Loons earn praise as winless run is halted

Forfar boss Gary Bollan praised the desire of his side as they ended a five-match winless run to move four points clear at the top of League 2 with a comfortable victory at Forthbank.

Stirling were unbeaten in four games under caretaker boss Martyn Corrigan but the Loons proved too strong, thanks to goals from Andy Munro, Gavin Swankie and David Cox.

Bollan said: “I felt it was a good performance, individually and as a team. There was a bit of hunger, desire and determination which we have maybe lacked in recent weeks.

“We were quite expansive once we went 3-0 up – we were passing the ball and getting into good areas and we could have been further ahead.

“Stirling have been doing well recently and they caused us problems at Station Park earlier in the season but we put them under pressure and we defended very well when we had to. I thought Tam O’Brien was outstanding at centre-back and was man-of-the-match by a country mile.

“We lost Andy Munro to injury and he has gone to the hospital for a precautionary X-ray on his ankle – we are hoping it is a ligament strain rather than anything worse.”

Both sides had chances in a frantic opening spell before Munro sent a header into the top corner from just inside the box following a Lewis Milne corner after seven minutes.

Eddie Ferns had a good chance to equalise but it was game over in 54 minutes when Marc Scott beat Darren Petrie on the right wing and sent over a cross for Swankie, who did well to steer a near-post header past Chris Smith.

Cox grabbed the third goal when he found the bottom corner with a precise drive from outside the box in 69 minutes and Swankie missed two good opportunities to add to Albion’s misery.

Forfar are now 11 matches unbeaten against Stirling since a 2-0 defeat at Station Park in March 2007 and look like they are back on track as they prepare to host Berwick Rangers on Saturday.

Corrigan announced after the game he was stepping down from his role at Forthbank.