Forfar v Airdrie United
SFL Division 2
Saturday 25th September
Today I've been dropped off at my dad's house for a 12 noon set off time on the journey to Forfar. Thanks must go to Emma for making a short detour off her adventure weekend to deliver me on time. She's off up to Loch Tay for a weekend of hill walking and kayaking - I'll take my excitement in the form of 90 minutes of football thank you.
Today we've got complimentary tickets via a Ford colleague my sister, Isla, knows. Duncan Ferguson . I've been forewarned that that we'll be going into his showroom so I should dress smartly. I'm shocked therefore to find my old man's wearing a rugby style polo shirt.
Driving north, we see a lot of people standing on the bridges crossing the motorway but we've no idea why. Just short of the Dollar junction we see three Police motorbikes in the other lane and think it must be a V.I.P being escorted to an engagement but turns out it's a convoy of motorbikes of all shapes and sizes.They are three abreast on the road and at their cruising speed stretch out for about 2 miles. I've never seen anything like it.
We pull into Glenfords garage on the outskirts of Forfar about 1.30pm and introduce ourselves to Mr Ferguson. He kindly offers to make us a cuppa and whilst he nips out the back we admire the huge painting of a Volkswagen Beetle on the wall - seems strange for a Ford garage.
Anyway Duncan returns with the hottest cup of tea ever, takes me a while to muster the courage to take a drink. It seems Duncan is the man to know as he's very kindly offered to get us tickets for all the games within the Angus region. That's Montrose, Brechin and Arbroath taken care of then.
We make our good-byes and drive around to park near the ground and have a quick bite to eat before walking round to the park. It's market day in Forfar and you can hear the auctioneer even as you walk into the ground.
Duncan has advised us that if we sit in the stand we should make sure we sit in the front row, as any further back and your line of vision is hampered and you won't see the nearside touchline. After we've found our optimal viewing position I dive down to the local club shop and pick up a pin badge for my dad before buying us both a pre-match pie. Forfar is famed for it's Bridie but we decide to try the traditional pie first and save the bridie till half time.
It's a high scoring effort at Forfar, my dad awards this an eight out of ten as it's 'not too greasy or salty, the crust is crunchy and the temperature just right'. An eight out of ten means it draws level with the Aberdeen pie at the top of the table. We finish just as the home team run out to the theme song from the movie Local Hero.
Looking at the programme you can see that the Forfar are three points clear of their opponents today and also that Airdrie's side is made up of a lot of young loan signings and players under twenty years old. I wonder how they'll get on today.
It's Airdrie who are first into the attack as Tony Watt, who's only sixteen years old, skips past three defenders and only a great dive and strong right hand by the Forfar keeper, Gallacher keeps it out. Airdrie's McCulloch is the first name into the referee's book when he gets a deserved yellow for flying through a Forfar midfielder.
It's a promising opening spell and although we've not yet had any songs, there's a fair bit of banter between the fans. Here at Forfar there doesn't seem to be a specific home / away end as fans are all mingling in together. Even so the only voice we can here is that of Airdrie manager, Boyle, as he screams instructions at his players, he did this all game and must surely be necking throat syrup now as a rescue remedy.
Airdrie are on top and Scott Gemmill skips past a challenge on the wing and crosses, McCord's shot is cleared off the line. It is then totally against the run of play when Forfar take the lead. A hopeful cross is turned behind for a corner and it's from this that Bolochoweckyj heads home. From where we were sitting it looked like the Airdrie keeper had been blocked, but there weren't any complaints from the away side and the goal was given.
Airdrie's young side still played some lovely football and Watt especially looks like he has a fantastic future ahead of him. He's come up through their youth system so hopefully he'll make some decent money for them in a few years time. Gemmill went close to the equaliser with a volley that just cleared the crossbar on the half hour and moments later good work by Airdrie presented them with a great chance. A desperate saving challenge by Bishop snuffed out the danger.
The two blokes beside us are tuned into the football news on their radio and we hear murmurings that City are one up versus Chelsea and my dad passes on this nugget he heard from the older of the two gents - 'You know, between them Man City and Chelsea have spent about £500 million on players and yet we managed to rebuild our stadium for only £50,000'. I should've asked him what they would of done with the other £499,950,000.
Half time comes and it's a quick nip down to the pie stand for the famous Forfar Bridie for us. Unbelievably in the home of the Forfar Bridie and with the Bakers shop only 200 yards from the ground they've run out of both pies and bridies. Apparently the baker didn't deliver enough, with the news of this bombshell my dad decides to deduct 0.5 from the previous score awarded. We don't win the half time jackpot draw and £176 makes it's way into a lucky supporters pocket. We are also asked to 'help oot a young laddie in the ground who's only gone and lost his bus pass'.
The second half begins and it's Airdrie who continue in the same vein as the first, nice crisp passing, first into the challenges and creating the chances. The first of the chances falls to Airdrie and it's Bishop again who makes a brilliant stop. This time he's injured himself and he has to be substituted for his bravery.
A rare bit of good work by the giant Forfar striker Templeman and his turn and shot goes narrowly wide of the post. It's straight back up the other end of the park and Gemmill fires a volley straight at the keeper. There's more goals in this game to come. Sure enough, twenty minutes into the second half and good work down the line and McCord has time to control it before smashing home from close range. The impressive Watt had another chance to score when again one on one with the keeper found Gallacher in great form diving to his right to push it wide. Devlin went close too with a deflected shot just going the wrong side of the bar.
McCord then played it through to Johnston with a delicious ball between the defenders and although it initially looked as though he'd mis-controlled the pass, Johnston smashed it into the bottom corner. This was truly deserved as there has only been one team in the second half.
With fifteen minutes left Forfar were thrown a lifeline when Airdrie's Grant was sent off for a second yellow card offence. Maybe this would spur Forfar on, and their manager was soon screaming instructions from the bench. Airdrie too were frantically trying to reorganise their back four.
Time ticked away however and the final flurry of activity revolved round an apparent clash of heads. This Forfar fan beside me was screaming that the Airdrie player was play acting, I merely pointed out that it looked a lot more than just play acting and that maybe the Forfar player had led with his head. This was ignored as more abuse poured from the bloke beside me and it took the intervention of a ten year old Forfar fan in front of us who turned to his fellow Forfar fan and announced 'have you not seen the blood pouring from his head, that looks like a wee bit more than play acting to me' to shut him up.
The game finished two one to Airdrie United and I don't think there could have been too many in the ground who felt that it wasn't deserved. Airdrie move level on points with Forfar and I look forward to watching them again this season, and to be honest there hasn't been too many games I've come away from thinking that.
The Statistics
Ticket: Free. Normal prices would have been £11 for me and £5 for him
Programme: £1.50
Attendance:
Pie: £1.00
Pie Marks: Initially a 8/10 but with 0.5 deducted for shocking supply failures 7.5/10 final score.
Man of the Match: Dad - Ryan McCord Me - Ryan McCord (Airdrie United)
Final Score: Forfar 1 v Airdrie United 2
Mileage: 152 miles
Fascinating Fact of the Day: Although called Station Park, the nearest railway station is in fact 14 miles from the ground.
Next Game: Links Park (Montrose)
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