Loons take heart from away performances

Forfar have been able to hold their own against the League One promotion hopefuls in Jim Weir’s time at the Station Park club.

There was a coupon-shredding victory against Ayr United and narrow defeats to Arbroath and Raith Rovers.

Alloa are the last team in the play-off places and Weir believes there is good reason to expect his team to be competitive on the road once more.

“Our attitude has to be that we can go there and get a result,” he said.

“When we played Alloa at home we lost 2-0 but we were the better team in the first half and (Alloa manager) Jim Goodwin told me that he felt they should have been two or three down by that point.

“I know that we need to get a bit more out of our forward players – the strikers and wide players.

“We fell out of last week’s game (a 1-0 defeat to Airdrie) and didn’t really create enough.

“It’s important that we pick the right option when we’re attacking teams.”

Weir is hoping that Greg Hurst will benefit from the training sessions he has now had with his new team-mates, while Dale Hilson could soon return to add to his options up front.

“Dale did a bit last night in training,” he reported.

“Hopefully if he can train on Tuesday and Thursday he’ll be available for next Saturday.”

Darren Whyte should return, while Hilson, Michael Kennedy and Marc Scott are all out.