As Robert the Bruce said....

 

If at first you don't succeed.....

It's the second time of asking and we are due to play Arbroath at Gayfield on Wednesday night with a 7:45pm kick-off. This game was re-scheduled from 2nd January due to a frozen pitch on that occasion. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PPV from Arbroath FC TV @ £12

Official Preview

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be perfectly honest, our season is in absolute disarray at the moment with re-scheduled games in abundance. Add in Scottish Cup ties that were postponed, then put on hold, this campaign is a disaster for the Caley Jags. On top of that, our inability to attract players North during the pandemic is a cause for concern when all around us are strengthening their squads. It has certainly raised a few eyebrows and we could be in more danger of staving off relegation than pushing for a top four finish.

One bright note is that Scott Allardice has signed on for another couple of years. He has been one of our better bargains and is well worth the contract.

Last time out we drew 2-2 at Morton. That may have been seen as a decent result, but when you consider that we threw away a 2-1 lead against ten men for fifty minutes then it simply was not good enough. A point not lost on manager John Robertson who was unusually despondent after the game.

Last 10 Competitive Meetings against Arbroath. Click on scores to open out further options.

3 - 1 (H)

0 - 1 (H)

0 - 3 (A)

2 - 1 (H)

0 - 3 (H)

7 - 0 (H)

2 - 0 (A)

2 - 2 (A)

3 - 1 (H)

3 - 1 (A)

We did manage to play Arbroath earlier in the season and eased to a 3-1 win in the Highlands. Dan Mackay, Scott Allardice and Nikolay Todorov were the scorers. Allardice's goal was his first for the Caley Jags and what a thumper it was. Kris Doolan scored the opener for Arbroath while Pixellot were following the linesmans head.

The Red Lichties last outing was a bonus for them as they beat the very same Morton that we failed to beat at Cappielow. Loan signing Jack Hamilton opened his Smokies account after coming in from Livingston. That result lifted Arbroath off the foot of the table. Incidentally, that was Hamilton's 11th goal of the season, a man worth watching. He had previously been on loan at East Fife and did well up here in the League Cup group stages with the Fifers. Lichties two games before the win at Morton were draws with Dundee and Queen of the South.

 

Just now, Robert said:

Good save to keep Sutherland out.

Weve gone a bit flat: need to pick this up. 

Morton 2nd half all over again

A draw is no feckin use, It's worrying that we are now reduced to hanging on vs Arbroath, Has Robbo had his day?

Last 10 minutes

Need to dig deep here

7 minutes ago, FrontRow said:

Vincent has disappeared again 

The commentators keep picking him out as our key player.

Decent effort by Harper. Possibly our best player tonight. 

Edited February 3, 20215 yr by Robert

Just now, caley100 said:

A draw is no feckin use, It's worrying that we are now reduced to hanging on vs Arbroath, Has Robbo had his day?

I was just thinking that myself. What is our aim this season Play offs?

Arbroath HIT THE POST 

8 minutes ago, WYNESS101 said:

I was just thinking that myself. What is our aim this season Play offs?

"They didn't specify which playoffs we had to qualify for"

Another awful game. More money wasted

Well, flattered to deceive again.  Thought we would have pressed on and won that after the good start to 2nd half.  Where was Storey for second half? Did he even touch the ball?

13 minutes ago, Robert said:

The commentators keep picking him out as our key player.

Decent effort by Harper. Possibly our best player tonight. 

The commentator also said it’s because he’s bald and can see where he is. Not a lot of creativity in the second half which was disappointing. I just don’t see our midfield driving at the opposition although Allardice played well when he came on.  Hellish weather again though! 

Dunfermline had a decent game tonight with a 4-1 over Raith Rovers
 

That was a little frustrating to say the least. It felt that we were lucky not to lose it with both Hamilton and Doolan missing great chances.

As with last week we completely lost our way as the 2nd half wore on.  Any ideas what Roddy McGregor has done to be jettisoned to the bench? He was probably our best player earlier in the season so I find it odd that he's getting so little game time now when his skill set seems to be exactly what we need.

Edited February 3, 20215 yr by Hiro
Spelling

Another poor result. We really need to start winning games. Tricky game away to Dundee next but then we have 3 home games against Alloa, Morton and Queen of the South. We definitely should and need to be getting maximum points from these matches. 

Edited February 3, 20215 yr by SteveA

1 minute ago, SteveA said:

Another poor result. We really need to start winning games. Tricky game away to Dundee next but then we have 3 home games against Alloa, Morton and Queen of the South. We definitely should and need to be getting maximum points from these matches. 

We needed to get 3 wins from our last three matches and look what happened!    There's something wrong. 

Couple of wins and we are in the play offs...

 

You’ve summed it up nicely tm4tj.

A draw was a fair result but both teams will feel they should have won it.

The wind messed the whole game up and meant it was a game of two halves. We did pretty well when under pressure in the first half, but conceded a late goal, ironically after the wind messed up a free kick for us.

After equalising so early in the second half, we should have gone on to win comfortably, but we did not really capitalise on the elements and Arbroath grew in confidence towards the end, and the post saved us late on.

If anything, I think the tactical mistake we made was switching Sutherland, Storey and Mackay round after we got the equaliser. Storey had the beating of the defence whilst Sutherland is a finisher, but we lost our way after Sutherland went wide and Storey was through the middle.

