Johnny Crawford Testimonial Match

Friday 17th July 2024

Formartine United 5 Dundee 0

Scorers: Scott Adams (2), Julian Wade (5, 49, 68), Paul Campbell (60)

It was a clear indication of the respect that Formartine have for their long serving right back, Jonny Crawford, that the opposition selected for his benefit match was from the Premiership. The young Dundee side containing an amalgam of seasoned top league professionals and young players at the start of their careers provided a fascinating contrast with a United side of players accustomed to the hurly burly of a the fiercely competitive SHFL. In essence the Dundee youngsters played as if they were accustomed to be given time on the ball to size up options in a studied approach to the passing game whereas United’s stock in trade is a high tempo high press game which allowed their opposition minimal time and space from the outset as they raced to a two goal lead before the game was 5 minutes old.

This was clear from the get go when United elected to hit them hard and early. Perversely it was the visitors who were first to mount an attack when virtually from the kick off they had Paterson and Mohammed breaking at pace deep into United territory before the former’s attempt to supply the latter was intercepted and United countered. The north Lodgers flooded forward in pursuit of a long ball from Spink. The pacy Lisle was first to it and fed the ball left to Rodger who slipped it on to new signing Scott Adams who saw a chink in the visiting backline and drilled a fizzing low 18 yard drive with consummate precision to beat the keeper a bare inch inside the base of his right upright. If that set the cat amongst the pigeons, the United response must have caused the Dee a cold chill of terror as they were exposed to the full force of Wade on the warpath. Within a minute of that slick opener Wade used his upper body strength to resist a challenge from Davis-Browne and spin away to launch a shot that was minimally high and wide yet still showed some threat. A minute later Ju- Ju bagged the first of his hat-trick haul for the evening. Collecting a ball from the back on the half way line, he played it back to the advancing midfield until they had recycled it forward again, Adams outwitted the big central defender Adeoye and scorched off down the inside left channel before swinging the ball over to the right to meet the perfectly timed run of Wade who beat everyone else to collect it about ten yards in from the back stick, dropped a shoulder and leathered the ball beyond the reach of keeper McKelvie for the second.

Two goals adrift in the first five minutes was a baptism of fire for the visitors but they did well to steady themselves and the game settled to a less end to end and more evenly balanced midfield affair. United withdrew central defender Kieran Adams (who may still be recovering from injury) in the 10th minute. His replacement Sam Thomson gave a highly impressive display, being involved productively all over midfield. Dundee still looked like they wanted and expected to get more time on the ball than United were going to allow them and despite the score line the remainder of the first half was played in a fairly evenly balanced way with neither side really dominating the other in the possession statistics. However the questions of whether there was any way back for Dundee remained.

The first minute of the second half when they introduced Bar and Bruce hinted at a potential comeback it and they seemed to move onto the front foot. The next more or less put victory beyond their reach when United responded immediately with a counter to the visitors first thrust and with five moving forward to threaten the Dee box, Campbell waltzed through the defence to crash a right to left twenty yarder beyond the keeper in the 47th minute. United were dominant and went nap as Wade completed his hat-trick.

United confidence was high and they produced successive waves of attack. The game was Killed stone dead as a contest five minutes later with Wade’s next goal, a stunning diving header from a precision ball by Mykyta out wide right . Hurling himself full length Ju Ju got is head to the ball and forced it into the left corner of the net. Dundee still worked away and showed in flashes some quite slick pass and move stuff. Despite being four adrift they brought on subs and tried to claw their way into a game which had long gone from their grasp. They managed some attempts at attack and the odd break out from midfield including one by Bruce that drew a last ditch saving tackle near the left.

Wade’s hat trick and the final score line was completed in the71st minute as he spearheaded a united attack through the centre and finished with a carefully judged delicately executed chip over the keeper into the roof of the net from around 12 yards out. There is a fascinating sub text to this victory: United have drawn Dundee in their first outing in this season’s SPFL Challenge Cup on 30th uly. The game is to be played at Glebe Park Brechin and competition rules have stated that it will be the Dundee Under 21team that takes part. The prize money even at this stage is significant.

Formartine United: Middleton, Crawford (Morris 80), Smith (Moroney 83), K. Adams (Thomson 9), Spink, Lisle (Paterson 83 min), Wade (Alberts 70), Rodger, S. Adams (McCormick 70), Mykyta, Campbell (Beaton 83). Unused Subs: Macdonald

Dundee: McKelvie, Baird (Barr 33), Scott, Adeoye, Davis-Browne (Bruce 46), Mitchell (Flood 61), Hunter (Byrne 63), Clark, Mohammad, Leiper, Paterson (Perrie 63).