Arbroath v Forfar Athletic – It’s been a long wait!

Arbroath and Forfar Athletic will meet on Saturday first in the  Scottish Cup amazingly for the first time in 65 years.

Therefore the vast majority of the crowd at Gayfield on Saturday though certainly not all will be witnessing a Scottish tie between the two local rivals for the first time.

The clash in October of 1956 was also a third round tie, the ‘Loons’ winning 3-1 at Station Park on that occasion.

It has to be said that a 4-0 defeat followed at the fourth round stage away to Alloa a few weeks later.

When one considers or reflects on for example how often the paths of the Athies and say Rangers have crossed in Scottish ties over the last sixty five years, it is remarkable that the two sides have not come out of the ‘hat’ together in that time span.

Back to this Saturday’s fixture and naturally all connected with the ‘Loons’ hope that a substantial travelling support will make the short journey down to the coast to support their favourites.

There was ‘mild’ criticism ‘around the ropes’ and in the lounges on Saturday past at Station Park about the fact that there will be no pay at the turnstile option available to spectators at Arbroath.

Forfar Athletic officials have had no say in this matter.

This is purely a decision for the home club and we have to respect that this is the system that the ‘Lichties’ and other championship clubs have adopted this season.

A reminder that admission prices on Saturday are as follows, these prices having been agreed by the clubs showing around a twenty per cent reduction on the normal Gayfield match day entry costs;-

Adults £15

Concessions £10

Parent and one child £17

Parent and two children £19

Full details of how tickets can be obtained can be found at;-

https://www.arbroathfc.co.uk/away-tickets/

A full preview of the fixture will appear as usual on all Forfar Athletic social media channels later in the week.

Certainly both teams will go into the game on a high, the ‘Loons’ having killed off a stubborn Cowdenbeath challenge in the last fifteen minutes on Saturday past, while the ‘Lichties’ highly impressive campaign continued with a solitary goal success away to  cinch championship leaders Kilmarnock.

C’mon the ‘Loons’.