Formartine United come back from goal down to win against Clachnacuddin
Clachnacuddin 1 Formartine United 3
A reliable indicator of a team being on a positive upward trajectory is its capacity for resilience.
For the umpteenth time this season Formartine overcame the deficit of losing the first goal of the game to battle back to victory.
They did this against a background of a reducing but still significant injury list that sidelined the club captain, inspirational midfield battler, Graeme Rodger and experienced forward Dan Park. They are unlikely to be fit for the next fixture which is the final of the Aberdeenshire Cup against Fraserburgh at Turriff on Friday, September 30.
To exacerbate their woes, the prodigiously gifted Tyler Mykyta was felled by a tackle early in the first half that immediately ended his contribution to the game and looked severe enough to put his appearance at the cup final in real jeopardy.
The game in Inverness started at a brisk pace with the home side containing a number of promising young players under the on pitch organisation of Martin Callum, who was clearly their ringmaster.
However, it was United that were the first to threaten when Mykyta fed Ward in the inside left channel for the quick forward to break into the box and unload a useful looking shot that passed close to the junction of the bar and post.
A couple of minutes later Lisle scorched into the box from the other side and hammered the ball towards goal from the right corner of the box.
Clach were giving as good as they got at this stage but there was a pattern emerging that whenever United looked like breaking into any danger area their progress would be halted by any means possible whether legal or not.
One such intervention clearly illegal but more in the robust than the malicious category ended Mykyta’s contribution in the 12th minute.
He was replaced by Cole Anderson and there will be concerns about whether he will recover in time for Friday’s cup final match.
Formartine were beginning to gain the upper hand in terms of possession and territorial advantage but Clach could break forward quickly and sometimes in numbers.
Although home keeper Mackinnon was busier than his counterpart Macdonald, it was Clach who got their noses in front in the 31st minute. The architect of the goal was ex-Brora man Brindle who managed to clip the ball between two advancing defenders to reach Sutherland at the right side of the box from where he drove the ball beyond the right hand of Macdonald.
There then followed a brief flurry of Clach pressure as they sought to extend their lead but the United back four of Crawford, Smith, Spink and McLean were in parsimonious mood and although they were kept busy, there was little to seriously test the keeper.
However, United were adept at working the ball forward to Lisle and Wade each of whom had pace and power enough to threaten.
A minute shy of the interval Crawford broke down the right and fed the ball onto Norris who jinked infield a bit before feeding the ball out to sub Anderson who swung a cross over to the back post area where Wade jumped above his markers to head the ball fiercely home from about eight yards range.
The second half was fairly evenly balanced and the game began to look like it was heading for a share of the points.
United did look the more likely to score and the home defence were worked hard by the pace of Lisle and the trickery of Wade, but it took until the 84th minute for United to get ahead.
Wade drew Warren and sub Logan out left and then left them flat-footed as he fed the ball on to Anderson who in turn eluded Morrison and Cormack to set up Dimov for his maiden goal for United as he forced the ball into the net from near the right upright.
Formartine sustained this level of pressure until the very end. Well into injury time Lisle scorched through the inside left channel outpacing all who tried vainly to intervene.
As he set himself to fire the ball to the net a desperate last ditch block looked like it would deny him and the chance seemed to be gone but he persisted and although apparently surrounded he found the chink needed through which to drive the ball home and complete the scoreline.
