A 'Hat-trick' of Hat-tricks for Stefan ⚽️⚽️⚽️

Stefan McCluskey's hat-trick on Saturday against Annan Athletic was a notable achievement for both the player and the Club. 

For Stefan, it secured a ‘hat-trick’ of hat-tricks in his career. His other two came while playing for Morton in 2015 and 2016. To top off a great day for Stefan his goals propelled him to the top of the Loons’ goalscoring table for the season. 

With a tally of twelve, Stefan is now one ahead of Matty Aitken, and one behind his own season goal scoring record of thirteen in season 2013/14 while at Clyde. 

There was a lot of chatter around Station Park on Saturday about the last Forfar Athletic hat-trick with many believing Dale Hilson had scored one, but no one could pinpoint the match! The Club’s records have been dusted down and Club Historian Barry Stevens consulted, and we can confirm that amazingly Stefan's hat-trick was the first for the Club in almost a decade! 

Ross Campbell scored the previous hat-trick way back in September 2012 against Albion Rovers in a 4-2 home victory. Ross is of course still playing for our near neighbours Montrose where he is also Assistant Manager. Prior to 2012 hat-tricks were more plentiful with Chris Templeman achieving one in the 2010/11 season against East Fife (3-2 home win). Before that, in season 2009/10 Barry Sellars and Ross Campbell both bagged three goals against East Stirlingshire in 4-1 and 5-1 home wins respectively. 

An even longer held record is four goals in a game. You have to go back forty years to find a Forfar Athletic player achieving that feat when Billy Gallacher scored a 'haul' in a 5-1 victory at home to East Stirlingshire in the 1982/83 campaign. 

In fact, looking at the hat-trick list on the wonderfully detailed Forfar Fitba Stats site at https://www.fitbastats.com/forfar/player_hattricks.php this nine and a half year gap is the longest between hat-tricks for a Station Park player even including the second world war years. Quite remarkable. 

Well done to Stefan on this achievement and we are sure he will be working hard to make sure the gap to the next hat-trick is not quite as long!