Forfar boss Dick Campbell had hoped for some ”romance of the cup” to help his side overcome Aberdeen on Saturday. Instead, the Dons playing hard to get at and his team ended up heartbroken.
The Loons did have an early flirtation with causing the sort of upset that has haunted the Pittodrie men in recent seasons with the catastrophic League Cup exit at the hands of another Second Division side East Fife in September still raw in their memories when first Greg Ross had a chance swiftly followed by an even better opportunity for Chris Templeman.
Neither was taken though and, seven minutes later, the Forfar defence was posted missing in action as they allowed Kari Arnason’s wind-assisted throw-in to bounce in their penalty area and go all the way through to a grateful Scott Vernon, who hooked the ball past goalie Greg Paterson.
Forfar were masters of their own downfall again five minutes before the break when skipper Mark McCulloch had his pocket pinched on halfway by Mohamed Chalali and the young Algerian raced through on goal to double the Dons’ advantage.
The two-goal cushion allowed Aberdeen to relax and express themselves more in the second half and they doubled their tally courtesy of a Rory Fallon diving header and substitute Mitch Megginson’s cool finish after he rounded Paterson.
Forfar’s Ross revealed that, while it may have looked like he had fired his early chance wide, it was in fact last-ditch defending that saved the Dons. While ruing that missed opportunity, he lamented that the Loons’ game plan was blown out of the water by costly errors.
He said: ”We hit them on the counter-attack with Dale (Hilson) up the line and he cut it back to me. I thought I had a chance to score but their player blocked it and it spun out but the ref just gave a bye-kick.
”We had another one shortly after with big Chris Templeman, so if we could have taken one of those chances it might have been a different game. But it wasn’t to be.
”We knew it was always going to be difficult but we are disappointed as we felt that if we could keep it to 0-0 in the first half with the way the wind was, we might have had a chance.
”But we shot ourselves in the foot really with individual mistakes for all four of the goals.”
Ross began his career with Dunfermline but was released by the Pars in 2010 before moving to Iceland to play for Valur. His spell there ended badly and, while he is grateful to Forfar for signing him, he admitted he is still hoping for a return to full-time football but not before helping the Loons move out of bottom spot in the Division Two table and into play-off contention.
He said: ”Forfar have been good to me since I came back from Iceland. Playing there was a great experience but I was set to sign a new two-year deal with the club when the manager there was sacked.
”I was just unlucky but everything changed then and I had to come home.
”I was happy to go part-time but you have to get a job to make ends meet. At the moment, I am labouring for a scaffolder. I think everybody here, myself included, would leap at the chance of a move to a full-time club.
”However, I signed for Forfar because I thought we could win promotion to the First Division. I feel we are in a false position. Last season we were up pushing for the play-offs and that’s where we want to be again.”