It was a game of two halves at McKenna Park, both in terms of the football and the weather, the rainy and windy first half goal-less with the Ants having the best of the few chances created and in the calmer drier second half, Forth grabbing two goals to the Ants one go back east with all 3 points in the bag. The first goal coming in the 60th minute when Ferguson found JONATHAN BRANKS  with a fine pass with the outside of his boot, the striker, who was possibly offside, turned McGarrigle and then fired past Kelly to give the visitors the lead. In the 68th minute a corner was partially cleared by Littler, but only to JORDAN LYNCH who took a couple of touches to get the ball under control then fired past Kelly to double the visitors lead. The Ants pulled one back in the 85th minute when KAMIL LESZCZYNSKI grabbed his 8th of the season when he dusted himself after being fouled in the box to beat Law from the penalty spot but it was too little too late as Forth held on to all 3 points.

Ten man Ants showed a lot of character and determination to come out on top on a dreary day at Rosebank Park. The Ants took the lead in the 18th minute when a McGrory free kick found the head of SHAUN GALLACHER who gave the keeper no chance as he powered the ball into the bottom left hand corner to put the Ants 0-1 ahead, however the small bunch of travelling Ants fans and committee had their head in the hands a minute later, A mistake saw Austin have to sprint from his line to get to the ball from just outside of his box with a sliding tackle but the ball landed to the feet of LOGAN ANGUS 40 yards from goal and he fired the ball into the empty net with Austin unable to get back in his goal on time to level the score at 1-1. Worse was to come from an Ants perspective when 10 minutes later Lugar took the lead, this time LEWIS KERR smashed the ball from fully 35 yards past Austin to put Lugar 2-1 ahead. Five minutes before the break the Ants were level again when SHAUN GALLACHER got on the end of another McGrory free kick to lash the ball past Graham for his and the Ants second to level the match at 2-2.

Half Time – Lugar 2 v 2 Ants

The second half was barely a minute old when Marshall sent KAMIL LESZCZYNSKI through on goal with a defender in close proximity, the Polish hitman shrugged off the defender before rounding Graham and rolling the ball into the empty net to put the Ants back into the lead. Once again however the Ants couldn’t hold onto their lead for more than 2 minutes when a deep free kick rebounded off an Ants defender in the 6 yard box right into the path of CHRISTOPHER HUNTER who could barely believe his luck as he fired past Austin to make it 3-3. The Ants were then reduced to 10 men when McIlvaney was somehow shown a red card for a tackle that the ref had deemed to be serious foul play, much to McIlvaney and most people in the grounds surprise and those of an Ants persuasion would have been forgiven for thinking it wasn’t going to be their day however in the 77th minute super sub ANDREW TURNER twisted and turned in the box before sending the keeper the wrong way to give the Ants a 3-4 lead which this time they managed to hold onto despite being a man short

Full Time – Lugar 3 v 4 Ants