Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Reid (GK)		47 apps	-
Stuart Smith		121 apps	10 goals
Johnny Crawford		45 apps	2 goals
Scott Henry		10 apps	-
Stuart Anderson		98 apps	23 goals
Graeme Rodger		54 apps	18 goals
Derek Young		6 apps	1 goal
Paul Lawson		43 apps	14 goals
Jamie Masson		28 apps	2 goals
Scott Barbour		49 apps	20 goals
Garry Wood		51 apps	30 goals
Max Berton (sub)		21 apps	1 goal
Conor Gethins (sub)		11 apps	6 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

The general consensus about United this season is that they have, by and large, flattered to deceive. There was none of that this time: no flattery, no deception; they were simply dire. This was a team that started poorly and tailed off thereafter and looked with a couple of possible exceptions (notably Barbour who worked away, and possibly Wood), like they expected to be beaten and were resigned to the hairdryer treatment they expected to follow. It was nothing like the spirited, battling side that were runners up in the League last season. What they had then has faded faster than a pair of stonewash denims in an overheated Indesit.

Cove started briskly and although Formartine too seemed intent on getting the better of the opening exchanges, they struggled to match the sharpness of Cove and that quite quickly translated into better possession and some territorial advantage for Rangers. United had a new back four with Young starting as a new right back with previous incumbents McVitie, Michie and Dingwall reduced to the bench or otherwise unavailable. It was a bold strategy and although Young made few significant errors, the balance and communication of the back four as a unit struggled to contain the pressure of the champions.

Cove were a tad fortunate in being rewarded for their first sustained attack. A break down the left set up Yule for a thumping low drive from 12 yards out right of centre. Reid did well enough to block the ball but was unable to hold and it landed for Smith whose try rebounded off some defender in the midst of the melee to be picked up at the left side of goal by YULE who had surreptitiously worked his way from one side to the other. The midfielder’s persistence paid off as he clipped the ball neatly into the net from no more than 15 yards out.

There wasn’t too much in it at this stage, but whatever Cove were doing it was generally enough to prevent Formartine getting the ball into areas that threatened their defensive equanimity. There was one almost glorious exception to this when Barbour on the end of a long ball from the back managed to get the better of Milne before cutting in and curling a vicious left foot shot from the centre of the 18 yard line that beat defenders and keeper all ends up before rebounding to safety from McKenzie’s right upright. He also made a similar move on the other side after getting away from Duff to sneak in a low drive that McKenzie took at full stretch low at his right post.

United were still in it as this stage but ominously as it was to later prove, this was their best stage of the game. Cove attacks were sustained a little bit longer and came a little more often than did United’s and they came perilously close to increasing their lead in the 26th minute after an understruck pass by Young was seized on by Megginson, flipped over to Walker and on to Smith before a last minute intervention by Smith relieved the tension. Three minutes later a high(ish) challenge on Rodger yielded a penalty for United. LAWSON struck it very hard and with precision low into the left hand corner to equalise.

This should have energised United but it had more influence on Cove who got the better of the 15 remaining minutes of the half. Ten minutes after the United equaliser a battling Cove side restored their lead. They did this in some style as Yule breaking down the inside right channel found himself 35 yards out with defenders advancing to close him down. Before they could get close enough to seriously restrict his options he launched a spectacular full blooded drive that by passed defenders and keeper alike and flew into the far top corner of the net.

The champions had their tails up now and in a period of slick possession football moved the ball swiftly and confidently pinning Formartine well back in their own territory to begin a siege that didn’t end until almost the stroke of half time when “Mercury” (quick, slippery, difficult to contain and very expensive) MEGGINSON sneaked in from the left corner of the box to nick a rebound cannily into the net low at the back stick for 3-1.

Formartine did little different in the second half – they worked away but without being able to turn the balance of the game in their favour. Cove were less dominant than they had been but at 3-1 they had less need to attack and seemed content to mop up whatever United had to throw at them. A drive from twenty odd yards by Anderson was on target and beyond the reach of the keeper but was hoofed away off the line by Milne. United worked the ball around the periphery of the Cove box but they seemed largely untroubled by this and systematically dismantled United attacks, by fair means and, not infrequently, foul – Watson and Walker are masters of the judicious, well concealed wee shove in the back at crucial moments. They were in comfortable control and United looked increasingly devoid of ideas.

With twenty minutes to go Berton replaced Anderson but nothing much else changed in consequence: United never had the midfield dominance particularly in the ball-winning, breaking up play dimensions to trouble Cove there and Cove’s back four is seriously mean. They simply jockeyed Berton into safe wide areas and neutralised any possible threat from that source.

With no more than 10 minutes to go, United opted to go for broke: they took off Young from right back and replaced him with Gethins to get an extra body up top. Cove simply treated this as an opportunity to pinch a couple more goals off a numerically depleted defence. Within 5 minutes of the change SMITH stretched the three man rearguard by staying wide on the left before bursting in and firing the ball over the advancing Reid from the edge of the area.

Cove were visibly running down the clock and clearly more intent on possession than increasing their winning margin at this stage. They replaced Megginson with Stott – as much one assumes to use up time as in expectation of getting another goal, but that’s just what the sub did. In his brief foray into the game he latched onto a through ball, beat the keeper to it and simply put it behind him and into the net to complete a seriously embarrassing beating for United.

On this display it was difficult to determine whether United’s tactic of using long punts up the park by keeper Reid to be pursued either down the right flank or through the middle was based on management direction (if it was, it didn’t work and with big experienced defenders like Watson, Milne and Walker it was hardly like to, yet never changed until the last few minutes) or by players’ inability to follow management instructions. Either way, it contributed to them being outfought and out thought by a Cove side who despite the warm sunny conditions had to break little sweat to play United off the park in as comprehensive a doing as they have had in a long time.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie