East Fife vs Forfar Athletic. Viaplay Cup Group B.
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Forfar Athletic win 5-4 on penalties.
Monday 23 July 2018 09:10, UK
It is the scoreline generations of British football fans have longed to see and on Sunday it finally came true, in a way at least.
East Fife 4 Forfar 5 was the result of a penalty shoot-out in Group B of the Scottish League Cup after the teams had been locked at 1-1.
The late English comedian Eric Morecambe used the tongue-twister "East Fife 4, Forfar 5" as a greeting to his friend James Alexander Gordon, who read the classified football results on BBC Radio for 40 years.
"Eric never called me James," Gordon, who died in 2014, said of Morecambe, himself a football supporter, in a BBC interview. "Whenever I saw him over a 20-year period, he would say 'East Fife 4 Forfar 5'. I've got a tape of that."
There had been two previous occasions when the dreamt-of scoreline involving the two Scottish lower league clubs almost took place.
Back in January 1964 the "wrong" team was at home for Forfar 5 East Fife 4 and in October 2011 the final score was East Fife 4 Forfar 3.
On Sunday, East Fife took the lead thanks to an own goal by Ross Meechan but then lost Chris Kane to a red card before John Baird equalised for Forfar.
Scottish League Cup Group games go to penalties if the scores are level and with the shootout the all square at 4-4, Thomas Reilly scored to give visitors Forfar a bonus point.
Technically, the scoreline will be recorded as "East Fife 1 Forfar Athletic 1, Forfar win 5-4 on penalties".
But, while results in the early stages of the Scottish League Cup are generally forgotten quite quickly, this one is destined to be remembered.