Forfar Athletic 1 Arbroath 0

On yet another fine summer’s afternoon, Forfar ran out winners in a tough fought game against local rivals, Arbroath, at the Alpha Projects Stadium @ Station Park in the final game in Group D of the Premier Sports Cup.

Championship side, Arbroath, came into the game with a slim chance of progressing from the group stage, should they win, whilst Forfar never need anything to motivate themselves in this local derby, which is always a tasty fixture when it comes along.

The last time these two met, Forfar ran out 3-1 winners, with captain, Stuart Morrison on the scoresheet and Loons’ fans would be hoping for a similar result. Forfar made four changes to the side that lined up against Ayr United last Tuesday as Arbroath featured five players recruited during this close season as the Lichties look to rebuild and cement their place in the Scottish Championship, two tiers above the Loons.

Forfar started in attacking style; in the first minute, the relentless Ross MacLean pulled a cute nutmeg on Arbroath’s Lucas Stenhouse and MacLean would prove to be a relentless thorn in the side of Arbroath’s defence all afternoon as he constantly harried and pushed for the ball.

In seven minutes, Arbroath had the ball in the net, but the whistle for offside was already a distant sound and in the next minute, the indomitable Marc McCallum produced a world-class save, leaping like a salmon, denying Arbroath's Arran Pettifer a certain goal. Only a minute later, Forfar would take the lead when Martin Rennie charged down an attempted Arbroath clearance, then coolly crossing the ball for Scott Shepherd to slot home from 8 yards out.

Following this, Forfar left back, Chris Scott looked up for the challenge as he pulled off a couple of tenacious and timely tackles around the edge of the box. Ross MacLean also continued to impress for Forfar, as he continually fought for possession of the ball - often finding the willing Lewis Lorimer.

Forfar’s Craig Slater had a shot go just past the post in 23 minutes and after this, Arbroath had a big shout for a penalty, waved away by referee Iain Snedden for what was clearly an inadvertent collision in the box. Then we saw neat play from Forfar as Lorimer slid a sweet pass for Martin Rennie to force Arbroath’s Aidan McAdams to make a decent block. The rest of the half saw Forfar continuing to probe, Mailer and Slater linking nicely, but to no avail. Right on the half time whistle, Forfar fans were enraged as Angus Mailer was shown a yellow card for what seemed a pretty innocuous challenge.

The second half began with both sides making substitutions: Mackenzie Lemon replacing Chris Scott for Forfar and Harry Cochrane coming on for Arbroath. The next 10 minutes felt a bit scrappy, with Arbroath's Rocco Antonio Hickey-Fugaccia seeing a long-range effort sail over the bar. More subs in 56 minutes, as clearly Arbroath wanted to inject a bit more experience into the line-up: Ryan Dow and Scott Stewart replacing Lucas Stenhouse and the tricky Hickey-Fugaccia. The changes had an immediate impact; Arbroath pressing hard for an equaliser to keep their hopes of qualification for the knockout phase of the Cup alive. In 59 minutes, Nikolay Todorov brought about a smart save from Forfar’s number 1, Marc McCallum and only 3 minutes later we saw Forfar’s Angus Mailer make two breathtaking challenges to stop two Arbroath counterattacks. More subs followed - Forfar replacing Mailer and the pacy Lewis Lorimer with the attack minded Kieran Inglis and Nathan Cannon. Arbroath also made two substitutions - injecting even more experience, with club stalwarts Aaron Steele and Gavin Reilly coming on for Craig Pettifer and feisty Craig Watson.

In 70 minutes, Arbroath thought they had equalised as Nikolay Todorov was presented with a great chance with a close-range bullet header, but the offside flag was up early and the goal didn’t stand. Matty Allan then came on for Forfar, perhaps looking to shore things up at the back and the next few minutes saw good play from the home team: Lewis Martin and Nathan Cannon showing good awareness and keeping up the pressure on the Lichties.

In 80 minutes, Arbroath's Callum Gallacher found himself clean through on goal, but Marc McCallum was once again to the rescue as he smothered the ball at the feet of the attacker. Immediately, Arbroath broke again, this time Reilly seeing a glancing header just fly wide and then Aaron Muirhead saw his rifled shot crack off the bar in the 82nd minute.

As the clock counted down, Matty Allan firstly made a great goal saving interception, but he would then be on the receiving end of a worrying head knock and would have to get extensive treatment on the pitch. Arbroath continued to press and in the final minute, Marc McCallum came to the Loons’ aid again, saving at point blank range from sub, Aaron Steele; this would be the last action of the match.

Local derbies between these teams are always a bit spicy and this one was no exception: a hard-fought game, played in the right spirit and with Forfar fans feeling buoyant as they left Station Park. Jim Weir and his management team now have had a good look at what seems to be a settled squad ready for the challenges of the season ahead, whilst Arbroath's Scottish League Cup 2025 experience, being a bit of a mixed bag, has maybe left the team with a few questions left to answer in terms of team selection.

On to Saturday August 2nd and Scottish League 2 business for Forfar and if this group continues to play with the organisation, passion and skill that they showed against Arbroath, Loons supporters should feel able to look ahead to the League 2 campaign with optimism.

Match report by Alex Colquhoun