Loons Defeated In Seven Goal Thriller

East Fife 4 Forfar Athletic 3

Following Forfar's disappointing defeat to Dumbarton, the Boss made four changes to the line up, with Chris Hegarty, Michael Bolochoweckyj, Kevin Byers and Jordon Brown taking the place of Greg Ross, Steven Tulloch, Craig Wilson and David Mowat.

From the kick off, the home side went on the immediate attack, and were awarded a free kick on the edge of the penalty box. The kick was dangerous and Joe Shaughnessy got his head in the way, but only managed to direct the ball goalwards, however McHugh was alert enough to tip the ball over the bar for the first corner of the match. After 12 minutes Bobby Linn tried his luck from 18 yards, but saw his effort sail past the target. The home side opened the scoring three minutes later thanks to some generous marking. Johnstone's corner from the right was headed home by JOHN OVENSTONE.

East Fife's lead only lasted a matter of minutes thanks to Kevin Byer's first goal of his second spell at the club. Jordon Brown did well to win the ball mid way in the home half before feeding the ball to Stevie Crawford on the right, he passed to Byers who shot straight at Ridgers from 15 yards, the ball rebounded to BYERS who headed into the net for the leveller.

After 22 minutes, Forfar come close to taking the lead thanks to on-loan Jordon Brown hammering a 25 yard effort on target only for the home custodian to palm the ball past for a corner. It was end to end stuff, and eight minutes later the home side regained the lead. A free kick was pumped deep into the Forfar penalty area, and although the ball was headed away, it only reached DAVID MUIR on the edge of the box and he fired home the Fifer's second.

But the Loons bounced back, and a good move between Hegarty and Crawford found Templeman in space in the box and just as he was away to fire in an effort, the ball was cleared for a corner. That corner taken by Fotheringham came to nothing, however minutes later the same player collected the ball on the left, hit the by-line before crossing low into the six yard box, in trying to clear the ball OVENSTONE deflected it past Ridgers for the equaliser.

That wasn't the end of the first half action, as Forfar found out to their cost. On the stroke of half time Ryan Wallace beat Hegarty down the flank and crossed for OGLEBY to smash home number three from close range. And that was the final action of a goal crazy half.

Forfar started the second half determined to pull themselves back into the match for a third time. Fotheringham and Low swapped passes after 52 minutes and before a shot could reign in, Nicky Low was fouled on the edge of the box. "Foxy" took the kick and Ridgers did well to turn the ball over for a corner. The resulting corner was headed goalwards by Templeman and his effort was cleared off the line, but only reached SHAUGHNESSY who hammered home another Forfar equaliser.

During the next twenty minutes both sides pushed for a winner, Ogleby saw a good effort cleared off the line by Hegarty, then Mark McCulloch chipped the home defence to allow Templeman a great chance, and although he hit his shot well, the East Fife keeper saved brilliantly. With time running out, the Loons were reduced to 10 men. A long angled pass went across pitch and as Ogleby chased, Adam McHugh ran out to clear the attack, but managed to clip the forward, who, as you would expect, went tumbling down. The foul was just outside the box, and the danger came to nothing.

As the closing minutes ticked away, the home side grabbed their fourth, and the winner. Ogleby received a pass from the back, and turned well before setting up WALLACE for a clear run on goal and an easy finish past substitute keeper Greg Paterson.

An entertaining match for the pundits saw the Loons improve on their performance against Dumbarton, however the Boss wasn't too happy with some of the defending on show. He did believe however, that Forfar deserved to take something from the match, an opinion that was shared by East Fife manager John Robertson who acknowledged he would have been happy with a point.

Match Report by Kevin Brown