Forfar Athletic 0 Hibernian 1

Betfred Cup, Group B Match
Tuesday 13 October 2020, Station Park, Forfar

David Gray, 87 mins

Only very occasionally does a losing manager have little or nothing negative to say about his team’s performance. But this Betfred Cup tie was one of those times. At the end of a game in which Forfar matched up well against Premiership opponents, it took an 87th-minute header from skipper David Gray - repeating his heroics from the 2016 Scottish Cup final - to give Hibs a narrow 1-0 win at Station Park.

“There were some huge positives for us out there tonight,” said Forfar boss Stuart Malcolm. “We knew the way Hibs were going to play and we dealt with it well. Even with our two centre-halves missing, I thought we coped with their forwards very well. Christian Doidge is an excellent centre forward - he holds the ball up so well - but our lads kept him very quiet.

“In terms of the positives, there were so many. It took an unbelievable delivery to beat us right at the death. Could we defend it better? Yes. But overall the difference in the league positions wasn’t really obvious. The boys are feeling a wee bit hard done by. But our bread-and-butter comes on Saturday against Dumbarton. If we produce that sort of performance and the same level of commitment we’ll be in for a good season in the league.”

Still, amidst that justifiable level of positivity, there was disappointment for the Loons when Darren Whyte suffered what looked like a potentially serious injury after 34-minutes. The big centre-half fell badly after rising for a header and was clearly in some pain before being stretched off.

“We don’t yet know what the position is with Darren,” said Malcolm. “It’s never great when someone is carried off. But we’ll have to wait and see. He landed awkwardly but I’m guessing as to exactly what the problem is. We’ll know more after the medical team get a look at him.”

As ever when injury calls, the manager was forced into changes. Substitute Archie Thomas went into the middle of the park. Murray Mackintosh switched to right-back. And Ross Meechan moved across from left-back to left centre-back. “He was a real leader tonight,” felt Malcolm.

All of which did little to alter the tempo of the match, with Forfar competing well against an admittedly unfamiliar Hibs line-up. While the home side can legitimately point to a number of absentees, the visitors were missing as many as 11 players through injury and international call-ups. None of which should detract from the level of effort and no little quality displayed by Forfar.

“Tonight was all about the performance for us,” said Malcolm. “We needed that after missing the game against Dundee. And there were spells against Brechin before that when we did well. But I got the attitude I wanted to see tonight. The quality we have was there for everyone to see.

“Our togetherness was particularly pleasing. When the chips were down and Darren had to go off, I had to ask lads to fill in and play in different areas. Bobby Barr and Gary Irvine did great jobs in unfamiliar positions. BJ Coll came on too and played wide on the left, which is not natural for him. But he did well. There was a real all-round desire to play for the team.”

Perhaps the most satisfying aspect for the manager, however, was the promise shown by the new faces he and his coaching staff have recently introduced.

“I found out a lot of things tonight,” continued Malcolm. “I thought my players were absolutely magnificent. Every one of them. There wasn’t one I could fault tonight. We’re a young side. And we were missing players tonight. But none of it surprised me. We know what these lads can do. We know their qualities. But they’ve set a standard now that I will expect every week. I want to see that same desire, the same effort and the same commitment. Throw in a bit of quality and we’ll do okay. To compete the way we did, after the week we had last week, was very pleasing.”