Like others, I’ve no idea why MacGregor is not featuring. Whilst Allardice did well, MacGregor would have been the logical replacement for Keatings when he got injured.

Duffy and Harper did well at full back, with Duffy having a good long throw and Harper setting the goal up. We can’t fault the central defence in terms of the goal and they handled the pressure.

We should have won the midfield battle. Time for Carson in my opinion.

Up front, we created chances and with more clinical finishing could have scored more.

Yet another one that should have yielded more points. A recurring theme this season!

2 hours ago, caley100 said:

A draw is no feckin use, It's worrying that we are now reduced to hanging on vs Arbroath, Has Robbo had his day?

Yes unfortunately and I've said that a lot this season, only to be shot down!! 

I really don't have any idea what the f*** he does in training but it certainly can't be effective if we a) can't defend properly or b) players are ignoring him (see last week after match interview to see what I mean). 

I don't like calling for managers sackings lol (I've giving Townsend plenty time, even on back of poor RWC) but this time, I just can't see how we can improve under his stewardship, I really think his mental health issues are hampering us too, he should resign and let someone else in (God knows who though). 

I think we are going to be fine this season, probably between 5 and 7th so the bonus is, youngsters get a chance of playing (that's actually a bonus of signing nobody all month too) so the summer could be crucial in terms of getting players in if that's needed.  

Miserable but we seemed to have some decent chances in the second half. We really need something to lift things for the remainder of the season for our threadbare squad.

Just to compound our misery, White and McKay scored for Co*nty tonight. So much for Yogi taking too long to use his subs. Then he brags about having access to good indoor training facilities during this spell of weather. 🤬

Who cares what Hughes thinks about the training facilities at County or who scored for them. We've got far more important things to worry about right now.

I'm puzzled by the continued absence of MacGregor from the team. As with the Morton game I wasn't overly impressed with the midfield three of Allardice, Welsh with Vincent just ahead of them. They all did fine but I felt we needed more of a thrust (oo er) from the middle of the pitch to carry the ball forward, especially in those rotten conditions, and MacGregor would have provided that.

The lack of threat from the wide areas is again a concern. MacKay didn't really offer too much on the right, initially, and neither did Storey on the other side. Whilst the two switched during the game they didn't seem to particularly carry much of a threat. Neither did Doran when he came on as he constantly looked to check inside as he doesn't seem to have the ability to take a man on as he once did and Harper didn't provide much in the way of support down the left ahead of him to take a man away.

This isn't to say that we were bad we were just okay. Middle of the road. But that isn't good enough for where we want to be and we desperately need some kind of creative spark in the side to jolt us into life but I can't see anyone within the squad being capable of doing this.

Our goal was wonderful to watch. Lovely quick one two between Harper and Vincent and a sumptuous cross from Harper which was begging to be head in and thankfully Sutherland obliged.

Credit also to Arbroath TV who, despite sounding like a load of characters from The Broons, were quite enjoyable to listen to. Camera work was good and the picture quality decent as well. Yet another PPV option that empties itself onto our shabby Pixellot setup. Typical really.

53 minutes ago, RiG said:

Credit also to Arbroath TV who, despite sounding like a load of characters from The Broons, were quite enjoyable to listen to.

An obvious improvement to our set-up would be to put a second person into the commentary box, to provide contrast, humour, banter, and indeed knowledge of the players.  A former player would be ideal, although there are plenty here who could do it.  There would be no shortage of volunteers.

I was thinking during the second half, with that wind behind us, that if ever there is a time for "route one" football, that was it. When in possession, even if you're still in your own half, just keep lobbing the ball towards the penalty spot, and get down there as fast as possible.  Press forward - make it difficult for them to clear their lines.  That wind would have caused chaos, and you just need to get a couple of breaks and the match is won.

i do no one thing is we are not going up this season 

How long have you been studying rocket science

Since resuming after our enforced break, we have thrown away a lead against ten men and dropped two points against a part time team with, even in these constrained times, about half our income. That is not good enough.

I accept that we are a side that will be spending time outside the top division from time to time. Given our resources, geographical situation and the fact that we lack a wealthy benefactor, we have no divine right to be in the Premiership and spells in the Championship are almost inevitable.

However, what is more difficult to accept is being a Championship side with so little apparent drive and ambition. I am not talking about finances or player recruitment here but the attitude of the players we have who are, on the whole, decent enough.

In both of the last two games there seemed to me to be an issue with motivation and enthusiasm for the task, especially in the second half, when trying to convert 1 point into 3.

The manager can't escape responsibility for the attitude of the players. One of his tasks is to motivate and inspire them and, in that, he seems to be failing.

I like Robbo, he seems a very decent person with the interests of the club at heart and is doing his best in difficult circumstances but we have to begin to question whether that best is good enough.

He deserves to be given until the end of the season and anyway there is probably nothing to be gained in parting ways with him just now.

However, if there is not a substantial and sustained improvement by the end of the season, I think, with some regret, we need to look elsewhere.

Perhaps a young, talented and ambitious coach or assistant manager, much as Robbo was at Livingston when he first came, who would be prepared to drop down a level and relocate for the opportunity to be his own man at a club which, despite recent years, has potential and something of a reputation for giving both managers and players a chance.

Robbo Interview from Arbroath FC

Match Highlights