Industrially it was a difficult decade. It took some time for anything like full employment to be achieved, and strikes were commonplace, particularly in the immediate post-War years. But everyone was just so glad to be alive and to have survived the cataclysm that became known as the Great War. Forfar's War Memorial on Balmashanner Hill remains an impressive one, a fitting tribute to all those who did not come back. But for those who did, there was entertainment in the form of the cinema – "the Gaffie" or Pavilion, opened in 1909 was going strong. By the end of the decade, talkies would appear, and there were plans for another cinema to be called "The Regal" in East High Street.

Football remained the opium of the masses, and Forfar Athletic at last in 1921-22 became members of the Scottish Football League Division 2. This immediately solved the problem of lack of fixtures, and Forfar were blessed by having a railway station on their doorstep – something that solved any transport problems they might have had to places like Vale of Leven or Broxburn. They also possessed a neat little ground with a grandstand that would last until several gales in the 1950's compelled its replacement.

Black persisted in his pre-War policy of local boys wherever possible, and crowds of over 2,000 (one fifth the size of the town's population) attended regularly to see Forfar lads like Eck Gerrard, (although Forfar folk persisted in calling him "Jarritt") Geordie McLean and Bill Boath. Boath, known locally as "Carree Boo" for some strange reason, was a World War 1 veteran, an immensely popular centre half who might have gone further in the game if he had not loved Forfar so much. Geordie McLean, brother of Davie, went to Bradford but returned to play in the 1930's and to sell chips in East High Street in the 1950's and 1960's.

The 1920's are days of much nostalgia in the minds of those who lived through them, but in 1925 disaster struck when the team finished bottom of the Second Division and found themselves relegated to the Third Division. Home form had been good enough, but there seemed to be a certain homesickness "aince they goat by the Zoar brig" as the saying went, and away form was absolutely dreadful. Others blamed their poor form in the early part of the season on Ramsay McDonald's first ever Labour Government, which lasted until the autumn of that year!

Season 1925 –26 was a strange one. It is tempting to record that Forfar finished third in Division 3, but in fact the League competition was left unfinished because so many teams could not afford the travelling to destinations like Peebles, Galston and Lockerbie (where there was a team called Mid Annandale) for the meagre gates that they were likely to get for a Third Division game. Forfar's support stayed loyal and they were one the richer sides in that division.

The Third Division was declared null and void before the end of the season and there would not be a Third Division next season. Forfar were thus left in limbo land with no obvious place to play the following year, but fortunately for Forfar, Broxburn United who finished bottom of Division 2 went bankrupt, and a team was needed for next year's Second Division. Forfar applied, and such was their reputation for hospitality and reasonable crowds, that, a few days after the end of the General Strike, they were accepted into Division 2 for season 1926-27.

Forfar's League future was thus saved and for the rest of the decade they played respectably in Division 2, even in 1928 finishing fifth and only a couple of points behind Third Lanark who were promoted to Division 1. Davie McLean had now returned, some 20 years after he had first joined the club, and arguably played the best football of his long career. Forfar fans had banners with "Rumble them up, Davie McLean" – a reference to his shoulder charging. On January 2nd 1928, he famously missed a penalty at Arbroath to deprive his side of a deserved draw – and the town was plunged into mourning.

Another great player had emerged as well, a local boy called Frank Hill, a wing half who went to Aberdeen, played for Scotland, but whose career suffered following his involvement in a bribery scandal at Pittodrie. There was also a rugged centre half called Davie Davidson who was transferred to Liverpool in 1928, then went on to Newcastle United where he picked up a Cup winner's medal against Arsenal in 1932. The player who did the most for Forfar however was Davie Kilgour whose 45 League goals in season 1929-30 remains a Forfar record. He was a small, nippy forward from Dundee, a Junior Internationalist, who very soon became and stayed a local hero.

In the meantime, on May 5th 1928, Forfar's greatest ever player Alec Troup reached his moment of glory at Goodison Park. Everton had won the League and Dixie Dean needed one goal for the record in the last minute of the last game against Arsenal, Troupie took the corner kick and Dixie rose majestically, headed home and immediately ran to the diminutive Forfarian who had made it all possible for him.

The 1920s were an exciting decade. Scotland beat England no fewer than six times in that decade, and could justifiably claim to be World champions. But unemployment, depression and other evils were just around the corner for the Scottish nation.