Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		13 apps	-
Jamie Michie		38 apps	-
Calum Dingwall		94 apps	6 goals
Stuart Smith		130 apps	11 goals
Shane Jamieson		15 apps	2 goals
Stuart Anderson		112 apps	25 goals
Jamie Masson		41 apps	7 goals
Graeme Rodger		68 apps	23 goals
Derek Young		13 apps	2 goals
Scott Barbour		63 apps	30 goals
Conor Gethins		17 apps	10 goals
Neil Gauld (sub)		57 apps	32 goals
Liam Burnett (sub)		3 apps	-
Kieran Lawrence (sub)		4 apps	-

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

The result of this victory over, nay thrashing of, Scottish League opposition takes Formartine to the highest level in the game that they have attained in their 70 year existence. Their reward for the comprehensive demolition of Annan in Round 3 of the William Hill Scottish Cup is a crack at Partick Thistle down in Glasgow on 21st January. You would need to hark back to the achievements of Ross County, Inverness Caley or the glory days of Huntly back in the 80’s and 90’s to find a Highland League cup run to outrank this one.

While the significance and consequences of the achievement are an inevitable source of pride and delight to all connected with the club, the manner in which it was achieved is even more gratifying. This was a victory carved out of an obstinate refusal to accept the status difference between the two matched by a display of high tempo pass and move football and a determination to be first to every ball that eventually wore down Annan before later blowing them asunder.

The tempo, grit and determination were apparent from the outset but against a team from the Scottish League the question was “would it be enough?”. The answer was soon apparent: while these qualities were admirable in their own right Formartine had more than that to bring to the party in terms of guile and organisation. Within five minutes they had visiting centre backs Bronsky and Swinglehurst struggling to contain the trickery of Barbour and the guile of Gethins. This resulted in a number of free kicks in areas short or wide of the box. Some of these threatened: one from left by Masson deceived the wall and had to be desperately beaten away by keeper Currie, another finding the head of Anderson was headed barely inches over while others yielded corners. It was clear that despite the height differential between the visiting defenders (Lucas excepted) and the home forwards these corners were problematic to Annan. Each took several phases of goal area play before being eventually cleared.

Annan had no choice but to adopt the counter-puncher’s position – most of the game was played out in their territory but they were quick and quite direct looking on the break. Wright, Ramsey and Krissian all had a turn of pace but the United defence of Michie, Dingwall, Smith and Jamieson read the game well and MacDonald, apart from showing his worth by pulling down a couple of potential dangerous crosses from Omar and Ramsey, was never sorely troubled. Young playing just ahead of the back four, managed to restrict breakaway options and his reading of the game and off the ball positioning, never showy but always astute, ensured that any pressure on the defenders behind him was at manageable levels.

By the mid point of the first half United had established some superiority in possession and territory but no goals to mark it. They kept the pressure on – a flashing Michie cross right to left over the goal face found first Anderson and then Smith throwing themselves at the ball to nudge it into the net. The players landed in the net but sadly the ball did not. The game continued at this level with United forcing the pace doing more than enough to boss the visitors but not quite enough to score – a twenty yard drive by Rodger only just the wrong side of the keeper’s left upright, was as near as it got before the interval arrived with the game still goalless.

The second half started with a fair wee flurry from Annan and they began, and sustained for the next ten minutes or so, what was their best period of the match. They were attacking United down the flanks – predominantly the left and piling forward through the channels in support. Perhaps Annan had another gear or two to help them? Had United shot their bolt?
The best way to burst the bubble of a reviving team (as Annan seemed to be at this point) is to score against them and that’s when Gethins did what Gethins does – he produced a 15 minute hat trick that comprehensively connached Annan and turned the game on its head. The first goal was in the 56th minute when Masson who had been pulling defenders hither and yonder with powerful runs got the ball over from near the left corner flag with a cross that drooped invitingly at the back stick’ GETHINS who had been tugged and manhandled and more by Bronsky throughout the game nipped between the big defender and the ball and from almost on the goal line nodded it into the net. The defender managed to hook the ball away but not before it had crossed the line.

This was clearly not in the Annan script and while they were still in disarray after going behind when GETHINS, heading towards the box was pulled down by big Bronsky again. Taking the twenty odd yard free kick himself, the transfer listed striker struck again with a fierce swerving free kick that beat the wall before taking what looked like a slight deflection on its way past the keeper for the second. Having shipped two goals in as many minutes Annan were unable to find what was needed to get back into the game. It was doubtful if defending in depth had ever been part of their strategy – it was more a case of United imposing that on them in the first half but at two goals adrift they had no option but to try and come back at Formartine and all this did was to give United more space in which to craft a couple more goals. BARBOUR who had been a constant thorn in the flesh of the visiting defence got no more than his efforts deserved when after some sharp interplay between himself, Masson and Rodger, he applied the finishing touch to ping the ball into the net from about 8 yards in the 69th minute.

United were now running Athletic ragged, and maintaining good shape and a tempo as high as ever, were clearly much sharper than Annan. Several more waves of pressure were visited on Athletic before Gethins completed his hat trick in the 71st minute. A fairly effete Annan attack was dismantled by the immaculate Smith and the rugged Jamieson before the ball was fed forward through Young to Rodger who outstripped the remnants of the visiting midfield before slotting the ball right to left for GETHINS, almost on the penalty spot, to drill home.

It could have been more than four but Annan were forced into damage limitation the game was well won before the fourth goal and the opportunity was taken to save the tired legs of Young, Gethins and Anderson and give a share of the big game experience to youngsters in the persons of Berton and Burnett and let Gauld have a try to get a fifth.

This was as well as United have played in a long time and given the number of first pick regulars who had to sit this out through injury, it will be interesting to watch the competition for places that this performance is bound to create. Every United player did more than match his Scottish League counterpart and collectively they produced a highly impressive team performance that overwhelmed their opposition.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

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