Loons Keep In Touch With Leaders

East Fife 1 Forfar Athletic 3

Forfar lined up with the same line-up that won last week against Ayr United and started well in this game with Hilson having some early success against Durie down the left hand side, and he would go on to further torment him later in the game. Iain Campbell had a left foot shot just over the crossbar from a free kick 25 yards out. East Fife’s attacks were pretty sporadic with shots from outside the box from Byrne and Crawford but neither troubled Gallacher. A good chance then fell to Allan with the ball cleared from the Forfar box, Hilson picked up the ball and ran down the left wing and showed great vision in picking out Allan in the box only for his shot to be parried away by Brown.
Templeman then showed his trickery with some foot skills right on the touchline and made just enough room for him to float the ball over Brown’s outstretched arms but the ball just drifted by the back post. The first half seemed to be heading for 0-0 when East Fife broke up the field and Deland fired a low hard shot which came back of the woodwork, and the resulting break saw Forfar take the lead with another determined run from Hilson and he picked out Ross Campbell in the penalty area where he finished with the outside of this right foot past Brown.

Second half substitution, Todd off - Fotheringham on, and as expected East Fife came out fired up and leveled the scores thanks to a ball over the top for Linn to run onto and fire low and hard past Gallacher. This just seemed to spur Forfar into action and great attacking play by Deasley down the left seen him get to the touchline and fire the ball into the danger area where Fotheringham managed to get something on it and force it over the line. Forfar grew in confidence and looked comfortable all over the park and sealed the points with a great deep cross in from the left by Allan which was meet perfectly by a great ghosting run from Ross Campbell who bulleted his header past Brown. Forfar seen the rest of the game out without incident with some great possession play to really frustrate East Fife and Gibson, Allan and Smith all testing the keeper late on.

This win keeps Forfar in touch with the teams above them in the league and they should take great confidence going into this week’s home tie against Livingston.

Match Report by Brian Henderson