Forfar Athletic 0 Montrose 0 (Forfar won 5-4 on penalties & the bonus point)

(5-4 on penalties)

Premier Sports Cup

Station Park, Forfar

Tuesday 13 July 2021

Forfar claimed a bonus point, penalty shoot-out win over neighbours Montrose after a goalless Angus derby in the Station Park sunshine.

Ironically, it was a penalty that cost the Loons all three points. Craig Slater tainting an otherwise incredibly impressive competitive debut by blazing the spot-kick, which PJ Crossan had earned with his harrying of the Montrose defence, high into the terracing behind the goal.

Crossan and Slater were two of six making their competitive bow, Strachan, Thomson, Gallagher and Harkins all joined them and it was the new look ‘Loons,’ sporting our brand new black and white change kit, who looked more likely to break the deadlock throughout.

Andy Munro turned a Slater free-kick onto the bar in the 42nd minute and Michael Travis will feel he should’ve done better when he met a cross just after halftime. The visitors admittedly saw more of the ball in the second half but found no way to penetrate the Forfar defence and so the match was destined for penalties.

Munro stepped up first but Lennox dived low to his left to stop the centre half’s effort. The next eight penalties were all converted, by Meechan, Gallagher, Shepherd and Harkins for the Loons and Steeves, Whatley, Milne and Brown for the visitors, and so Montrose had the chance to clinch it through Craig Johnston. McCallum was to pull off a stunning stop, pushing the powerful penalty onto the post and away. Thomson then slotted home for the Loons before McCallum then dived low to his right to heroically seal the two points.

Gary Irvine seemed content with his sides battling performance after the game. "There’s loads of positives to take, we’re low on numbers with the COVID situation (self-isolating due to close contacts), injuries and suspension but we showed energy, the fitness levels were brilliant and the effort the lads put in was tremendous. We played good stuff as well, got our foot on the ball and created chances at times. We pressed them really hard all game and worked hard and that’s how we got the penalty. That didn’t go our way and go in but we did really well.”

“The squad was thin but the positive to that is we’ve got a lot of players to come back in and build on what was a really impressive performance and a good start. We’re on five points now and that puts us in a good position going up to Brora. It’ll be a very tough game but we go up there with confidence from this game and there’s a lot of things to take from this game that means we can get  better on Saturday.”

The Athies do indeed travel along the long road up to Dudgeon Park on Saturday knowing a win will keep them top of the group going into a showdown with Dundee a week later.