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Seasons To Savour
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1919/1920
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Resurrecting football in Forfar after the Great War was a difficult job. In a small town, which had lost so many men, it was no easy task to get
Forfar Athletic back. Fortunately, the team had men like James Black and George Potter who were prepared to work hard to recreate Forfar Athletic.
The main problem was that the team had neither players nor money!
The first game after the Armistice seems to have been on 22nd March 1919 when Forfar lost 2-8 to Dundee in a snowstorm at Dens Park. It had not
been possible to play a game before then because there were quite simply not enough young men back from the trenches in good enough shape to play
football. The dreadful "Spanish flu" virus of February 1919 swept the town to such an extent that the local factories had to cut
production because they didn’t have enough weavers or labourers!
But by March and April a few more games were played against Brechin and the Dundee Shipyard Select (a good side containing Englishmen who had
played for Liverpool and Blackburn before the war) and in the summer it was announced that Forfar would play in the Eastern League. Also in the
summer, a few cricket games were played at Lochside, the first game being Davie McLean’s XI v. Gourlay’s XI and then a game against
Forfarshire at Forthill, then one at Rossie Priory.
Forfar were meant to play both Brechin and Montrose in August in the Eastern League but both teams asked for a postponement so that they could
organise themselves better. Black agreed to this with a bad grace, but could hardly object because he knew that Forfar themselves would be
struggling to get 11 fit and suitable men on the field. "Jummer" Petrie, a pre-war star, for example, would have been approached to
play, but he had broken his leg playing in a game for the Black Watch. The first game was against Cowdenbeath on August 30th. Miraculously, the
Committee had managed to get a new stand (admittedly a somewhat primitive one that didn’t last long) in place with water and gas for this
game, but the team contained trialists and youngsters under pseudonyms like "Smith" and "Mitchell". Cowdenbeath arrived
without proper gear (their hamper having gone astray in the chaotic railway system that obtained in 1919) and had to borrow kit from Forfar
Celtic (who still had some from pre-war). Boots were a problem for the Fifers and some of them took the field wearing what looked uncommonly
like army boots. In spite of all this, they thrashed Forfar’s makeshift team 1-5.
The Eastern League contained Forfar, Montrose, Brechin, Arbroath, St.Johnstone, Dundee Reserves, Dundee Hibs, Lochgelly Royal Albert,
Raith Rovers Reserves and Cowdenbeath. As the season progressed and more and more men returned from the War (full demobilization would not be
achieved for several years for British troops were still in action in Russia, the Middle East and Ireland) the situation mproved and Forfar,
whose first victory was over Montrose on October 17th, managed to fulfil all their fixtures, finishing half way up the Eastern League which was
won by Dundee Hibs, who would of course in 1922 change their name of Dundee United. Indeed by the end of the season, the Roaring Twenties had
begun with people clamouring to play and watch football. Football did not make the mistake of pricing itself out of the market – admission
charges were 8d for adults, 5d for juveniles, 3d for boys with all ladies admitted free – and slowly, Forfar Athletic got back on its feet.
Before the end of the 1919-20 season, there was one great Forfar football moment when Alec Troup, who had played for the Forfar in 1914 and
1915 but who was now with Dundee, earned his first cap for Scotland. Sadly the team lost 4-5 to England at Sheffield, but Troup played well, and
all Forfar shared in the moment for the loveable wee "Eckie".
The town in general took its time to recover. Plans were in hand to build the War Memorial on Balmashanner. There were literally hundreds of
war widows (some sources say that Forfar and District suffered 430 casualties) and more young men sadly paralysed or severely disabled.
Forgiveness was also hard to achieve, for the Forfar Herald tells how one of the Celebrations for the End of War included the burning of an
effigy of the Kaiser! But the important thing was that football was back. Forfar Athletic had survived the Great War.
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David Potter
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Forfar Athletic Football Club
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