Aberdeenshire League

Monday 25^th January 2010

Banks O’Dee 1 Formartine United 3

Scorers:

Banks O’Dee: Garrett (60 min)

Formartine United: A. Maitland (23 & 65), Cadger (50 min)

Formartine resumed their Aberdeenshire campaign after the split with an impressive hard fought victory at Spain Park on a clear crisp Monday evening.  With lessons learned from the Deveronvale debacle the Formartine starting eleven was along more familiar lines with messer's Scott, Baird and Brebner back at the helm.

Early exchanges were fairly even, with neither keeper being troubled, former Formartine Keeper pennant made a couple of comfortable saves from long range efforts by Adam Maitland and Mackie.

The deadlock was broken in the 23^rd minute when skipper for the evening Adam Maitland gave the visitors the lead. A decent run down the left and cross by Imray found Barratt whose shot rattled the bar, with the rebound falling to Maitland who after having his first effort blocked by a defender was first to react and wrong footed the Dee keeper with a low shot to his right into the corner of the net.

The remainder of the half saw a midfield contest with neither team really stretching the defences.  Mackie in particular was at the centre of the action in the middle of the park while central giants Cunningham and Bain mopped up and threat from Dee either through the middle or from the flanks.

The second half started with the visitors once again gaining the ascendancy.  In the 50^th minute an excellent move allowed Mackie to earn a corner.  Barrett’s delivery found Cadger’s unmarked 10 yards out and his looping header was excellently placed into the far corner of the net past the stranded Pennant and over the covering defender.

3 minutes later Simpson had a shot narrowly wide as United continued to control the majority of possession.

Dee did pull one back in the 60^th minute, through an excellent solo effort from Garratt, who collected the ball wide right and drove infield before driving a low shot under the advancing Stubbs from 16 yards.

The Dee comeback was never really more than a fleeting glimmer, in the 62^nd minute Formartine had a penalty claim turned down, with the resulting protests allowing referee Forbes to air the only yellow card of the evening to United full back Robertson.

Formartine’s two goal advantage was restored in the 65^th minute with Mackie once again at the centre of the move with another of his powerful runs down the right flank.  His subsequent cross should have been comfortable dealt with by the Dee defence however a breakdown in communication resulted in the centre half knocking the ball over diving keeper Pennant allowing Maitland the simple task of knocking the ball into the empty net for his second and the visitors third.

Given this was this teams first outing since the 16^th of November at Victoria Park, some 8 weeks in total, this was a good performance with all elements of the team functioning well.  The defence was well marshalled by Bain & Cunningham in the centre with Robertson and Imray coping with any wide threat.  The midfield was industrious with Mackie in particular putting in an excellent shift and controlling the midfield assisted by Simpson and Barrett, while Adam Maitland showed what he is capable of, not only through conversion of a couple of chances but his tireless running for the full 90 minutes always providing his midfield with an outlet and playing a captains role.

Managers thoughts : – After such a long lay off the team showed a lot of hunger for the game and the team spirit and togetherness was there for all to see and skipper Adam Maitland led by example with a tireless performance always encouraging the players around him, it was fitting that that he scored twice.