Seaside opener

 

The season gets real on Saturday when the opening fixtures of the Championship kick-off with Inverness travelling to Arbroath to take on the 'Smokies' with fans from both sides being allowed entry, albeit on a restricted basis. The ball starts rolling at 15:00 as season 2021-2022 gets underway for the Caley Jags under the new leadership of Billy Dodds. Good to see the supporters bus getting an airing for this one after a year of inactivity.

Supporters Bus

Match Info

Streaming from Arbroath TV

Official Preview

 

Our standard League Cup exit was confirmed before the Hearts game with Stirling Albion clinching second spot in the group. Good luck to them. We went through the motions against Hearts and but for a superb performance by Mark Ridgers we would have conceded a hatful of goals. It ended 1-0 to the hosts after substitute Jamie Walker rifled in a sharp finish to end our League Cup games. One or two positives from the game but the gulf in class was evident as the Jambos prepare for life in the Premiership; for us, another season in the Championship starts at Arbroath, a side we have found difficult to break down of late.

 

Last 10 Competitive Meetings with Arbroath

1 - 0 (H)

1 - 1 (A)

3 - 1 (H)

0 - 1 (H)

0 - 3 (A)

2 - 1 (H)

0 - 3 (H)

7 - 0 (H)

2 - 0 (A)

2 - 2 (A)

Venue - Head to head

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	19	15	2	2	53	17	+36
Away	17	8	3	6	25	22	+3
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	36	23	5	8	78	39	+39

First Competitive Meeting

Aug 12th, 1994

League ((Div 3))

(H)

5 - 2

Most Recent Competitive Meeting

Mar 27th, 2021

League (Championship)

(H)

1 - 0

 

Things are looking up for Arbroath with news that over 800 season tickets have been sold. That's great news for the highest placed part time team in Scotland who have come up two tiers under the guidance of the wily olde Dick.

Latest Team News

Michael Gardyne is suspended for Inverness after his straight red at Tynecastle. Sean Welsh is still injured but it was good to see Anthony McDonald back on the park after recovering from his knee operation. David Carson has missed the last couple of games and Billy Mckay has not surfaced since we signed him from County. Let's hope we get these guys back on the park sooner rather than later.

Dick Campbell has former Edinburgh City player Liam Henderson suspended for Arbroath, but captain Tam O'Brien is back after a foot injury saw him miss the last few games. One miss for them this term will be striker Jack Hamilton who has returned to Livingston. Ex Dundee player Nick Low will be an asset at Gayfield this season. Bin man Linn will always be a threat to a static defence.

Billy Dodds talking after the defeat to Hearts

And here's the Billy and Danny show ahead of the visit to Gayfield

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Didn't see this game, but I'm delighted we managed to see it out for a win after taking the lead.  This is something we often were unable to do last season.  Well done lads.

Sportsound mentioned Shane's goal as real class. Good start from them

Woah. That was hard to watch. Ball should be checked for any form of life after the battering it got. Can’t really see any shape or great movement but great to get a win. 

A good goal from Sutherland and a good team performance to get the three points from a battling Arbroath side.  Well done all 

1 hour ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

Frustrating how often we were caught offside, but we seem to learned as the game went on.

Well I got that competely wrong at half-time.  Did anyone count the offsides?  Going to have to work to learn to avoid that - can't afford to throw away so many chances in such a competitive league.

A hard-fought win, but partly because we are still not firing on all cylinders.  Difficult to see a structure, or a consistent threat. 

Walsh had good spells, but ultimately faded.  Duku puts himself about but with little luck - perhaps his team-mates should learn that they might get the ball off him in unexpected situations. I only remembered that MacGregor was playing just before he was subbed.

But three points are what it's all about!

Missed this due to family stuff. Delighted to get 3 points on opening day, with 3 other 'contenders' dropping points.

3 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

 Delighted to get 3 points on opening day, with 3 other 'contenders' dropping points.

Next Saturday's opponents had a 4-0 lead with 25 minutes to go, and ended up with only 1 point 

Study them well, lads, before next week.

Not our best performance but great to start with a win.

Watching the livestream is not ideal for forming opinions on the players but here goes:

Ridgers had a few squeaky bum moments when he fumbled the ball, but also some good saves. He was arguably lucky not to concede a penalty when he demolished a player to get to the loose ball.

Carson was solid but not as influential going forward as he can be.

Broadfoot was captain and vocal at the back. He and Devine found Nouble a real handful and Broadfoot was walking a tightrope after getting booked. Distribution by both Broadfoot and Devine tended to be long high balls resulting in us not keeping possession.

Deas was solid enough at left back and got forward a few times.

Allardice and McAlear both worked hard, but too often were bypassed in our play. McAlear looks like he could be a real asset for us.

Walsh was the pick of the first half but was hardly seen after the break. If he can sharpen up his crosses he will be very influential this season.

MacGregor was very quiet playing mainly right midfield. He did have one good break and set Duku up but his headed goal was from an offside position.

Sutherland took his goal really well. It was really a solo effort after loose play by Arbroath in midfield. He came close in the first half when Arbroath managed to clear an effort off the line. My MOM today.

Duku was putting himself about but didn’t really have any chances bar the disallowed goal.

