaging WOOD who attacking from the right side of the box, bore in on the keeper and finished with a crisp measured drive from fifteen yards that beat MacLennan to his right.

Fort still had the will and the spirit but the deficit with wind against was now more than anyone the right side of sanity could see as capable of being reversed. With Formartine players playing for their places, there was to be little respite for an increasingly beleaguered Fort. The Formartine back line was promoted to near half way and with Smith and Munro making alternate forays on the flanks, Fort were beginning to get pinned back for longish periods and the real issue concerned the eventual extent of the home victory. It was exactly the kind of situation in which Cammy Keith thrives and with a point to prove after having been dropped to the bench for the previous two or three games, a hat trick was almost a racing certainty. Two goals in 7 minutes saw to that. The first of them was a “route one” effort. After a rare Fort attack, keeper MacDonald hoofed the ball wind assisted well into Fort William territory, it fell well for the lively Cammy who worked quickly forward until he got into comfortable range to skelp it it well past the reach of the helpless keeper. The second was an immaculately delivered header from a cross by sub Barbour who had set things up with a skite down the left before bursting between Foggo and Porrit to deliver the ball accurately to the brow of Cammy who did the rest from near the back stick.

Formartine continued to dominate and ANDERSON in sprightly form added to his tally with a very close range header following a corner on the right by Barbour. In a thicket of players at the rear post, he got his head to the ball and directed it the few feet it needed to reach the net to complete the score line.

Manager Hunter was slightly equivocal about it all “Happy to get a win: happy with the scoreline” but regarding the overall performance “I think we can play a lot better than that” “the team’s full of quality but we let ourselves down at times with some of our decision making” and impressed by Cammy Keith’s hat trick, wryly observed that he “always seems to get one on ladies day”. He also drew attention to the fact that for a midfielder Stewart Anderson has already got his goal tally into double figures at this relatively early point in the season and that the team has now topped the hundred goals mark in the league to date.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

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