Formartine United 3 - 0 Deveronvale 

League Match
Saturday, December 15th, 2018, 3:00 PM at North Lodge Park, Pitmedden
Attendance: 155
Referee: Mat Northcroft
Mascot: Arda Alan, Nathan Davidson & Jay Weir
Formartine United v Deveronvale, Dec 15th 2018, North Lodge Park, Pitmedden
Formartine United  Deveronvale

Goalscorers
Andrew Greig (pen.) (56)
Archie MacPhee (67)
Graeme Rodger (74)
None.

Team Managers
Paul Lawson Steve Doolan

Starting Eleven
Kevin Main
Joe MacPherson
Jevan Anderson
Stuart Smith
Stuart Anderson
Andrew Greig
Graeme Rodger
Aaron Norris
Kieran Lawrence
Archie MacPhee
Garry Wood
Grant Pennet
Lewis Dunbar
Harry Noble
Kevin Adams
Michael Dunn
Kyle Willox
Graeme Watt
Matthew Wallace
Robert Scott
Grant Noble
Jody Munro

Bench
Ewen MacDonald
Craig McKeown
Ryan Stott
Paul Lawson
Liam Burnett
Conor Gethins
Kyle Gauld
Sam Robertson
Daniel Middler
James Blachard

Substitutions
Liam Burnett for Stuart Smith (37)
Conor Gethins for Kieran Lawrence (63)
Craig McKeown for Joe MacPherson (63)
Sam Robertson for Jody Munro (62)
Daniel Middler for Robert Scott (85)
Kyle Gauld for Matthew Wallace (85)

Bookings
None. Robert Scott (21)

Red Cards
None. None.
Appearances & Goals To Date
Kevin Main (GK) 33 apps -
Joe MacPherson 16 apps -
Jevan Anderson 60 apps3 goals
Stuart Smith 222 apps21 goals
Stuart Anderson 192 apps33 goals
Andrew Greig 46 apps20 goals
Graeme Rodger 166 apps58 goals
Aaron Norris 16 apps1 goal
Kieran Lawrence 43 apps2 goals
Archie MacPhee 70 apps46 goals
Garry Wood 125 apps64 goals
Craig McKeown (sub) 101 apps19 goals
Liam Burnett (sub) 64 apps7 goals
Conor Gethins (sub) 93 apps39 goals

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Joe MacPherson (18 years 106 days)
Oldest Player:Kevin Main (36 years 276 days)
Average Player Age:26 years 86 days
Domestic Players:11 (100.00 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Joe MacPherson (18 years 106 days)
Oldest Player:Kevin Main (36 years 276 days)
Average Player Age:27 years 149 days
Domestic Players:16 (94.12 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones

The main question surrounding this game - a league repeat of last Saturday's cup encounter between the same two sides at the same venue was what if anything would be different about it this time around? The obvious short answer to that was the weather: this time the same two starting elevens faced each other amidst a howling gale that blew in a succession of nasty, vicious and squally bursts of rain yielding a wind chill temperature of around -7. It is of enormous credit to both sets of players and the match officials that this game not only started but was completed including, believe it or not, time added on for stoppages. In such inauspicious circumstances, the standard of football produced by each side was of a remarkably high standard. The outcome each time was a three goal winning margin for Formartine (4-1 and 3-0).

Initially the wind blew predominantly across the pitch from the stand side but angled slightly towards the Oldmeldrum end: by the time the second half and the worst of the rain was underway, it had had veered to blow almost directly from the village end. United began with the questionable advantage of a degree of wind assistance and initially piled forward to pressurise the visiting rearguard. As he had the previous week, Greig made a number of breaks down the left flank and made demands of Dunbar in the process. He managed a number of balls into the box in the opening ten minutes or so and forced a couple of corners in the process. Each of his balls in carried some sort of menace as the wind made it difficult for both attack and defence to predict the flight of the ball. Both Wood and MacPhee got something on one of these crosses but neither got a direct enough contact for the headers to stretch Pennet. The nearest to a productive result to this process was a fierce downward header from Norris that had Pennet scrambling to see the ball round his right upright.

