Forfar Athletic -vs- Stenhousemuir (Saturday 11 February 2023)

[Francesc Fabregas]

The battle for the remaining play-off spots intensifies as Forfar Athletic welcome Stenhousemuir to Station Park on Saturday. Just three points separate the sides, and a win for the Warriors could see them leapfrog their opponents and into fourth place. Stenny won on their last visit to Angus (but I'm not sure that really counts as that was during the death spiral of Gary Irvine's dismal time in charge). Under Mr Raymond McKinnon, Forfar look far more capable right across the pitch, and they should fancy their chances of delivering a fatal blow to our promotion ambitions.

That said, we should be confident going into this one too. We look a better side under Gary Naysmith than we did earlier in the season - we look better organised, the players seem to be performing with a fire in their bellies, and we're just good fun to watch! We secured a point against Dumbarton at the weekend courtesy of a 94th-minute equaliser, something that just wouldn't have happened previously - I've been impressed with the players' attitude and application since Naysmith took charge.

The only change we might make from Saturday's XI is at left-back. Jordon Lowdon could start ahead of Callum Yeats, who might benefit from a spell out of the team. My own preference would to have Adam Brown through the middle and Matty Yates wide on the right but I don't think we'll so that:

- Tam Orr -

- Euan O'Reilly - Matty Yates - Adam Brown -

- Nat Wedderburn - Mikey Miller -

- Jordan Lowdon - Nicky Jamieson - Sean Crighton - Adam Corbett -

- Curtis Lyle -

Given how well Forfar have done in recent weeks, I'd take a point here, but a win would be a real statement result. Let's do it!

[nofixedability]

Certainly a change from the first encounter at Station Park this season where both teams went into it in terrible form, under poor managers.

 

If Craig Thomson is fit would get him into the starting line up and it will be interesting to see how Ray manages to fit Slater back into the team, he and Robson in the same midfield would be one of the better passing units about.

[Ivo den Bieman]

Montrose idle yet again in this broken-up-jobby of a start to the year so will head along to this.

Some high quality petty bickering on the Stenny-Dumbarton thread so looking forward to more significant grizzling after full time here on Saturday.

Forfar were absolutely gash under Gary Irvine so looking forward to seeing the impact Snakey Ray McKinnon's had. Always felt Forfar had a half decent squad for this level and that's beginning to show now that they have jettisoned the previous diddy manager.

The same could be said of Stenny and feel whilst change might have come too late for them this season, they're in for a good year or two under Naysmith. Certainly the new boss has wasted little time emptying the gubbins detritus of Stephen Swift's shoddy agglomeration of jobbers and makeweights, and bringing in a few interesting players.

Looking forward to the game which i expect will be tight with only a goal or two in it.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Ivo den Bieman

[Burnsythebinman]

this could be one of the most interesting games this saturday with both teams contenders for one of the playoff positions. i expect dumbarton, stirling, forfar & stenny to take the spots at the end of the season so saturday could be a great game or a 0-0 affair as both teams cancel each other out. I'd settle for a point.

[RateofKnots]

On 08/02/2023 at 08:41, Burnsythebinman said:

this could be one of the most interesting games this saturday with both teams contenders for one of the playoff positions. i expect dumbarton, stirling, forfar & stenny to take the spots at the end of the season so saturday could be a great game or a 0-0 affair as both teams cancel each other out. I'd settle for a point.

I'd say Annan have probably got a reasonable chance of being in the playoffs. I'd say 2 of Forfar, Elgin and stenny will miss out.

[Neilly]

I agree with that as well. Annan will definitely get in there now they are playing we know the way they can and the other spot will come from the three mentioned.

 

[lwh]

The Loons to be 3rd by the end of the week and to not drop lower than that for the rest of the season.

[SlipperyP]

Fucking hell, are these Stenny gips coming to town with their tails up?

Enjoy yer bridie!

@Ivo den Bieman make sure your behind the Stenny goal each half to see all the action.

@Francesc Fabregas cheers the write up.  I'll buy you a bovril, I'll not be there, just tell Jennie it's on me., keep hold of the cup, you'll need for yer tears.

[Dan Steele]

Slater in the starting 11  

Brindley starts

Aitken up front  

Here's hoping for a more settled performance than last week. Good conditions, guys looking motivated warming up. 

[Bridie Vision]

Good game so far as many expected.

[nofixedability]

Very close game , in the end thought we were fortunate to get the point. Andy Munro launching balls forward needs to stop.

[fafc1885]

Close game but I thought the team selection today was wrong, or at least too many changes were made.

I still think Aitken kills us, he just doesn’t look interested and seems to be at jogging pace all the time. When he does have the ball he does the wrong thing 99% of the time.

I agree with the comment about Munro, far too often it goes nowhere near a Forfar man. He is also the main culprit for mistakes in the back four.

On the positive side of it, Hutchinson and Gillies look decent in the back four. Nditi not being fit is a blow but Gillies seems capable of doing so. Robson had a quiet game but him and Hutton seem to work well together.

Lastly, what is the stewards’ obsession with the younger fans? They are constantly harassing them, it looked like someone pulled them up on it as well and they weren’t happy.

