Forfar Athletic 2 Annan Athletic 1

Forfar boosted their playoff aspirations with an impressive second half showing against 3rd placed Annan Athletic.

The Loons got off to the perfect start after 7 minutes when Matty Aitken broke from midfield and found Nathan Flanagan who played a quick one two with Stefan McCluskey before a desperate last attempt to stop a certain goal felled him. Matty Aitken stepped up and calmly stroked in his penalty.

Soon after Craig Slater fires just over the bar as the Loons controlled proceedings early on but Annan played their way into the game and found an equaliser six minutes before half time. The menacing figure of Tommy Goss met a corner and nodded past McCallum.

The Loons came out for the second half like a team possessed and had three golden opportunities within ten minutes of the restart.

First, Nathan Flanagan was played through and tried to square for Stefan McCluskey but just got the pass wrong and the chance went a begging. Then, Seb Ross turned a Roberto Nditi cutback goal bound only for it to be somehow scrambled off the line. Finally, from the corner Andy Munro headed towards goal but Greg Fleming somehow got across his goal and clawed away.

The Loons onslaught of the Annan goal continued and Fleming continued to pull off heroics. Nathan Flanagan’s brilliant cross was headed towards goal by Seb Ross but somehow the Annan keeper kept it out.

Andy Munro would see another header clawed away by Fleming as the home side began to get frustrated at the performance of the Annan keeper.

It looked as though Fleming had done it again when Craig Thomson’s cross was headed towards the top corner by Seb Ross and spectacularly kept out but Ben Armour was on hand to knock in the winner and finally grab the goal the Loons play deserved.

The win sees the Loons move closer to Saturday’s opponents and East Fife who currently occupy the obtainable play off spots. Both are three points ahead of the Athies with two more games played.

Full time 2-1 to the Loons.