Saturday 3rd August 2024

Breedon SHFL

Rothes 2 Formartine United 10

Rothes Scorers: Gregor MacDonald (29), Jake Thomson (82)

Formartine United Scorers: Scott Adams (12, 67), Julian Wade (15), Johnny Crawford (21 Pen, 54 Pen), Matthew McLean (57), Aiden Combe (76), Callum Youngson (78), Tyler Mykyta (85, 90)

There is no way of disguising the fact that Formartine dished out an almighty roasting to a team that had started the game with home advantage and a higher position in the league.OK it was only the second game of the league and it was only Forres that the home side had beaten the previous week, but the manner in which United went about their business in this game displayed a ruthless efficiency that is likely to do the rounds within the 16 other teams in the league.

They started the game brightly showing an eagerness to chase and harry with a pace and energy that put the home side more firmly on the back foot than they seemed initially to realise. In the first minute Logan had picked up a longish ball from the back and tried to progress it through United territory and in a flash Wade picked the ball off his toes and was off with it into the that dangerous area just short of the home 18 yard line. This didn’t yield a direct goal threat but it was a sign of the sharp, direct approach of United at their best. They were out to press and keep the hosts confined to barracks and it didn’t take long before they opened the scoring on the back of a succession of waves of attack rather than one sustained onslaught. In the 8th minute following attacks down each flank United gained a corner that Mykyta whipped in to the goalmouth where Campbell’s header crashed off the bar for ADAMS to sweep the ball into the net from close range.

Mykyta and Wade were too sharp for Rothes to contain and United pressure continued virtually unabated until they extended their lead 5 minutes later. Chasing down a through ball from United territory lobbed up to him by Campbell, WADE was off goal wards where the sight of him in full flight shocked home keeper McCarthy into a slip that gifted the Dominica international time and space to pick his spot from just inside the box to drive the ball right to left into the unguarded net.

The first of the game’s 3 penalties came in the 21st. Wade was again causing panic attacks in the home rearguard and again outstripping their midfield, was heading for goal with Young in rather forlorn pursuit. The defender brought him down from the rear when he was well inside the box and placed to score for as clear a stonedyker of a penalty as you get. CRAWFORD skelped it low and hard into the keeper’s left corner for the third.

United, now 3 up, could be vulnerable to thinking they were on easy street and to relax their intense high tempo approach and maybe that was creeping in because Rothes gave some signs of getting back into it when just shy of the half hour mark they made a decent incursion to United territory with a Thompson run on the right that took him to a point around thirty yards out from where he managed to thread the ball left to MACDONALD whose 15 yard drive just beat keeper Middleton and give his side a hint of possible salvation. United were still by and large on top at this point and although they didn’t score again until the interval only looked in any way vulnerable immediately before the interval when Rothes gained a penalty Thomson was bearing down on the United penalty area pursued by Crawford when some apparent miscommunication between full back and keeper left the latter alone to deal with the threat, which he did by diving between forward and ball, flattening the forward in the process. Thomson himself took the spot kick which Middleton saved superbly by diving low to grab the ball inches inside his right upright.

It was a crucial save that denied the homeside the optimism of taking their interval having come back rom 3-0 fto 3-2.

United were having none of it and utterly demolished them in the second half. They were clearly the fitter side and set and sustained a tempo that Rothes were unable to cope with let alone sustain. It took 7 minutes of United waves of attack with Mykyta and Wade showing pace and trickery that Rothes couldn’t subdue by means legal or illegal to continue the goal fest. In the 54 nd Mykyta was roughoused to the deck by McDade for the game’s third penalty which CRAWFORD cooly drove home for 4-1. Four minutes later centre back MACLEAN up to add height to the attack nodded home a Mykyta corner for the 5th. United quickly rattled their tally up to 7 with their 6th arriving with Maclean playing his usual part in a United goal by hurling a huge throwin directly to ADAMS who simply passed the ball into the net from little more than 5 yards, Aiden COMBE came on as sub in the 61st and scored in 76 minutes, with a well taken goal from a fizzing shot from the edge of the box.

United were almost unstoppable by now and with the fresh legs of the subs used to maintain pace they were pinging the ball about with real zip and YOUNGSON scored his debut goal for the club by slotting home a move started by Crawford and developed by Adams and Campbell bringing the total to 8.

To their credit Rothes battled on and retrieved an iota of pride with a second goal which if truth be told was not United’s finest moment when over committed to attack they left their rear door poorly secured and fell vulnerable to a long ball up to THOMSON who was left with too much time and ace to rattle one past Middleton from twenty yards out.

The 8 was increased to double figures by a MYKYTA double in the last ten minutes. The first was a near solo goal as he worked his way down the left flank before cutting in to rip a fierce shot past McCarthy from 16 yards out. The second was concluded with the last kick of the game after he had jinked in from the right to clip the ball into the right corner.

Rothes: McCarthy, Boyce, McDade, Young, MacDonald, McConnahie, Alexander, Logan, Adams, MacDonald, Thomson. Subs: Shepherd, Cruickshank, Dawson.

Formartine United: Cammy Middleton, Johnny Crawford (Kieran Adams 77), Ryan Spink, Aaron Norris, Matthew Maclean, Kieran Lawrence (Sam Thomson 69), Julian Wade (Brody Alberts 65), Graeme Rodger (Callum Youngson 65), Scott Adams (Aiden Combe 69), Tyler Mykyta, Paul Campbell. Unused Subs: Ewen Macdonald {GK], Rhys Thomas, Stuart Smith, Scott Lisle.

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