Generally the results of pre-season friendlies matter much less than the overall performance and on that basis it is far too early for sounding any alarms or pressing panic buttons at Formartine. It is not the fact that they have yet to record a victory against teams, whose seasons start earlier than Uniteds and who are inevitably nearer to the finished article for the coming season, but the fact that in 4 hours and 30 minutes of trying, they have failed to get the ball into the opposition net, that raises at least some mild apprehension in their aficionados.

All teams and every striker will go through phases when try as they may, the ball simply will not go into the opposition net. Formartine and the current occupant of the striking role, Connor Gethins, are enduring just that. The normally lethal wee Irishman has had lean pickings of late and half way through the second half you could see what the lack of a regular feed of goals in his diet has done when, virtually on the penalty spot with only keeper Kean to beat, he took an almighty whack at the ball without getting his weight over it or keeping his head down, and sent it skywards well over the top of the bar and for that matter, the perimeter netting as well.

These lean spells do not usually last long with good teams - and there is no doubt that United are one of these - they are usually even shorter. The optimistic view is that as its seldom if ever you go a season without a sticky patch, now is as good a time as any to get one over and done with.

However, the lack of goals seems to be related to a disconcerting spate of injuries to key players. When United rampaged their way to 16 wins on the trot at the tail end of last season, they owed quite a lot of their success to height, muscle and battling power through the middle of the team - a bit of iron through the spine. Jevan Anderson under the tutelage of the experienced McKeown, the ball winner par excellence, Wayne Mackintosh, and big Gary Wood up top are all now on the injury list. Combine that with the long term absence of Scott Henry, another centre back and there are deficits. Both Greig and Gethins are tricky and have an eye for goal but without target man Wood to hold up the ball for them to feed off, the front line looks like it lacks venom.

East Kilbride are a top level Lowland League side – just pipped for the title by Spartans in the last game of the season and despite their deficits, United did reasonably well. At a push you could say they were unlucky not to have taken more from the game than they did. They started quite brightly and, just as at Forfar they had slightly the better of possession and territory over the opening minutes. By the third minute or fourth minute, Greig had twice got away from Stevenson to put in decent back post area crosses. Stott with a fast late run got nearer to one but the other was comfortably headed away by Howie. Stuart Anderson was pulling strings in the middle and United were looking good on the ball, however when they lost it, they were not quite as adept at getting it back again as they have often been in the past. The absence of Mackintosh is a likely contributing factor. Despite that they managed a couple of shots on target early on. Greig with a crisp twenty yarder comfortably taken by Kean and another by Stott from the right side that met a similar fate.

Kilby were quick and slick on the break: in the 7th minute following a United corner on the right they, broke straight to the opposite end and had it not been for a well timed tackle by McKeown to deprive McNeil, his combination with Winter might well have produced the opener.

The game was largely confined to the area between the boxes until the 18th minute when the obviously well developed understanding between Winter and McNEIL stretched and then breached the United defence. The former did the early damage by making enough space down near United's left corner before jinking in a little and releasing the ball to meet the run of the latter who side footed the ball home from no more than fifteen yards out.

This did little to change the pattern of the game - United were doing well enough from box to box in very energy sapping conditions but crosses into the area were not really a viable option when there was no one with the height or aerial capacity to prevent the taller defenders simply nodding them away. In the middle and at the rear, United were adept enough to shackle the home side to seriously restrict any real goal threat from them.

In the 44th minute, United came close to levelling when right back Crawford, apparently frustrated by lack of progress up top burst through down the inside right channel to offload a thumping 25 yard drive that went inches wide of Keans right upright.

The second half saw little signs in any change to the scoreline and the box to box stuff continued. Around the hour mark, Jevan Anderson was taken off with a nasty looking ankle injury. He was replaced on a virtually like for like basis by trialist Joe McPherson who despite lacking the physical presence of Anderson made a number of astute tackles and seemed to do his case for a contract no harm at all.

United then rang the changes bringing on virtually their full panoply of subs: Lawrence, Burnett, Lawson, Newman, and Jensen. Lawson was influential and managed a number of balls into the box. Gethins had the best chance in the 79th but struck the ball well too high.

A stunning 50 yard diagonal pass from McKeown was taken by Greig just short of the left corner of the home box The forwards first touch was great, but his next – to set himself for a shot at goal was over - cooked and Reid simply pinched the ball off his toes and booted it clear.

United battled on looking for an equaliser but Kilby were savvy enough to know how to run down the clock to seal the victory. In the face of some spirited resistance from Formartine they kept just enough possession to ensure that they achieved their ends.

Match report by Colin Keenan