The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Bollan hopes Loons have learned important lessons
Forfar manager Gary Bollan is hoping that a week’s break has allowed important lessons to sink in for his players.
The Loons head to Alloa this afternoon, with the Station Park boss wanting to see a big improvement from the 2-0 defeat to Albion Rovers last time out.
He said: “I hope that we have learned from some painful lessons in that game.
“We had two clear cut chances to take the lead before they scored and failed to take them. We also failed to keep a clean sheet and when you have that combination you are not going to win games.”
Bollan is looking for the different parts of his team to help each other better.
He explained: “I have challenged the forwards to take the pressure off the defence by scoring and for the defenders to take the pressure off the forwards by not conceding goals.
“At the moment pressure is being put on because we are not ruthless enough at both ends of the park.
“We had a bounce game at Kelty Hearts last Friday to keep things ticking over and we won that 4-1 so confidence is not an issue. That got some more game time into Josh Peters and that will hopefully help us up top.”
He added: “Being able to get an advantage in a game by either scoring first or by keeping the back door locked are the challenges that we face and I know that the players are up for that challenge.
“I watched Alloa last weekend at Dundee United and they performed well. They more than matched them for long periods so this will be a tough game.”
Grant Adam, Connor Quigley and Matthew Aitken are all out.
The Wasps, who lost the Championship play-off final to Brechin City last season, have endured a mixed start to this campaign – but boss Jim Goodwin was happy with his side’s performance in the Irn-Bru Cup loss at Tannadice last week and will call for the same again from his players.
The meeting will be Forfar’s first to the Indodrill Stadium since losing 3-0 in the second leg of the Championship play-off final in May 2015.