Formartine United 1 Brora Rangers 1
With various pundits touting Formartine for a finish in the very upper ranges of the league, the level of expectation placed on the players was inevitably high. What they delivered in a rather scrappy draw against a hard working and well drilled Brora side, gave the lie to that one. Put simply: they started well, stuttered, lost a player after a crazy, rash challenge right under the nose of the ref , ran out of ideas and inspiration and ended holding on rather grimly for a draw after fading faster than a pair of stonewash denims.
They started impressively and, for the first fifteen to twenty minutes, looked like they would overwhelm the Cattachs. The Pitmedden boys took only three minutes to open their account. New captain Mackay, new-comer Notman and Bagshaw linked well and showed the pace and trickery to seriously threaten the visiting rearguard. Within a minute, A smart one-two between Bagshaw and the Kaiser yielded a well timed cross beyond the back stick and just inches ahead of the advancing Somers who did reach the ball, but at full stretch, was able only to thump it over the top.
A similar move, again down the right was thwarted by a rather primitive and certainly illegal challenge by Mackenzie on Mackay. Bagshaw took the free and slung the ball slightly outswinging across the box where debutant and former Cove favourite, Barrie Stephen nodded it right into the path of fellow debutant Notman. The former Man United and Norwich City forward was onto it in a flash and leathered the ball so venomously goalwards that although Munro connected with it on the goal line, the ball still had enough pace on it to continue to the back of the net. A goal to the good after three minutes was exactly the start Formartine were after and it looked for the next quarter of an hour that the floodgates would open in their favour.
Barrie Stephen was making life extremely uncomfortable for the dogged wee Neil and after slipping by him got in a treacherous cross towards the back post that Munro managed to clear just before Somers reached it. Another astute ball into the danger area was somehow scrambled clear and Brora dug in and hung on.
Bagshaw almost made it two in the 18thminute when he got hold of a cute over the top ball from Notman and jinked his way across the front edge of the box before hitting Martin’s left upright with his left footed drive. Stephen also had another go at goal forcing Martin into diving action with a well judged low drive after cutting in from the left.
By the middle of the half, there was a growing sense that Brora were finding their feet and were at least the match of Formartine in their appetite for a result. They were winning rather more than their share of 50- 50 situations and Smith, Mackenzie and Baxter had enough skill and nous to get a bit of a grip in midfield. Formartine attacks were fewer and further between and although the home side did not seem unduly troubled at the back, it was clear that they were posing less threat than they had earlier in the encounter. The game was by now a much more evenly balanced affair, a pattern that continued until two minutes before half time. A recklessly high tackle by Cumming on MacDonald was right under the nose of Morag Pirie and she instantly showed him the red card that changed the pattern of the game. The residue of the right back’s challenge continued well into the second half as MacDonald limped his way back into the game.
Initially the Formartine response was to pull their new defensive midfielder Paul Urquhart further back to tuck in as Irvine moved to right back. Early in the second half, manager Gardiner changed this by replacing the former Vale man with Marc Young taking on full back duties and Irvine returning to sweeper.
With Brora having the advantage of the extra man, Formartine fitness was tested to the full. The answer to that was not entirely convincing and while they managed to hold out to concede only one goal, they looked increasingly unlikely to score another and faded as the game rogressed. The Brora goal came after a wave of attacks that were fairly capably dealt with by a home defence where Simpson was at his commanding best.
Mackenzie was beginning to impose himself in the centre and right midfield areas and provided a variety of decent balls into the danger area. One of them left Jones with a sniff of goal but Gray took the shot quite comfortably. In the 65th minute, another bit of trickery by Mackenzie yielded the reward of the visitors persistence he made progress down the right flank stretching the ten man visitors as wide as possible and then floated over a ball to the back of the box where Liam BAXTER simply nodded the ball past Gray’s left hand to level the match.
Brora were now not unexpectedly in the driving seat and used their numerical advantage to drive a wedge between Formartine’s midfield and forward line. The result was that Mackay was left on his own, isolated up front as the other forwards were increasingly engaged in midfield. Even on his own Mackay, still constitutes a significant threat but the supply to him was limited and when he did get on the end of something, he generally had to hold onto the ball until support arrived. The problem with that was that it gave the visiting defence all the time they needed too.
It is to Formartine’s credit that they did manage to hold on for the draw. Mostly they were steady enough but in the very last minute, Brora came within a hair’s breadth of getting the result that some thought they deserved. The fresh legs of sub McKain were testing the tiring ones of the Formartine rearguard and he worked his way through the defence until he was in one on one with keeper Gray and about 8 yards out. The keeper held his ground well to produce a superb reaction stop that saved his side two points.
Formartine United: Gray, Cumming, Graham, Urquhart, Simpson, Irvine, Bagshaw, Somers, Mackay, Notman, Stephen. Subs: Cadger, Maitland, Young, Tait, Morrison.
Brora Rangers: Martin, Neil, Macdonald, Macleod, Munro, Smith, Mackenzie, Baxter, Jones, Suttar, Mckay. Subs: McKain, McKernie, Begg, Murray, Maitland. |
