Sometimes it’s best to look forward, rather than dwelling on the past, and that was certainly the case on Saturday after a dreary spectacle at East End Park.
The previous three meetings between these sides had served up a total of 12 goals, but end-of-season tension plus a fiendish Fife gale resulted in a drab 0-0 draw.
That was enough to secure second place for Dunfermline, while Forfar still have an outside chance of joining them in the promotion play-offs.
The concern for the Pars as they approach the decisive part of the season is that the goals have dried up during a worrying spell of only one win in seven games, and that courtesy of an injury-time penalty against Brechin.
Manager Jim Jefferies has pledged to rotate his squad “to freshen things up” in the final three games before next month’s play-offs in an attempt to rediscover some confidence and momentum.
“It’s obviously disappointing not to get on the scoresheet today but good to get second place,” admitted forward Ryan Thomson, whose first-half header was cleared off the line. “We were always comfortable about that, but you want to get it sorted as soon as possible.
“Now we want to get back to our best form in time for the play-offs. We need to get our confidence back and start scoring goals again the way we were doing earlier in the season.”
Teenage full-back Ryan Williamson said: “Hopefully we can get a couple of wins and some good performances in our last three games to build some confidence.
“We’ve taken a bit of stick recently, but I thought we started well today and passed the ball well. The second half wasn’t so good, but Forfar are a hard team to play against.
“I had two chances and I should have done better with the first one, but I was a bit unlucky with the second one.”
Sixth-placed Forfar trail promotion rivals Ayr United and Stenhousemuir by five points with time running out, but their ever-optimistic manager Dick Campbell vowed: “We’re still going for the play-offs in the last four games.”
Tomorrow night’s fixture at Ibrox offers another opportunity to gather precious points, although League One champions Rangers will be licking their wounds after back-to-back cup defeats to Raith Rovers and Dundee United, and Campbell quipped: “We’ll maybe play with 15 at the back.”
Veteran defender Darren Dods said: “Coming here to East End Park and getting a clean sheet gives us some confidence for Tuesday night which we know will be a very hard game.
“We had a couple of chances today in the second half and hit the bar and had a penalty claim.”
The stoppage-time collision between substitute Ross Campbell and home goalkeeper Ryan Scully looked innocuous to most, but manager Campbell’s verdict was typically forthright. “Everyone else in the ground thought it was a penalty and if it had been at the other end, it would definitely have been given,” he said.
“All the best chances fell to us and we should have won the game, so I’m very, very disappointed that we didn’t get all three points.”
Classic Campbell bombast, of course, although Dale Hilson’s pace and directness caused the home side all sorts of problems down the left flank, and from Hilson’s 57th-minute cross, substitute Omar Kader headed over when it looked easier to score.