Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		5 apps	-
Johnny Crawford		39 apps	2 goals
Jamie Michie		23 apps	-
Calum Dingwall		74 apps	5 goals
Stuart Smith		113 apps	10 goals
Stuart Anderson		93 apps	21 goals
Paul Lawson		35 apps	11 goals
Graeme Rodger		46 apps	13 goals
Conor Gethins		3 apps	1 goal
Scott Barbour		41 apps	17 goals
Scott Ferries		2 apps	-
Neil McVitie (sub)		72 apps	14 goals
Max Berton (sub)		14 apps	1 goal
Neil Gauld (sub)		42 apps	27 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

This was everyone’s first experience of the revamped format under the new sponsorship of Irn Bru of the Challenge Cup, and for the avoidance of any doubt – there has been confusion in some parts of the media - this was an Aberdeen side comprised solely of under 20’s with no over age players allowed as for example, in Aberdeenshire League. Under 20’s or not, they were all full time professionals, clearly very well drilled in playing with each other day in and day out and in the end this proved too much for what was [only slightly] a makeshift United side. Injuries to McKeown, Henry and the unavailability through suspension of Wood for an indiscretion whilst playing in the previous incarnation of the Challenge Cup for Montrose two seasons back denied Formartine the height and muscle through the centre where they needed it most.

You could see from his first few touches that Dylan Thomas was a football talent on almost the same scale as the author of Under Milkwood is regarded in the pantheon of poets. This wee buzz -bomb ran the show, dictating shape and tempo and although it was clear that if Formartine stopped him playing they might well stop the Dons, nobody came near to doing so.

The game started at a very high tempo indeed and although United were marginally less fluent at times than their full time opponents, they coped well with the pace. Aberdeen could mount and sustain attacks but at least in the first half, press all they might they found Formartine by and large able to keep them out of dangerous areas. United defended well but seemed to struggle to distribute the ball effectively from defence to midfield. Michie was not alone in persistently over hitting balls from deep which were simply picked up by some of the bigger Dons players and rammed straight back down United’s throats. Gethins and Barbour, but predominantly the former, were getting little in the way of useful supply and were seldom in a position to trouble the visiting back four of Henry, Harvey, Roscoe- Byrne and Omolukun.

United had their moments including an Anderson header that wasn’t too far off target, some teasing crosses from Barbour and runs by Ferries and Rodger that although not stretching the keeper at the end made defenders earn their keep. They earned 4 corners in the first twenty minutes so it wasn’t entirely one way traffic.

However the Dons were playing some very slick stuff and deserved to go ahead in the 26th minute. A period of pressure on the home rearguard was relieved briefly when the ball was hastily lumped well up the park only to be collected by Thomas who worked it more or less unchallenged thirty yards forward before threading it through to WRIGHT who was advancing through the inside right channel to collect the pass and drive the ball hard and accurately against the line of the advancing MacDonald into the far corner of the net.

The Dons maintained shape and tempo continuing to play the same neat and flowing stuff while United continued to defend well enough but also still struggled to work the ball from back to front slickly enough to look like equalising. They weren’t too far out of it but the youngsters held the edge until the interval.

Thereafter they spent twenty minutes tearing United apart with four well taken goals. It started with a screamer by NORRIS: picking up a clearance well over thirty yards out he was in space well short of the defence. As United waited for his advance towards the area he did the unexpected by taking the ball on the half volley and lashing it straight into the net.

Four minutes later, a cleverly worked goal came from a period of pass and move football right round the fringes of the home box. Eventually the defence was defeated by a series of passes from left to right Ross to Norris to WRIGHT who was able to cut the ball past MacDonald from about 15 yards out right of centre.

The rampant Dons continued their blitzkrieg as WRIGHT completed his hat trick in the 64th minute by applying the finishing touch from a very tight angle to a feed from McLennan who had forced his way through the heart of United’s midfield with a forty yard run that left far too many United players in his wake.

A minute after that, the big striker with the two -tone hairdo, NUTTALL had a simple finish from virtually on the penalty spot after being teed up by a short square feed from Norris.

It didn’t look like United would recover from all this but after a few substitutions, remarkable really in the circumstances, they rallied enough to pull a couple of goals back and subject Aberdeen to some sustained pressure. Two subs combined: Berton jinking in and out down the left whipped the ball across the goal mouth to GAULD who dropped his left shoulder and hammered the ball right footed beyond the reach of Craddock.

The nightmare was over; the tide had turned and United finally showed a level of belief they had failed to up to that point. Three minutes later, consistent with the run of play at the time, Formartine completed a passage of sustained pressure when a bombardment of the Don’s rearguard saw the ball rebound from a ruck of defenders to RODGER who drilled the ball home from close range roughly in line with the keepers left upright.

The game ran out in a fairly end to end fashion but neither side could do anything to change the scoreline.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

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