Formartine United

Pitmedden is a small Aberdeenshire village, and for decades football there stayed at parish level until a group of locals formed a senior side in 1948, giving the area a club of its own rather than sending its players elsewhere. Formartine United carried that name through the amateur and junior ranks of the north-east for sixty years before stepping up in 2009 to join the Highland League, the top tier of football north of the central belt.

The promotion changed little about the size of the place they represented, but it raised the standard of what they were chasing. Three times — in 2012–13, 2015–16 and 2017–18 — Formartine finished the league in second place, never quite closing the gap to the title. The middle of those near-misses came with a consolation: that season the side scored 137 goals, a Highland League record that has stood since. The Highland League Cup, won in 2017–18, remains the club's most significant senior honour, sitting alongside a run of Aberdeenshire Cup, Shield and League wins collected mostly since 2013.

Home games are played at North Lodge Park, in red and white, in front of crowds that rarely test the ground's 1,800 capacity. The fixture that draws the biggest crowds is against Inverurie Loco Works, the club's closest senior neighbour and sharpest rivalry, with Buckie Thistle providing the other regular test. In recent years Aberdeen FC has used Formartine as a loan base for its younger players, sending the likes of Tyler Mykyta and Kevin Hanratty north for regular first-team football.

The connection with Aberdeen runs both ways. Ally Shewan came through at Formartine before moving on to become club captain at Pittodrie, making more than 300 appearances and earning a place in Aberdeen's Hall of Fame — still the name attached to Formartine United whenever the conversation turns to what the village produced.