A96 trips beckon for the ‘Loons’

Following on from their in the end disappointing defeat from Peterhead on Saturday past, the ‘Loons’ management and players have no competitive fixture this coming weekend as the fourth round ties in the SPFL Trust Trophy take place alongside a myriad of international fixtures at various levels.

At present East Fife and Peterhead are the only cinch league2 sides in action, a tasty trip to Oswestry to meet TNS on the cards for the Bayview outfit while Peterhead host Dundee United.

As far as Ray McKinnon and his ‘troops’ are concerned their next home fixture is on November 4th when Clyde will be the visitors, two trips however up the A96 on the horizon before the clocks change at the end of the month.

The first of those is for a vital league encounter with Elgin City at Boroughbriggs on Saturday week.

Elgin currently sit bottom of the table, three points adrift of the the Athies but with a game in hand following the postponement of their scheduled home fixture with Stenhousemuir this past weekend.

No confirmation has come through as yet as to whether that game will take place prior to the 21st.

Neither Forfar or Elgin managed to find the net over 180 minutes of open play in league or SPFL Trophy action back in mid August, both teams no doubt keen to put that statistic to ‘bed’ on Saturday week.

A week later on the 28th of October, Christie Park, Huntly will be the destination for hopefully many of a ‘Loons’ persuasion as we enter the Scottish Gas sponsored Scottish Cup at the second round proper stage.

Although we played Huntly fairly regularly at one point in pre-season jousts, the last of those in July of 2012, this cup clash as far as we can ascertain is only the second occasion that the paths of the clubs have crossed in the national tournament.

The previous occasion was a Station Park first round clash in December of 2002 when the hosts triumphed 3-1 with all the goals coming in the second period, Martin Bavidge with a brace and Kevin Byers the home marksmen.
Huntly under the management of Allan Hale appointed back in the summer of 2020 have had their best start to a league season in years.

On Saturday past they recorded a 4-1 home win over Fraserburgh and they currently sit in second position behind early pacesetters Formartine United in the Highland League rankings level on points but with a better goal difference than Buckie Thistle and Brechin City.

In other words the Station Park playing squad will without doubt have to be at their very best on the day to reach the third round stage of the competition.

Full previews of both contests will appear on the FAFC social media channels in due course.