Forfar head to the Indodrill Stadium on Sunday with a 3-1 advantage over Alloa but no-one in the Station Park camp is getting carried away.
The second leg of the Championship play-off final is live on BBC ALBA, with a 5.30pm kick-off, and Forfar are aiming to secure second-tier football for the first time since 1991/92.
Goals from Omar Kader and Chris Templeman had the Loons leading 2-0 on Wednesday night before on-loan Dundee defender Kyle Benedictus pulled one back. However, an injury-time header from Michael Travis could prove crucial.
Manager Dick Campbell said: “We are in a good position but not one where we can say the job is done. Alloa are a strong team and will come at us in the second leg so as well as we played on Wednesday, and as well as we played against Stranraer in the semi-final, we have to play like that again.
“We would have settled for a 2-1 win before the game but it was terrific to see the players looking to make up for letting a goal in when we were two up. They pressed forward in injury time to get the third but I have been in football long enough to know you cannot take anything for granted. It is half-time and we need to play in a very organised fashion to still be in front at full-time.”
Campbell has played down the importance of suspended skipper Gavin Swankie missing the second leg as they have done well in the past without the 31-year-old.
The Forfar boss added: “We have known that Gavin would be missing now for a couple of weeks. I wondered what the impact could be so I looked back at the games he has missed before over the three seasons and it actually made good reading.
“I got to 12 games and we had not lost one of them and I stopped looking into it. Don’t get me wrong, he is a terrific player but there is no point in making a big thing about his absence if we have coped with it before. Dale Hilson could be fit again and he is a pretty decent replacement to bring in.”
Alloa boss Danny Lennon was disappointed with the outcome of the first leg, as he explained: “Fair play to Forfar as they have established a lead and they did so by punishing us for mistakes. We might be behind but we are not out despite not playing at our best.
“We have managed good victories over Cowdenbeath and Dumbarton since I came in, where we have scored three times and kept a clean sheet, so we can turn things around.
“If we can go out and move the ball around at the tempo we are capable of then we will give Forfar problems. We cannot lose our discipline looking for goals as Forfar proved on Wednesday that they are dangerous on the break.”
Craig Stewart
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