Forfar Athletic 1 Stenhousemuir 2

Forfar Athletic 1 Stenhousemuir 2
Station Park, Forfar
SPFL cinch League 2
Saturday 27 August 2022

There wasn’t much to be said about this one. So Gary Irvine wasted no time in saying all that needed to be said. In the wake of a disappointing 2-1 home reverse against Stenhousemuir, the Loons boss was unequivocal in his analysis of a Forfar performance best described as “flat.”

“The first thing I need to do is apologise to the fans,” said Irvine. “That performance just wasn’t good enough. And I include myself in that verdict alongside the players. I stood here on Tuesday night and spoke about a positive display against Kelty Hearts, a game in which we did a lot of good things on the pitch. We attacked the right way in that match.

“Today though, I didn’t see any of that,’ he continued. “And on top of that the goals we lost were so frustrating. I’m standing here talking about things I’ve said before. We are conceding simple goals. Today, the first one came from a set play (a corner) that was just too easy for the opposition, the ball coming through the man at the front post before we failed to react as a team. That was criminal. Then the second goal was just as easy. They broke on us and when it came down to one-on-one we just weren’t good enough. We just need to have more about us. The whole thing is just so frustrating. Again, I can only apologise for that.”

Irvine’s appraisal is hard to argue with. This was a strange display from a team that had, even in defeat, looked so promising just days earlier. Perhaps the only positive to be drawn amidst much disappointment was a rollicking last ten minutes or so that produced one goal, the first of this campaign for Roberto Nditi, but not the second that would have at least rescued a point.

“We were better in the second half against a team that was sitting in,” said Irvine. “We put them under a bit of pressure. The attacks were coming. But it was all too slow. There had to be a lot more belief. In fact, I saw quite a few ‘leggy’ performances out there. But none of the players can use that as an excuse. Stenhousemuir also had a game last Tuesday night. That actually had to sit on buses all the way up to Elgin.”
In summing up, Irvine’s frustration was obvious.

“What I saw out there has to be better going forward,” he said. “The energy wasn’t there. The confidence wasn’t there. Nor was the belief you need going forward. The positivity we showed on Tuesday night wasn’t there. I was looking for all of that today but it just wasn’t there.”

It sounds too like training this week is going to be fun of tough love.

“I’ll be demanding more of the players,” said Irvine. “On Monday we’ll get back to working hard. We sat down on Thursday and analysed a lot, not just Tuesday’s game. We wanted to take the belief we showed there into this game. But there was a common theme too from all our games. If you look at the goals we have lost. Many of them have been all our own doing and today we added two to that list. A lot are down to individual errors, a lack of concentration and not having that little bit of ‘dig’ about you that can make a difference. We need to work harder at keeping the ball away from our goal and out of the back of our net.

“What we saw today can’t keep happening,” he continued. “You can’t win games of football doing that. I need to see sleeves getting rolled up on Monday. I need the players to drive out of themselves the mistakes we’ve been making. The basics have to be a lot better.”

Indeed. Starting at Annan next time out.

Forfar Athletic
1 McCallum
2 Nditi 🟨 79' ⚽️
19 Munro
6 Hutton
3 Brindley
12 Moore 🟨 44'
10 Slater
8 Jack 🔄 Armour 45'
24 Hanratty
11 McCluskey
9 Aitken 🔄 Keatings 63'

Substitutes
17 Armour
18 Keatings
20 Harkins
23 Irvine
25 Abed
31 Trialist

Stenhousemuir
1 Brennan
5 Crighton
25 Jamieson
4 Higgins
8 Miller 🟨 87'
7 Forbes 🔄 Anderson 62'
6 Wedderburn
11 Brown
3 Yeats 🔄 Walker 54'
10 Yates 🟨 79'
19 Sewell 🔄 Orr 71'

Substitutes
2 Walker
9 Orr
15 Corbett
16 O'Reilly
17 Anderson
18 Joseph
20 Cantley

Referee: Alan Newlands
Attendance: 497