Formartine falter in the face of Brechin onslaught
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Brechin City 4 - Formartine United 1
The momentum United had established with their recent run of good wins came to a grinding halt at Glebe Park in a game where they were out- fought and outmaneuvered by a rather slick looking Brechin outfit.
Although United were all but gifted the opening goal in the sixth minute when a loose ball across the box by Quinn was pounced upon at the business end of the inside left channel by Cole Anderson who clipped it home, there had already been some indication of the flaw that was to dog them for the whole game.
In the second minute, keeper Ballint Demus made a premature dash to deal with Milne who was chasing a through ball from W ade into the box.
Demus was out of the box before he could reach the ball , and failed in his attempt to tackle the forward who shot into the side netting.
Whether the keeper recovered from the embarrassment of this flap is debatable because a succession of subsequent flaps led directly to three of Brechin’s goals.
The first of these came in the 11th minute when the mazy pursuit of two or three home attackers failed to yield him a touch of the ball and left him stranded deep in no man’s land while Inglis delivered the ball from 35 yards to an unprotected net.
Brechin then proceeded to give United a lesson in ball retention, dominating possession by about 75 per cent to 25 per cent for the rest of the half.
There were periods where United were chasing shadows in midfield and others where they were heavily occupied in backs to the wall defending.
The loss through injury of central defender Kelly was a major blow and scarce resources meant manager Lawson substituting from the 22nd minute.
They never looked like scoring again before the interval and fortunate to turn around still on level terms.
United looked initially as if they were going to make a better fist of things in the second half and provided enough dig in midfield to check the elegant flow of City possession.
Without producing anything to seriously occupy home keeper Wills, United were doing enough to keep themselves in the game until the 72 minute when Brechin gained a penalty following a foul by Stuart Smith just inside the right corner of the box, Inglis doubled his tally by driving the ball past Demus into the net of the inside of the right upright.
Four minutes later he made it a hat trick.with a second spot kick after Demus felled sub Scott at the left side of the box.
There was no way back for United after this one, but they were professional enough to keep battling away without generating any shots on target.
A further peregrination by Demus in the elusive pursuit of Scott led to the final nail in Formartine’s coffin as the sub wrong footed the keeper and hit the net from a tight angle on the right side of the 18 yard box.
This was one for United to forget - injuries and Covid issues stretched their resources tighter than they could adequately manage for a midweek game against the standard of opposition they encountered.
