Forfar Athletic 2 Edinburgh City 0

cinch League 2
Station Park
Saturday 7 August 2021

Goals
Matty Aitken (3') (Assist Craig Thomson)
Mark Gallagher (90'+8) (Assist Matty Aitken)

It’s early days. But the signs are already promising. Just two games into the league two season Forfar, who have accumulated a maximum haul of six points, established an already nice goal difference of four and tucked away a pair of clean sheets under their collective belts. Momentum is a wonderful thing to have in any sport and the Loons look to be building nicely. A pair of 2-0 victories - the latest against potential promotion rivals, Edinburgh City - augurs well for the tests that lie ahead.
Nothing is ever perfect, of course. And in the wake of Matthew Aitken’s early strike, there is no doubt that the Forfar defence rode its luck on occasion. More than once, indecision led to the Edinburgh forwards coming desperately close to scoring. But they didn’t, before the Loons gradually regained their early poise. Indeed, Forfar would actually have been two-up at the half-time break if Mark Gallagher’s otherwise well-taken penalty - one that sent the opposing keeper the wrong way - had not rebounded off the right-hand post to safety.
Still, if things could have gone either way before the interval, there is little doubt that the home side dominated proceedings in the second-half.
“Especially in the second-half we were hard to break down,” acknowledged player-manager, Gary Irvine. “We came out after half-time and basically nullified everything Edinburgh were trying to do in the first-half. It was clear to see that they were looking for direct balls over-the-top. But we cancelled that out. We had players in front of the back-four who did a great job in that department, as well as driving us forward too.”
Irvine’s assessment is hard to fault. Only rarely was keeper Marc McCallum called into action before Gallagher made up for his earlier indiscretion. The midfielder neatly finished off a clever three-man move involving, Grant Anderson and Matty Aitken, by slotting the ball home from close range in the final minute.
“I wouldn’t say today’s win was ever comfortable,” continued Irvine. “The eventual scoreline might suggest that, but Edinburgh pushed us all the way. Yes, we scored a great early goal, but they created a few chances after that. I didn’t exactly have a go at the players at half-time, but I reminded them that we need to pay attention to the ‘ugly side of the game too. Much as we are looking a good threat going forward - and scoring good goals - we need to keep the back door shut too. We need to defend our box and focus on set-plays, which so far we’ve done reasonably well.
“Which is not to say that Edinburgh City didn’t have chances. As I said, I put that to the team at halftime and they responded. We ground through the second-half and looked good towards the end. I’m really pleased with the fitness levels we showed. We did make a couple of substitutions, but there were players who were on the pitch for 90 minutes still driving forward in the closing minutes. And we got our reward with the second goal in the last minute.”
Hard taskmaster though he is, Irvine was clearly happy with many aspects of his side’s performance. As an indication of just how competitive league two is likely to be this season, Forfar is already one of only two teams - Kelty Hearts the other - with full points after only two games.
“There were plenty of plusses,” continued Irvine, who played the full 90-minutes. “The players got a pat on the back for the first goal. That’s the sort of thing I’ve asked them to do. We’ve got players now who can do that to teams. They can get into the final third and make quality crosses. And we’ve got players on the end of those and scoring goals, which is brilliant. Equally, I want us to be a hard team to beat. We need to be organised in our shape and at set-plays. I’ll always be reminding them of that.”
Also praying on the side’s collective mind will be the fact that Gallagher’s miss from the spot was the third Forfar failure from 12-yards out already this season.
“Missing the penalty was disappointing,” admitted Irvine. “But it’s something that needs to be highlighted. It’s a wee problem. That’s three we’ve missed in competitive games already this season. We have been working hard on them and that is clearly something that will have to continue. We need to build up confidence in someone who can be our regular penalty-taker.”
We’re nit-picking though. Overall, this was a competent overall performance from a side that will surely be a match for many - and more than a match for most - in league two this season.
“The mind-set we have to take is that, yes, this is three points and a job well done,” concluded Irvine. “There are loads of positives. But we need to keep on building. The demands I make and the standards I expect won’t change as the season progresses. Now we have a cup game on Tuesday evening against Formartine United before we see Kelty next Saturday. It’s a competition we want to make progress in. So Tuesday is an important game too.”