Formartine United prove too strong for Lossiemouth
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Formartine United 5 Lossiemouth 0
Of those who saw this new look Formartine side acquit themselves so well against the full-timers of the young Dons in the Aberdeenshire Shield and the reigning league champions in the festive double header, there would have been a good number who could see that very shortly some unassuming side was going to get an outright tonking from United.
Formartine simply do not lose games against Lossie but are usually made to work hard to collect the points, yet in this one they made a very clear statement that they are now a force to be reckoned with by any side in the league.
This time they simply blew away the Coasters with an impressive display of high tempo attacking football reaching the interval three goals to the good after netting two of them in as many minutes immediately before the break.
Thereafter they comfortably rode out the visitors’ best period of the game, then netted another couple of well worked goals before cruising to their biggest clean sheet win in a long time.
Their starting line-up showed some residual signs of the constraints that injuries have imposed in recent months with long time absentees Mykyta and Lawrence sill unavailable.
However, Rodger and Lisle were back to their impressive best and new signing striker Paul Campbell made his home debut joining his former Broch team mate Aidan Combe a winger whose scoring exploits are already exciting the faithful.
United went for it from the off, with a push down the right side where the pace of both Lisle and Ward was enough for them to outstrip defenders and set the latter to swing the ball across the goalmouth to all but meet the run towards the back post by Combe who failed by inches to connect.
This was a warning shot that Lossie were able to heed but largely unable to mitigate. It by and large set a pattern for much of the rest of the game where United inflicted wave upon wave of fast flowing attacks on a visiting side who struggled.
Surprisingly, given the frequency and quality of their attacks, it took Formartine until the 35th minute to open the scoring.
Combe, Rodger, Smith and Wade had all worked keeper Farquhar and Kennedy had saved the custodian’s blushes by blocking a net bound drive by Smith on the goal line just inside the left post.
A corner on the left was whipped over by Gallagher and neat as you like Wade slipped his marker and headed the ball powerfully home.
Two more goals before the interval had the game effectively won. The first of these was started and finished by Graeme Rodger. Winning a midfield joust with Archibald he lobbed the ball forward into Lossie territory where it was advanced to Wade on the front edge of the 18-yard line. There he shielded it before slipping it back slightly to meet the arrival of Rodger who leathered it home from 15 yards.
Barely a minute later, a lightning break down the right saw Lisle riding a nasty challenge and rebounding off an advertising board to feed the ball to Campbell who swung an accurate and perfectly timed ball 30 yards across to meet the run of Combe who clipped it neatly home at the back post.
Lossie worked hard to save face and began the second half looking determined to salvage something but the most they could muster was a slight increase in their level of possession.
They managed one shot on target but it was tamely struck by Archibald straight to Macdonald who caught it with ease.
The huff and puff of the Lossie revival did not last much longer and before the hour mark United had all but laid siege to the Lossie penalty area.
Moving the ball in well ordered sequences, substitute MacIver was orchestrating things from near the left corner of the box and soon spotted the channel to thread the ball through to Wade. Taking it on the turn, the Dominica striker delivered a hard low drive that flew between the keeper and his left post for his second and his team’s fourth.
The game was effectively won by this point but United were not fully finished and it took a fifth goal to satisfy them.
This was the product of a blistering run from the middle of his own half through the inside right channel by Norris who spotted the chance that was on.
Exchanging passes with Wade on the way he reached the edge of the box and slammed the ball home to complete the final scoreline in the 76th minute.
