Forfar Athletic 1 Kelty Hearts 2

The SPFL Trust Trophy 2nd Round
Station Park, Forfar
Tuesday 22 August 2022

At the end of an SPFL Trust Trophy encounter from which Forfar emerged with no little credit, manager Gary Irvine deftly summed up the 2-1 defeat to Kelty Hearts with just three words: “coulda, woulda, shoulda.”

  Indeed, it was, as so often the case recently, a match Forfar dominated to a large extent. Especially in the second half, the Loons were mostly to be found swarming in and around the Kelty box. Only a momentary lapse of concentration in defence, when a quick free-kick led to what turned out to be the match-winner, marred an otherwise highly promising performance by the home side. Substitute Kevin Hanratty was particularly prominent on the wing, giving his direct opponent a miserable evening.

  None of which was much consolation to Irvine, however, in a business where results are ultimately what really matters. 

  “That was a real sickener,” he said. “And that was a laughable goal with which to lose a game of football and go out of a cup. We played so well, worked so hard and created all kinds of chances. Their keeper kept them in the game to a great extent. So to switch off like we did is gut-wrenching.”

  The news wasn’t all bad though. Far from it. 

  “That was a performance we can build on,” insisted Irvine. “And one we can take belief from. We played some really good stuff after half-time and in the first half too. We put our foot on the ball and looked good doing it. We scored a great goal. Only some great saves from their keeper stopped us from being ahead. Still, that was a match against a team we pushed hard last season. They won our league with a bit to spare. And now we’ve just played them off the park. I told the players that was play we can kick on from. We will go into the next match on Saturday with a bit of confidence.  

  “It was sore tonight though. We should have been more alert when they took that free kick. We weren’t paying attention to the potential danger. The man closest to the ball should have been standing over the ball to stop them from playing. Conceding simple goals like that makes it very hard to win games of football. We need to cut that out. We need to be switched on. We need to be concentrating for 90+ minutes. If you don’t do that you get punished. And that has happened a few times already in this campaign.”

  Looking ahead, the Loons are at home again in the league against Stenhousemuir, a team that has struggled so far this season.

  “We need to believe how good we are,” said Irvine. “Especially on our home pitch. We passed the ball so well tonight. And we have some really positive players like Stefan McCluskey and Kevin Hanratty. Our two strikers did well tonight too. Matty Aitken fought his corner against two big, physical centre-backs. And Ben Armour did the same when he came on. Which is all good. but we need goals as well. We need to be better at the ‘ugly’ side of the game. It will come though. We have too much quality for it not to.”

  Hopefully starting on Saturday.  

Forfar Athletic 

1 McCallum
3 Brindley 🟨 88'
19 Munro ⚽️ OG 10'
2 Nditi
22 Abed 🔄 Hanratty 11'
12 Moore ⚽️ 54'
10 Slater
6 Hutton
8 Jack 🔄 Keatings 71'
11 McCluskey
9 Aitken 🔄 Armour 71' 

Substitutes

17 Armour
18 Keatings
20 Harkins
21 Sanderson
23 Irvine
24 Hanratty

Kelty Hearts

1 Jamieson 🟨 90'
4 O'Ware
5 Martin
6 Forster
14 Philp
10 Barjonas 🔄 Reilly 67'
12 Tidser
11 Higginbotham 🟨 75' 
26 Lyon 🔄 McNab 48'
25 Doherty 🔄 Hunter  71' ⚽️ 86'
22 Agyeman 🟨 90'

Substitutes

8 Reilly
15 Hill
16 McNab
17 Strang
20 Campbell
21 Cameron
27 Hunter

Referee: George Calder

Attendance: 317