Keith 1 v Formartine Utd 2

VALIANT MAROONS LOSE OUT 

Football, like life, has a habit of kicking you when you are down. At Kynoch Park on Wednesday night, plucky Keith, still with several absentees due to injury, most certainly deserved a share of the spoils against visitors Formartine.

The Maroons had nosed ahead thanks to Ryan Robertson’s first goal for 2½ years, and top scorer Przemyslaw Nawrocki scorned two gilt edged chances to put them firmly in the driving seat. They were then hit by a disputed free kick for a leveller and an even more hotly contested penalty award that gave the Pitmedden side full points.

Craig Ewen’s men produced a vigorous, battling display and opened the scoring in the 19th minute after the visiting custodian had blocked Matthew Tough’s shot, centre half Robertson pouncing to slam home the loose ball.

Two minutes later Nawrocki got on the end of a Selfridge header, but fired his shot straight at the goalie. Then, four minutes from half-time the Polish striker raced on to a Kieran Mooney pass but forced the keeper into a fine diving save. From the resultant corner kick, Selfridge slid in at the back post, only for his close range effort to hit the side netting.

Formartine did come more into proceedings after half-time, and a soft free kick award out on the far right edge of the penalty area in the 58th minute saw Aberdeen loanee Tyler Mykyta fire a bullet into the far top corner. 

The Maroons kept battling away and recent recruit Nizam Abdulkarim pulled a fine save out of the Formartine goalie. A minute later, the valiant homesters were rocked when ex-Maroon Daniel Park toppled down inside the penalty area, the referee pointing immediately to the spot, despite home protestations that no contact had been made. Jonathan Crawford made no mistake with the award to leave the hard done by homesters pointless.

KEITH – Shingler, Thomas, Yeats, Abdulkarim, R Robertson, Yunus, Mooney (Gray 83), Brownie, Tough (Stewart 72), Nawrocki (Ironside 83), Selfridge. Subs unused – Hutcheon, McKeown, Irvine.

Referee – Mr D Nicolson

Wednesday 24th November 2021, KO 8pm
Report by Charlie Simpson