Cowdenbeath 1 Forfar Athletic 1

Saturday 18 September 2021

Central Park, Cowdenbeath 

SPFL cinch League 2

If what follows sounds familiar, that’s because it is. A goal to the good at half-time courtesy of Matthew Aitken’s fine header from a Luke Strachan cross, and seemingly well in control, Forfar had to settle for a 1-1 draw with Cowdenbeath at Central Park. It was fourth time in the last six matches that the Loons had led, but not ended up winning. 

  To the surprise of no one, manager Gary Irvine, while happy with aspects of his side’s overall performance, was disappointed at both the manner in which the equalising goal was conceded and the eventual result. To be fair though, the direct 25-yard free-kick with which Cowdenbeath defender Craig Thomson beat goalkeeper Marc McCallum was a bit special. As Irvine noted, “it had to be to beat Marc from that range.”

  Still, that acknowledgement of excellence was well overshadowed by other, less positive, emotions within the Forfar boss.

  “My feelings today are the same as they’ve been at the end of a few games recently,” said Irvine. “Disappointment. Frustration. I’m stuck on ‘repeat’ at the minute. I’ve said that to the players too, maybe a little bit louder. I can’t keep saying the same things. While we’re doing well to get ourselves in front in games - today we scored a good goal and worked really hard in the first 45 minutes - but we keep giving away goals at set-plays. This time we conceded direct from a free-kick. And in previous games it’s been from corners. 

  “It’s just so frustrating. Cowdenbeath - and no disrespect to them - made it scrappy in the second-half. They got the upper hand. But they created virtually nothing from open play. It took them more than an hour to draw a decent save out of Marc McCallum. Which just adds to the frustration.”

  Indeed, Irvine’s analysis is spot-on. Well on top in the first-half, Forfar could and maybe should have been more than one-up at the break. The Loon’s Craig Thomson was particularly prominent. Time and again, the tricky winner beat his full-back and sent dangerous looking balls across the afce of goal. But all to no avail.

  “We’re just not getting on the end of those crosses to get what would be tap-ins,” continued Irvine. “And when you don’t kill games off by taking those chances, a team like Cowdenbeath are looking for the set-play that gives them a chance to score or at least put us under pressure. And when they did, they took their chance. Again, that’s frustrating for us. 

  “The only solution is to continue working hard. I keep saying that to the players. When I reflect on recent performances with my coaches the other parts of our game are decent. We’re hard to break down. We play well when we have the ball - which we did in the first-half today. But second-half we came off that level a bit. We didn’t take care of our advantage. We didn’t defend our box well enough on set-plays. We need to stop giving away corners and free-kicks. And when we do we have to deal better with the pressure. Which is what we have to work on in training.”

  That said, Irvine was clearly concerned by the contrast between first-half and second-half. As the game became more and more dis-jointed, Forfar’s previously clear ascendance slowly evaporated. As has too often been the case recently, a game that should have been won was drawn. 

  “What bothers me most is how we went about things in the second-half,” said Irvine. “Our superiority from the first-half disappeared. It’s hard to put my finger on why. Cowdenbeath did a good job. They picked up a lot of the scrappy stuff in the middle of the park, the the sort of things that help teams build momentum. But I expect my team to deal with that. I want them to be the side doing those things. If we do that, we stay in front and, later, kill the game off. 

  “If you look at the games where we’ve dropped points, the issue is those set-plays. We’ve already spent a lot of time working on them, focusing on staying ‘switched on.’ That’s all you can do. It’s being organised and setting up well in practice. So there will be more of that in our next session, although there are other elements of the game we need to improve. We need to keep possession better, for example. And we need to start taking our chances. I’ve been saying that for the last few weeks now. We need to be scoring two and three goals instead of having to hang on to a one-goal advantage.” 

  There were mitigating circumstances. Injuries during the week to the likes of Steven Doris, Stefan McCluskey and PJ Crossan took away goal-scoring threats and left the Loons a bit short “up-top.” So while Irvine was able to start the match with a line-up containing plenty of attacking options, beyond that things were limited.

  “We were still confident going into the game, but we let ourselves down in certain elements,” said Irvine, whose side have lost just one of their first seven league matches. “And we’ve lost another two points. Being hard to beat is a minimum for me. It’s working hard. It’s being organised. It’s being disciplined. And we are all of those things. But we need to score more goals, all while keeping your door shut at the back.. The name of the game is putting the ball in the back of the net. If you don’t do that more often than the opposition you come up frustrated and angry. And that’s where we are right now.”

Cowdenbeath Line-up

1 Gill

2 Mullen ? Swann 65'

5 C Barr

4 Todd

3 Thomson ? 41' ⚽️ 82'

6 Coulson ? B Barr 84'

7 Buchanan

8 Hutton

11 Clarke

10 Buchanan

9 Renton ? Mahady 79'

Substitutes

12 Miller

14 Swann

15 B Barr

16 Pollock

17 McGurn

19 Mahady

20 Watson

Forfar Athletic Line-up

1 McCallum

2 Meechan ? 82'

4 S Anderson

19 Munro

3 Strachan

7 Thomson

10 Slater

8 Ness ? Harkins 85'

11 G Anderson

9 Aitken ⚽️ 24'

18 Shepherd ?Gallagher 76'

Substitutes

5 Travis

14 Thomas

15 Hussain

16 Gallagher

20 Harkins

21 Sanderson

23 Irvine

Referee: Iain Snedden

Attendance: 323