Forfar Athletic F.C.

Did You Know?

• The club's record defeat is 2–12 against King's Park on 2 January 1930.
• Forfar won the inaugural Third Division Championship on 15 April 1995 with a 1–0 win at Ross County, Bobby Mann scoring the goal.
• The nickname 'The Sky Blues' was introduced in the 1982–83 season to aid marketing.

History

Forfar Athletic came into being in 1885 when the reserve side of the town’s older club, Angus F.C., decided to strike out on its own. Angus F.C. had been Forfar’s senior team for years, and back in September 1883 it merged with the junior side Forfar West End, turning that squad into its second eleven under the name Angus Athletic. That second string did so well in junior cups and against senior opposition that it chose to go independent, and by May 1885 it was playing as Forfar Athletic.

The club’s first match took place on 16 May 1885, a 1–0 victory over Dundee Our Boys. Initially the players wore black and white one-inch hooped jerseys with blue knickers, but in 1889 they switched to blue and black vertical stripes, copying the old Angus colours. A pivotal moment came in the first round of the 1885–86 Scottish Cup, when Forfar beat Angus 3–1; Angus dissolved soon after. On 1 September 1888 the club recorded its biggest win, thrashing Lindertis from nearby Kirriemuir 14–1.

Forfar joined the Scottish Football League for the 1921–22 season, entering the new Second Division and finishing 14th out of 20. They ended up bottom of Division Two in 1924–25 and were relegated to a third division, but got promoted again when that division was scrapped. The Second World War halted national competitions in 1939. In that era, Alex Troup stood out as a key player before moving on to Dundee and Everton.

The club’s heaviest loss came on 2 January 1930, a 2–12 defeat to King’s Park. When league football returned in 1946–47, Forfar was placed in the C Division, a reconstituted Third Division. They won promotion to the B Division in 1948–49 and stayed there, and later in the Second Division, until finally claiming the divisional championship in 1983–84 under manager Doug Houston. That success followed a low point in 1973–74, when the club finished bottom of the division.

The late 1970s and the 1980s are generally seen as Forfar’s golden era; at the close of the 1985–86 season, they missed promotion to the Premier Division by just one point.