Loons Exit Cup, But Heads Held High

Queen of the South 3 Forfar Athletic 0

Following a series of disappointing results Forfar Athletic faced a difficult task in bouncing back with a visit to First Division Queen of the South.

As was expected following the home defeat to Stenhousemuir, the Boss made changes, with Craig Wilson, Kevin Motion and David Mowat replacing Jamie Bishop, Chris Hegarty and Kevin
Byers in the starting line up.

The Loons kicked off in front of a small band of loyal travelling fans, and for the first ten minutes enjoyed the bulk of possession without putting the home side under any real pressure. Queen of
the South then settled into the match and were moving forward from the back to midfield easily, however they were struggling to find much invention in the final third.

After 22 minutes, a Greg Ross throw in found Motion in space, he avoided a challenge before laying off a ball for Steve Crawford, Iain Campbell and Queen's Marc Campbell to chase, only for
keeper Robinson to reach the ball first. The home side were testing the Loons defence with short and long passes, but Forfar managed to clear any danger, until the half hour mark. Alan Reid hit a long ball down the right flank for McKenna to latch onto, he crossed into the middle of the Forfar area and Tom BRIGHTON stabbed the ball home.

QOS kept pressing the Forfar defence for the remainder of the half without any further success, but it wasn't all one way traffic. The Loons were hitting on the break and were moving the ball about well, with some great passing triangles. One such move resulted in a corner, which Fotheringham floated over and Templeman rose well to head on target only to see Robinson tip over. Just before the break Ross found Motion inside the home penalty box, and he shot before realising he had more time on the ball and his effort sliced wide of the target.

Three minutes after the restart and the home side almost doubled their lead when Reid and Carmichael linked up well down the right with the end result McLaughlin shooting wide from close range.  A minute later and Chris Templeman robbed Mark Campbell just inside the home half and found Iain Campbell in lots of space on the left, the chance disappeared however as he took too long on the ball and the Queen's defence cleared. After 55 minutes Crawford and Wilson created space for Foheringham who fired in a great effort which was tipped over for a corner.

Just as Forfar looked to be having the upper hand the home side grabbed their second. A Reid throw in on the left was only partially cleared by Wilson and when the ball fell to JOHNSTON he gained ten yards before firing home from 18 yards out.  Forfar were then out of it miutes later after a long ball found Carmichael in space and the tricky forward crossed for CLARK to get in front of Wilson before stabbing home from 6 yards out.

For the remaining half hour Forfar never gave up and enjoyed some fine passing movements as well as frustrating QOS by defending well.

The scoreline was not what the club wanted, however the performance was to be applauded and all at Staton Park hope the first League victory of the season arrives on Saturday at home to Airdrie United.

Match Report by Kevin Brown