Appearances & Goals To Date

Kevin Main (GK)		41 apps	-
Jevan Anderson		68 apps	3 goals
Craig McKeown		109 apps	19 goals
Johnny Crawford		124 apps	7 goals
Stuart Smith		228 apps	22 goals
Andrew Greig		54 apps	21 goals
Graeme Rodger		175 apps	61 goals
Aaron Norris		23 apps	2 goals
Kieran Lawrence		50 apps	2 goals
Archie MacPhee		79 apps	58 goals
Garry Wood		133 apps	68 goals
Wayne Mackintosh (sub)		41 apps	6 goals
Ryan Stott (sub)		26 apps	8 goals
Conor Gethins (sub)		99 apps	39 goals

Starting Lineup

Matchday Squad

First Team Debuts

Milestones

With so much at stake for either side, it was as sure as God made little apples that this would be a tight, nip and tuck affair. Defeat for the visitors would compromise but by no means completely de-rail their title chances whereas failure to collect all the points by United would leave them looking more realistically at a finish in the top three or four rather than one in the first two. However Brora have been pushing Cove quite hard of late, emerging on Saturday with a share of the points with reigning champions. With the arrival of the self same Brora, also on league business, at North Lodge only 72 hours after this game, United's credentials as serious contenders at the top end of this level of the game are being tested.

Tight though this game inevitably was, it still made absorbing fare for a large and vocal crowd. The overall pattern was of a game where the bulk of the action was in the middle third and with defences of both sides in excellent fettle, keepers were not over worked. The starting elevens were more or less on expected lines although both sides were unable to field their captains, however both Stuart Anderson and Eric Watson were able to make places on the bench.

United set up a slightly more attack minded 4-3-3 than Cove's 4-4-2 but the truth of the matter is that such was the pace and pressure of the play by both sides that the differences in line up were more of intent than anything else and for long periods there were a dozen or more players occupying the middle third of the pitch.

The game started at a furious pace and it was United who were the first to threaten. Almost straight from the kick off they got the ball out to Norris who scorched off down the flank before swinging the ball right to left to Garry Wood. He got hold of it well and the shot had power behind it but was capably saved by McKenzie. It was probably as good an opportunity as United had for the next nearly 90 minutes. That is not to say that they were in any way lacklustre or that they were dominated by the visitors; it is a simply a reflection of just how tight this game was.

The ball occasionally got out of the midfield battleground but defences were alert and capable enough to negate anything that got beyond twenty five yards out. In the 9th minute Greig made enough of a run to get in a cross cum shot that dipped near to goal but still went over the top. A couple of minutes later Norris, about twenty five yards out, back to goal, still managed to get off a goalward shot only to find it blocked by Ross.

The midfield battle raged on with neither side giving any ground to the other and any variance to that pattern was limited in the threat it brought to the other side. A shot by Lawrence after the ball was played into his path by Wood lacked the power or conviction to trouble McKenzie. The first corner of the game was won by Cove as late as the 29th minute. Park swung the ball over to Strachan who tried to chip it round a knot of defenders but Main was in charge and mopped it up just beyond the far post.

Cove were getting a wee bit of territorial advantage at this stage but it was of limited value to them as the home back four of Crawford, Smith, Jevan Anderson and McKeown who co-ordinated them superbly were giving hee haw away. Cove pressure largely shifted the locus of play from the middle third to nearer the final third at the United end but it yielded little. United managed the odd breakaway anyway and in the 42nd minute a combination of MacPhee, Wood and Crawford managed to get the ball and the last named into shooting range at the Cove end but the final ball was a hastily over-struck effort that swerved well past the far post.

The second half saw little change to the overall pattern although each side had a spell where they had enough pressure to create some territorial advantage. United's starting 4-3-3 became more of a 4-4-2 and it could be claimed that Cove pressure played a part in that but it was no more a case of United dancing to Ranger's tune than vice versa. In the 55th minute, a foul on Greig and a booking for Park preceeded a 20 plus yard free kick by Norris that initially threatened but failed to stretch the keeper. United were having a spell of pressing Cove back into the final third but the game levelled off again for the next twenty minutes or thereby.

Things opened out just a touch in the last 15 minutes and although proceedings were still midfield dominated, there were a few more venturesome passages of play. In the 74th a move from Masson, to Scully to Milne yielded a half chance for the last named but the final ball was a full back's finish more than a striker's and did nothing to test Main. Three minutes later Megginson and MacManus exchanged passes and bore down on the United box but McKeown with calm authority simply stepped in to block the shot of the former, taking possession of the ball in the process and killing the attack stone dead.

In the 78th minute the same striker had another go from not too far off the edge of the box but Jevan Anderson, improving with every game had read the move, and made the required block. In the 83rd minute Brown (on for McManus) got his head to a Milne cross but put the ball on the roof of the net. Things were warming up by now and Cove were throwing all they had into getting a goal. Brown had probably their best effort after being set by a through ball by Scully when his fifteen yard drive brought Main into diving action to push the ball away from his left upright.

United also had their last ditch effort at lifting the points in the second minute of stoppage time McKeown who had been impressive throughout set up a move to release Wood and Rodger. The latter managed under pressure to get the ball to the advancing Mackintosh whose parting shot was smothered by McKenzie.

Certainly not a game to keep you on the edge of your seat, but a very evenly balanced encounter played at an unrelenting pace. How much that will have taken out of United before facing the challenge of Brora is anybody's guess but as this game amply demonstrated, the Highland League is as fierce a competition as you will find anywhere.

Match report by Colin Keenan



Photography by Ian Rennie