Loons Suffer Defeat In Poor Encounter

Forfar Athletic 0 Albion Rovers 1

Forfar Athletic travelled to Coatbridge on Saturday hoping to bounce back from their midweek second half hammering from Morton. The Boss threatened changes following the 5-0 reverse against the Greenock club, and Martyn Fotheringham and Kevin Byers suffered most of all, being dropped from selection. Jamie Bishop and Ross Campbell both dropped to the bench with Chris Hegarty, Kevin Motion, Craig Wilson and Stephen Tulloch taking their places.

To say the match turned out to be a huge disappointment is no understatement. The home side enjoyed the better of the exchanges in the first half, but that's not saying much! After 21 minutes Hegarty created room down the left and although the ball found it's way into the home penalty box, neither Templeman, Crawford or Campbell could manoeuvre a shot on target. Albion had three free kicks aimed on target in the remainder of the first half, two of which were deflected away for corners, the other went high and wide.

The second half saw both sides create slightly more in entertainment, and as the half progressed the Loons improved towards something near recognition.

The home side should have opened the scoring after 53 minutes when Gilmartin created a great chance for Andy Scott who fired past from close range. Ten minutes later and Greg Ross and Craig Wilson link up well and a quick through ball finds Templeman who in turn beats two defenders before firing straight at the trialist keeper.

Mid way through the second half, in a bid to liven up proceedings, the Boss introduced Ross Campbell and Michael Bolochoweckyj. Kevin Motion and Chris Hegarty making way. It was really at this point when Forfar started to play their best football of the match. Iain Campbell swung over crosses from the left and Greg Ross did likewise from the right, but the Loons frontline just couldn't create or convert whilst in the penalty box. With time ticking away and a goalless draw looking likely, the Ghanaian substitute Joseph Acquah beat two Forfar defenders before crossing over for Love to drill a right foot shot past Greg Paterson.

Match report by Kevin Brown