FORFAR Athletic faltered at home in a bid to stretch their unbeaten record to nine games on Saturday.
It may be that a hectic schedule of fixtures is beginning to catch up with the Loons, for, following a home draw with lowly Elgin City in midweek, they found it hard going for long spells in the Saturday derby fixture with Montrose.
Of course thei
r cause wasn't helped by some Laurel and Hardy officiating, the blundering duo of referee Steven McLean and his stand-side assistant doing their very best to ruin what could have been a very entertaining ninety minutes.
Some of the decisions were baffling to say the least, Forfar denied a stonewall penalty early on when Callum Smith was brought down as broke through the heart of the Montrose defence deep into the area.
Some of the decisions thereafter dumfounded both sets of fans - and the home support was stunned in 19 minutes when McNally and Cox were pulled aside and cautioned foe squaring up to each other.
The stand side assistant saw more than most though and called ref McLean over for a cosy touch-line chinwag. The end result - a red card for McNally.
Montrose took full advantage soon after, David Cox racing in from the left to head home a deep cross from the right.
That's how things stood at half-time, but, in 57 minutes it was game over as Hugh Davidson showed some neat footwork to work himself into a position to slot the ball past Ally Brown.
The farcical decisions of the ref continued unabated throughout the second period, and there was one hilarious occasion as he ambled casually to the touchline to oversee a substitution blissfully unaware that play was continuing to rage on behind him.
In control he certainly was not - although a Montrose defender tried to knock some sense into him a few minutes from time.
The whistler failed to get out of the way of a full-blooded clearance which knocked him clean off the ground and sent him crashing face first into the turf.
The game ended with the away site notching a third goal their overall contribution to the action hardly deserved, Paul Stewart flicking home a free-kick from the left, the bungling ref finishing as he had started by making yet another wrong call.
Forfar Athletic - Brown, McNally, Divine (Winter), Brady, Cairns, Tulloch, Gordon, Fotheringham (Elliot Smith), Callum Smith (Donachie), Gibson and Russell.
Montrose - Bullock, Hegarty, Pope, McKenzie, Tweed, Crighton, Milligan (Stewart), Davidson, O'Reilly, Cox (Bradley) and Black.
Referee - Steven McLean; crowd - 621.
