Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Reid (GK)		46 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		44 apps	2 goals
Stuart Smith		120 apps	10 goals
Calum Dingwall		81 apps	5 goals
Scott Henry		9 apps	-
Paul Lawson		42 apps	13 goals
Stuart Anderson		97 apps	23 goals
Graeme Rodger		53 apps	18 goals
Derek Young		5 apps	1 goal
Scott Barbour		48 apps	20 goals
Garry Wood		50 apps	30 goals
Max Berton (sub)		20 apps	1 goal
Conor Gethins (sub)		10 apps	6 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

So inconsistent was Formartine’s performance in this game that it is difficult to decide whether to excoriate them for a feckless, flat, first forty five or applaud them for a second half where they got the game by the scruff of the neck, reversed a two goal deficit and came within a hairsbreadth of taking all three points. In academia a 2:2 (known as a “Desmond” after Archbishop Tutu) is generally seen as an impediment to further academic advancement. This 2-2 means that as early as the first week in September, United have dropped more points this season as they had by Christmas last year and that must pose some threat to their advancement. However, Buckie aside, their assumed main rivals (Brora and Cove) have also been shedding points.

United shuffled the pack a little to yield a starting forward line of three with Wood and Barbour being joined up top by Derek Young with a number 9 on his back. At right back where changes have been fairly frequent this season, Calum Dingwall got the nod over Michie and McVitie. The Can Can’s were the first to show taking the game immediately to United and pressing them back down at the village end enough to prompt a flooding of the penalty area. A number of shots, mostly of a rather optimistic nature, were launched from various locations around the margins of the box. None reached the keeper. Forres had a measure of territorial superiority but initially at least, lacked the penetration to do much with it. Formartine however looked strangely sluggish and although when they had the ball either lacked or failed to create enough width to significantly trouble the visitors. A move down the left started by Smith ended with a ball driven across the goalmouth just fractionally too early to meet the run of Rodger through the inside right channel.

United played tidily enough in midfield when they had possession but without it they seemed to lack any real destructive force to break up play and/or to regain possession and although it wasn’t severe enough to allow complete dominance to Mechanics, it did give them a territorial edge. In the 14th minute Mechanics picked up a free kick for some minor infringement a good thirty five yards out. United set up a five man wall the permitted 10 yards away and looked set to deal reasonably comfortably with the situation. GRAHAM had other ideas entirely and launched a fierce dipping shot that cleared the wall before dipping easily under the cross bar and into the net, leaving a rather shell shocked keeper almost rooted to the spot he was guarding at the other end of the wall.

This was opening goal was no more than Forres and their higher paced approach to the game deserved and should have sent a strong warning to United. If it did, it seemed unheeded and they carried on knocking the ball about in generally safe enough areas but without really developing any sustained pressure on Can Cans. They looked flat and although they did get the ball into areas around the visitor’s box found themselves thwarted by a lack of creativity. High balls were comfortably dealt with by G Fraser and Grant and although there were flashes of trickery from both Rodger and Barbour, there simply wasn’t enough of it to trouble the muckle chiels at the back. They also operated a pretty slick off-side trap that certainly did little to aid the United cause.

Moore and Graham were energetic and predatory up front and were capable of holding up the ball pending the arrival of re-inforcements. In the 28th minute – another period of bombardment on the United rearguard where Mechanics were spreading the ball fast and wide around the edges of the box saw a drive, fairly speculative it seemed at first, from Cameron rebounding out to GROAT around fifteen yards out. Spotting a chink in the defence he leathered the ball through it and beyond the possibly unsighted Reid for number 2.

United tried to shake off their lethargy but they were dealing with a team that was full of confidence and the sense that they could pinch all the points. A free kick by Lawson about twenty five yards out and just left of centre beat the defence all ends up but shaved the outside of the left upright on its way out of play. A tricky, stepover-laden run by Barbour yielded a cross that was just picked off Wood’s toes by Soane and Formartine were gearing up for something of a comeback. A brave diving save by Knight denied Wood in the 37th minute but for all United had picked things up after conceding the second goal the best that could be said of their efforts that they were beginning to give as good as they got. Something had to change and immediately after the interval, it did.
Berton was introduced for Anderson and the effect was to yield a formation with four up front with Berton operating as an out and out winger and Barbour nearly but not quite as dedicated to a wide berth on the other side. What a change!

To turn the game round, they needed an early goal and within six minutes of the resumption that’s what they got. Berton proved an immediate thorn in Can Can’s flesh and started turning defenders inside out. In the 49th Wood holding up the ball slipped it sideways to Barbour who blasted it but the keeper got behind to make a superb block. In the 51st a twisting turning mazy attack down the left by the sub earned him the time and space to nick the ball across the box to BARBOUR who took it first time from a position in line with the back stick and rifled it across the line of the advancing Knight and into the net. That was a significant lifeline and United started to pile on the pressure with wave upon wave of attack. Berton was in the midst of much of it but the whole team were playing with much more urgency and Forres who had looked so strong in the first half were rocked right back on their heels and frailties were exposed: they no longer built from the back (they were closed down too quickly to allow this) and they struggled to cope with players taking the ball directly to feet.

A second looked to be on the cards as United produced their trademark fast open flowing football. Unsurprisingly, it came by roughly the same route as the first one. Again Berton jinked past defenders to clip the ball left to right across the box to Barbour who slipped as he shaped to shoot, the ball trickled forward a bit before being only partially cleared. RODGER, after burners well alight scorched into the area and fired the ball at scintillating pace into the net in the 68th minute.

It looked like United were capable of going on to win, but Mechanics held grimly on. They were entirely on the back foot for the rest of the game and having once been so dominant were reduced almost exclusively to damage limitation. The exception to this was a 74th minute break by Fraser that was denied when Reid dived to take the ball from his boots. Such was Mechanics’ desperation to hold onto their single precious point that they were reduced to the ploy of making a substitution in stoppage time purely to run down the clock.

They did enough to frustrate United who may well live to rue the cost of their insipid first half performance. Manager Hunter was slightly more relaxed in his view of this where he thought they “had plenty of the ball, but didn’t get it forward often enough and didn’t get enough bodies forward and didn’t have ideas” and were “for some reason just not firing on all cylinders”. He was impressed how Max Berton – “with his pace and directness changed the game with Scott Barbour in wide areas”. He was also upbeat having signed Jamie Masson on a 3 year deal – “I need boys like that in my team with the energy ability and speed”. He also pointed to the fact that Scott Ferries out injured since the start of the season is about ready to return.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

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