Elgin City v Forfar Athletic - Match Preview

The ‘Loons’ head for Elgin on Saturday on the back of a well deserved victory at home to Dumbarton last Saturday, a win that took them on to the 27 point mark in the league standings, four ahead of their weekend opponents, though to be fair Allan Hale’s side have two games in hand.

Manager Jim Weir was of course delighted with the end result and the overall performance against the ‘Sons’ and naturally hopes that the players will go into Saturday’s contest with same attitude and belief that they showed against last week’s opponents.

The Forfar management team are convinced that the influx of new faces over the past few weeks culminating in Aron Lynas, Aiden Haddow and Matthew Strachan making their debuts either from the start or from the bench last Saturday has added the right type of freshness to the squad and they are also delighted to have secured the services of Mason Munn to provide competition to Marc for the goalkeeping berth over the remainder of the campaign.

As regards Saturday’s opponents, Jim Weir watched them in action away to Clyde on Tuesday evening and was impressed with their overall performance which he felt could well at the end of the day merited three points instead of the one they attained. He will be leaving his squad in no doubt that a hard fought ninety minutes lie ahead at Borough Briggs against a side who also ran championship outfit Partick Thistle so close in the cup last Saturday before losing out by the odd goal in five. Elgin have also bolstered their squad in recent weeks, their latest acquisitions Robbie Thompson on loan from Caley-Thistle and Rocco Hickey-Fugaccia recently released by Arbroath having to settle for a place on the bench on Tuesday past. Two players who have worn the ‘Loons’ colours in the past Russell Dingwall and Mark Gallagher were in City’s starting line up against the ‘Bully Wee,’ Jake Dolzanski and Craig Mailer two within the Athies ranks who will come up against familiar faces on Saturday afternoon.

Both sides will also go into the game with strikers on form in the shape of Martin Rennie and Ryan Sargent, the latter the scorer of both Elgin goals in their 2-1 home win over the ‘Loons’ up in Morayshire in October. Of course Scott Shepherd was the goal scoring hero for Jim Weir’s side in the return fixture at Christmas netting all four goals in the home team’s eventual 4-2 win over City in a feisty and highly entertaining encounter, especially if you were an Athies fan.

Finally a real piece of good news for Forfar Athletic supporters. Club skipper Stuart Morrison took a full part in training on Thursday night after his lengthy absence and may well be on the bench come 3pm. on Saturday afternoon.

The man in the middle on Saturday is Josh Hay, the second time this season he has taken charge of a ‘Loons’ fixture, the previous occasion at the other end of the country back in November at Stranraer.

Admission charges at Borough Briggs are as follows;-

Stand – Adults £18/Concessions (65 & over and unaccompanied under 16’s) £12
Ground – Adults £16/Concessions as above £10
Under 16’s if accompanied by a paying adult are admitted on the day free of charge.

Tickets can be purchased online in advance, see Elgin’s official website for full details.

As at the Alpha Projects Stadium @ Station Park CASH ONLY turnstiles are available on match day.

Saturday’s other William Hill League2 fixtures;-Annan Athletic v East Kilbride, Dumbarton v Stranraer, Stirling Albion v Clyde, The Spartans v Edinburgh City