Appearances & Goals To Date

Ewen MacDonald (GK)		61 apps	-
Jevan Anderson		53 apps	2 goals
Joe MacPherson		10 apps	-
Stuart Smith		214 apps	20 goals
Stuart Anderson		186 apps	32 goals
Graeme Rodger		158 apps	55 goals
Ryan Stott		17 apps	3 goals
Archie MacPhee		62 apps	44 goals
Liam Burnett		57 apps	7 goals
Kieran Lawrence		35 apps	2 goals
Garry Wood		117 apps	60 goals
Andrew Greig (sub)		38 apps	14 goals
Conor Gethins (sub)		86 apps	34 goals
Aaron Norris (sub)		8 apps	-

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

This result against an improving young Lossie side suggests that things were comfortable enough for Formartine. Far from it: they huffed and puffed, stuttered and stumbled their way to a reasonably acceptable scoreline but they only got there after surviving a seriously rocky patch either side of the interval where with the score at 2-2 Lossie were playing with enough confidence and pannache to suggest that they really fancied themselves to pull off a shock win. In the end they didn't quite have what it took to manage that but they did do enough to point up the flaws in United's squad rotation scheme.

Formartine fielded a side with four changes in personnel and another couple in roles and positions from the one that started against both Buckie and Brora in the previous two games. That looked like a settled “first pick” starting eleven and the North Lodge faithful were encouraged that their team had found an encouraging level of cohesion and fluency and were heading for future success.

Fluency in a side is a hard won quality and one that can disappear into thin air if not carefully nurtured. The fluency that served them so well recently vanished like “snaw aff a dyke” at Lossie and a lot of supporters will take a lot of persuading that it had nothing to do with squad rotation.

The game started at a more than brisk tempo with each side working hard to get the ball forward as quickly and directly as possible but neither was slick enough at this early stage to develop anything of real substance as too often the final ball failed to reach its intended target and moves – mostly down the flanks by United ended prematurely. A bumpy pitch didn't help either. Changes to the United back four with MacPherson coming in for Crawford shifted their more usual approach of the two full backs pressing on almost alternately down the flank to one which was more left dominated leaving MacPherson deeper for longer on the right while Smith made the forays forward. Normally it is Greig or Norris ahead on that flank but this time it was Stott and it seemed less convincing. Stott had enough pace to get well ahead but apart from that pace he didn't offer anything that took Lossie's MacArthur beyond his comfort zone and supply to the striking pair of Wood and MacPhee was from that source at least, limited.

However there was some limited success on the other side when Burnett managed to deliver a couple of crosses into the box one of which Wood reached before being blocked near the right post by Bellingham and MacLean. Another yielded a corner that bobbed around like a cork in stormy sea for a bit before being hoofed to safety. Lossie had one or two long range efforts but none were close enough to target to work keeper MacDonald. It wasn't bad but it wasn't inspiring either. After 15 minutes or so United had slight territorial advantage and had produced a couple of shots, from Wood and Rodger, that asked keeper Black to make fairly routine stops.

A Lossie break through the middle in the 19th minute saw a Ross Archibald twenty five yard effort fly over the top and a minute later Liam Archibald drew the first save from MacDonald who went down to his left to take a fifteen yarder quite easily. By and large play was confined to the box to box area.

That pattern continued up to and after the point that United opened the scoring in the 30th minute. A break down the right flank set it up: Burnett and Lawrence worked a couple of one / twos before the former slipped the ball inside to meet the run of RODGER who was blasting down the inside right channel and in one seamless movement collected the ball twenty yards out and slammed a tremendous low drive that left the keeper with no chance of doing other than collecting the ball from his net. United tried to capitalise on their opener and got the ball into dangerous goal positions a couple of times from corners they had forced on the right but defence in numbers was enough to scramble the ball to safety each time.

There was ample opportunity around this time for Formartine to start bossing the game: they were a goal to the good and had an increasing territorial advantage but passes were going astray and Lossie were working hard and enthusiastically without really gaining much penetration at the United end. That changed with an unfortunate keeper error in the 39th minute. MacDonald making a routine clearance of a dead ball managed to blast it straight at Allen who was stationed thirtyish yards out and looking for a slip up like the one that followed. The ball struck his chest, rebounded a bit before he got under control well enough and early enough to lob it neatly over the keeper and into the unguarded net. 1-1. That brought rejoicing to Lossie who, tails up tried to press home advantage from then and set out their stall to encamp themselves in United territory. It changed the pattern and geed up their supporters but it let United a chance to hit on the break which less than 5 minutes later yielded a corner on the right after a ball from the back by Stuart Anderson was carried down the inside right route by Burnett who in trying to turn in to the cross rebounded the ball of the shins of McLean. MacPhee took a peach of a corner: an inswinger that dropped precipitously near the near post where both Wood and JEVAN ANDERSON went for the header which the latter delivered directly into the net from only a few yards out.

Again Formartine were placed to press on and dominate but Lossie continued their offensive pattern and got United pretty well pinned back in their own back yard. In the process they forced a few corners one of which was met by a brave powerful diving header by Campbell that went barely inches wide of MaDonald's left upright. A further corner on the right did the trick and the same CAMPBELL was not to be denied as he albeit less spectacularly got his head to it to nod home near the back stick to complete the first half at 2 apiece.

This was not what either side had been anticipating but it set up the second half for some excitement. Lossie confidence was clearly high and their energy levels clearly matched that. Man for man United should be better side – they are paid well enough to be that - but they found it hard going against the pumped up Lossie lot. However not for the first time the experience of Stuart Anderson and Stuart Smith combining with the rapidly maturing Jevan Anderson brought organisation at the back MacPherson coped adequately with pacy home forwards too and bit by bit the home enthusiasm was eroded and United brought on subs Gethins and Greig in the 65th minute and began to push back hard. 6 minutes later United got their noses in front by pushing from the back slugging it out in the middle and forcing Lossie back where they belonged in their own territory. This yielded pressure on the home defence particulary from Greig who was a bit too tricky for them. However it took full back SMITH to get the vital third goal when in the midst of a crowded 6 yard area he seized on the ball after it had rebounded off Hamilton following a driven ball across from Greig and whipped it into the net with all the aplomb of an experienced striker.

That's what really swung the game United's way but the cherry on the cake was the fourth goal. There was no way back for Lossie after GREIG hammered home a whizz bang Guy Fawkes night special from the left edge of the box about four or five yards in from the goal line. With only 7 minutes left after that, it was well within United's capacity to run down the clock and make off with all the points.

Match report by Colin Keenan