MATCH PREVIEW: Forfar Athletic v East Fife

Forfar Athletic welcome East Fife to Station Park this Saturday for what is the only scheduled competitive fixture in a five week period at the ground.

The ‘Loons’ will go into the contest with renewed vigour and confidence, following an excellent showing in their last home game against Raith Rovers, this being followed by only their second victory of the season to date in a seven goal thriller at Cliftonhill last Saturday.

This success of course also saw the Athies move off the bottom rung of the league table.

Manager Jim Weir was delighted by his players commitment in those two fixtures but he knows it will be no easy task to pick up three points this time round against Darren Young’s team who have shown impressive form on many an occasion this term.

The home management team are unlikely to make many changes to last week’s formation, though there could well be a starting berth for Scott Lochhead signed on an emergency transfer from Dunfermline Athletic on the eve of the Rovers match and subsequently utilised at Coatbridge as an impressive second half substitute.

Injuries will again dictate to a certain extent for the Athies with Simon Mensing, Jim Lister, Mark Millar and Marc Scott out of the reckoning.

The Fifers head over the Tay sitting in fourth place in the league table.   They have lost their last two away matches to two teams sitting above them in the league at present namely Alloa and Raith, while two weeks back they netted three second half goals to defeat Arbroath at New Bayview.

They will head into Saturday’s game without the services of Kyle Wilkie who serves the second game of a two match ban,

Earlier in the campaign the Methil outfit triumphed 3-0 over the Athies on their own new 3G surface just days after the visitors parted company with Gary Bollan.    Chris Duggan who had a spell on loan at Station Park form Partick a few years back was the scorer of an early counter, Mark Docherty one of twelve newcomers in his club’s ranks this term netting a brace of penalties to seal the points on a day when Forfar scorned a handful of first half scoring opportunities.

East Fife usually bring a reasonable travelling support with them to Forfar, so hopefully local fans encouraged by recent events will turn out in numbers to give their backing to Michael Travis and his colleagues.

The match will be refereed by long serving Premiership official Alan Muir who handled his first ‘Loons’ fixture for some time at Hampden only four weeks back.

South Wales based ‘Loons’ supporters Simon and Andrea Harvey are the match sponsors, their guests due to join in Simon’s 50th birthday celebrations.

All four lounges within the Hospitality Complex are also full to overflowing with a party also accommodated in the 1984 Lounge to boot.

The Club Shop will be open before the game, at half-time and after the final whistle taking bookings for a potential coach for the Formartine tie, as well as displaying  variety of potential gifts as Christmas approaches.    David Potter will also be on hand from 2.20p.m. to autograph copies of his recent book Forfar Athletic - On this Day.

Finally as usual a reminder that the bar in the 1984 Lounge will be open from 12.30p.m. till kick-off and again on the final whistle till approximately 8p.m.