Talking point

Even at this early stage of the season, to go four points ahead of your expected nearest rivals would be a big statement for Rovers today.

Boss Barry Smith is under no illusions that Ayr will be a tough test but it is one he wants to come through with flying colours. punish us, especially as they have now added Lawrence Shankland to their squad. That is a big statement from them. Shankland is a fine player who has been at Aberdeen, St Mirren and Morton.

“He has a good pedigree and we will have to be wary of him.

“The good thing though is we’re going into this match playing with confidence.

“We’ll have to be at the top of our game to beat Ayr but we are the home team and we’ve got to go in believing we can win.

“However, we are also scoring a lot of goals and hopefully with the way we are playing, the fans will turn out once again.

“The supporters have really played their part during this good start to the season with their backing for the team.”

Smith has no injury worries for the game.

Ayr finished bottom of the Championship last term to suffer automatic relegation but signalled their intent to try to bounce straight back up when they decided to move to full-time status for this season.

Smith has no doubt Ian McCall’s Honest Men will provide Rovers with their main competition for the title.

He added: “The way Ayr started the season you were thinking ‘they’re definitely going to be up there challenging with ourselves’.

“So the boys know they’ll have to be at their best to win the game.

“At the moment, it’s very early in the season and we just want to win every game we go into. The next game’s Ayr and that doesn’t change.

“They’ve made some very good signings, and they’ve fitted in well to the way Ian wants to play.” 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.

DUMFRIES DEAL

Matthew Aitken will miss out for the Loons after his recent red card.