Forfar Athletic 1 Peterhead 1
SPFL League One
Tuesday 6 April 2021, Station Park, Forfar
It is one of football’s hoariest cliches: “it’s a results business.” But rarely has that been more true than in this 1-1 draw with Peterhead that saw Forfar playing second-best to their opponents for long stretches of a disappointing encounter under the lights at Station Park.
Loons manager Stuart Malcolm's initial struggle to find the right words to describe his side’s performance was indicative of what sort of night it had been for the home team. He eventually settled on “rushed” to sum up play that never really found any fluidity or momentum. But “relieved” would perhaps have been just as appropriate. Down 1-0 with six minutes to go, the Forfar boss watched as goalkeeper Marc McCallum saved a penalty, then, just two minutes later, as Martin Scott scrambled the ball over the line - just - to salvage a point when all had seemed lost.
“It was pretty poor if I’m honest,” said Malcolm. “We looked like a tired side, even with the five changes we made from Saturday’s game. We were fortunate to get a draw. Marc made some good saves to keep us in the game - albeit most were pretty comfortable for someone of his class. But we were lucky not to be one or two down at half-time. We just weren’t at the races.
“That didn’t change until Marc saved the penalty kick. We got a bit of impetus from that and then we scored from the first delivery we put into their box all night. Other than that, we had little more than a couple of ‘half strikes.’ But we found energy from somewhere in the last ten minutes. And, although a draw isn’t a great result given where we are in the table, we showed great resilience yet again. We dug in and actually got a good result in the end. Peterhead are probably a bit disappointed. But if you are us, you have to be happy with a point. In that respect at least, I’m delighted.”
Most vexing for Malcolm - who was back in the home dugout after serving a five-match ban - was the lack of an attacking threat for much of a match in which the opposition-dominated both possession and territory.
“We were poor in possession,” sighed the Forfar boss. “We looked nervy when we had the ball. Which is so different from how we looked down at Partick Thistle last week. Or even in the second half on Saturday against Edinburgh City. We were so much more composed in those games. But tonight we struggled to put three or four passes together. We have things to work on and take into the Clyde match on Thursday. The games are coming thick and fast now. We have to be better in every way next time. Our work rate, our effort, our commitment - they’re all there. But a bit of quality was missing tonight.”
Indeed, Thursday night’s game now looms as the classic six-pointer. Win and Forfar will pull alongside their opponent on 14 points; lose and the gap between the pair will begin to look ominous.
“Although the result has to outweigh the performance, we need points,” summed up Malcolm. “But playing as we did tonight three points was always going to be a struggle. To be brutally honest, we’d have taken one point at the time they were taking the penalty. But the game turned when they missed and gave us a lift.
“We’ll go down to Clyde and try to get energy back into the team. We’ll be thinking about personnel, looking at how many minutes each guy has played recently. Andy Munro will come back in after suspension though. He’s a leader at the back for us. But we need to find more composure and quality. We need to calm the game and put some passes together.
“There is still plenty to play for. Dumbarton and Clyde both drew tonight, so we lost nothing in relation to them. We just have to keep moving forward. Thursday night is a huge game. But we do have things to be positive about. We’ve lost only one game - to league leaders Falkirk - since the turn of the year. Too many have been draws though. We need wins.”
Indeed. Starting now.
