Forfar Athletic boss Gary Irvine hope to spoilt Kelty Heart’s title celebrations this weekend as the Loons continue their push for second place.
The Central Park side were crowned league winners on March 26, gaining promotion to League One at the first time of asking.
After Saturday’s game with the Loons, the Fifers will be presented with the league trophy.
Kelty will be raring to go
Despite the league already being won for the Hearts, Irvine knows his side will not be in for an easy ride on Saturday and does not expect the hosts to be in holiday mode.
The Loons’ gaffer reckons their 1-0 victory over Kevin Thomson’s side in February will be a driving factor as they look to settle the score.
“I know Thommo, he’s an ex-teammate and there’s no chance he’ll have that mindset,” Irvine told Courier Sport.
“Knowing his squad as well, they’ll come into the game aware they got beat against us at Station Park, those kinds of things motivate players.
“My players are fully aware that will be the case as well. We’re just going into the game fully prepared for the best Kelty side.”
Decent form
Kelty also go into the game unbeaten at home this campaign and will look to make themselves invincible on their patch with a final Central Park game this weekend.
But Irvine does have some reason for optimism too. His side go into the clash as the in-form team in the division with 11 points from six games.
He is hoping for that to continue as they look to overtake Annan for second spot.
SPFL League 2
Form Guide
Points Last SixForfar Athletic 11
Kelty Hearts 10
Stranraer 9
Annan Athletic 9
Stenhousemuir 8
Elgin City 8
Albion Rovers 8
Cowdenbeath 7
Edinburgh City 6
Stirling Albion 5— Pie & Bovril 🏴🇺🇦 (@pieandbov) April 17, 2022
“I want to finish as strong as possible with the remaining league games,” he said.
“Getting the play-offs secured a few weeks ago was good and we got a high from it, but we were quickly brought back down to earth with a shock result at Edinburgh.
“Our form has been decent, the last six games show that.
“It could have been even better had the Edinburgh City game went in the other direction. We’ve taken the positive that we’re still up there, even with that blip.
“We’ll look to keep that going into our last two games.”
Team news
Forfar go into the clash with no fresh injury concerns and Irvine provided some positive news on Andy Munro’s recovery from a knee injury.
“We are OK injury-wise,” he said. “We’ve been quite lucky from last weekend that we’ve not managed to add to the injury list. It will be a similar squad.
“Andy Munro is progressing really well with his rehab. This weekend might be too early for him but there’s is a question mark over him at least.”