[Bridie Vision]

I agree a lot with @fafc1885.

Ben should've started instead of Matty, or play Stef up top and Flanny on the wings.

Andy is mistake prone, and just hoofs it, but he is almost peerless in the air. Gillies and Hutchinson look good, perhaps play a fit in place of Andy (just a thought)?

Hutton is doing his job well, Robson was quiet but isn't that his first game alongside Slater? Once they get their chemistry figured out we have a heck of a midfield partnership there!

A draw is fair and the right result today.

[lwh]

2 hours ago, nofixedability said:

Very close game , in the end thought we were fortunate to get the point. Andy Munro launching balls forward needs to stop.

Disagree saying we were fortunate to get a point. Was a nailed on draw all game. 

[nofixedability]

42 minutes ago, lwh said:

Disagree saying we were fortunate to get a point. Was a nailed on draw all game. 

McCallum was motm for a reason, if Stenny had a semi competent goalkeeper we wouldn’t have scored. Happy to take point when we weren’t at our best, also thought Stenny looked decent.

[LoonsYouthTeam]

Thought the first half was a good game, Stenny started well and it was some leap from Crighton for the goal. We responded well and it was a good attack that led to the equaliser but I think the keeper should've done better. We looked decent after that but Stenny looked dangerous going forward.

2nd half was awful from a Forfar perspective. Hoof, hoof, hoof. Looked to see if Gary Irvine was back in charge. We got into a few good positions but the final ball was often poor and we were restricted to half chances. Stenny seemed the team more likely to score and to their credit I think a lot of our hoof ball was due to their organisation, there was always somebody on top of our danger men and there always seemed to be a Stenny player in the right place.

Baffled by the multiple changes, especially considering it left us with Matty Aitken chasing balls up front. He's an eginma for me, on a couple of occasions he won balls he shouldn't have, and he did well for the goal, but on so many more occasions his anticipation was awful, I don't think he's lazy, he just doesn't see where the ball is going to go.

We're still 4th, my worry is we don't have as many goals in us as the other contenders, but I still fancy us for top 4, although I'd think we'll need to finish above Stenhousemuir to do it. As I said they were very organised, and they have 2 good centre backs in Crighton and Jamieson, goalkeeper seems to have been a constant achilles heel for them though.

[lwh]

2 minutes ago, LoonsYouthTeam said:

Thought the first half was a good game, Stenny started well and it was some leap from Crighton for the goal. We responded well and it was a good attack that led to the equaliser but I think the keeper should've done better. We looked decent after that but Stenny looked dangerous going forward.

2nd half was awful from a Forfar perspective. Hoof, hoof, hoof. Looked to see if Gary Irvine was back in charge. We got into a few good positions but the final ball was often poor and we were restricted to half chances. Stenny seemed the team more likely to score and to their credit I think a lot of our hoof ball was due to their organisation, there was always somebody on top of our danger men and there always seemed to be a Stenny player in the right place.

Baffled by the multiple changes, especially considering it left us with Matty Aitken chasing balls up front. He's an eginma for me, on a couple of occasions he won balls he shouldn't have, and he did well for the goal, but on so many more occasions his anticipation was awful, I don't think he's lazy, he just doesn't see where the ball is going to go.

We're still 4th, my worry is we don't have as many goals in us as the other contenders, but I still fancy us for top 4, although I'd think we'll need to finish above Stenhousemuir to do it. As I said they were very organised, and they have 2 good centre backs in Crighton and Jamieson, goalkeeper seems to have been a constant achilles heel for them though.

I rate Wedderburn so highly. A big reason why we struggled to play through midfield today.

[Dan Steele]

16 minutes ago, lwh said:

I rate Wedderburn so highly. A big reason why we struggled to play through midfield today.

Totally agree. He was on excellent form and seemed to be in total control. 

I thought today's game was a huge improvement from last week - I'd say last week it looked like Irvine was still in charge and today was definitely a much better show in pretty much all departments. Unlike others, I was disappointed in Gillies but Hutchinson is looking better each game. For once I'm actually on Matty's side. His hold up work and lay offs were very good today. Slater clearly not up to his usual standard for an obvious reason but still a class player. Stenny were a strong unit with some really good moves 8n attack and defence, but their attack, for the most part, were countered well by our defence. If only Munro could find a forward with his passing/blootering once in a while, it would be nice. Still, well chuffed at the way Ray McKinnon is building a really good team here.

[Nigel Blackwell]

Just watched the two goals. I was a little worried when I saw Lyle’s debut but the conditions were awful so there were mitigating factors. Since then he has barely had a shot to save then that happens…

Anyone still got Peter Urminsky’s number??

[Neilly]

It's so frustrating to lose such a cheap goal like that when, again, the outfield players have worked really hard over the 90 minutes to give the keeper very little to do. 

I thought a draw was a fair result yesterday. Both teams huffed and puffed between both boxes but there was very little quality when either team actually got in the danger area.

I still feel we are going in the right direction but we really need to add a striker if we are to make the top four. More importantly than that we have to hope the injuries to Corbett and Jamieson aren't too bad or that is going to unsettle us a fair bit I'd imagine.