ADFA - Aberdeenshire Cup Round 1 - Formartine United FC vs Buckie Thistle FC 27/07/2022 KO 2000

Formartine United FC hosted Buckie Thistle FC at North Lodge Park on Wednesday 27th July in the first round of the Aberdeen District Football Association (ADFA) Aberdeenshire Cup. The pick of the 5 first round ties that wouldn’t have surprised anyone if it was the final. Formartine United have had success in the competition on two occasions, the most recent being season 2017-2018 where they beat Cove Rangers FC in the final at Balmoor Stadium. Buckie Thistle have won the trophy 13 times most recently in season 2016-2017, they are the third most successful club in the competition of all time with only Aberdeen FC (35 wins) and Peterhead FC (20 wins) having won on more occasions. These two sides met in the first round of last years competition up at Victoria Park in Buckie where Formartine United won on that occasion on the way to last years final

The match kicked off by Buckie Thistle officiated by Darren Munro and his assistants Owen Lawrence & Brian Fowlie started with Formartine United kicking away from the village. Buckie Thistle started the brighter and their early pressure almost resulted in a penalty for them. In the 9th minute Andrew Macaskill was crowded out in the Formartine United box. The claims were waved away from the officials. Buckie’s early pressure paid off when they took the lead in the 20th minute. Andrew Macaskill played the ball in from the wide left area almost in line with the 18 yard box to Kevin Fraser in the middle who put it into the bottom left hand corner of Ewan Macdonald’s goal. There was nothing the keeper could do about it and was nothing more than Buckie deserved at that point.

In the 25th minute Buckie Thistle almost doubled their lead with a double chance for them. A looping header was cleared by Matthew McLean in the Formartine United defence then the header that came back in from Sam Urquhart was put directly at Ewan Macdonald. At this point Buckie Thistle had 9 attempts on goal to Formartine United’s 0. The game was at risk of being completely one sided.

Formartine United equalised in the 42nd minute after soaking up a lot of pressure. A corner from the left wasn’t defended well by Buckie Thistle and Julian Wade headed it home from about 10 yards in the bottom left corner beyond Balint Demus. A couple of wild challenges waved away from the referee just on the stroke of half time could have seen further action been taken. Formartine United were unhappy when play was stopped with them attacking on the edge of the Buckie Thistle box for treatment to Mark McLauchlan who picked up an injury in a challenge about a minute earlier. Mark took no further action in the match and was replaced by Cohen Ramsay before play was restarted.

Half Time - Formartine United 1 - Buckie Thistle 1

Formartine United kicked off the second half and definitely started the brighter of the two teams. Both sides swapped fouls in the early going in the second half until Formartine United took the lead in the 56th minute where Scott Lisle squared the ball to Julian Wade who rounded Balint Demus in the Buckie Thistle 18 yard box and slotted it home with his right foot. Buckie could have defended the situation better. Formartine United’s lead lasted all of 4 minutes. Graeme Rodger conceded a foul just outside the Formartine United box. The resultant free kick hit the wall, the 3 Formartine United players running towards the ball didn’t deal with it and the ball ended up in the Formartine United box. The ball fell to Josh Peters who buried it with his right foot to get off the mark following his move from Elgin City.

Buckie Thistle had the opportunity to take the lead again in the 70th minute where Matthew McLean came through the back of Kyle Macleod in the Formartine United box. The referee had no choice but to point to the spot. Sam Urquhart dragged the penalty beyond the left post of Ewan Macdonald’s goal. The keeper looked like he had it covered and had dived the right way.

Buckie Thistle kept up the pressure on Formartine United. In the 75th and 81st minutes Formartine United had to clear the ball off of their line, the chance in the 81st minute really should have been taken by Josh Peters from almost the penalty spot. A couple more shots off target from Andrew Macaskill and Kyle Macleod saw chances for the game to be wrapped up in normal time. Missed chances that Buckie Thistle would come to rue.

Full Time - Formartine United 2 - Buckie Thistle 2

The competition now goes straight to a penalty shootout. Formartine started the shootout Jonathon Crawford stepped up and confidently put the ball in the top right corner away from Balint Demus. Jack Murray equalised for Buckie to make it 1-1. Young Tyler Mykta missed with a poor effort straight down the middle and Josh Peters also missed a penalty on his Buckie Thistle debut with Ewen Macdonald making a good save down low to his right. Julian Wade and Jonathon Smith scored the net two for Formartine and Andrew Mackaskill and Sam Pugh for Buckie Thistle to make the score 3-3 after 4 penalties each. Graeme Rodger scored the 5th penalty to put all the pressure on Shaun Wood and Buckie Thistle. Shaun missed the decisive penalty in the bottom right corner. It was a good save from Ewen Macdonald who had a very busy evening in the Formartine United goal. His two saves in the shoot out coupled with his saves in normal time was a real man of the match performance. Julian Wade’s two goals, all round play and confidence stepping up for his penalty in the shootout could easy have him sharing the honour with Ewan.

Formartine United again get the better of Buckie Thistle in the first round of the Aberdeenshire Cup and will be sure to want to go one better than last year and win the competition for a 3rd time. Buckie Thistle will definitely be disappointed that they didn’t make all their pressure and chances count . Formartine United will definitely want to build on it and with Daniel Park and Kieran Lawrence to come back into the side and Jonathon Smith to be putting more pressure on to be starting every game it will only strengthen them going forward for the season.

The rest of the first round results were;

Fraserburgh 1 vs 0 Banks O’Dee
Hermes 1 vs 1 Deveronvale - Deveronvale win 5-4 on penalties
Dyce 1 vs 2 Inverurie Loco Works
Keith 0 vs 4 Huntly

The Quarter Final draw is now ;

Formartine United vs Deveronvale
Fraserburgh vs Inverurie Loco Works
Aberdeen University vs Turriff United
Huntly vs Aberdeen