The weather enforced fixture changes  show that every cloud has a silver lining.  In this case it means that there are now a few mid-week sponsorship opportunities for supporters [as groups or individuals] to sample the VIP  treatment. 

What you get is:

• A chance to sample the executive lounge
• Pre match meal and drinks in Derek Smith Lounge
• VIP seating
• Match Programme
• Half time snacks and refreshments and a warm up
• After match drinks.
• 
  All for just £30
  
  Please contact Peter Mclean 07989 344126 or corporate.fufc@btinternet.com to book
  
  

Somewhere Shakespeare wrote "Now is the winter of our discontent"  The icy grip continues and tonight's home game v Broch is definitely off.  We hear that recent overnight temperatures in Grantown on Spey have eclipsed the misery of our own with regular lows in the minus 20 region.  It will take a remarkable thaw for our next scheduled away game to take place.

League Secretary, John Grant has cautiously decided to keep options as open as possible by issuing mid- week fixtures on a fortnightly basis.

For Formartine that means:  Wednesday, 3/3/10 Home v Buckie

and                                  Wednesday, 10/3/10 Away v Huntly

Both with 8-00 p.m kick offs.

In  what looks like a very sharp piece of business, Formartine have signed Locos multi talented hero, Ritchie Singer. The deal involved a swap for Adam Maitland with cash adjustment in favour of FUFC.  We recieve  Singer as well as an undisclosed cash payment that will serve to offset the fee paid to Huntly when FUFC resigned him some time after Dave Cormie had moved from there to Locos.

It looks like a bit of a win - win situation as John Gardiner is known to be an admirer of Singer and Dave Cormie has already signed Adam, who is barely 21, twice before  [at Formartine and Huntly]. More to follow.

Tonight, [Friday 12th Feb] manager Gardiner says of the legendary Singer:

" He is a great winner and he hates losing. He is also a great crosser of the ball and he gives 110 percent every week. He is versatile as well because he can play in a number of position.

You have got to get supply into your attacking players to give them the chances and hopefully Richie will get the supply in that the front men need and we can create a number of scoring opportunities off the back of that."

Goalkeeper, Ricky Horne has joined Rothes on a loan basis. At present this is on a  short term, temporary basis until the end of February.

Under 21 starlet Christon Mackie has joined Hall Russells on loan until the end of the current season.

The remaining Aberdeenshire League Fixtures have been announced by the Aberdeenshire & District Football Association.  Formartine will have 3 of their 4 remaining fixtures at North Lodge.  The full fixture list is as follows:

As you may be aware at the League committee meeting last week it was agreed that as there had been a number of games cancelled throughout the season with 19 games still to be rescheduled the outstanding fixtures will be awarded as 0-0 draws.

The final revised table now looks like this:

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Deveronvale	10	6	2	2	24	13	11	20
2	Cove Rangers	10	4	5	1	24	9	15	17
3	Peterhead	10	4	4	2	18	9	9	16
4	Fraserburgh	10	3	5	2	26	23	3	14
5	Keith	10	4	2	4	19	16	3	14
6	Inverurie Loco Works	10	2	7	1	13	8	5	13
7	Formartine United	10	2	6	2	9	9	0	12
8	Huntly	10	2	5	3	16	20	-4	11
9	Buckie Thistle	10	1	6	3	10	15	-5	9
10	Turriff United	10	1	5	4	6	28	-22	8
11	Banks O' Dee	10	0	5	5	16	31	-15	5

Here is the draw for the Fosters Highland League Cup

Full draw:
First round:
Fort William v Fraserburgh
Wick Academy v Huntly
Ties to be played on Saturday March 6^th 2010

Second round:
Keith v Brora Rangers
Inverurie Locos v Deveronvale
Rothes v Turriff United
Strathspey Thistle v Buckie Thistle
Nairn County v Cove Rangers
Forres Mechanics v Wick Academy or Huntly
Fort William or Fraserburgh v Clachnacuddin
Lossiemouth v Formartine United
Ties to be played on Saturday March 20^th 2010

Quarter finals:
Lossiemouth or Formartine United v Strathspey Thistle or Buckie Thistle
Forres Mechanics or Wick Academy or Huntly v Inverurie Locos or
Deveronvale
Keith or Brora Rangers v Nairn County or Cove Rangers
Rothes or Turriff United v Fort William or Fraserburgh or Clachnacuddin
Ties to be played on Saturday April 3^rd 2010

Semi finals:
Rothes or Turriff United or Fort William or Fraserburgh or Clachnacuddin v Keith or Brora Rangers or Nairn County or Cove Rangers
Forres Mechanics or Wick Academy or Huntly or Inverurie Locos or Deveronvale v Lossiemouth or Formartine United or Strathspey Thistle or Buckie Thistle
Ties to be played on Saturday April 17^th 2010

Final:
Rothes or Turriff United or Fort William or Fraserburgh or Clachnacuddin or Keith or Brora Rangers or Nairn County or Cove Rangers v Forres Mechanics or Wick Academy or Huntly or Inverurie Locos or Deveronvale or Lossiemouth or Formartine United or Strathspey Thistle or Buckie Thistle
Tie to be played on Saturday May 8^th 2010 at a neutral venue

This the text of an article from the Herald published yesterday.  It says lots for Andy B and the club in general.

