Elgin City 0 Forfar Athletic 1
The ‘Loons’ picked up a vital three points at Elgin yesterday and with it moved two places up the cinch league2 table.
It was, to say the least, a gutsy performance in what was for long periods a footballing ‘war of attrition but despite playing the whole of the second half with ten men, no one could begrudge Craig and his colleagues the win.
Manager Gary Irvine was delighted that Andy Munro and Craig Thomson had recovered from knocks the previous week to take their places in the match day squad, but even more so with the return to ‘active service’ of experienced trio Darren Whyte, Roberto Nditi and Stefan McCluskey.
The visitors also got off to a dream start with what no one realised at the time was to be the only goal of the contest in the third minute.
The home side failed to deal with a Craig Slater corner and in the ensuing stramash Ben Armour forced the ball over the line from close range for his second goal of the campaign.
The Athies did have to soak up a bit of pressure at times in the remainder of the half, but to be fair Marc McCallum was rarely troubled if at all in the visitor's goal.
However, the game exploded with three minutes of the half remaining.
Elgin were awarded a free kick just inside their own half almost on the touchline. Out of nothing and following a bout of pushing and shoving in which it was difficult to ascertain any main protagonist, Ben Armour was shown a red card by rookie referee Alex Shepherd for allegedly coming in contact with the assistant referee!
For the duration of the second period, Forfar were forced to defend their lines, a task they carried out so successfully that leading home marksman Kane Hester was only allowed to trouble Mark McCallum on one occasion, Andy Munro going closest to adding a second for the visitors.
However well into added-on time the man in the middle put the shivers up the backs of the ‘Loons’ fans present by awarding City a free kick right on the edge of the box for what appeared to all and sundry as a fine headed clearance.
Thankfully Darryl McHardy blasted well over the bar and the final whistle just seconds later saw a deserved victory secured.
The ‘Loons’ did not have a failure in their ranks on the day, the team spirit shining through allied to a very tight and well organised unit carrying out their match day instructions to the letter, which pleased manager Gary Irvine who commented "It was a superb 3 points and we are delighted with the character and togetherness the players showed out there today. We knew Elgin were in good form and it would be a hard game, I had been upto watch them Tuesday night and with us having a few players coming back from injury we had a good session Thursday and got ourselves prepared. Obviously we had to change our gameplan on the 40 minute mark with Ben (Armour) being sent off which I thought was harsh but the players adapted well. I am so proud of the players to grind out that performance for the 50 minutes which gives us something to build on as a team."
However, we all know ‘one swallow does not make a summer' and two difficult away matches lie in wait at Kilwinning in the cup and down in Wigtownshire against Stranraer on the 29th in a return to league action which Irvine is looking forward too. "It will be a tough test down at Kilwinning, every Scottish Cup tie is tough but our squad is improving all the time with players coming back from injury which I have been hoping for for a few weeks now. We are a tight group, getting stronger and stronger, you saw that on the pitch today with the character and togetherness which we need to carry into next week. Today was the first of 3 tricky away games in a row so its about building on todays result for the next one."
The future however does seem a little brighter this Sunday morning!
Forfar lined up at Boroughbriggs;- McCallum, Nditi, Brindley, Whyte, Munro, Hutton (Thomson) Docherty, Slater, Armour, McCluskey, Aitken (Ferguson)
Subs not used – Kennedy, Dailly, Hanratty, Jack, Moreland, Moore
Match photographs courtesy of Bob Crombie
