Huntly 1 - 2 Formartine United
Aberdeenshire Cup - 2nd RoundWednesday, August 21st, 2019, 8:00 PM at Christie Park, Huntly
Attendance: 200
Referee: Liam Duncan
Huntly | Formartine United |
Goalscorers |
Kai Ross (65) (pen) |
Scott Lisle (36) Jordan Leydon (45) |
Team Managers |
Martin Skinner | Paul Lawson |
Starting Eleven |
John Farquhar Alex Jack Chris Herd Logan Johnstone David Booth Nathan Meres Liam MacDonald Matthew MacDonald Ashley Ballam Alex Thoirs Craig Dorrat |
Errol Watson Michael Clark Stuart Smith Wayne Mackintosh Stuart Anderson Graeme Rodger Liam Strachan Kieran Lawrence Jordan Leydon Scott Lisle Garry Wood |
Bench |
Kai Ross Nick Gray Reece McKeown Keith Robertshaw Paul Esslemont Bradley Manson Cai Matthew |
Kevin Main Gregor Whyte Murray Esson Andrew Greig Paul Lawson Cole Anderson |
Substitutions |
Kai Ross for Craig Dorrat (40) Cai Matthew for Matthew MacDonald (65) Paul Esslemont for Chris Herd (77) |
Andrew Greig for Jordan Leydon (70) Gregor Whyte for Kieran Lawrence (88) |
Bookings |
Liam MacDonald (72) |
Wayne Mackintosh (57) Errol Watson (63) |
Red Cards |
None. | None. |
Appearances & Goals To Date
Errol Watson (GK) | 6 apps | - | |
Michael Clark | 7 apps | 2 goals | |
Stuart Smith | 243 apps | 23 goals | |
Wayne Mackintosh | 54 apps | 6 goals | |
Stuart Anderson | 209 apps | 34 goals | |
Graeme Rodger | 191 apps | 65 goals | |
Liam Strachan | 7 apps | - | |
Kieran Lawrence | 66 apps | 2 goals | |
Jordan Leydon | 10 apps | 2 goals | |
Scott Lisle | 7 apps | 5 goals | |
Garry Wood | 148 apps | 73 goals | |
Gregor Whyte (sub) | 3 apps | - | |
Andrew Greig (sub) | 70 apps | 24 goals |
Starting Lineup
Youngest Player: | Liam Strachan (20 years 288 days) |
Oldest Player: | Errol Watson (34 years 359 days) |
Average Player Age: | 27 years 363 days |
Domestic Players: | 11 (100.00 % of starting eleven) |
Matchday Squad
Youngest Player: | Cole Anderson (17 years 61 days) |
Oldest Player: | Kevin Main (37 years 160 days) |
Average Player Age: | 27 years 33 days |
Domestic Players: | 17 (100.00 % of matchday squad) |
First Team Debuts
Milestones
Despite Huntly's indifferent start to the season, this was never going to be a pushover for Formartine. Huntly aren't quite their bogey side but over the years they have scuppered United hopes on a fair few occasions. As this was a cup game, it offered Huntly an early opportunity to get their thus far under-achieving season back on track. Not quite a hiding to nothing for United but certainly a potential “banana skin”.
Huntly's utter determination to turn their season around was evident from the start as they set out their stall to match up United by man marking them right across the park. They correctly anticipated United's high tempo start and worked their socks off to match it, which by and large they managed. As early as the 4th minute they forced a penalty. A slightly understruck midfield pass by United was seized on by MacDonald and fed out through the inside right channel to Booth. Entering the box he was tracked by Smith who attempted to clear. The former Formartine forward harried the defender enough for him to need a second attempt to get the ball clear. As the defender tried to boot clear the wily forward found enough of his leg to impede his progress and went to deck. Soft but a penalty nonetheless.
Justice was served as Booth taking the spot kick himself, hit it tamely enough for Watson to not only reach the ball but to hold it as well. The game continued in the same pattern with United being frustrated by the damage limitation approach of the home side and although the pace was more than brisk the football was less than fluent. The more Huntly tried to close things down, the more United relied on getting long balls up to target man Wood. However these were frequently from long enough range for him to need to take them with his back to goal and then turn in the face of tight marking to face the goal again.
However United had the quality needed to get on top of all this and direct running through the channels by Lisle and Rodger began to create holes in the home defence. A thumping 8th minute free kick by Leyden from 25 yards beat the wall and the keeper but rebounded from the base of Farquhar's right upright. Bit by bit United were asserting themselves but it took until the 33rd minute to get in front. A break through the middle by Roger, Wood and Lisle took out Herd, Jack and Johnstone and after Wood peeled off to the left to launch a ball diagonally over the 6 yard box, LISLE charged through to hammer the ball high into the net. This looked like being the first of a few more as United pressed to increase their lead. A similar move by Rodger and LEYDEN carved open the home defence again and the latter swept the ball past the advancing Farquhar from about 8 yards out for number two in the 42nd minute.
The second half was heavily one sided apart from a penalty in the 63rd minute that came in the wake of an off side decision against Wood. Meres jumped at the keeper who was advancing towards him. He then hit the deck with a fair commotion. Ross sunk the spot kick. United pummelled them from then until the end. Good goal keeping and bad luck kept the score where it was. United pressure produced a corner kick tally of 19-3 in their favour but there were no more goals.
Match report by Colin Keenan
Photography by Ian Rennie