Formartine United 3 Deveronvale 2
Skulking around in the bottom reaches of the league is not something associated with Deveronvale, but on Saturday, the side that had last year taken all of the points available from Formartine came to North Lodge with no points at all for their efforts this season. There was a sense of apprehension in some of the North Lodge faithful that this sleeping giant was about to awake from his slumbers and wreak some terrible revenge on United.
The sleeping giant did awake and attempted furiously to put his hosts to the sword.: what he had not reckoned with was the fact that the hosts would stand up to him, slug it out for every one of the 90 minutes and inflict a bit of a beating in the process. To add insult to injury, they did so with one hand tied behind their backs as top scorer Barry Somers, limped off with an ankle injury with an hour left to play. They also had to weather a final flurry from the giant, matching his desperate efforts for at least one of the points with 10 men to his 11 after Marc Young was sent off in what some saw as rather controversial circumstances. Great stuff for the spectators; a superb achievement for Formartine.
Formartine set out their stall by pressing from the start. Within a couple of minutes they had probed the visitors defence on either flank. In the 3rd minute a slick bit of triangulation down the right involving Notmam, Bagshaw and Mackay set up the last named to swing a perfectly weighted lob across to the head of Somers at the far corner of the box. His right footed drive did dip but only after it had gone over the top. Undaunted, Formartine pushed on and it was clear that Bagshaw was able to get the better of Henry. With the second corner conceded from the encounter between these two, Notman found the head of Ross Gardiner whose powerful header was just the wrong side of the junction between bar and post. Formartine looked odds on to open the scoring.
It was not, however to be. The pattern of the match was already set: Formartine would press and sustain pressure and Vale relied increasingly on sharp fast breakaways in which the pace of D. Smith, Gauld and Watt was instrumental. If the slow start to the season had damaged the visitors confidence, it got the ultimate boost in the 8th minute. Home sweeper Irvine, harried by Gauld and Watt, attempted to play the ball out for a throw in. It swerved just a little, clipped the corner flag and deflected behind the bye line for a corner. Played the back of the box, it was only partially cleared by a header that allowed CHISOLM to head it beyond Gray and into the net. There can be no better cure for opening jitters than an early goal. It seemed to give Vale some belief but it also served to galvanise a gritty home side into even more determined action. Play swung from end to end but it was apparent that Formartine were carving out more and better chances.
Although Gauld had done well to split Simpson and Gardiner to set up Watt one on one with Gray, the keeper was quick to close down the angles forcing the advancing forward in to a chip which landed on the roof of the net. In the 26th minute, a tousy tussle between Titans saw Mackenzie’s tackle on Somers side- line the home totem. Despite prolonged attention to the injury and Big Baz resuming the fray for a few more minutes, it was clear that this was not a injury that could be run off. A silky one- two between .Notman and Bagshaw yielded a cross to the head of the still hobbling Somers. Somehow he got his head to the ball, but it was clear that he couldn’t jump with his usual spring. He did well even to get his head to the ball, but simply couldn’t rise high enough to get in one of his usual vicious headers, got his head under it and the ball flew over. He couldn’t continue and was replaced by Bobby Maitland. Bagshaw moved into partner Mackay up front and Maitland slotted into the vacated wide right slot.
Formartine adapted to this change quicker and better than Vale did and increased their pressure for the equaliser. It wasn’t long in coming: Maitland’s direct running was another challenge to left back Henry and one with which he struggled to cope. In the 31st minute he skinned his marker and whipped over a low fast cross that the rather ponderous Dlugonski could only deflect towards Young who got in a glancing header that Blanchard could only tip out as far as BAGSHAW. With cool precision, he leathered the ball back across the line of the keeper into the net.
Formartine were right up for it now and looked for an interval lead. Half decent shots from Notman, Bagshaw again, Young and, inevitably, Mackay were all enough to test but not defeat the visitors: likewise a header a piece by Simpson and Gardiner.The best of these chances fell for Mackay who was the beneficiary of slick work through the middle by Notman and Bagshaw and found himself clear in on Blanchard. Attempting to bend the ball round the keeper, he got the bend, but not quite enough, and the ball shaved the keeper’s left upright.
Formartine dominance resumed after the interval and the pattern was pretty well the same: Formartine creating pressure frequently down their right flank through Maitland ; Vale on the break. Home balls into the box were cleared as far as the second wave of home pressure until eventually there was a chance for a Vale break which would last only as long as it took a generally capable home defence to set up the next wave of offence. Formartine forced four corners in three minutes, all of which were well taken by Notman and produced some measure of disarray in the Vale ranks, but still they held fast. Ex Vale stalwart Urquhart was quietly exerting pressure by arriving late to the area and getting balls in behind defenders. This persisted until the 66th minute and the start of period of pandemonium. First Formartine went deservedly ahead. Ally Graham pushed forward down the right in support of the indefatigable Maitland. The wee full back clipped a cunning diagonal ball into the box that was scrambled away only as far as the predatory Urquhart who timed a superb little dink across the advancing line of defenders into the feet of BAGSHAW. A turn and a shimmy gave him a wee bit of space – enough for him to strike a hard, rising and lethally accurate shot past the keeper into the top right corner . The Formartine pedal was pressed to the metal and they mounted wave after wave of attack until 5 minutes later they got a third: Again Urquhart had a hand in it with another second phase contribution. Mackay was fouled about twenty five yards out and the quick thinking midfielder took the free kick earlier and knocked the ball over to Maitland whose driven ball was met at the back stick with a fine diving header by Marc YOUNG.
The sleeping giant was still, however wide awake and, pride at stake, Vale roared back to instantly reduce the deficit. From the centre, they worked the ball at pace down the middle. Gauld split the home defence and slid the ball square to MOUNTFORD who simply blasted the ball home from the edge of the box. At 3-2 and more than twenty minutes to go, it was still all to be played for. Endeavour was high, the pace frantic and some of the tackles were getting desperate [rather than dirty]. There was no love lost between Young and full back Rodger particularly after the young forward had got past him to launch his scoring header only a few minutes earlier. A late tackle looked to be clearly illegal and certainly downed the defender who writhed about long enough for ref McNab to produce his red card.
With only one goal in it and a man down, facing a side of Vale’s calibre and experience, the draw looked a distinct possibility. Formartine character was enough to prevent that – they played intelligently maintaining good levels of possession, getting the ball into wide areas and doing their damndest to keep it there in the face of severe pressure from Vale to prevent them doing so. Watching a side trying to run down the clock can sometimes be boring but not this time. The pace and commitment of both sides was tremendous and despite the odd hairy moment, Formartine held until three games into the season, Deveronvale departed as pointless as a chocolate fireplace.
Mind you, Buckie were in that position at the same point last season and look where they finished!
Teams:
Formartine: Gray, Graham, Gardiner, Urquhart, Simpson, Irvine, Bagshay, Somers, Mackay [c], Notman, Young.
Subs: Maitland, Cumming, Cadger, Tait, Singer.
Deveronvale: Blanchard, Rodger, Henry, Chisholm,Singer, Dlugonski, D.Smith, M.Smith ,MacKenzie, Gauld, Watt.
Subs: Cowie, McGowan, Dolan, Mountford, Fraser |
