Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		59 apps	-
Jevan Anderson		41 apps	1 goal
Joe MacPherson		2 apps	-
Paul Lawson		73 apps	19 goals
Stuart Anderson		174 apps	32 goals
Graeme Rodger		146 apps	51 goals
Andrew Greig		26 apps	10 goals
Gregor Whyte		2 apps	-
Archie MacPhee		51 apps	37 goals
Gary Fraser		8 apps	2 goals
Conor Gethins		76 apps	33 goals
Stuart Smith (sub)		202 apps	19 goals
Joe Wilson (sub)		1 app (debut)	1 goal

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Joe Wilson

(Signed July 6th, 2018)

Milestones

If you put a tenner on Formartine at the bookies for this game you would be looking at a princely profit of 20 pence. 50 to 1 on for what is effectively a two horse race speaks volumes for the plight of the Lochaber side who, following a points deduction for fielding an ineligible player earlier in the campaign, sit isolated and uniquely alone at the bottom of the table on -9 points. There was no joy for United in beating this side and it showed in a rather stuttering performance where their play lurched intermittently from silky, slick and lethal to chaotic enough to allow Alan Kerr, Fort's big trialist striker a pair of goals – the side's only ones this season so far. He looks a fair prospect but manager Lawson will still be concerned that however many goals his side are scoring they have a disconcerting habit of gifting goals to opponents. Serious championship contenders simply don't do that.

Whatever doubt anyone might have harboured about the outcome of this game was blown away in the first 6 minutes; by which time United were already two goals to the good. Fort's first attempt at attack came in the fourth minute when a long ball from McKillop reached Morrison who was dispossessed by Gregor Whyte. The ref thought it an illegal challenge and the free kick was taken by MacKinnon. This was headed by Jevan Anderson into space ahead of MacPhee who sliced his way through the home defence before whipping the ball across the goalmouth for GETHINS to drive the it home from the edge of the 6 yard box. Two minutes later the lead was doubled. This time the pressure came down the left flank: Gregor Whyte made the initial break and rounded off his contribution to it by playing in Gary Fraser who surrounded by Fort players, twisted and turned until they had no option but to foul him. His cracking free kick from twenty five yards out, possibly more, beat the keeper but the ball ricocheted from the underside of the bar by the far post and ended up near the other post where RODGER was on hand to force it into the net from close range.

With a two goal lead and the game looking to be theirs already Formartine's vulnerability showed. Perhaps some thought they had done enough by then because a couple of school boy errors followed. An attempted pass back by player manager Lawson to MacDonald was miscued entirely and the situation was only remedied by a frantic dash by the miscreant to hook the ball off the line to avoid an OG. That was in the 8th minute, and in the 9th, the defence was at 6's and 7's after a Fort corner on the right. The ball bobbled about in the back post area before being partially cleared but only as far as KERR who saw a gap and thumped the ball through it and into the net.

There then followed Fort's best spell of the game where they showed how a goal could lift them and set about looking for an equaliser. They were certainly enthused, although MacKinnon, even more enthused than rest got into dangerous territory in his repeated attempts to take out Greig. The United forward was far too fleet for him and managed to remain injury free as the fury of the “tackles” on him rose. Although Fort were quite chipper at this stage, United still had the lion's share of possession and territory and the home side were made to do a lot of running. By mid point of the half they were fading and United had encamped themselves predominantly in Fort territory and phases of United attack were lasting longer each time. Something had to give and in the 22nd minute GETHINS on the end of perfectly judged pass from Stuart Anderson spun off his marker and skelped the ball 15 yards off the inside of the right upright and into the opposite corner of the net.

That was a severe blow to Fort morale - everyone knew that the game was won and all that remained was to identify the scale of the victory – would it extend to double figures? They plugged away gamely but it was pretty much one way traffic at this stage. United went close at regular intervals and keeper Liggertwood did enough to limit the damage with saves from Gethins, MacPhee, Fraser, Greig and Rodger over the next fifteen minutes or so. Gethins went near to completing a first half hat trick with a 34th minute volley that flew inches past the keeper's left upright.

Three minutes later, Gregor Whyte, in his first top team start for United, broke down the left flank and in towards the box. He drilled the ball low and hard into the goalmouth where Rodger from ten yards banged the ball goalwards to the base of the left upright where MACPHEE beat the keeper to it and neatly clipped the ball into the net. It was the same MACPHEE who set the interval scoreline at 5-1 with what was effectively the last kick of the ball before the mid-yoking with a classic back stick header off a Whyte cross.

Fort showed commendable grit after the interval and kept United at bay for the first twenty five minutes. They replaced a hirpling Morrison with Majewski at the outset and within three minutes of the resumption withdrew MacKinnon - presumably to forestall his being sent off – with Gilchrist. Despite this Greig still continued to get a bit of clogging as Taylor took on that duty for his departed team mate. However they were, by fair means or foul, hanging on grimly doing what they could. In the 64th minute breaking out of defence Hunter and Kerr combined to get free of Jevan Anderson and Whyte. Kerr shrugged off an illegal challenge by one or both of the pair and with the ref signalling advantage, took the ball to the edge of the box and banged it home for 5-2

A visibly tiring Fort's discipline began to slide as the frustration in trying to keep in there battling against a side that moved the ball about much better than they could led to a number of late challenges. This reached a head in 68th minute when the ref blew for the umpteenth foul by Taylor on Greig. Meanwhile, the far side linesman signalled for attention to something done or said by Henderson (already on a booking) at other side of the park. He was shown a second yellow, followed by the inevitable red. Then he really saw red, stood his ground and argued with the ref and was shown the red again. On his dilatory way to the sidelines he offered further advice to the official to earn his third red of the afternoon.

That flattened Fort morale and United responded with three more goals in fairly rapid succession. RODGER combining with MacPhee and Gethins made it 6-2 in the 72nd minute before sub Joseph WILSON making his debut from the bench after just missing out with a chip from the right side of the yard box thumped one home from about twelve yards out in the aftermath of a goalmouth melee.

The last goal, again in the midst of a chaotic stramash in the home 6 yard area, looked like a right to left cross by GETHINS for the back post area that the keeper seemed to have covered before it took a deflection into the net. Some might say OG, but the wee Irish striker is claiming it. Fair enough?

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie