Forfar Athletic 1-1 Montrose

⚽️Dolzanski 80’

Playing football in June is surely a great advert for summer football and, this Saturday, a decent crowd at the Alpha Projects Stadium @ Station Park saw Forfar held to a 1-1 draw against local rivals, Montrose, on a very pleasant and breezy early afternoon. Montrose fans would have headed home the happier of the two sets of fans, as the home team had had the lion’s share of the chances against a team a league above them and the away team’s only goal of the game coming from a rebounded own goal. Forfar’s line-up looked a bit more like one that fans should expect to see when the season starts in earnest in a matter of weeks, than the one that faced Luncarty last weekend, although the Loons’ bench was bristling with trialists keen to impress on what was a generally well fought and entertaining 90 minutes.

The game started with the wind favouring the home team and it only took until the 2nd minute for Forfar new boy, Martin Rennie, to have a pop on target. The game would then swing from end to end as both teams tried to get to grips with the gusty breeze and in the 12th minute, Forfar’s Mackenzie Lemon seemed to take a boot to the face after chasing a loose ball at the edge of the home team’s box. A minute later, Rennie was involved again; his great touch breaking to Craig Slater, whose shot was eventually smothered by Montrose stand-in keeper, Campbell Millar.

The next 15 minutes belonged to Forfar. Firstly, Kieran Inglis latched onto a long ball which appeared to have been caught up in the wind, his shot too close to the Montrose number 1, then Rennie had a long shot crack off the post with the keeper beaten and then Ross MacLean started to show his class, as he had three good attempts, keeping Millar busy in the Montrose goal. Forfar’s impressive passing and movement continued, leading to a series of corners, with the hard-working Scott Shepherd having a shot just over the bar and the dangerous Inglis having a clean shot fly just past Montrose's right-hand post. In the 42nd minute, Montrose's Kieran Freeman was booked for persistent fouling. The half petered out, as Craig Slater had a 30-yard shot go just over the bar with the keeper beaten.

The second half started better for Montrose, now with the wind at their tails. Firstly, Ewan Lowdon burst into the Forfar box, the ball seemingly blown to his feet, but his shot was smartly saved by the Forfar number 1 and then Montrose's Andrew Steeves saw a glimpse of goal, but the shot was weak and straight at keeper Marc McCallum.

As is the norm in these games, there then followed a series of substitutions, Inglis, Richardson, Shepherd, Rennie and Slater making way for Brad Rodden, Angus Mailer and three trialists. Montrose would reciprocate by making 5 substitutions of their own: Wighton, Waddell, Williamson, Masson and Freeman making way for Webster, Shrive, Machado, Brown and Bertie. Ten minutes later we saw the home team make two more changes, as stalwart Matty Allan and another trialist came in for Ross MacLean and Mackenzie Lemon.

In the 63rd minute, and as Montrose continued to press, Craig Brown saw a good shot just over and then, 5 minutes later, Montrose took the lead after Alistair Shrive’s shot was wickedly deflected into the net by the big Forfar keeper after also hitting the post, the desperately unlucky Marc McCallum left cursing a bit of real luck for the away team and unfortunately chalking up an own goal to his name.

In 75 minutes saw another raft of subs for Montrose, as Lyons, Lowden, Quinn, Clark and Shrives made way for Emslie, Bradford, Craig, Balfour and Donaldson. Two minutes later, Forfar got what most fans must believe was just rewards for their play over the whole game. A free kick on the right-hand side, looped in by sub, Nathan Cannon, evaded the whole Montrose defence as Jake Dolanski met the ball sweetly, coolly volleying it past Millar in the away team’s goal.

The last 15 minutes saw Forfar press and then Montrose broke, with the move ending as Harry Brooke’s long-range effort seemed to fly over the bar, sailing into Gammie’s car park at the east end of the ground. Montrose thought that they had the winner in the 88th minute as Brown knocked the ball into the net, although everyone in the ground had seen the flag go up as the whole move progressed. Brown again had another chance a minute later, only a brave challenge by Forfar’s Matty Allan blocking what would have been a very good chance in on goal.

Any neutral watching this game would not on the day have been able to differentiate between which was the League 1 team. Forfar looked really bright and motivated, Jim Weir blending new faces in with many of the existing squad. Like Forfar, Montrose did have a few first team regulars missing, but this would also have allowed Stewart Petrie to have a good look at his players – especially Loudon, Clark, Freeman and Wighton, whilst Jim Weir would have had a chance to run the rule over Forfar newbies: Lewis Martin, Jake Dolzanski, Martin Rennie, Angus Mailer, Jamie Richardson and Scott Shepherd (not such a newbie perhaps?).

As advised yesterday, the planned fixture with Jeanfield Swifts has been cancelled and the Loons will instead next look ahead to the visit of St Johnstone on Saturday.

Match report by Alex Colquhoun