Forfar Athletic’s new dads’ army put sleepless nights behind them to play a pivotal part in the Loons’ 1-0 victory over Dunfermline Athletic on Saturday.
Full-back Iain Campbell had been awake into the wee small hours after the birth of daughter Francesca on Thursday, not the ideal sleep and rest preparation for the crucial encounter with the Pars.
But spare a thought for strike Dale Hilson who never even saw his bed before the game as he spent the night with his wife who had gone into labour with baby son Elliot.
Boss Dick Campbell emphasised that there were no failures in his team but had particular praise for his son Iain, Gavin Swankie “he was actually world class” and Hilson.
“Dale’s wife has been in labour all night and Dale has never been in bed himself. They had their baby Elliot at ten past ten this morning and he phoned me up and said gaffer, I want to play. I thought ok I will give you 45 minutes. But he never stopped running. And that’s the spirit we have in this club.
“And Yano (Iain Campbell), his daughter was born two days ago Francesca, another granddaughter for me so he hasn’t had the ideal preparation either.
“Football really is a strange game sometimes. We were very critical of our team last week because we weren’t up for our work. But you could not blame us for that today.
“Both teams tried to play, to get the ball down and play it around. I thought it was an even game, tight right to the end but it really was a goal worthy of winning any game.”
“Stephen Husband will have enjoyed that because he was with Dunfermline last year. I also thought we looked dangerous every time we went up the park.”
After a nervous, scrappy opening quarter the game came to life with play swinging end to end, albeit with few clear cut chances in the first half.
Dunfermline’s Faissal El-Bakhtaoui went closest when he powered into the box, drew keeper Rab Douglas but blasted into the side betting.
It was Forfar who took the lead with a simply stunning strike in the 57th minute.
Hilson unleashed a piledriver of a shot that beat keeper Ryan Scully but cracked back off the post. The ball landed back with Husband fully 30 yards out and he floated home a pinpoint accurate shot into the top right corner with Scully left grasping thin air.
Husband was inches away from a second with a free-kick that dipped just over the crossbar then Omar Kader should have buried the ball from 10 yards when he pounced on hesitancy at the back from the Pars but he skied it high over the bar.
Douglas saved Forfar minutes later when he spread himself well to deflect a shot from Lewis Allan who was clear through.
Dunfermline pushed hard for an equaliser and Josh Falkingham was only inches away from the target with a diving header that scrapped the post.
But Forfar held firm to move to just a point behind league leaders Stranraer.
Pars boss John Potter was bitterly disappointed to take nothing from the match.
“We had a few chances in the second half. But I didn’t think we were great. We played in bits and pieces and that’s not good enough.
“We can play a lot better than that. I thought we were pretty poor.
“I thought we were a bit safe at times, playing sideways and backwards when we had been asking the players to go forward.
“It was a fantastic goal to win it. We know Stephen can do that but we are disappointed we gave the ball away for that. But we have to pick ourselves up and go again.”