No panic in Bollan decision says Loons’ Stewart

FORFAR chairman Ken Stewart has revealed the decision to part company with manager Gary Bollan was not a knee-jerk reaction to Saturday’s derby defeat by Arbroath.

It was just the latest in a long line of disappointing results this season — Forfar have only won once so far after 11 competitive games and have lost their last six matches in a row, a miserable run that has seen them plummet to the foot of League One.

All of which simply compounded the unease felt at the end of the last campaign after the Loons blew their chances of winning League Two, only going up through the play-offs.

Stewart admitted that while the decision to let Bollan go was a difficult one to take, the directors felt they had to act.

The chairman said: “The tail end of last season was pretty iffy.

“We had a wonderful spike in the play-offs but we had thrown away the championship.

“We went again with Gary at the start of this season with a new team effectively but results have been poor.

“We have only had one win so it has been disappointing for a while.

“I have been speaking with Gary off and on so it has not been a panic reaction but Saturday past really put the tin lid on things. We just didn’t see a way forward.

“I like Gary as a person. One to one I got on really well with him.

“He gets a lot of stick from the fans for not showing emotion which is unfortunate. The guy is full of emotion but he just doesn’t show it on the touchline.

“Results speak for themselves and if we can’t get them then the board has a responsibility to do something about it and we believe now is the right time.”

Patrick N’Koyi could return.