Highland League, Christie Park, 9/10/19
Huntly Football Club
Founded – 1928
Nickname – The Black and Golds
Honours – Highland League – 1929–30, 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98, 2004-05. Highland League Cup – 1948–49, 1951–52, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1995–96. Aberdeenshire Cup – 1960–61, 1985–86, 1991–92, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1999–00. Qualifying Cup – 1992–93, 1994–95, 1996–97, 1999–00
Current League – Highland League
Random Fact– Huntly were the first club in Scotland to have their ground shut down by the authorities. This due to in 1975 a referee was attacked by a fan after a match. Elgin and fierce rivals Keith helped out and offered their grounds for free to help the club avoid liquidation due to the pending losses
Midweek Highland League fitba is great. It is at a premium though as the clubs rely so heavily on corporate Saturdays. So I usually grab a game while I can. It was a toss up between Turriff or Huntly. I chose the 0-0. Fuck sake. (Deveronvale beat Turriff 3-0 at the Haughs)Wee man has now seen two nil nils coming in less than a week. Is he now cursed. This was also the first 0-0 I have witnessed in the HFL in my life
I think it is safe to say the big boy trophy will once again elude Formartine this season. There is always talk of title contenders but it never comes to fruition. Maybe Mr Cadger should realise that signing the best players in a Championship Manager style doesn’t work. I reckon I saw the the game that officially made them shit the bed in the title race for the second time in three seasons(Buckie away two seasons ago being the other). They have a habit of screwing their league hopes early doors with poor results against “lesser” teams and last night was a typical Formartine result
I am not going to beat around the bush here. The Pitmedden side are poor. They have too many overweight players, Craig McKeown, Andy Greig, GarryWood and basically at least five of the starting XI. They lack heart, they spend too much time whining at the officials and they just lack the air of a team that can win the league. They were lucky they didn’t lose last night as the home side had the better chances and also showed a hell of a lot more heart.
Huntly hit the post and missed three of four guilt edge chances during the game. They also seemed to have the pace to get in behind Uniteds cumbersome defence at will. The inexperience of the young squad showed as quite often the wrong ball was played in or the strikers got their positioning all wrong. Formartine weren’t without their chances and Woods header can only be described as abysmal. Head like a fifty pence piece springs to mind. Both teams ended the game with ten men. Formartine losing Liam Strachan first after a second yellow. For what I don’t know, it was a linesman intervention due to an off the ball incident. Huntly evened the score in the dying embers of the game when Ross Still got his second yellow for a late tackle. This one you could see coming as the black and golds captain was walking a tightrope from his first booking as he seems the type of player that’s not shy of a dodgy tackle. Also added to the removed from the game list was ex Aberdeen man and Formartine assistant manager Russell Anderson for what I can only guess was speaking out of turn leading to his dismissal from the technical area. A word of advice to the big man, instead of speaking pish in the papers about his old club maybe he should concentrate on his current club and train them into winners because they are well off the mark going on yesterdays showing
The highlight of the game for me was getting my pet peeve corrected. Due to my vantage point at Pittodrie for years in the Y, I always saw players taking corners from outside the quadrant. It has boiled my pish time and time again. Last night Andy Grieg tried to take one from at least ten inches out of the quadrant. I was right behind him and manged to signal to the linesman at halfway and the ref. The ref blew up, the game was stopped and the referee came over to correct the chubby wee wingers indiscretion. Sounds trivial but rules are rules and this is constantly flaunted and pisses me off game after game. Trivial but funny all the same. The fact the corner was crap made it all the better. Had I got in his head
After seeing two of the league favourites in a week its clear they are worlds apart in quality. Brora will be up there come April, Formartine will not after once again spending a fortune for very little success
Me, still 160, Wee Man 35
FITBAWBAG 