Appearances & Goals To Date

Kevin Main (GK)		35 apps	-
Jevan Anderson		62 apps	3 goals
Craig McKeown		103 apps	19 goals
Johnny Crawford		119 apps	6 goals
Stuart Anderson		194 apps	33 goals
Andrew Greig		48 apps	20 goals
Graeme Rodger		168 apps	59 goals
Archie MacPhee		72 apps	48 goals
Aaron Norris		18 apps	2 goals
Kieran Lawrence		45 apps	2 goals
Garry Wood		127 apps	65 goals
Conor Gethins (sub)		95 apps	39 goals
Scott Ferries (sub)		62 apps	7 goals
Liam Burnett (sub)		66 apps	7 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

The long hurl up past Inverness, Brora and the Berriedale Braes to Wick can be hard enough to thole but to undertake the same in reverse without seeing either side managing to score a solitary goal would be almost soul destroying. The couple of dozen or so Formartine afficionados who undertook the treck up north came gie near to that miserable return before on the point of abject acceptance of their joyless fate, with virtually the last kick of the ball, never say die midfielder Graeme RODGER made the whole undertaking seem like a wonderful undertaking with a goal that took United's sequence of winning League games to 9 and 10 without defeat. To finish the year with that sequence of success compared to a second successive defeat at the hands of the Scorries was the difference between night and day even if the days that far North are shorter than a bookie's biro at this time of year.

Having nicked all three points from United at North Lodge back in September, Wick were well up for this one and set out their stall in such a way as to stifle United's midfield and starve their forwards of supply from that source. Their strategy was not so much one of high press as to simply stand on the toes of any visiting midfielder who got near to feeding the front pair of Wood and MacPhee. The grass was long and although it clearly had been that length since autumn, was much longer than United were used to and Wood, MacPhee and to an extent Greig, struggled to achieve their normal standards of close control. As a result the North Lodgers struggled throughout to attain their normal level of fluency. They had a battle on their hands.

To their enormous credit they displayed levels of grit, determination and dogged persistence that eventually took them to a very hard won victory in obviously difficult circumstances. The sun had sunk below the level of the enclosure before kick off and it was clear from the start that the home side were not going to be taking prisoners. A number of tugs, shoves, dunts, trips and lateish tackles tested both the resolve of the visitors and the vigilance of the referee. A crunching tackle from behind by Farquhar on MacPhee and a rather high one by Steven on Greig set the tone within the opening two or three minutes. In the fourth minute, Norris who had thus far avoided such treatment picked up on a neat feed from Greig on his left and getting swiftly into space near the left corner of the box let go a crisp shot that looked like he had intended it to bend right to left. It continued arrow-straight to fly well past McCarthy's left upright.

A minute later, following a foul on Wood who was on a run towards the box, Aero took the free and this time did get some action on the ball but this time the dipping swerving shot cleared the junction of the keeper's left upright and crossbar. A fairly bright start by United but it wasn't long before the game became more of a midfield struggle that neither side really managed to dominate. Keepers saw little action beyond recycling pass backs, taking goal kicks and cutting out the very odd cross.

It was never really a situation of defences being on top although whatever threat that Allan or either MacNab could muster was more than capably contained by the visiting back four of Crawford, Jevan Anderson, Craig McKeown and Kieran Lawrence. McKeown did well to co-ordinate the defence and very few crosses of note were launched and the 18 yard box was rarely penetrated. At the other end MacPhee got one on one with McCarthy from just inside the right corner of the box, advanced to about 8 yards out but struggled to keep control of the ball and scuffed it wide for a 23rd minute goal kick.

The success of the home side's pressing game was seen in the high share of “second balls” they won although United had the area for about fifteen yards or so in front of their 18 yards pretty well staked out and Wick struggled for penetration.

In the 36th minute United managed a fairly sustained attack on and in the Wick box. Greig with a mazy run and a chip into the heart of the box, Wood with a back heel to MacPhee who very nearly found Rodger who surged forward with a late run all combined before McCarthy went down at the feet of MacPhee and smothered the ball.

The game continued as a hard fought, niggly more than dirty midfield battle until the interval. Thereafter, slowly but surely Formartine began to gain the upper hand. The overall approach was the same by both sides but as the second period progressed it was beginning to show United with an increasing share of possession and beginning to play more of the game in Wick territory than the hosts could achieve in Formartine’s.

Both sides used their full quto of subs. In the 62nd minute Wick brought on Hughes and Clark for the two MacNabs and 6 minutes later United brought on Gethins for Lawrence to effectively put three up front before refreshing the top end further by replacing Greig and Norris with Liam Burnett and Scott Ferries. United probably did better over this phase of re-shuffling and seemed to develop more pressure on the Wick back line which however to United's frustration still held out resolutely. Waves of attack were just contained and for all the possession and territorial advantage developed by United, McCarthy was not really tested. Shots from Wood and Gethins went high and wide respectively but absorbing this level of sustained pressure was taking its toll and some of Academy's tackling was getting rather desperate. Danny Mackay booked earlier for a high challenge on MacPhee found himself in further trouble in the 88th minute. Burnett, with his fresh legs had far more pace than Manson could cope with and his mis-timed attempt to take out the speedy sub yielded no more than a muckle hack at fresh air. MacKay's assistance to his embarrassed team mate was simply to lunge at Burnett with a primitive body check which automatically converted his existing yellow card to a red.

Against depleted opposition United were by now all over Academy like a rash of chicken pox but still they held out until the better team with a well worked move pinched the points. A Burnett / Ferries interchange on the left saw the latter clipping the ball in from near the corner flag before getting it back again to play it across the 6 yard box to MacPhee who shimmied left before spinning round to release the ball into the path of the advancing RODGER in the inside right channel. He simply lashed the ball home just inside the right post. The game was restarted but lasted no more than 60 seconds thereafter following what was, literally, a last minute winner. What a way to finish the year!

Match report by Colin Keenan