FORFAR ATHLETIC 0 SHIRE 2

Shire got their season back on track with a vital victory at Station Park. Late goals from Sean Simpson and substitute Stephen Oates gave the Firs Parkers their first win at Forfar since 1994 but, more importantly, it ended a run of five straight Third Division defeats.

Despite dominating large portions of the match the visitors looked as though the scoring touch would elude them until substitute Derek Ure played the ball through for Simpson to beat the Forfar offside trap to score with a clever lob over Loons’ keeper Sandy Wood with five minutes to go.

Better was to follow on 88 minutes when Oates headed home a Craig Donaldson left wing cross. The victory lifts Shire back above Elgin City into fifth place in the league table and widens the gap with bottom side Forfar to ten points.

Before the game Carl Thywissen was forced to take a late fitness test to prove he was able to shake off  the effects of a thigh strain. Boss Gordon Wylde pulled a couple of surprises in team selection; handing young Ryan Carr his first league start and dropping David King and Derek Ure to the bench. Sean Simpson partnered Savage in a straight 4-4-2.

The match started in glorious sunshine and it was home team who made the brighter start. A looping header for Paul Lunan after just four minutes dropped just over Darren Hill’s bar and served as an early indication that Forfar fancied their chances of a first win since August.

But the vistors, with Craig Donaldson central to everything they did, slowly gained  the upper hand. Gordon Moffat headed narrowly over from  a Kevin McBride corner kick and then McBride tried a half volley which went just over the bar. Savage broke clear on 15 minutes and squared the ball to Paul Brownlie but he shanked his effort wide of the target.

The threat from the home team could not be ignored, though, and Lunan tested Hill on 26 minutes with  a 20 yarder which the Shire keeper did well to hold. Two minutes later Loons’ veteran Steve Kerrigan tried a curling effort from the back edge of the penalty area which clipped the top of the crossbar on its way over. That was the best chance of the game to that point.

Shire ended the half on the front foot and the increasingly influential Donaldson fired in a spectacular effort from 30 yards out that flew over the bar.

The visitors started the second half in positive fashion and within two minutes of the re-start should have been a goal up. Sean Simpson raced clear and tried to lob the keeper but Wood pulled of a great save. On the 50 minute mark Shire had a decent claim for a penalty turned down when Savage appeared to be pulled down but the referee waved away the appeals.

Shire kept plugging away in a bid to beat the Forfar offside trap but found it difficult to time the runs. Every Shire attack, for a while, seemed to end with a linesman’s flag.

And while they were frustrated by Forfar’s tactics there remained the possibility the visitors would be caught with a sucker punch. And it almost happened when a slip by Scott Gibb let in Sean Grady but the forward passed the buck to one of his teammates and the chance was gone.

Shire breathed  a sigh of relief and then struck  the decisive blow. With 85 minutes on rhe clock, Ure played the ball hopefully in the direction of Simpson. This time the front man stayed onside and worked himself free of his marker. One-on-one with the keeper for the second time in the match Sean made no mistake, lobbing Wood effortlessly to start the celebrations.

Stephen Oates replaced Gordon Moffat with four minutes to go and, just two minutes later he was on hard to beat the keeper to a high ball into the box to head in the second goals.

It could have been more by the end. Savage was denied a goal in injury time when his shot was hacked off the line by a Loons’ defender.

Forfar Athletic : Wood, McNallly(Tulloch 80), Smith, Rattray(Allison 52), Ovenstone, Fotheringham, Lunan, Kerrigan, Mackie(McCallum 68), Grady, Kilgannon.

Shire : Hill, Gibb, Doyle, Carr, Thywissen, Moffat(Oates 86), Donaldson, Brownlie(Ure 50), Savage, Simpson, K. McBride.

Referee : C. MacKay.

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