Formartine United 0 Buckie Thistle 3
A home team that has more shots on target, wins more corners and has significantly more possession than their visitors would normally expect to emerge with a comfortable victory and that is likely to be the case for Formartine against any side other than Buckie. This was nothing whatever to do with good or ill fortune, but showed quite starkly why Buckie are reigning champions and Formartine for all their promise remain, in comparison, talented, improving new kids on the block. There is something almost sinister in the viciousness with which Buckie can exploit the slightest scintilla of weakness in opponents and turn it to telling advantage. No-one is better at that than Ian Murray.
You have to feel for Formartine: they came into this on the back of a drubbing at Victoria Park all of 10 days before and were unable to field the starting line up that manager Gardiner would wish. Injuries to top scorer Somers, charismatic wide man Stephen and at the very last minute the in form Bagshaw not only disadvantaged them but cruelly exposed the limitations of a squad that is not big enough to handle the rigours of injury and suspension even 5 games into the campaign.
To their credit, they started well and dominated the first half with a display of close passing, well organised possession play that yielded several untaken scoring opportunities. There had been an opening flurry from Buckie when they flew at Formartine for 5 or so minutes from the kick off. Sutherland was fast and tricky wide left and Shewan probed about looking for weaknesses but all it produced was a free kick from the former on the centre left edge of the box. The shot was poorly struck and capably dealt with by Gray. That more or less signalled the end of the opening salvo. Formartine began to get a grip of possession and started to move the ball about quite impressively. Singer and Young in the wider areas were on form and showed more than once each that they could get beyond their markers. Notman was industrious and pulled a few strings from a slightly deeper and more central position and Urquhart was beginning to be a bit of a thorn in the visitors flesh. He and Notman showed the beginnings of a potentially productive partnership. In the 13th minute a direct run from Singer – down the left flank and then diagonally in on goal leaving both Angus and Mackinnon in his`wake, was finished with a fierce driven ball that Main did well to parry at the cost of an unrewarded corner. Notman was next to have a pop.\ Young had made good progress down the left and with support from Urquhart managed to work the ball back across the area for Notman to get in a good accurate drive that tested but couldn’t beat Main. The keeper seeing the ball late, managed somehow to get enough of the finger tips of his left hand to touch the ball to safety.
Formartine were dominant, but spurning decent chances. Mackay was at his industrious best and twice breached the Buckie rearguard only to put his final effort high and wide. You don’t get that many shooting opportunities against Buckie and those you do you must exploit. Formartine came to rue their profligacy.
The first period ended with Formartine in apparently fairly comfortable control although still on level terms. There were grounds for cautious optimism that if they maintained that form they could get a result.
Those who cherished such hope had not factored in the champions’ mentality that pervades the Buckie boys. It took only two minutes from the resumption for his to show. Ian MURRAY has demonstrated his commitment to the Buckie cause by resigning his off shore job for an onshore one [presumably with a diving company] to increase his availability. He was on the fringes of the centre circle as he spotted home keeper Gray loitering without much intent about 4 or 5 yards off his line. With audacious arrogance, he simply flipped the ball from one foot to the other and launched an inch perfect, near 40 yard lob that dropped just behind the furiously back-pedalling keeper and very precisely into the left corner of the net.
Formartine didn’t let their heads go down but instead tried even harder to pressurise Buckie into mistakes. The champions were savvy enough to see that this might give them a bit of a chance by route one particularly as the home pressure had resulted in or was based on a rather high defensive line. 6 minutes later, a long over the top ball from Small cleared the home defence allowing MACMILLAN to run through with Sutherland in support. He simply killed the ball and waited a little for Gray to advance towards him before chipping the ball rather delicately over him and into the net.
Still Formartine persisted. How they tried. Captain Mackay isall heart and mounted one attempt after another to breakdown the visiting rearguard. Sub Maitland – on for the tiring Maitland had some success on the right flank and hoisted over one or two decent enough balls but sadly nothing that Buckie couldn’t eventually deal with. A solo effort from Mackay from the inside left channel saw him make a good thirty five yards getting the better of Davidson and Mackinnon in the process and with a clear opening at the centre front edge of the box, blasted the ball over.
Buckie were wily and patient and firmly sealed the match in the 74th minute. Again it was opportunism from Murray hat made it. Calling for a long ball from Duncan at the back he moved far enough left to draw Gardiner and Simpson to mark him. He simply flipped the ball back to the advancing MACMILLAN who took his simple chance clinically.
Formartine will play worse and win. Their outfield play was good, they matched or surpassed their opponents in almost everything other than finishing. Their most prolific scorers [Bagshaw and Somers] were sidelined and that has to have been a major contributory factor. They have promising youngsters in the pipeline but until these youngsters are ready to make the next step the depth of their squad [or the lack of it] is likely to restrict the scale of their ambitions to reach the top end of SHFL football.
Teams: Formartine United:Gray, Cumming, Graham, Singer, Simpson, Gardiner, Notman, Urquhart, Mackay, Davidson, Young. Subs. Bagshaw, Maitland, Irvine, Tait Cadger.
Buckie Thistle: Main, Duncan, Angus, Davidson, Mackinnon, Small, Low, Shewan, Murray,Macmillan, Sutherland. Subs Charlesworth, Macrae, Napier, Munro, Stewart. |
