FORFAR ATHLETIC answered all of the questions asked of them on the final day of the regular season by reaching League One with some room to spare.
The Forfar players came under close scrutiny when they were pipped for the League Two title by Arbroath on the final day, after losing at home to Annan.
But they have bounced back in style and their 5-1 win at Peterhead on Saturday gave them a 7-2 aggregate win and relegated their opponents to the bottom division for the first time in six years. Lewis Milne, David Cox, Danny Denholm, Aiden Malone and Josh Peters were all on target after Forfar struck twice in the opening 20 minutes.
The future of Jim McInally, the Peterhead manager, is now up for debate after he branded it “a horrific way to end a horrific season.”
He admitted: “I carry the can for that as we have defended like that all season and I haven’t been able to change it.”
Midfielder Scott Brown, who scored a late consolation for Peterhead before Peters completed the scoring, conceded that there will be an overhaul of the playing squad this summer.
“We’ve just been beaten 5-1 and been relegated so there are a lot of emotions in the dressing-room,” he stated. “We need to pick ourselves up over the summer and we owe it to the fans to get back up again. I want the boss to stay on.
“I love working under him but we have been relegated so it will be his decision and the board. The gaffer put together the squad and we haven’t been good enough. I am one of the players signed up for next season along with Rory [McAllister] and Simon [Ferry] and we need to come back and give it a real go. We owe it to the fans.”
But Forfar, who led League Two for much of the season and were not going to be denied at the final hurdle.
“It was convincing in the end but we knew it was going to be tough but we were up for it from minute one,” said manager Gary Bollan. “It helped scoring early and put pressure on Peterhead. We looked a real threat throughout the game and cut them open and deserved to win but I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be so convincing.
“It’s a moment that I will savour as we should have won promotion automatically weeks ago. The players were determined that disappointment wouldn’t get the better of them and that showed.”
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