Single goal separates Formartine and Fraserbugh
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This is a rebuilding season for Formartine and the team facing the challenge of this opening leg of the Christmas double header against the reigning champions is a work still in progress.
The big questions for many are what progress has been made and how near is this iteration of the side to being the finished article?.
At this half-way juncture (the season is near to the midway point and the double header is exactly there) the answers
have to be that progress has been substantial.
By running the champions as close as they did, looked to have realistic prospects of taking the difficult final steps to becoming title contenders.
That said, the goal they conceded was the result of defensive error at a set piece and the clean sheet achieved by the Broch owed as much to United’s lack of penetration in the final third as to any outstanding performances in the visiting rearguard.
It was a high tempo game throughout with both sides pressing for a quick opener.
In the second minute a break down the left set Barbour racing into the box from the left corner to be dispossessed by keeper Macdonald who hoofed the ball upfield.
Shortly after, Broch tried the other side with 40 yard sprint by Aitken which Crawford thwarted near the corner flag. United’s counter was immediate and just as fast.
A huge throw by Maclean was picked up by Ward at half way and fed forward left to Lisle who got into the box before being blocked by Simpson.
In the fifteenth minute, Wade again showed his menace when another huge Mclean throw from the right reached Wade a few yards ahead of the penalty spot but at full stretch to reach the ball he managed only to deflect it into the keeper’s arms.
The game continued in this rather breathless manner with neither side able to dominate the other and the majority of the action between the two boxes but in the 35th minute Fraserburgh won a corner from the right.
An inswinger was headed from just inside the near stick forward right into space ahead of the unmarked Beagrie who had the simplest of tasks to thump the ball high into the net from ten yards out.
United tried immediately to press for a swift riposte but Broch were too savvy to entertain that and invested heavily in attempting to extend rather than defend their lead.
Neither achieved their objective but the already high tempo ramped up another notch or two and Broch pushed hard forcing three or four corners over the next five minutes.
One from Barbour was headed over the junction of the near post and cross bar by West and another was hammered goalward by Sargent but blocked by a tangle of legs in front of the United goal before eventually being cleared.
This was Broch at their most dangerous but United weathered the storm and managed a couple of forays into visitor territory but these lacked penetration and failed to yield anything to exercise Barbour.
The second period had as much midfield blood and thunder as the first and the result remained in doubt until the end. The pattern continued end to end or more accurately box to box with far more action between the respective penalty areas than in them.
United replaced Park who was injured in the first half with Adams at the interval.
Possession and territory was fairly evenly spread
In the 51st minute Sargent and Butcher combined down the left for the latter to deliver a crisp angled drive that Macdonald was quick to block low to the right before a brief period of sustained United pressure that produced a shot from Wade that rebounded from a clump of players round the left post area.
This pressure continued as an over the top ball was backheaded goalward by Crawford but went over the top.
A Broch corner from the left caused some difficulty for United just shy of the hour mark and the visitors were able to recycle their pressure on the and in the box through a couple or more phases before United could finally get the ball up the park.
The nearest this period came to yielding a goal was in the 70th when Barbour got one on one with Macdonald almost on the penalty spot but the keeper had read the situation well enough to close down the forward’s space and block the shot as came off his former team mate’s boot.
In the dying minutes, Norris free at the edge of the box, unloaded a shot but his head was back and the shot went high, wide and not very handsome.
Just like at the world cup the time added for stoppages was lengthier than expected and long enough for a dying effort from Young to hammer one goalwards from the 18 yard line but Macdonald was fit for it and with an athletic dive pushed the ball to safety.
