United sink to new depths after Banff flop
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THERE'S poor, there's bad and there's embarrassingly bad.
Formartine's performance at Deveronvale never reached the dizzy heights of either of the first two categories and can only really be described as one that was bad enough to tarnish Christmas for most of their loyal supporters - some of whom were masochistic enough to have endured the full 90 minutes of humiliation as their side was completely outclassed by a decent - but by no means outstanding - Vale team.
The consequence has been to propel United for the first time in several seasons to the lower half of the league while Vale edge past them into 8th place.
This was a pale shadow of the United side that with a fair number of the same players in the same positions and under the same management went 20 odd games in a row, undefeated, and knocked Peterhead out of a cup earlier this season.
There is something badly amiss.
Some players have lost a yard of pace (Craig McKeown and Conor Gethins – in fact the former seems to have lost a furlong rather than a yard) and others have had periods out through injury, but none of that seems really to explain the palpable lack of attitude, aptitude and ability to play coherently as a team that has been around of late.
They looked like a team where the management had lost the dressing room or more worryingly, where some players are working to that end to pursue their own ends.
Either way it needs to be sorted before supporters abandon the cause.
Again United started brightly enough for the first five or 10 minutes before fading faster than stonewashed denim.
Within five minutes they had forced a couple of corners and sustained a bit of pressure on the home rearguard.
In the 6th minute following a corner on the left from Stuart Anderson the ball was only partially cleared before being knocked back into the area in front of left post by the same player and Garry Wood delivered a strong header that rebounded to safety from the upright.
They never got that close again.
Deveronvale, on the back of some decent results, were soon giving as good as they got and showed themselves to be quick on the break.
Ross Aitken was doing sterling work box to box turning defence to attack and in the 11th minute he slipped a ball forward through the inside left channel to Colin Charlesworth who took the ball to Johnny Crawford, turned him inside out and worked his way towards the near post area before striking a neat low shot beyond the reach of Kevin Main into the opposite corner.
If Vale needed a confidence boost they now had it and began to press United quite hard. A couple of waves of attack and six minutes later they had United in all sorts of trouble. Charlesworth came through the midddle with Ryan Sargent to his right and leaving McKeown in no man's land, burst into the box towards the right side where Stuart Smith was the only potential obstacle and he was a few yards off.
The left-back covered the ground and got in a late-ish, long-legged and illegal tackle. Grant Noble took the penalty and, as is his custom, Main duly saved it.
It was one sided by now and Vale continued to hold Formartine feet to the fire.
In the 33rd minute after an abortive United attack was dismantled about 30 yards out and the ball was again fed forward by Aitken to Kyle Gauld.
Scott Dunn and Matthew Wallace were ahead of the United defence but they advanced enough to play Aitken onside and Dunn was smart enough to remove himself from contention as Sargent burst through from the back, bore in on Main and clipped the ball past him for 2-0.
The second half was barely four minutes old when a United attack was broken up by Aitken and Noble.
The former broke forward to get the ball back wide-ish right ahead of the halfway line.
He then worked his way past a few defenders and a couple of insipid tackles before having only Main to beat.
He took the ball wide of the keeper before squeezing it past him into the far corner of the net.
At 3-0 down and 40 minutes to go United still had a glimmer of hope but despite using all three subs they made little impression on a more determined team that kept their shape better.
A defeat embarrassing in its scale and deeply worrying for United supporters in the ease with which it was achieved.
Deveronvale: Blanchard; Smith, H Noble, Aitken, Cooper, Willox, Charlesworth, Gauld, S Dunn (Archibald 86), Wallace, Sargent.
Unused subs: Munro, Allan, M Dunn, Adams, Pennet.
Formartine United: Main; Crawford, Smith (Gethins 53), Anderson, McKeown, Kelly, Rodger, Lawrence, Wood (Norris 73), Park, Lisle (Greig 53).
Unused subs: Watson, Lawson, Clark, Strachan.