MacPherson, pushing on down the right flank, flipped the ball in to Wood who threaded it through a knot of defenders to MacPhee whose fierce shot on the turn whizzed inches past Pennet's right upright in the 14th minute. Formartine were beginning to keep Vale hemmed in within the area in and around their box and in the 15th minute Wood shook off Adams' attempts to manhandle him off the ball and released a pile driver that Pennet did well to beat away for a corner that set up a crisp shot from MacPhee that brought another decent save from Pennet.

By the mid point of the first half, United were clearly calling the shots but struggling somewhat to convert pressure and territorial advantage into goals. The wind had a lot to do with it as balls from the back were blown past or away from their intended recipients and the United style of passing their way through opposing defences on the back of lightning breaks from deeper areas was thwarted by the conditions. In the 29th minute a Greig screamer skirled past Pennet’s right post and over the next few minutes United raised their corner tally to 7 without reply but still couldn't get the ball into the net.

In the 33rd minute they got gie close when a ball into the box from the left by Greig was hammered goalward by MacPhee to draw another quality save from Pennet as he dived quickly to his right to block the shot and having done so, grabbed the ball just before Rodger could get a boot to it,

In the 37th minute full back Smith went down injured and had to be replaced by Burnett. This necessitated some re-organisation that pulled MacPhee from up front with Wood to left back and deploying the young sub in a sort of inside right role.

Vale were confined to very sporadic breakaways few of which made any real demands of keeper Main. Their best effort probably came from some interplay between Noble and Scott when the former set up the latter after a feed from Willox. The outcome was a drive from Scott fifteen yards out but mostly into the wind and Main was well placed to take the ball cleanly.

Conditions worsened at the start of the second period and the wind although swirling at times moved predominantly to blowing from the Pitmedden side to the Oldmeldrum one. The rain showers increased in frequency and ferocity. However Vale were acute enough to find some advantage in this and began to launch a succession of long range efforts towards the United goal. They carried a bit of power but the wind was a fickle partner and most of them were well off target. The few that were, did enough to keep Main sufficiently active to prevent hypothermia but none did enough to fully test his considerable capabilities.

Playing into the teeth of this gale in a perverse way suited United. There were no more overstruck balls from behind to overshoot the forwards and by running with the ball and playing short passes, they began to make headway. Their capacity to sustain this graft is testament to their fitness levels and the regime that fitness coach Eric Whyte conducts. Before the hour mark, they had set up camp in the Vale final third and were hammering away looking for the route to goal. It came in the 56th minute when Wood fed by MacPhee, broke into the box and split Dunn and Adams and was about to fire one in on goal when the latter unceremoniously up-ended him almost on the penalty spot itself. Ref Northcroft had no hesitation in awarding the spot kick. GREIG did a superb job with it hammering low and hard inches inside Pennet's left upright. The keeper read (or guessed it) right and was down in a flash but the kick was too hard and too accurate for him to reach the ball and the deadlock was broken.

From that point on and apart from a few more optimistic longer range efforts from the visitors United were well in control. In the 64th minute Formartine gouged a fair whole in the Vale defence when Greig took the ball out wide left before slipping it inside to Wood about 8 yards out. Left of centre, he clipped the ball to his right for MacPhee who arrived via the inside right root to head home. The “goal” was deemed to be offside but less than two minutes later a near replica of the same move yielded one that MACPHEE completed from an onside position for 2-0.

Vale battled on but United despite the wind in their faces were calling the shots. They completed the scoreline in the 76th minute when the aftermath of a Vale attack was recycled by McKeown and set up RODGER with a powerful run through the middle supported on his left by Wood and MacPhee. Although he probably welcomed their supportive presence he needed no assistance in beating the keeper with a crisp shot from the edge of the box.

United knew they had it won by then and simply kept the ball down low out of the wind and worked to the wide areas to run down the clock to complete a hard won victory in utterly vile conditions.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie

None.

Programme cover / Team sheet