The substitutions were strange as we ended up with Harper playing left midfield and Sutherland playing right midfield.

It really was frantic defending for the last 20 minutes but credit them for keeping Arbroath out.

I think Arbroath will feel aggrieved at the referee, as they had a few penalty claims and arguably Broadfoot could have been sent off for a challenge on Nouble after he had been booked.

At times we looked pretty good, particularly when we moved the ball quickly and when Walsh was influential, but we played far too many long balls and kept being caught offside.

This is our first away win against Arbroath since they came up to the Championship, so hopefully a sign of progress.

We will get a better idea of how we are developing against Raith next weekend.

 

 

Edited July 31, 20214 yr by Robert

A great deal of work yet to do and all round improvement to make if we are going to be title contenders.

Seldom pretty to watch but an improvement on what went on in the League Cup group and Shane showed skill and composure in taking his goal which made up for his miss in the first half.

Some desperate defending towards the end but effective in keeping the ball out of the net 

Good to see Billy back although clearly still a good way short of match fit.

A basis to work on and most importantly 3 points in the bag.

Dangerous opponents next up who will be smarting from throwing away such a commanding lead and we will need to more improvement still but heading in the right direction.

Great feeling to start with a win, but a draw might have been the fairer result. An early conclusion from this and  today’s other  results is that all the teams in this league could be of a fairly similar standard.

Positive but so was the win against Peterhead..........Arbroath away has not been easy so a 1-0 win in the history books looks good. Many lessons to learn based on Robert's analysis and others who witnessed key incidents.

Brilliant result. Our record against the Arbroath has been pretty dreadful recently so to get a win and a clean sheet to start the season is extremely pleasing. 

22 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Brilliant result. Our record against the Arbroath has been pretty dreadful recently so to get a win and a clean sheet to start the season is extremely pleasing. 

Can I have a pint of what he's just had please ?

Why does deas at left back improve our defence so much?

What do we need to coach into cammy harpers positioning or communication to fix any small weaknesses he has. 

Or is it what do we need Deas to focus on at CB to make us more secure? 

I really think a back three  of deas , devine , harper might become our best formation allowing at least three midfielders of Carson, Macgregor , maclear, allardice and welsh to play. Potentially four in a diamond.

Harper and Deas are both great talents but how do we make it work? 

 

6 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

Can I have a pint of what he's just had please ?

I've got a feeling your the kind of guy that says their glass is half empty halfway through your pint. I apologise for being so positive about winning our first match of the season. 

14 minutes ago, SteveA said:

I've got a feeling your the kind of guy that says their glass is half empty halfway through your pint. I apologise for being so positive about winning our first match of the season. 

Down with positivity, happy clapping and supporting our team. 🤣🤣🤣

24 minutes ago, Moogthurso said:

Why does deas at left back improve our defence so much?

What do we need to coach into cammy harpers positioning or communication to fix any small weaknesses he has. 

Or is it what do we need Deas to focus on at CB to make us more secure? 

 

I like Harper and am sure he will be a great player for us. However, Deas seems to have greater presence and confidence, and seems to handle attacking players better.

It was interesting that McCann played Harper in midfield when he got game time at the end of last season, and that was where he played when he came on today.

We like our full backs to push forward, and as we play four at the back it can leave them exposed unless they read the game really well.

I think Harper just needs more experience.

46 minutes ago, Robert said:

I like Harper and am sure he will be a great player for us. However, Deas seems to have greater presence and confidence, and seems to handle attacking players better.

It was interesting that McCann played Harper in midfield when he got game time at the end of last season, and that was where he played when he came on today.

We like our full backs to push forward, and as we play four at the back it can leave them exposed unless they read the game really well.

I think Harper just needs more experience.

Harper might be better left midfield as he is good going forward and crossing the ball.

I'll take that 3 points,  I daresay that result may well happen against us in the following months, let's be sure it's not the case next week.

Well done on a good start.👏

1 hour ago, SteveA said:

I've got a feeling your the kind of guy that says their glass is half empty halfway through your pint. I apologise for being so positive about winning our first match of the season. 

We each have our delight barriers.

As I indicated in my own post, I share your view that it was a positive result and represents decent progress on our League Cup form 

However, I have a slightly higher barrier as to what constitutes a 'brilliant resut' which is just a tad higher than scraping an untidy 1-0 victory against a part time team with half our budget.

4 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Most of our fans set up camp in the harbour end but then at kick off when they saw that Arbroath were attacking that end, most of their fans migrated to there too. So not much social distancing! They’ve changed ends now, as they always do here.

Stewards let them pile in too. Very poor 

2 hours ago, SteveA said:

Brilliant result. Our record against the Arbroath has been pretty dreadful recently so to get a win and a clean sheet to start the season is extremely pleasing. 

Totally agree. A rare win there and defence/Mark still managed a clean sheet despite a pounding 2nd half. 

A goal chalked off and a good shout for pen turned down. Im very very happy. 

I thought both our central defenders did a great job today. Arbroath played a lot of balls into the box but barely got a sniff.

39 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

I thought both our central defenders did a great job today. Arbroath played a lot of balls into the box but barely got a sniff.

Especially dealing with the Arbroath forward who looked about seven feet tall.

I agree. He was tough to handle and made Devine look tiny!