Tuesday 30th July 2024

SPFL Trust Trophy 1st Round

Glebe Park, Brechin

Dundee B 2 Formartine United 0

Scorers: Rayan Mohammad (15), Marley Sweenie-Rowe (20)

This opening round tie in The SPFL Trust Trophy was nominally a home tie for Dundee but due to ongoing works to the playing surface at Dens Park, the game was played at Glebe Park, Brechin. The tie bears further contextualisation by pointing out that under the terms of the competition the Premiership teams competing are required to field B teams the composition of which are constrained by the regulations concerning under 21 sides. These two had met about 10 days before in a testimonial game for the popular and long serving FUFC right back Jonny Crawford and the result on that occasion had been a resounding 5-0 victory for Formartine at North Lodge Park.

The United victory was built on the platform of a couple of goals scored less than five minutes apart early in the first half. This time the result of a reasonably, but by no means equally comfortable ,win for Dundee was also built upon two early first half goals, There the similarities begin to wane: the Dundee side showed seven changes to the starting eleven and United weighed in with four although a number of those who started at North Lodge later appeared from the bench at Brechin.

Dundee kicked off and defying convention worked the ball back deep into their own territory before venturing forward - a move that initially seemed puzzling until the broader strategy became clearer as they quickly displayed a reliance on playing the ball about at the back before getting the bodies in place to mount an attack on the “visitors” which generally came off pressure down the flanks before getting the ball across to their big burly striker Mohammad. This paid off partially within the first five minutes when Leiper and Clark combined at the back before the latter managed to get into position to swing over a cross to meet the striker’s run into the box before a Smith challenge just blocked his chance of getting in a shot from about 15 yards out.

Even this early United did not seem as fluid and confident in possession as they had in the previous interaction and seemed reticent in their approach to a Dundee team seemed much slicker and more vigorous in their attempts to win the ball in that part of the pitch. It took until the 14rh minute for the Dee strategy to fully pay off. After a couple of iterations of the build from the back strategy a move started deep in their own territory with some side to side stuff about 30 yards ahead of their own 18 yard like by Leiper, Sweeney-Rowe, Lorimer and Clark. This bore fruit when Lorimer found enough space near the left corner , to hit a dangling cross over a crowded box towards the head of MOHAMMAD. The cross took some sort of deflection off an unidentified shoulder blade that probably aided the leaping striker to get even better contact on the ball to head it home beyond the reach of Middleton.

This seemed to fire up the “home” side and three minutes later they doubled their lead on the back of a fairly similar build up to that which underpinned the opener yielded a corner. This went through a couple of phases with the ball not being cleared from the danger zone until in the midst of the stramash SWEENEY-ROWE contrived to bundle the ball home just shy of the keeper’s left upright. Dee remained in the ascendant and came close to extending their lead In the 28th minute when Mohammad swung the ball across the box to Clark whose shot from the edge of the box went narrowly past the right upright.

Formartine were by now chasing the game and making fairly heavy weather of it. Their general strategy seemed to be to get the ball up to Wade as quickly as possible but Dee’s ball retention was better and restricted the opportunities for this although in the 38th minute the Dominican did get in a telling cross that reached Combe who shot hastily high and wide.

United started the second half with a bit of a press but struggled to sustain impetus which was largely the story of the rest of the game. They had a bit more of the ball in the second half than they had in the first but never looked like mounting any sustained threat against a young side who played with an assurance that comes from the knowledge of having a better level of ball retention . It was hard to see a way back into contention for United and their copious use of subs may well have provided some level of experience of facing top level opposition but did little to change the pattern of the game in which Dundee were in comfortable control.

Dundee FC: Sharp, Leiper, Sweeney-Rowe, Lorimer, Lochhead, Davis-Browne, Clark, Mitchell. Mohammad, Corrigan, Richardson. Subs: Lynch, Gray, Scott, Brand, Hunter, Paterson, Johnston.

Formartine United: Cameron Middleton, Johnny Crawford, Stuart Smith (Ryan Spink 70), Aaron Norris, Matthew McLean, Callum Youngson (Kieran Lawrence 70), Julian Wade (Scott Adams 70), Graeme Rodger, Scott Lisle (Paul Campbell 59), Tyler Mykyta, Aiden Combe ( Brody Alberts 70). Unused Subs: Rhys Thomas, Sam Thompson, Ewen Macdonsld.