Bonnyrigg Rose 2 Forfar Athletic 0

Saturday 30 July 2022

New Dundas Park, Bonnyrigg 

SPFL cinch League 2

Over the course of a long season, there are days and matches where little if anything goes right for a team. This was one of those for Forfar Athletic. In what was an almost relentless uphill battle on the eccentrically sloped New Dundas Park pitch, the Loons went down 2-0 to league newcomers, Bonnyrigg Rose. Second-half goals from Kevin Smith and Scott Gray proved to the be the visitors undoing.

  “It was obviously a disappointing 90-minutes for us,” said assistant manager, Gary Harkins. “We knew what we were going to get coming down here. It was their first game in the senior league, so it was always going to be a fight and a battle. But yes, it was disappointing how we went about things. We never created enough chances to win the game. In the first half there were only a couple of balls into their box that caused any problems. The boys know we need to do more than that. 

  “There was a lack of penetration up front,” continued Harkins. “That was perhaps the most disappointing aspect. We’ve got really good players in that area of the pitch. They have the ability to go out there and do what they do well. It’s hard to see why it never happened today. But it gives us plenty to work on during the coming week. What is said in the dressing room will stay there. But I think everyone could see how the game went today and what we need to do differently. We know what we need to do; we just have to go and do it.”

  To Harkins’ credit, he offered up no alibis for the flatness of the side’s overall performance, one that was in contrast to up-and-down nature of the playing surface.  

   “The pitch is no excuse,” he insisted. “It was the same for both teams. We can’t come away saying it was bad for us. It’s the same for every player. We had 11 guys out there just as they did. They looked as if they knew what they were doing as a team. They know how to win games. You can see that in them. And that’s why they have come up from the Lowland League. But, again, we knew exactly what they were going to be like. The boys knew that too. And we should have dealt with it all better than we did.”

  Unusually for such a consistent performer, the opening goal was the result of an uncharacteristic mistake by the normally reliable Marc McCallum. Following a corner, the big goalkeeper allowed the ball to slip from his grasp, through his legs and into the net.

  “You can never legislate for an error like that,” was Harkins’ verdict. “But what you have to remember is the ridiculous number of points Marc saves us over the course of a season. It was unfortunate. When a goalkeeper makes a mistake it usually means a goal. That is only rarely the case for every other player. But when it’s the goalie it gets highlighted.”

  As for a couple of the absentees from the Forfar line-up, the hope is that both James Keatings and Darren Whyte will soon return to active duty. 

  “Both James and Darren are day-to-day at the moment,” said Herkins. “Both are dying to play and we’ll be happy to have them back fit. They are back running, so it shouldn’t be too long. Onward and upward.”  

Bonnyrigg Rose

1 Weir

4 Young

6 Horne

3 Martyniuk

2 Brett 🟨 53'

11Gray ⚽️ 86' 🟨 40'

8 Stewart

22 Connolly

19 Gray

20 Smith ⚽️ 58' 🔄 Turner 77'

14 Hunter 🔄 Hall 52'

Substitutes

5 Wilson

7 Turner

12 Hall

15 Grigor

17 Doan

18 Khan

25 Andrews

Forfar Athletic 

1 McCallum

22 Abed

2 Nditi

19 Munro

3 Brindley

8 Jack

6 Hutton

10 Slater

12 Moore 🔄 Hanratty 64'

17 Armour 🔄 Aitken 64'

11 McCluskey

Substitutes

9 Aitken

15 Hussain

20 Harkins

21 Sanderson

23 Irvine

24 Hanratty

33 Flanagan

Referee: Alan Newlands

Attendance: 1,098