Appearances & Goals To Date

Greg Sim (GK)		7 apps	-
Craig McKeown		72 apps	13 goals
Johnny Crawford		78 apps	5 goals
Scott Henry		31 apps	2 goals
Stuart Smith		176 apps	15 goals
Stuart Anderson		155 apps	28 goals
Graeme Rodger		116 apps	34 goals
Wayne Mackintosh		17 apps	1 goal
Archie MacPhee		25 apps	22 goals
Scott Barbour		110 apps	50 goals
Garry Wood		86 apps	47 goals
Jamie Michie (sub)		70 apps	-
Andrew Greig (sub)		1 app (debut)	-
Paul Lawson (sub)		65 apps	18 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Andrew Greig

(Signed November 28th, 2017)

Milestones

After four wins in a row, another in this game would have left Vale on the same points total as United with the same number of games played. Formartine were for having none of that, thank you very much, and gave their upstart hosts a good hiding for even thinking about it. Last time out, back in August the points were shared but there is a bit of momentum running with United these days and by the time the second half was little more than 5 minutes old, they had the game in the bag, seeking to extend the margin of victory and give some of their large squad the opportunity of a run out against and obviously defeated side. The most interesting of these by far was the appearance of new signing Andrew Greig from Brora. In a relatively low key debut, he showed one or two exciting flashes on the ball but also that he will need a wee bit of time to fit into Uniteds style and patterns of play.

United went for it straight from the off: a move down the left largely worked by Barbour and Mackintosh stretched the home defence enough for the latter to get in a decent diagonal ball that was just intercepted by Willox before the predatory Wood could get a boot on it. The ball was recycled a couple of times around and sometimes within the home penalty area but a hard working defence did enough eventually to relieve the pressure. The pattern of the game was emerging: United would do their best to set up camp as near as possible to the final third and attempt to squeeze Vale from there while the home side showed an eagerness to capitalise on the slightest error by the visitors and launch counter attacks with a lot of pace and no little venom. United would have to be careful that their pressure up the park didn not leave a back door open to a nippy Vale counter.

The first of these counters saw Sutherland and Willox exchange passes craftily enough to release Scott into a position behind United defenders with a clear site of goal from about twenty yards range. Keeper Sim closed him down before bumping the ensuing shot over the top for an unrewarded corner. Close but no cigar - the danger was there to see though: Vale were quick and menacing on the break. Scott and Noble both looked neat and nippy.

United had the better of possession though and mounted a fair level of pressure on their hosts. In the 8th minute Smith carried the ball 40 yards forward before bringing in Barbour who exchanged passes with Mackintosh before, under a fair bit of pressure from Davidson and Forbes, releasing a ball that gently trundled across the goal face. There was no one there to take it and the ball was eventually thumped back up the park. As the half progressed so did Formartines grip on the game. Anderson was pulling a number of strings in the area about 35-40 yards out from the home goal and the bulk of play was around the fringes of the box. Shots were getting fired in but mostly from areas outside the box. A thumper from Rodger in the 18th minute was close to target but still the wrong side of the right upright. Pennet saved another couple from Wood and MacPhee comfortably enough and United, for all their overall pressure were short of the penetration needed to break the deadlock. It took them until the half hour mark to do so and showed the wisdom of building from the back. The move started with a beautifully flighted ball by McKeown played from about forty yards out of his own goal centre to left to the feet of Barbour who was off down the flank in a flash. Resisting a tackle from Dunbar he got near to the corner flag but still dogged by the pestilent full back, suckered him enough to get the space to whip over a perfectly timed cross at about shoulder height. Thundering in from the inside right channel WOOD was there to meet it and finish by stooping to deliver a swift glancing header that took the ball well away from the keeper and into the net. The perfect header converted the perfect cross.

This changed not only the balance but the pattern of the game. Vale had to rely on more than the odd counter if they wanted to get back on terms and United having tasted blood had the desire for more. United continued to dominate until the interval although Vale managed one threatening attack in the 40th minute when Scott got one on one with Sim who did well to stand his ground and block what was a well delivered shot. Almost on the stroke of half time Scott delivered a cross from the left that Sim, under pressure (possibly of an illegal nature), from Elder seemed to fumble before eventually grabbing.

The opening minutes of the second half put paid to whatever hopes Vale had of salvaging points from this encounter. They had started with a wee flurry down the left but it got nowhere and was snuffed out in under a minute before Formartine proceeded to wrap up the points with two goals in as many minutes. The first of them came from big Gary WOOD in the 49th minute. It was a typical strikers goal: there had been a spell of pressure in the final third at the Deveronvale end and the ball had been partially cleared out wide left. Just as the tide of defenders and attackers began to move away from the goal mouth the ball was knocked back into the danger zone, probably by Anderson. With his strikers instincts, Woody was the first to react to get onto the ball and clip it home from close range.

Formartine maintained their pressure and within two minutes had forced a corner on the left. Anderson struck the ball with a slight inward curve to it and piling his way through the massed ranks of Vale defenders, United right back CRAWFORD bundled the ball into the net from ultra close range. It was not a foot that did and nor was it his head but some legal part of his upper body was used to valid legal effect to get the ball over the line and into the net for what (remarkable for a full back) was his second goal in successive games. Goal a game Jonny Crawford?

Vale were a pretty busted flush by now and there was still nigh on 40 minutes to go. To their credit Vale held on, rather grimly at times but for all that Formartine were making them dance to their tune, they contested every ball all over the pitch and United needed to maintain their high tempo to stay in control. Both sides used their full quota of subs and the game lost some of its fluidity in the process but United, showing appetite and alertness right to the end, finished in some style with two late goals from Scott Barbour. The first of these was in the 85th minute when after a bit of a seige on the Vale goalmouth the ball was hacked away to be picked up by BARBOUR not far off the left corner of the box. He jinked in towards the goal and despite being forced a bit nearer to the bye line than he would have wished, still beat the keeper all ends up with a fierce low angled drive into the far corner of the net.

A minute later a wee break from Vale produced a cracking twenty yard shot from Noble that brought a superb diving save from Sim. With effectively the last kick of the ball, Barbour completed another spell of United pressure in the home goal mouth by dinking the ball home from close range. That was it. Without really hitting the heights United grafted away and got due reward. They were better in every department, deserved the win and look like they have the makings now of something a bit special.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie