Forfar Athletic

Also written as Forfar.

The club

Forfar Athletic were founded in 1885 and play at Station Park in Forfar, Angus, currently carrying the sponsored name Parkgrove Stadium at Station Park. Capacity is 6,777, of which 739 are seated. The club are known as the Loons, and also as the Sky Blues, and play in sky blue and navy.

Recent seasons

Forfar were relegated from League One at the end of 2020/21, finishing tenth and bottom of a pandemic-shortened 22-game season with 17 points, four wins, five draws and thirteen defeats. They have been a League Two club in the five seasons since. In 2021/22 they entered the promotion play-offs from League Two and lost in the semi-finals to Annan Athletic, 2-1 on aggregate. They were fifth in 2022/23 with 48 points, the season Stirling Albion went up as champions. They were sixth in 2023/24 with 42 points from a record of nine wins, fifteen draws and twelve defeats, Stenhousemuir taking the title. The 2024/25 season was the worst of the run: ninth of ten with 36 points, eight wins, twelve draws and sixteen defeats, only kept off the bottom by a Bonnyrigg Rose side that had six points deducted for failing to maintain a Bronze licence. Peterhead were champions that year. In 2025/26 Forfar recovered to fourth with 50 points from 36 games, thirteen wins, eleven draws and twelve defeats, 51 goals scored and 47 conceded. East Kilbride won the division and went up automatically.

Honours and landmarks

Forfar have won the second tier of Scottish football once, taking the Second Division (now League One) in 1983/84. They won the Third Division, now League Two, in 1994/95. They have won the Forfarshire Cup nine times, in 1905/06, 1907/08, 1930/31, 1978/79, 1983/84, 1990/91, 1994/95, 1995/96 and 2014/15. Record attendance at Station Park is 10,780 against Rangers on 7 February 1970. John Clark is the club's leading scorer with 127 goals between 1978 and 1991. Ian McPhee holds the appearance record with 534 games between 1979 and 1998. Dave Kilgour scored 45 goals in the 1929/30 season, a club record for a single campaign.

Notable scorelines

Record victory: 14-1 against Lindertis on 1 September 1888. Record defeat: 2-12 against King's Park on 2 January 1930. The result the club is best known for in the modern era came on 3 August 2013, when Forfar beat Rangers 2-1 at Station Park in the first round of the League Cup, Gavin Swankie scoring both goals. It is described on the club's own Wikipedia entry as arguably the biggest result in their history.

Head-to-head notes

Forfar do not publish all-time head-to-head records, and none could be established for any of their 2026/27 League Two opponents: Annan Athletic, Clyde, Dumbarton, Edinburgh City, Elgin City, Kelty Hearts, Stirling Albion, Stranraer and The Spartans. All nine have shared League Two with Forfar in recent seasons, so meetings are frequent, but no published all-time record was found for any of them. The one recent play-off meeting on record is the 2022 League One play-off semi-final against Annan Athletic, which Annan won 2-1 on aggregate. The most recent competitive meetings that can be stated are from the July 2026 Premier Sports Cup group stage, set out below.

Right now (2026/27)

Jim Weir is the manager, in his second spell, having returned in November 2024. No summer 2026 signings or departures could be established: the club's website news feed does not carry transfer announcements in the portion that could be retrieved, and no 2026/27 season page exists for the club on Wikipedia. This is a gap in the dossier rather than evidence that the squad is unchanged.

Forfar were drawn in Group E of the Premier Sports Cup alongside Stenhousemuir, Partick Thistle, Livingston and Brechin City, and it went badly. They lost 0-2 to Stenhousemuir, 0-8 to Livingston and 0-4 to Partick Thistle, and beat Brechin City 3-1 on 25 July 2026, Shepherd scoring a penalty on 30 minutes and Rennie scoring twice, on 32 and 87. That left them fourth in the group on three points with three goals scored and fifteen conceded. Stenhousemuir won the group and went through to the second round. Exact dates for the other three group matches could not be established.

League Two begins on 1 August 2026. Forfar's opening fixture is at home to Kelty Hearts on Saturday 1 August at 3pm. The ten clubs in the division are Annan Athletic, Clyde, Dumbarton, Edinburgh City, Elgin City, Forfar Athletic, Kelty Hearts, Stirling Albion, Stranraer and The Spartans. Kelty are managed by Thomas O'Ware.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.