Forfar Athletic 1 St Mirren 2

When the draw for the Premier Sports Cup Group D was made, many Forfar fans would have been delighted at the prospect of playing Premiership St. Mirren at the Alpha Projects Stadium @ Station Park. A decent crowd eventually filed into the ground despite pretty driech weather and the fact that the match was being streamed live on Premier Sports TV. St. Mirren’s defeat at the hands of Arbroath last weekend must also have had fans somewhat optimistic, but many in the ground would leave pretty disgruntled at the manner of Forfar’s narrow 2-1 defeat. Forfar’s line up looked like the one which vanquished Annan last weekend, only with Marc McCallum returning between the sticks and Lewis Lorimer coming in for Mackenzie Lemon.

The match started well for Forfar, with Martin Rennie and Craig Slater showing nice interplay and Forfar new boy, Jamie Richardson not only marauding down the left-hand side, but tracking back to help with defensive duties too. Unfortunately, in the 9th minute, some casual defending allowed a straight pass from St. Mirren’s Conor McMenamin to find the dangerous Jayden Richardson who couldn’t miss from 6 yards out. McMenamin would be a thorn in Forfar’s side again, just a couple of minutes later, as his 20-yard effort sailed just past, the Forfar keeper seeming to have it covered though.

In 20 minutes, Forfar’s Craig Slater saw his free kick touched just past the post his cross finding Lewis Martin in the box. What would follow this was an extremely frustrating passage of play for Forfar fans, as Forfar were awarded a number of fouls which seemed to break down any attacking passages of play. This would be particularly irritating for the home crowd, as they had just seen centre back, Jake Dolzanski booked for something pretty innocuous prior to this lengthy series of free kicks. St. Mirren’s Killian Phillips would eventually receive a booking on the 34th minute, somewhat ironically, for a very inoffensive challenge. The resulting free kick saw Dolzanski’s header fly just past the right-hand post. Approaching half-time, Forfar’s captain, Stuart Morrison found his name in the referee’s book, which only added to the irritation of the Forfar crowd.

Directly after the break, St. Mirren introduced an extra threat, with French, Mikael Mandron replacing Roland Idowu and Forfar brought on Mackenzie Lemon for the tenacious Jamie Richardson. A wee bit of sloppiness seemed to edge into both side’s play – Forfar having a foul throw called against them and the visitors having a couple of quite aimless shots well off target. In 55 minutes, firstly a nice interchange between Forfar’s Slater and Martin led to Slater shooting over from 18 yards, then immediately, St. Mirren broke, when right-back, Richardson, found himself in a great scoring position but he shanked his shot horribly off-target.

More subs followed – Forfar replacing Lewis Lorimer with Nathan Cannon. Cannon immediately looked sharp with a good press on St. Mirren’s defence. In 61, St. Mirren’s prolific Jonah Ayunga found himself clean through, only to be foiled by a wonderful challenge from Jake Dolzanski. In 66 minutes, St. Mirren keeper, Peter Urminsky had to look lively to fist away a curling free kick from Forfar’s Craig Slater.

Jim Weir then tried to refresh things once again, with Kieran Inglis and Brad Rodden coming on, showing attacking commitment on behalf of the manager. Rodden had a couple of good runs but found himself thwarted by the canny and experienced St. Mirren defence. In 74 minutes, St. Mirren has an attack down the far side – James Scott passing for Mandron to fire past Marc McCallum to make it two. Once again, referee, Dan McFarlane received the ire of the home crowd, as the opening pass of the play appeared to have been clearly offside in the build-up to the goal.

Scott would be involved soon again, having a speculative shot hit the stanchion of the goal. In 80 minutes, Forfar pulled a goal back, with a terrific strike from sub Kieran Inglis flying into the back of the net from fully 25 yards and through a thicket of defenders.

In the 89th minute, St. Mirren almost made things safe as Scott, once again involved, saw his 18-yard shot come off the post to safety. As Forfar fans urged the Loons on, Lewis Martin had a glancing header tipped over the bar by Saint’s number 1, Urminsky. In the final passage of play, once again, whistler, Dan McFarlane had a big part to play, as he denied Forfar a last gasp penalty, when as Forfar’s Stuart Morrison seemed to be wiped out by the big-Buddies' stopper, but McFarlane waved play on, and the game finished 2-1 to St Mirren.

On paper, this would have been the game in this League Cup group that Jim Weir and his staff would have been least hopeful to get a result, but Forfar came very close. You might say the blow of a whistle away from taking this game to penalties, and who-know-what else, and despite Steven Robinson’s post-match comments regarding Forfar and its pitch, the Loons came out of this game heads-held-high.

Match report by Alex Colquhoun