Football Season Guide

Forfar Athletic will be hoping to bounce back at the first attempt after finishing bottom of the League One table last season. The Loons had enjoyed a positive 2014/15 campaign, coming agonisingly close to winning promotion to the Championship after letting slip a 3-1 first leg lead to lose 3-0 in the second leg of the play-off final to Alloa Athletic. Last season was a different story however and there were warning signs during the summer with a number of influential players leaving the club. Nevertheless the side made an encouraging start to the season with three successive victories. It started to go wrong however and injuries soon started to catch up with an aging squad and manager Dick Campbell was sacked less than fortnight before Christmas after seven years in charge at Station Road. Former Airdrie boss Gary Bollan was appointed as his successor but failed to turn their fortunes around and won just four of his 18 league games in charge with the team finished bottom of the pile. Several signings failed to live up to their expectations including goalkeeper Darren Hill, defender Derek Young and midfielders Danny Denholm and Scott Martin. Defender Thomas O’Brien joined from Cowdenbeath and was their stand-out performer. Bollan will be pleased to have retained his services for the new season but will be disappointed to have lost striker Andy Ryan, who has left to sign for Airdrie. He has returned to his former club to sign midfielder Jamie Bain and strikers David Cox and Jim Lister. He has also pulled off something of a coup to bring goalkeeper Grant Adam from Cowdenbeath whilst young striker Josh Peters has joined from Hibernian. Having been so close to reaching the Championship so recently, expectations of a quick return to League One will be high and they should have enough to reach the play-offs.