Appearances & Goals To Date

Andy Reid (GK)		54 apps	-
Shane Jamieson		11 apps	-
Jamie Michie		34 apps	-
Scott Henry		14 apps	-
Stuart Smith		126 apps	11 goals
Stuart Anderson		108 apps	25 goals
Jamie Masson		38 apps	7 goals
Graeme Rodger		64 apps	20 goals
Scott Barbour		59 apps	28 goals
Scott Ferries		9 apps	-
Neil Gauld		53 apps	32 goals
Ewen MacDonald (sub) (GK)		10 apps	-
Max Berton (sub)		28 apps	2 goals
Kieran Lawrence (sub)		2 apps	-

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

Formartine should have won this to progress to the semi -final of the Morrison Motors Aberdeenshire Shield. The failure to do so was entirely of their own making with indiscipline in certain individual players at the heart of it. It was a game where they started and finished on the front foot and where for long periods they ran the opposition absolutely ragged, the same opposition that four days before they had demolished by 7 goals to two at the same venue. Indiscipline on the scale demonstrated in this game where United finished with 9 players on the park after red cards to keeper Reid in the first half and forward Masson in the second represents a self- indulgent lack of professionalism that has cost the club dearly.

United started very well indeed, moving the ball about at pace and generating successive waves of attack that looked initially like they would engulf and consume their Junior League opposition. The football was stylish and looked like it was going to produce another goal fest on the scale of the previous encounter between the two. It certainly seemed that way in the 6th minute when full back Michie from the right side of the half way line whipped over a pass straight to the feet of Gauld in the box about twelve yards out and a bit left of centre. Taking the ball cleanly he struck a fierce drive on the turn but it flew narrowly past the far post. This move sums up United’s play for almost all of the first half and sadly, too much of the game overall: the quality of some of what they produced (especially when they had eleven players with which to do deliver it) was skilled and attractive – but – a big but this, for all the pressure they exerted on the visiting defence as a whole, not that much of it was on the keeper in particular.

Rodger, Ferries, Anderson, Gauld, Masson and Barbour all had chances and each attempted to put the ball into the net with them. None managed. Probably the best chance fell for Masson when he was one on one with Shearer but ballooned the ball over the top from near the penalty spot. The one that came nearest to producing the goods for United was a clever angled drive from beyond the left post and about six yards in from the goal line by Barbour that rattled off the inside of the far post but came back into play to be booted to safety by Heads.

In the midst of this – in the 22nd minute fate struck its first blow to United when, for the second game in a row they lost a central defender to a knee injury. This time it was Henry who had to be withdrawn and he was replaced by young Kieran Lawrence who is a very promising young midfielder, but by no means a centre back. That meant further re-shuffling of an already injury depleted pack. Anderson withdrew a couple of notches into covering some of the big defender’s gap but that reduced his hugely influential presence in midfield and United while still looking distinctly the better side, nevertheless were a little less fluent and while Banks were still subjected to quite intense pressure it was slightly less intense and not quite so sustained as it had been.

With Dee now managing the odd breakaway, the patched up United defence was put under occasional pressure. Still utterly against the run of play, Banks opened the scoring in the 29th minute. A goal kick long and right was knocked forward into the inside right channel by Josh Winton where SOPEL (on loan from Peterhead) just beat Jamieson to the ball, nipped inside him and drove it past the left hand of Reid and into the net.

At this stage, there was no cause for alarm in the United ranks – they had come from 1-0 down in the 7-2 win, still had eleven players, persistent territorial advantage and the lion’s share of possession. All they needed was patience and professionalism and they ought to prevail.
But it’s never that simple and with Dee looking definitely a bit perkier for scoring, their breakaways were just a little more frequent and that was frequent enough for them to hit pay dirt 6 minutes before half time. Pursuing a long through ball from defence, veteran striker Jamie Watt had it under control, was onside and heading for the box when keeper Reid rushed to close him down. They met twenty yards out but REID made what wasn’t the smartest decision of his life and instead of attempting to legitimately tackle the striker, simply kicked him up in the air. He was red carded immediately and almost simultaneously, Gauld was withdrawn to allow substitute keeper MacDonald onto the pitch.

To their credit United plugged away with their depleted team and not only reached the interval without being sorely pressed but began as the second half progressed to pin back the “toonsers” all over again. Most of their play was around rather than within the opposition box but there was pressure there. A thumper of a 25 yard free kick by Anderson was parried two handed by Reid for an unrewarded corner – it was noticeable that a number of United corners lacked the depth to take out the first defender. A shot on the turn by Barbour fizzed inches past the keeper’s right upright and it looked like United had it in them to turn things back in their favour. A dipping Masson drive that wasn’t much over the top added to that impression but it all came apart in the 69th minute when a long run out of defence and down the left by the overlapping pair of Josh Winton and Alan White was completed with the latter driving the ball across the box from where LENNOX, on the penalty spot, skelped it into the net.

Still United hammered away – there was plenty of fervour but it had a desperate, unstructured character. The work rate was there, so too periods of sustained pressure, but it was lacking guile, patience and shape. Whatever chance there was of regaining form and balance was blown right of the water in the 73rd by the dismissal – straight red card – of Masson. While being summoned by the referee for what looked like being a talking to at best, or a yellow card at worst the player simply advised the official “to go forth and multiply” or words to the same effect, and was dismissed.

Within a couple of minutes Dee exploited their numerical superiority with a three man break right down the middle. The three on two was resolved simply by Watt finding the space to the left of the two defenders and clipping the ball past MacDonald to go three up with only fifteen minutes remaining.

United were not yet finished and despite being unable to score with eleven found the means to do so twice in three minutes with nine. Crazy, really but they created the pressure and they were decent goals too. Sub BERTON – on for Barbour, made a forceful run through the box from front left and jinked his way past three defenders before pinging a low superbly placed ball just beyond the reach of Shearer in the 84th minute for 3-1. This was enough to get them dreaming of Lazarus and with a supreme effort they had Dee right on the rack with shots raining in from all angles. In the 87th minute, in the aftermath of a corner from the right, Smith got in a fierce header that was parried to ANDERSON who from close in, just a touch left of centre whipped the ball into the net for 3-2.

United hammered away until the final whistle and sustained a siege that required the entire eleven visitors to contain. But contain it they did and United, or at least some of them, will have to work hard to reconcile the idiocy of each of the red card incidents with any conception of themselves as proper professionals because that’s what cost them this one.

Match report by Colin Keenan