Forfar Athletic’s home defeat to Cowdenbeath proved to be the final straw for the Station Park board and the last match in charge for manager Dick Campbell.
Despite topping the table earlier this season and Campbell picking up the manager of the month award for August, chairman Alistair Donald and his board clearly felt a change was required as Forfar have hit a horrendous run of form that has seen them slide down the League One table to third bottom.
Their loss to one of Campbell’s former clubs saw Cowdenbeath leapfrog the Loons and close the final chapter on Campbell’s seven-and-half year career at Station Park.
Speaking prior to his sacking, the manager knew full well the difficult position he and his brother, assistant manager Ian, found themselves in.
“We played three up front and had a right go for it today,” said Campbell.
“We had five players under-20 today so no one can complain to me about not playing the young boys. I think for long spells in the first half we played quite well.
“But we don’t look like we are going to score, which is annoying. I am really disappointed we were playing at home and didn’t really test their goalie.”
Given the way things panned out late Saturday evening, it was ironic that Forfar actually played some good stuff.
There was an early chance for the Loons when Cowden keeper Jamie Sneddon fumbled an Iain Campbell shot but he recovered well to smother the ball at the feet of Kerr Hay.
They enjoyed the lion’s share of possession and had a great chance on the half-hour mark when they broke upfield three on two but Andrew Black played a wasteful ball straight to the keeper.
Cowdenbeath immediately broke upfield and Greig Spence drilled a wonderful shot into the far side of the net from a couple of yards inside the box.
Spence had a chance to double the tally minutes later but Douglas made a great stop to deny the striker.
Right on half-time, Sneddon made a brilliant diving save to turn away a piledriver from Danny Denholm.
Both keepers were on top form and five minutes into the second half Douglas made another fantastic block to deny Spence again.
Forfar continued to have all the possession but rarely looked threatening enough to find the equaliser.
Cowden boss Colin Nish said: “I think it was a tight game, but we created the more clear-cut chances.
“Forfar had a lot of possession but didn’t do anything with it and we have someone in Greg who scores a lot of goals. The incentive today was to get above Forfar but we are just taking it week by week, trying to improve everything and climb the league table.”