When strikers are hot, they’re hot, and on Saturday two of the Highland League’s finest examples were on show when, for once, Formartine’s Barry Somers was eclipsed by the Vale’s Mark “Rusty” Smith, whose 25 yard free kick secured all 3 points for the Banfers deep into injury time.

The Formartine starting 11 showed 2 changes from the team that drew at Lossiemouth the week before with Phil McGuire starting after his scouting trip to the States, along with Bobby Maitland with Marc Young and Michael Fyfe finding  places on the bench.

Vale, after their Scottish cup exploits against Buckie the previous weekend made several changes with Carstairs, Watt, Coutts, McKenzie and Gilbert all missing from their starting 11 due to injury.

The weather was perfect at North Lodge, dry, calm and sunny, however the playing surface was still very heavy after the heavy rain experienced during the week, which did result in the surface cutting up badly during the game.

The surface no doubt played its part in the opening exchanges with both teams quite literally finding their feet and probing for weaknesses in each other’s defences in what was their first competitive encounter against each other.

Formartine retained the lion’s share of possession in the opening 20 minutes with Somers, McKay and Winter all trying their luck from long range without causing Jamie Blanchard in the Vale goal any significant problems,

At the other end danger man, Rusty Smith had and early looping header drift narrowly past Gray’s left hand post.   

The home side’s early pressure, however, did bring the opening goal in the 22^nd minute, a Jamie Winter corner was headed clear at the far post, where ever eager captain, Kenny Coull collected the ball wide right and swung in a wicked cross for the late arriving Barry Somers to bullet one of his trademark headers into the bottom corner after ghosting in with a late run unchallenged by the visiting defence.

The goal provided the home team with the confidence to step up the pressure on the visiting league leaders with first Winter shooting wide from long range and then impressive Bobby Maitland finding himself through clear on goal until Milne made a last gasp sliding tackle on the 18 yard line to deny him a shooting opportunity.

In the 33^rd minute Vale equalised when Smith fired in a superb 25 yarder in off the Gray’s right hand post.  Smith’s opportunity arose through the home team’s defence’s inability to effectively clear their lines, allowing the Vale full backs several opportunities to return the ball into the danger area before it finally broke to Smith.

Vale were now controlling more of the possession without troubling Gray in the Formartine goal, the best chance in the remainder of the opening half, however fell to the home side in the 36^th minute when a Winter corner was met on the volley by Somers, who saw his effort cleared off the line through a combination of Stuart McKay and Steve Dolan.    

Deveronvale showed their intent to take the game to Formartine in the second half, they controlled possession and created several decent chances.  First Gray superbly tipped over a Duncanson shot from 18 yards, before the tenacious No 9 almost broke through on goal only for man of the match Mark Simpson to ease him off the ball, allowing Gray to collect the ball.

Mark Smith, a constant thorn in the Formartine defence, then headed over on the 50^th minute from a corner, before Gauld hit the side netting.

With the Vale controlling possession, Formartine, in an attempt to disrupt their flow incurred the wrath of referee Beaton, who booked both Coull and McGuire for fairly innocuous challenges.  In return both Smith and Urquhart received similar fates for what seemed to be verbal exchanges with the official, as the referee felt the uncontrollable urge to remain the centre of attention.

Further controversy followed in the 67^th minute, when a McGuire header was well saved down low to his left by Blanchard only for the referee to award a goal kick with his assistant correctly pointing for a corner.  Consultation between the two had no effect on the referee’s view and the game continued with a goal kick to the visitors.

Kenny Coull tried his luck from 20 yards in the 74^th minute after several crafty turns to create space only to see his low drive skid just wide.  The Captain tried his luck again in the 78^th minute with a neat head flick which was comfortably collected by Blanchard.

Both teams made key substitutions in an attempt to turn the match in their favour.  The visitors created the better of the chances late on, indeed Mark Cowie did find the back of the net with a low well placed shot from 18 yards, however he was adjusted to be half a yard offside by the far side linesman, much to the relief of the home fans.

The main controversy occurred in the 87^th minute when a midfield tussle between Ali Graham and Paul Urquhart resulted in the two squaring up to one another and while the exchanges appeared to remain verbal the referee thought the reaction of both players warranted straight red cards, reducing both teams to 10 men.  Even if yellows had been issued to both players it would have been their second caution of the game with the same result – dismissal from the field, however the straight reds did seem harsh for what was neither dirty tackles nor a major altercation after the event.

The winner arrived deep into stoppage time.  Phil McGuire needlessly lunged in on Mark Cowie 25 yards out, and while no contact appeared to be made Cowie took advantage to go to ground and earn a free kick.  Mark Smith lined up the free kick and drove his shot over the wall and into the net off the underside of the bar with keeper Gray caught flat footed as the ball went straight over his head and into the net.

The match restarted and the referee immediately blew for full time to leave the home team visibly deflated with the manner of the defeat and loosing all 3 points despite another gritty performance against one of the main championship challengers missing several of their key players.  And while the visitors did control the majority of the second half possession without troubling Stewart Gray perhaps even the Vale will admit that any winner deep into stoppage time is cruel on the opposition, however when championship points are at stake they will have been gratefully received up Banff direction. 

For the first time Formartine now know the how it feels to loose a goal deep into stoppage time after inflicting the same on both Huntly and Lossie in recent weeks.  The team must dust themselves down and prepare for the difficult away match at Forres next weekend in an attempt to bounce straight back and find another winning performance on their travels north.

Formartine United: Gray, Cumming, Graham, Winter, Simpson, Irvine, McGuire, Somers, McKay, Coull, R. Maitland. Subs: Young, MacAskill, Seivewright, Fyfe, A. Maitland.

Deveronvale: Blanchard, Milne, Dolan, Chisholm, Fraser, Rodger, Cowie, Urquhart, Duncanson, Gauld, Smith, Subs: Barclay, Brown, Fletcher, McIntosh, McKenzie.

Referee: G. Beaton 

Attendance: 330