Vale crash out of Aberdeenshire Cup
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A SPARKLING hat-trick from Formartine United’s former Banffers striker Michael Ewen sent holders Deveronvale crashing out of the Aberdeenshire Cup at the first hurdle at Princess Royal Park.
Vale boss Charlie Charlesworth thought his side had booked a second-round home date with Inverurie Locos next Wednesday night when Graham Watt hammered the home side 2-1 in front with seven minutes to go.
But Vale’s slender lead lasted less than 60 seconds, the time it took Ewen to hit back for the vistors at the other end and when the quicksilver Ewen hit the Vale net again three minutes from time, Charlesworth was left trying to work out how his side had snatched a defeat from the jaws of victory.
"When Graham Watt scored it looked like a match-winner and then we threw away a lead we had worked hard for by not concentrating and getting caught with a sucker punch straight away," said the disappointed Vale manager.
"We didn’t play for the first half-hour of the game but we got back into it in the 32nd minute after going behind and the game was there to be won in the second half.
"But we started the second half looking anything like the home team and the cup-holders and that was disappointing although we still managed to put ourselves into pole position when we went 2-1 up so late in the game.
"Now, we’ve got to put that defeat behind us and pick ourselves up ahead of Saturday’s game and go looking for three points at Strathspey Thistle to get our season started."
Vale started with a line-up showing six changes from the team fielded in last Saturday’s 0-0 league opener against Steve Paterson’s side with Charlesworth clearly looking for more urgency and more of a goal threat.
That failed to materialise in the opening half-hour, although Formartine needed a howler of a short pass-back from Kyle Rae to lay on their opener for Ewen, who beat stranded Vale keeper Darren McConnachie to the ball and knocked it into an empty net.
Vale hit back in style in the 32nd minute, when Craig Morrison stroked a first-time volley home from the corner of the 18yd box, making the most of deep cross from Rae out on the left which picked him out in acres of space.
Chances were few and far between after the break until the game burst spectacularly into life in the 83rd minute, Graham Watt lashing an angled drive home after sub Michaele Lombadi chased what looked like a lost cause to the byline on the right, and clipped the ball back for Rae to whip in another telling cross.
Less than a minute later, though, Watt’s effort was wiped out when a long ball forward from Steve Jeffrey was picked up by Ewen with the Deveronvale defence caught flat-footed and he tucked the ball past McConnachie to silence the still celebrating crowd.
And Ewen pounced again two minutes later to make Vale’s misery complete, clipping away his third goal of the night when sub Stuart Soane’s cross left him with a simple tap-in at the near post.
Teams
Deveronvale: McConachie, Rae, Adams, henry, Fraser, Blackhall (Rodger 81mins), More, Urquhart, Morrison, Noble (Cowie 89), Watt (Lombardi 67).
Formartine United: Shearer, Jeffrey, S. Smith, McKibben, M. Smith, Wilson, Munro, McVittie, Park, Dingawll (Soane 82mins), Ewen.
Referee: T. Shaw
Attendance: 250
