Formartine United 2 - 1 Inverurie Loco Works 

League - HFL
Saturday, February 18th, 2017, 3:00 PM at North Lodge Park, Pitmedden
Attendance: 279
Referee: Will Smith
Mascot: Issac Blanksby & Martyn Brown
Formartine United v Inverurie Loco Works, Feb 18th 2017, North Lodge Park, Pitmedden
Formartine United  Inverurie Loco Works

Goalscorers
Paul Lawson (pen.) (48)
Stuart Smith (71)
Dean Donaldson (54)

Team Managers
Kris Hunter Neil Cooper

Starting Eleven
Ewen MacDonald
Johnny Crawford
Calum Dingwall
Jamie Michie
Stuart Anderson
Paul Lawson
Graeme Rodger
Neil Gauld
Conor Gethins
Scott Barbour
Scott Ferries
Ryan Booth
Connor Rennie
Greg Mitchell
Stuart Duff
Daniel Crisp
Ryan Broadhurst
Colin Charlesworth
Martin Laing
Dean Donaldson
Joe McCabe
Jordan Leyden

Bench
Andy Reid
Russell McBride
Stuart Smith
Derek Young
Jamie Masson
Garry Wood
Liam Burnett
Stephen Jeffrey
Darren Mackie
Mark Souter
Marc Young
Ross Anderson
Scott Mathieson

Substitutions
Stuart Smith for Paul Lawson (58)
Garry Wood for Conor Gethins (70)
Jamie Masson for Neil Gauld (70)
Darren Mackie for Dean Donaldson (70)

Bookings
Scott Ferries (21)
Stuart Anderson (87)
Connor Rennie (74)

Red Cards
None. None.
Appearances & Goals To Date
Ewen MacDonald (GK) 22 apps -
Johnny Crawford 58 apps3 goals
Calum Dingwall 101 apps7 goals
Jamie Michie 43 apps -
Stuart Anderson 121 apps26 goals
Paul Lawson 55 apps18 goals
Graeme Rodger 77 apps24 goals
Neil Gauld 65 apps37 goals
Conor Gethins 26 apps15 goals
Scott Barbour 72 apps33 goals
Scott Ferries 20 apps1 goal
Stuart Smith (sub) 139 apps12 goals
Jamie Masson (sub) 49 apps8 goals
Garry Wood (sub) 64 apps38 goals

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Scott Ferries (20 years 353 days)
Oldest Player:Conor Gethins (33 years 118 days)
Average Player Age:26 years 318 days
Domestic Players:10 (90.91 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Liam Burnett (19 years 192 days)
Oldest Player:Russell McBride (38 years 152 days)
Average Player Age:28 years 180 days
Domestic Players:17 (94.44 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones

There has never been much love lost between United and Locos and after a successfully piratical raid by Formartine on Locos out of contract players last close season, relations between the two are currently no more affectionate than those pertaining between the Clintons and the Trumps. Cups and trophies clearly have their allure but for the Pitmedden faithful getting one over on the Locos comes close.

United rang some changes after a fairly uninspiring midweek victory at Rothes. Michie and Dingwall resumed in the full back berths displacing Smith and Young while Ferries was preferred to Masson in an attacking midfield role.
The game started almost tentatively: Locos having been humped by an eight goal margin the week before, set up in a carefully defensive array and United, at least initially, found this hard to penetrate and the pattern of a goalless first forty five was set early on with most of the action contained to the midfield area between the two penalty boxes. Such was the caution exercised by the visitors that they never mustered a single shot on target during this period. However their tactic wasn’t as simple as putting eight or nine at a time behind the ball, but was more based on stifling the midfield, chasing and harrying and doing everything possible to prevent United developing any fluency in their play. They weren’t bad at it either. In addition, Charlesworth and Leyden, operating mostly in the wider areas each had a decent turn of pace. Midfield action was therefore brisk and at times spirited, spirited enough for young Ferries to see a fairly early yellow card for an over enthusiastic attempt at dispossessing Laing.

Formartine gradually began to gain the upper hand and enjoyed an ever so slight territorial advantage. In the 8th minute a thirty yard free kick by Anderson, about five yards in from the left touch line caused a measure of discomfort in the visitors’ goalmouth before being booted to safety by Broadhurst. At the other end Donaldson showed that he had pace enough to trouble Lawson although the experienced skipper of the United crew read the game well enough to cancel out any potential advantage.

Michie was in the mood to gloat over his former colleagues and caused them extreme discomfort when his low driven cross flew across the goal mouth, heading for another former Loco, Neil Gauld. It was only fractionally premature. By the mid- point of the period, Formartine pressure was increasing: a foray down the left by Gethins and Gauld ended with the latter letting fly with a fierce 8 yard effort from a tightish angle that Booth did well to beat round the post for an unrewarded corner. Another corner, soon after, caused mayhem in the Locos goalmouth with the ball bobbling about in a forest of legs, Gethins, Gauld and Rodger all had shots blocked. It was Michie who came closest to breaking the deadlock when he collected a rebound round fifteen yards out and cunningly chipped the ball over the throng in front of goal. Keeper Booth, at full stretch got a finger tip to the ball and tipped it via the bar to safety.

After the interval, Formartine visibly raised the tempo of their game and quickly had Locos pinned well back into their own territory. Barbour was getting the better of Rennie while Gethins and Gauld were asking more and more of new signing and captain, Duff and centre back Crisp. The pressure from United was applied in waves and there was more penetration of the Locos penalty area than previously. It took four minutes of this second half onslaught before fatal flaws in Locos resistance were exposed. Breaking in to the box from the right Rodger sought to round Broadhurst preparatory to shooting. He had got the ball past the defender, but on his way was cynically upended before he could reach it. The ensuing penalty was taken by LAWSON who in text book fashion, hammered the ball home inches inside the left post.

Having scented blood, United were wanting more and for the next five or ten minutes continued to have Locos stretched on the rack of high tempo attacking stuff. It was largely down to the level-headedness of Duff in marshalling the rearguard and a couple of inspirational stops by Booth that Locos did not succumb further during this phase of the game. They were well hemmed in and breakaways were at a premium but in the 54th minute a long ball up the park was lumped into space behind Lawson and well in front of keeper MacDonald. Lawson having to turn to chase was disadvantaged by the continuing run of DONALDSON who managed to reach the ball in collision with the defender and managed to direct it beyond the advancing keeper and into the net. Lawson injured an ankle in the process and limped off a few minutes later to be replaced by Stuart Smith.

This set the cat among the pigeons for a while and the already spirited game was ratcheted up a notch or two further and although Locos did not look like a team that has yet to win any game at under new manager Cooper, it still looked like they were going to get hee haw out of United who promptly set about restoring their lead. It took them 15 minutes of hammering away at their visitors to do it. Things had been of a rather hectic end to end nature with United able to keep pressure applied for slightly longer spells than Locos when a brief siege including two corners - one at each side saw United defenders joining the attacking fray. In the aftermath of one from the left a partially cleared ball was knocked back into the mix before being launched left to right across the goal face where SMITH attacking the back stick bundled the ball over the line for what was to prove the winner.

Locos began to fade in the face of a couple of United substitutions as Wood and Masson replaced Gauld and Gethins. With fresh legs and a fair bit of muscle up front Formartine were able, more or less, to keep the pressure on their visitors. As time ran out, 2-1 looked increasingly like the final outcome. A drive by Rodger was cleared off the line and another beaten away by Booth but by and large the one goal margin was a fair enough reflection on the course of events.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

None.

Programme cover / Team sheet