Forfar welcome second-placed Morton to Station Park in League 1 on Saturday, with Loons boss Dick Campbell using a very famous golf course to help plot the downfall of the Greenock side.
Campbell explained: “My brother Ian, who used to be my assistant and John Young, who is now helping me, out are members of Gleneagles. We play there frequently and this week, rather than discussing the Ryder Cup, we were planning how Forfar could beat Morton.
“I watched Morton play Partick Thistle in the League Cup on Tuesday night. While I felt that the Jags winning was the right result I was impressed by Jim Duffy’s team.
“They have four big defenders and are also good in attack. They created chances and Stefan McCluskey will be disappointed as he had a couple of half-decent chances that he did not take. Jim did a very good job at Clyde and will be looking to build on that at Morton.
“The way I am looking at things is that this will be a really hard game and that is not just based on what I saw the other night. I watched Brechin being well beaten by Peterhead last Tuesday in the Petrofac Training Cup and was very impressed with the Blue Toon. Morton then won at Balmoor so they must be a good side.
“We are a good side, especially at home where we did well to defeat Dunfermline 2-0. We lost to Ayr by the same score last week but it was a strange game to lose, particularly as it was goalless with five minutes to go.
“I am sure Mark Roberts and Andy Millen would have been happy with a point with 80-odd minutes gone as we were looking dangerous. We should have had at least a point but left with nothing.
“Ayr are a decent side and have reorganised well following the loss of their goalscorer Michael Moffat to Dunfermline but we should have taken something home with us. Hopefully we can make up for it against Morton."
Campbell added: “We have a concern over Chris Templeman who picked up a knock at Somerset Park. It will be a shame if he misses out as he would like to play against one of his former clubs.”
Morton boss Duffy is facing a familiar foe, as he explained: “Dick and I had a few tussles in derby games when I was the manager of Brechin and I am looking forward to seeing how he sets his team up nowadays.
“It is another difficult game in a month of difficult games and the one thing we will have to do is to ensure that we compete against Forfar. Dick’s sides are always competitive and they play a decent amount of football as well.”
Despite losing 1-0 in midweek, no-one in the Cappielow camp is down-heartened as Duffy explained: “We played well against Partick Thistle and I was pleased that we created chances but disappointed that we never scored. Thistle are a good side and we pushed them hard - we could have had a penalty but that is over now.”
Craig Stewart
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