Bridie Vision

First signing of the new year. Marc signs a 2 year extension.

Maybe, but how many Loons fans laughed at Stenny signing Matty? Generic grumpy Loon: "How do Stenny expect to put a title charge together with Matty Aitken leading their line. He'll fall over more often than he touches the ball." No matter how dreadful our squad is at the moment, it doesn't mean every player in this squad is going to spend the rest of their days jobbing for the likes of Brechin Vics, Coupar Angus, Lochee Harp etc.

It's probably a Forfar curse. Matty is poor at Forfar, becomes a world beater at Stenny. Forfar fans will barely remember Cedwyn Scott, absolutely dreadful on loan for us, leaves and becomes the main man at Notts County winning the national league. You can probably expect Cameron Ferguson and Euan Mutale leave Forfar after a dreadful spell to go and have a stellar career away from Station Park, or Finn Robson to become the Scottish Iniesta after leaving the club too. Getting back on track to talk about Saturday's game. Comfortable win for Stenny. As long as we don't drop to 10th I imagine the board will be happy to keep Ray on indefinitely if we can just finish 9th every season, I don't see him getting his marching orders this season.

We're rubbish.

A gripping 5 minutes of not very much:

So it was a dull draw and I got the line-up spot on. Skelly was stupid making a crazy lunging tackle where there was no reason for it. I've got no qualms with the red card, completely needless. We looked shaky from the moment we went down to 10 until around the 55th minute (which was also the same time Thommo came on...coincidence, I think not), after that you didn't notice we were outnumbered. I think it also helped when we changed to a 4-3-2.

Just rain in Forfar so no threat of it being called off. Forfar aiming to win 2 games on the bounce in the league for the first time in however long. Will it happen, hmm. I can see a dull draw. I expect Forfar yo line up as follows with Nditi, Munro & Moore unavailable. McCallum Allan, Hutchinson, Morrison, Brindley Watson, Whatley, Robson, Inglis Skelly, Ross

Aye, I thought the same. That does raise the question though, how does the suspension work for Nditi? Is he suspended for the East Fife match? (I.e he's unavailable for selection for Forfar, which doesn't matter since he'll be with the Tanzania squad). Or does he have to serve the suspension after he's completed international duty?

Good for him, bad for us. One of our few shining lights this season.

Over 10 minutes of Forfar Athletic disappointment. https://youtu.be/MJ2MgPu21rw

I think he was talking about Hilton's opener. That definitely was deflected. The other Dumbarton goals were a mixture of lovely shots and woeful Forfar defending Forfar usually have highlights up around lunchtime.

For those that haven't enjoyed the magnificent interview so far here's your chance https://youtu.be/nSuCbwywlF8

Forfar scored two more goal than I expected today. That's something...

Dumbarton should win. The only thing that might happen (given Sons fans worry about a Faz bottle job) is Dumbarton to be 1-0 up and cruising only for a Matty Allan or Stuart Morrison header from a set piece in the 80something minute to make it 1-1. Honestly I think Dumbarton fans should be confident about 3 points tomorrow.

While I wouldn't mind if he resigned but I agree with @Neilly why would he voluntarily walk away from a job? I'm no contract expert but I'd assume if you voluntarily resign your compensation packet isn't as nice as you'd get if the board terminate your contract. Malky, Sellers & Foxy resigned because despite their tenure damaging their reputation at the club, they had love and respect for Forfar as fan favourites. McKinnon doesn't hold such sympathies for clubs (as history shows).

Forfar lost after a lacklustre performance, what a shock!

I see the club are looking for match day volunteers again. Weren't they "recruiting" volunteers in the summer. I guess nobody took them up on it.

Here's the highlights in their glory, missed chances and red card shouts.

If only Forfar had a clinical striker like Matty Aitken The Loons played really well for 45 minutes, then resorted to hoofing and hoping. Stranraer were poor but got a lucky deflection and scored with their only shot! We were never going to score again when we brought on Mutale & Ferguson. Who despite being tall look like they'll never win a header.

Fixed it for you Goal scoring has been a problem for the Alpha Projects Stadium @ Station Park men, their leading scorer Stuart Morrison having netted five in competitive fixtures, former "Blue Brazil" striker Josh Skelly having found the net four times.

Slightly better watching than the Interview. Also, if we lose next week I bet they won't bother with the Interview again!

In other news, I've noticed the Lord Bunnet has resigned from Gayfield along with the whole backroom staff, would he come back to Forfar?

Tranent were way better in the 1st half, Marc and the post saved Forfar. Second half was more of a slugging match and Forfar probably edged it in the 2nd half but we were by no means the better team, although I'm sure Ray will be happy and say we deserved to go through. Smokie was fortunate with the handball/penalty. He tried to clear the ball but scuffed his connection causing the ball to bash off his shin and onto his outstretched arm. I don't think the ref "missed it" but because there certainly was no intent he waved play on. I'm not saying he’s right as I believe the rule book says something along the lines of: intent doesn't matter but if his arm is in an unnatural position and outwith the natural silhouette then it's a foul. So, Forfar got away with that. It is interesting that a Matty Allan scrappy goal from a corner is what got us through the last two rounds both of which have likely saved Ray's job, for now.

I do think the Highland League is inevitable at some point, with free spending Lowland League teams and even EoS & WoS clubs with more money than Forfar have. I think the SPFL will likely look very different in 10 years time (and probably not for the better). With many "historic" clubs out of the league. I'm not saying Forfar are broke, but we clearly can't match other teams in terms of wages and location. After all, the majority of part-time footballers live in the central belt and don't want to do a 2 hour drive to and from training twice a week after a day's work. Ultimately, that's why I liked the idea of signing local based players, however, we just don't have a plethora of talent and quality players living in Angus/Dundee/Tayside area. Highland teams have had this problem for years but with the cost of living and people rightly striving for a greater work/life balance this issue will likely spread to more parts of Scotland.