Fifers Retrun to the Kingdom Empty Handed

Forfar Athletic 3 East Fife 2

On a glorious autumn day the visitors started brightly and looked quick and sharp on the ball, but the first chance of the game came when Chris Templeman played Bryan Deasley in down the left and he crossed into the box, David Mowat met the ball with a good strong header but couldn’t keep it down. Forfar kept the pressure on with a corner from the right swung in by Iain Campbell for Andy Tod to attack on the penalty spot but again could not get his header on target.

East Fife opened the scoring with a slick move down their left and a powerful drive from Byrne from just outside the 18 yard line flew past Scott Gallacher’s left hand post. Forfar responded with decent efforts from both Deasley and Templeman with long range shots but nether troubled the keeper. East Fife should have doubled their lead with another good move down the left and the ball was fired into the box, where Young was completely unmarked but he couldn’t quite get it goal bound and Gallacher could only watch as the ball missed the post on his right hand side. East Fife were on the ascendancy and should have stretched their lead with a move down their right this time, the ball floated into the box by Linn where Hislop rose above the Forfar defenders but could only watch as the ball agonisingly went wide of the right hand post.

After the “angry” team talk from Dick Campbell, Forfar came out and equalised within 10 minutes, Martyn Fotheringham got in behind the left back and fired a shot that Brown couldn’t hold onto, the ball fell for Templeman on the penalty spot and he calmly slotted home. The game looked pretty even with both teams having chances the highlight being a great run to the by-line by Mowat to fire in low and hard but unfortunately there were no takers for Forfar. Forfar then proceeded to take the lead thanks to a chipped ball from Paul Lunan over the defence that Templeman latched onto and steered past Brown. Eat Fife didn’t give up and kept on attacking, winning a corner on the left the ball was swung into the box and the Forfar defence failed to clear a couple of header which allowed Ovenstone to latch onto the loose ball.

The game was all but over but Templeman still had time to claim his hat-trick and all 3 points for Forfar. The East Fife defence failed to cope with a long throw into the penalty area and under pressure from Ross Campbell they allowed the ball to break to free in the area. Chris Templeman managed to steer the ball into the net despite the efforts of, former Loons, John Ovenstone and Michael Brown.

East Fife can be disappointed not to leave Station Park with at least a share of the points but Forfar never gave up and always believed that they could get something from this match.

Match Report by Brian Henderson