Forfar Athletic 3 Arbroath 1

Forfar produced a sensational performance to secure a victory on derby day at the Alpha Projects Stadium @ Station Park.

Forfar began the match, which was preceded by a touching tribute to Neill Wilson, on the front foot and almost had the lead inside two minutes when Seb Ross was sent through but he was squeezed out before he could slot home.

Jay Bird would prove to be a handful for the Forfar defence and he tested McCallum early on but the stopper beat the moving ball away with his shoulder.

The Loons took full advantage of some sustained early pressure when Callum Moore dropped a corner on the head of Stuart Morrison. The loons stand in captain made no mistake and he powered home his first Forfar goal.

Moore was again in amongst it when he forced a good save from Gaston after Robson found him excellently.

The Athies had the better of the early stages but Arbroath played their way into the game and found an equaliser after 40 minutes. Bird got into a grappling contest with Morrison, in which both probably fouled each other. The ref decided that both were as bad as each other and allowed play on and Bird tucked a tidy finish into the corner.

The goal shook the Loons slightly who had to dig in to see out the half but went in with the level score line a fair one.

Former Forfar trialist Mark Stowe had a couple of sighters early doors in the second half but the Athies soon regained their grip on the game.

Matty Allan beat two and broke from defence just after the hour mark. He found substitute Craig Thomson whose cross wasn’t dealt with and Josh Skelly helped it onto the waiting Roberto Nditi to slot in his fourth Forfar goal.

Morrison and his teammates weren’t content to sit on their one-goal lead and almost doubled their cushion in the 68th minute when Kieran Inglis freed Thomson on the right but, when one on one, he could only fire into Gaston’s sprawling body.

Moore again caused problems for the Arbroath defence when Seb Ross sent him to the byline but his cutback was intercepted before it could be tapped in.

Nditi’s evening almost got better in the 80th minute when he fired a left-footed shot off the base of the post from outside the box.

The Loons ploughed forward in search of a goal to kill the game off and it came in the 87th minute courtesy of Josh Skelly. Callum Moore did brilliantly in the middle of the park to pinch the ball, beat four men and bring Skelly in to play. He did a stepover and skipped past his man with ease before firing a lethal low shot into the bottom corner to send the home fans into raptures.

The goal was no less than the Loons deserved on the night as they comfortably saw out the two-goal victory to make it a perfect nine points from nine available.

The only slight dampener on a magnificent evening was St Mirren’s late, late winner at Cowdenbeath which means the fight for top spot and automatic progression from the group will continue to match day five.