Formartine United battle back to beat Huntly in Highland League Cup
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Huntly 2 Formartine United 3
The good news Pitmedden way is that United battled back from a crazy five minutes in the middle of the first half where they shipped a couple of goals, hauled one back, missed a penalty to equalise and then went on to seal victory with two second half goals the latter of which, deep in stoppage time, came with what was all but the last kick of the ball.
The not so good news is that they allowed themselves to get into that situation in the first place.
Winning this first round tie in the GPH Builders Merchants Highland League Cup sets them up for an early opportunity to offset last week’s slender league defeat at the hands of Buckie Thistle with a quarter-final against them on the first Saturday of December.
Huntly are a team on the rise and started this tie with confidence enough to have a go at United from the start.
Formartine are however in good fettle too and were the first to press. A push down the left started by Stuart Smith ended with a flashing cross over the home goalmouth being diverted for a corner on the right that the Strathbogie players scrambled to get away.
There was little in it over the next quarter of an hour although Formartine had marginally the better of possession and territorial advantage.
Pace, trickery and general attacking nous from Wade kept home captain Clark occupied to the limits of his capabilities and what the laws of the game allow and the old head of Jonny Smith was an ever present threat.
Newcomer Combe in only his second start was an additional threat regularly getting the ball past defenders and into the home box.
Hobday was the busier of the keepers and occupied thrice by shots from Wade, another from MacIver before having to go full stretch to block a sneaky effort by Jonny Smith at the base of his right stick.
At the other end Morris and Foster interchanged slickly and Blacklock forced a relatively comfortable save from Macdonald.
Almost from nowhere came the crazy spell. A break from their own half on the back of a Hobday clearance took Huntly to the right corner of the United box where Still tried vainly to barge past Mclean, the ball eventually broke loose to a wide right position before it was flipped over to the back post to the all but unmarked Hunter and Foster. Both rose and the latter’s firm header was directed well beyond the reach of Macdonald.
From the centre United went straight on the attack but Huntly countered immediately with a long ball forward to Morris. With United naively over committed to a quick equaliser the midfielder had little else to do than to measure his lob over the misplaced keeper and into the unguarded net for number two.
United now had a real problem but rose to the occasion and went back on the offensive. It took them only two more minutes to get one back when a slick interchange of passes between Wade and MacIver split the home defence and as the former curled the ball right to left into the maelstrom at the back post area where full back Crawford had it into the net in a flash.
Thereby energised United went right back on the attack and with Huntly confidence ebbing fast they were quickly back pedalling as Combe, Gallagher and Park combined to get the ball into the middle of densely packed six-yard box.
In the midst of a melee Jonny Smith was pushed to the deck and the penalty duly awarded. Crawford took it but drove his shot an inch or two wide of the left upright.
Undaunted United continued their fight back but Huntly, although well on the back foot and with a couple of decent saves of efforts by Park and Wade to protect their slender lead, held on until the interval.
United were well on the warpath thereafter and took the game to the home side forcing them firmly into survival measures.
Tackles, never really for the faint of heart previously, became even meatier but there was pace and variation in the Formartine pressure and although Huntly made a few speedy incursions into United territory they were kept mostly in survival mode.
A United goal seemed inevitable and in the 58th minute Combe levelled the match. He had a hand in the earlier part of the move with a run through the centre before releasing the ball into the home box before it was booted into touch. A huge throw from MacLean returned it to him and he hammered it home.
Thereafter the pattern was of persistent United pressure and backs to the wall stuff from the home side relieved by occasional forays into United territory.
The home rearguard took a fair battering but fortune seemed often to favour their bravery. Hobday made a number of crucial saves, the best of which was to tip a Wade header over from the junction of bar and post.
United had a couple of decent penalty shouts including one when an ungloved hand belonging to a man in black and yellow strip pushed the ball from the goal line at the base of the right post to safety.
The lottery of a penalty shootout looked inevitable but after four minutes of stoppage time in the midst of goalmouth mayhem another McLean throw was headed majestically home by Crawford for the winner and his second of the game.
