Formartine United's Scottish Cup run ends in defeat against Stenhousemuir
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Formartine United 1 Stenhousemuir 3
Formartine have certainly played worse and still won than they did in this third round tie in the William Hill Scottish Cup.
They were up against a team who inhabit a tier above them in the pyramid that constitutes the professional game.
Stenhousemuir arrived as pre-match favourites and sadly for the North Lodge faithful they did progress to the round where the bigger names from higher echelons enter the competition.
They do so knowing that they had been in a game where they were made to work their socks off to get there.
There was little between the sides for most of the game – perhaps the visitors were a little more sophisticated in the build up and very slightly sharper in front of goal, but United were marginally the more direct side and matched the visitors for possession and territory throughout.
The first half was nip and tuck throughout and both sides went very close to breaking the goalless impasse at least twice each.
United, who arguably shaded that period of the game, were quickly off the blocks with a move that started with a foray down the right and completed with a cross swung over to the opposite corner of the box by Wade before being blocked inches short of the advancing MacIver by Crighton.
This presaged a passage of end to end stuff conducted at a brisk tempo. Both sides were operating with pace up top and the visitors were looking to get the ball up to Orr and Yates while United were doing likewise with Wade and MacIver.
Fifteen minutes in and the sizing each other stage was past and United began to look like they were getting the upper hand squeezing Stenny into their own half and eventually into two heart-stopping moments in the goalmouth.
A push deep into visitor territory found Wade on the end of a Gallagher feed letting rip on the half volley forcing keeper Cantley low to his right to deflect the ball back into unprotected space within the range of MacIver who hammered it well beyond the keeper’s reach only for it to be headed off the goal line by Higgins.
Despite those hairy moments, the Warriors battled back to give just about as good as they got and a break through the middle by Sewell set him up for a shot from 15 yards out that looked net bound until Smith got enough on it to divert it to safety.
A thumping 20-yard shot from Orr was tipped over by a full stretch MacDonald to complete the goalless first half.
The second started with a bang; a 46th minute corner on the left by Yates curled into a thronged goalmouth and seemed innocuous enough until it rebounded off Norris for a desperately unlucky own goal.
The midfielder came near to making amends shortly later when he made space enough to get in a fierce shot from about 15 yards that was deflected just wide of Cantley’s right upright.
Ten minutes later a Wade strike from 20 odd yards was touched away to safety by Cantley in the 69th minute.
With five minutes left the game reached a dramatic climax. An attack down the right was completed when Miller swung a cross over to the left corner of the box where the relatively unmarked Brown had the time and space to knock the ball into the net.
United went straight back onto the attack and throwing caution to the wind pushed hard to get back.
Both full backs played a major part in the goal that followed. Right back Crawford made ground down the flank and swung over a cross beyond the back post where left back Smith rose to launch a thunderous header that Cantley could only scoop forward from a position that may or may not have been beyond the goal line.
Wade was the first to react and immediately bundled the ball into the net to make it 2-1 in the 92nd minute.
From the restart a route one effort from a long punt up the park from Crighton to Miller was hoofed over to Matty Yates who simply clipped the ball in at the back post.