Published on 13 Dec 2009

Scotland has a nasty national habit of losing talented footballers and the rise and fall of Andrew Bagshaw is one such troubling case.

Six years ago, the teenage Aberdeen striker appeared to have the world at his feet. The 15-year-old had been a stand-out performer and captain as Scotland achieved success in the Victory Shield competition featuring all the home nations, still the last group to achieve such a feat at Under-16 level. Rangers and Celtic were knocking at his door, not to mention Bolton Wanderers and Manchester United, who relayed the offer of a trial via his Scotland schools manager Stewart Taylor.

The trial never materialised. Instead, Bagshaw signed for his hometown club, with the confident expectation that they would provide the best chance of first team football. It must have come as a bit of a shock, then, when he left 
Pittodrie four years later, without having kicked a ball in anger. Another two years later – after 15 starts and three goals for Peterhead – he was released again. Those who saw him going toe-to-toe with Micah Richards and Theo Walcott in those Victory Shield matches will be startled to find that, at the age of 21, Bagshaw is back in the Highland League with Formartine United.

“I don’t blame anyone about it, and I don’t think it is down to me not working hard, because I think if you ask any coach that I have worked with, they would all say that I have given 100% in training and in games,” Bagshaw said. “There is a part of me that thinks ‘I wish I had actually gone down to England and seen what it was like’. But if I was given the chance again I would probably still have signed for Aberdeen because they were my home-town team and I was doing really well then. I just think I’ve been very unlucky.”

In Scotland you need people who go straight from Under-19 football to the first team

Such ill luck has manifested itself in various different ways. The manager who took him to both Aberdeen and Peterhead, Steve Paterson, was sacked from both clubs shortly afterwards. Bagshaw is still only 5ft 7in tall, and as his contemporaries outgrew him, that strength on the ball which was such an asset at an early age only started to become an excuse to shunt him into midfield. His time at Balmoor was blighted by injury when the youngster was diagnosed with osteo­pubis, the same chronic groin cond-ition which has cruelly curtailed the career of young Celtic midfielder Charlie Grant. It is one symptom of playing too much football at a young age.

“Maybe I also played too many positions and didn’t get to stick to one, even though I felt I was an out-and-out striker,” Bagshaw said. “I thought my attitude was good enough to stay on at Aberdeen and I thought I was doing quite well but the manager [Jimmy Calderwood] had a tight budget and couldn’t afford to take chances with it. In Scotland you need people who could go straight from Under-19 football into the first team. The manager didn’t think I was ready so I had to say cheerio. Again Steve Paterson signed me for Peterhead, but he got sacked about four or five months into my contract and when Neale Cooper came in he obviously didn’t fancy me either.”

Formartine United, however, are no ordinary Highland League team. Chairman Atholl Cadger has bankrolled a squad which includes former Aberdeen players Phil McGuire and Jamie Winter alongside other countless northern footballing luminaries, and Bagshaw has at least one reason not to regard his footballing potential in the past tense. Another member of the Aberdeen youngsters left to rebuild his career in the Highland League is the same Paul Coutts who can now be seen holding down a midfield role in the Championship with Peterborough United and for Scotland Under-21s after being spotted playing for Cove Rangers by the former Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson.

“I have known Paul Coutts for about 10 years,” Bagshaw said. “We played together at Aberdeen Under-12s and he is a good friend. He was really small when he was at Aberdeen, but he has really filled out now. He always had great ability and I think he is a brilliant player. Hopefully I can get back playing again, get fit, and hopefully some bigger clubs will come to watch Highland league games and I might get a chance to go on trial again.”

Assuming his injury problems are a thing of the past (“I have had the injections and hopefully it will be all right now but if not I will need to get another two oper-ations to fix it,” he said) there is no reason why Bagshaw – who was a mainstay for his country right up to Under-19 level – cannot prove people equally wrong. What with his younger brother Callum now also coming through the ranks at Celtic, ability clearly runs in the family.

“Callum is a great player.” Bagshaw senior said. “He got offered the chance to play at Aberdeen but decided to go and play for Celtic, but whether it was anything to do with what happened to me I don’t know. Hopefully he will get to play in the SPL. Who knows, maybe I can still play against him up there some day.”

I have run this as a news item because the variables involved make it difficult/impossible to fit within the normal fixtures template.