FORMARTINE know all about 3-2 scorelines and their superior experience in matches with this precise result ensured that on this occasion they were on the right side of it and not only leapfrogged their hosts' league position in the process but did so
with games in hand.
Everything about Nairn County is tidy, from the carefully tended ground and facilities to their slick, high tempo passing game. Initially it looked as if this would be enough for them to get a result but grit, determination and a more directly robust approach from the North Lodgers dictated otherwise and in the end, rightly so.
Three minutes in and Nairn showed their appetite for goal when a slick wave of pass and move football saw them work the ball from their own half to release Campbell to chip it diagonally across the box to the head of Barron who managed to direct the ball goalwards but too high.
A minute later, a well weighted through ball by Cumming to Young set McKay free to bear in on Ridgers. The keeper advanced to narrow the angle and Steven McKay seemed to impede the opposing McKay's progress towards goal.
The Formartine striker went down and rather than earning the penalty many thought he deserved, found himself most uncharacteristically yellow carded for diving.
Play was swinging from end to end, Nairn working the ball carefully through the midfield and Formartine responding with well judged balls into space. Another penetrating pass from deep released Cumming who progressed smartly down the right flank before cutting in more centrally and drawing a phalanx of defenders with him.
Still more than 20 yards out, he leathered the ball over and round them to bring Ridgers into emergency action to touch it round his right hand post.
Nairn worked their way methodically up the park and into the Formartine area where the pacy Barron tried to wriggle past Young. The contact was judged illegal and Steven McKay took the penalty. The fates favoured Formartine as the striker's spot kick managed to precisely bisect the distance between the left post and the corner flag.
McKay's embarrassment was redeemed within five minutes when fastening onto a lose ball fully 30 yards out, he hammered it goalwards. Gray looked to have it covered at his left upright but the ball ricocheted crazily from the post and spun past him into the opposite corner.
The Formartine response was measured and mature: they kept their shape and persisted with their through ball approach. Stuart McKay was tricky enough to tie up more than one defender at a time as Coull orchestrated the forward line.
In the 24th minute, Coull intercepted a pass out of defence by Sanderson that was intended for Glenn Main and dinked the ball neatly through a gap to Fyfe at the back post. The wee winger was onto it like a rat up a spout and clipped the ball into the net well beyond Ridger's reach.
At a goal apiece the game took on a cagey aspect and defences began to dominate as both sides sat further back. Formartine were marginally the more dominant and Coull, turning defenders into desperate contortions pulled more strings up front than his County counterparts could countenance.
One set up McKay who shot inches wide in the 36th and another earned a free 30 yards out that brought a good save from Ridgers as he pulled down Somer's fierce, accurate shot just under the bar.
A McKay cross to Somers in the dying minutes of the first period just eluded the big midfielder at the back stick while Ridgers was stranded at the opposite one.
The second half saw both sides upping the ante, looking for a winner. Keepers were earning their corn: Gray returned from injury, pulled off two spellbinding saves (both from Hind) within a minute. The first was a full stretch tip round the post and the second from the resultant corner as he grabbed the ball from his feet on the goal line.
Ever so slightly Formartine ratcheted up the pressure on their hosts. They had ample fire power and with their more direct approach were beginning to sustain pressure for longer periods than County could muster.
In 61 minutes, McKay, again occupying a disproportionate number of defenders, cleverly got the ball low, right to left across the goalmouth to the advancing Somers. Big Baz continued his goal a game run and rammed the ball home from 12 yards out.
Formartine were by now in the driving seat but caused their big travelling support some jitters by defending deep again. The effect was to allow Nairn plenty of time and space in midfield. However the home side was industrious enough from box to box but lacked the penetration to seriously trouble a Formartine rearguard where the central pairing of Simpson and Irvine was impressively solid throughout.
In the 75th minute Cumming played in McKay, who collecting the pass in the centre circle, was off like a scalded cat towards the Nairn goalmouth. His progress was thwarted by a late lunge by Hind which did just enough to force him wide enough to shoot into the side netting. Two minutes later Fyfe was crowded out at the back post.
There's nothing cooler than Couller when he's hot. In the 90th minute captain Coull capped a superb afternoon with a piece of sublime impudence. Reading Ridgers intent with all the prescience of psychic, he nicked the ball from him and jinked across the goalmouth, resisting desperate attempts at dispossession, dribbled around the big keeper and lashed the ball into the net.
County were not yet finished and in the third minute of stoppage time, forced a corner after another stunning save by Gray at the cost of another corner. This one in-swinging and dipping rebounded off Stuart McKay and into the net.
Nairn County: Ridgers, Hind, Macintosh, Barron, Campbell, Mackay, McLeod, Gillespie, Glenn Main, Greig Main, Sanderson. Subs: Kerr, Coletto, Low, Macleod, Donaldson.
Formartine United: Gray, Cumming, Simpson, Irvine, Graham, Young, Somers, McGuire, Fyfe, McKay, Coull. Subs: Maitland, Seivewright, Shinnie, Winter, Horne.
