Forfar’s hopes of stepping up to the first division lie in tatters after Ayr United tore the dream script to shreds at Station Park.
Into the promotion play-offs in successive seasons, the Loons made it easy for the Honest Men and gaffer Dick Campbell admits it will be a case of saving pride on the west coast come Saturday’s second leg.
“It’s a sore one to take after what we’ve served up this season, but at 4-1 the tie’s beyond us unless Ayr United totally blow it,” said the dejected Sky Blues boss.
“I don’t deny Ayr United their victory, but they must think Christmas has come early with the way they were gifted goals tonight.”
That home generosity was extended just 75 seconds into the play-off semi-final first leg when Jonathan Tiffoney fed the ball to Michael Moffat and the Ayr front man carved a path through the home defence to drill the opener beyond Neil Duffy.
Forfar’s immediate response was a weak free-kick attempt from Martyn Fotheringham, but the Loons then rallied and Ross Campbell opened a good spell for the hosts with a dangerous chip pushed away by visiting keeper Alan Martin.
Their reward was a 10th minute leveller from Chris Templeman who headed cleanly home from an Iain Campbell corner.
Only the woodwork deprived Moffat of his second on the half-hour mark after he fought off the attention of Michael Bolochoweckyj then beat Duffy with a low right foot shot as the game continued in top gear.
Five minutes later the Ayr dynamo heaped more misery on the Loons when his cut-in from the byeline was touched beyond his own keeper by home defender Mark McCulloch.
Forfar made a pacy start to the second half with Dale Hilson sliding a low shot wide.
Home keeper Duffy then rescued his side with a superb point blank stop from Martyn Campbell from a Scott McLaughlin cross, but in 55 minutes he was beaten again after Ryan McCann broke through in a lightning Ayr counter-attack and shook off McCulloch to drive home from 15 yards.
Duffy made an excellent one-handed stop from Trouten in 65 minutes, but with four minutes left the play-off dream was all but extinguished by substitute Andy Rodgers when he prodded home a cross from inside the area.
Campbell added, “The goals we lost were Sunday league stuff and that started right from the first minute, but I thought we played really well to come back into the game after that first one and we started the second half well.
“The play-offs have been good to me personally, but they certainly haven’t been good to me tonight.
“All I said to the players was to make sure that they take it to the second game, but I can’t see us doing it down there on their own patch and it’s a very disappointing end to the season.”