Battle Lines are Drawn

 

Dick Campbell's table toppers come North on Saturday with the Battle Lines now clearly defined as Partick Thistle ease into third place in the table. Saturday's game is a 3:00pm start at the Caledonian Stadium and we are now anxiously looking over our shoulder at fellow bottlers Raith Rovers who remain one point behind in the battle for fourth.

MATCH/TICKET/STREAMING INFO

OFFICIAL PREVIEW

 

Venue Head2Head v Arbroath

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	20	15	2	3	53	18	+35
Away	19	9	4	6	26	22	+4
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	39	24	6	9	79	40	+39

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

0 - 0 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

1 - 0 (A)

1 - 0 (H)

1 - 1 (A)

3 - 1 (H)

0 - 1 (H)

0 - 3 (A)

2 - 1 (H)

0 - 3 (H)

Honours even over the last ten meetings but it's clear to see that the pendulum is swinging more towards the Smokies or does it just feel like that given our demise of late. Gone are the days of 7-0 thrashings and giving teams a three goal start. Mind you, gone are the days of Bon Accord...

 

Last updated: 09.03.2022 at 05:52 Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts Midweek game saw Partick beat Queens 1-0 1. Arbroath 28 13 12 3 40 19 51 2. Kilmarnock 28 15 5 8 36 19 50 3. Partick Thistle 27 12 9 6 40 24 45 4. Inverness CT 28 10 10 8 35 27 40 5. Raith Rovers 28 9 12 7 34 34 39 6. Ayr United 28 8 8 12 29 40 32 7. Morton 28 7 10 11 30 38 31 8. Hamilton Ac. 28 7 10 11 29 43 31 9. Q.O.S. 28 6 8 14 29 41 26 10. Dunfermline 27 4 12 11 24 41 24

 

FRIDAY 11TH MARCH 19:45

Ayr United v Kilmarnock

SATURDAY 12TH MARCH 15:00

    Hamilton v Dunfermline

Inverness v Arbroath  

Morton v Partick

Queens v Rovers

With Partick Thistle beating Queen of the South 1-0 on Tuesday night, they are also making a late run for promotion and they still have a game in hand against Dunfermline. Unfortunately that also means that they are clear in third and we appear to be left with a battle on our hands against fellow flops Raith Rovers in the last chance saloon. Bid Ayrshire derby on Friday night as a resurgent Ayr United will fancy their chances against a Killie side they beat recently. For us, we will be looking for others to help out, as we have done for the last three months. There are still twenty four points up for grabs over the final eight games. However, our last eight games have yielded just four points. Yes, only 4 points. That is an abysmal stat during a run of eleven games without a win.

One win apiece and a 0-0 draw in a stiff breeze at Gayfield last time we met. Benn tight affairs this season and it would be no surprise if this one is the same. My bet is that confidence will play a big part, and we certainly lack that at present.

Last time out

We performed poorly at Partick going down to a late Kevin Holt strike after a corner. The game was played out on a midden with plenty of chances going abegging and thanks to a lack of quality only one shot on target allegedly. Poor return from nineteen strikes of the ball. Arbroath edged out Dunfermline 1-0 thanks to an early strike from David Gold. That win kept Arbroath at the top and as a result Dunfermline are bottom with a game in hand.

Latest Team News

Allardice out for season, Roddy MacGregor just a distant memory, Welsh recovering on our bench last couple of games; other than that a full squad allegedly.

Arbroath last line up and subs played:

Gaston; Stewart, Little, O’Brien, Colin Hamilton, Chris Hamilton, Gold (Craigen 69), McKenna, Linn (Thomson 47), Henderson (Hilson 75), Jack Hamilton (Donnelly 85)

 

Eric the Stat has this latest info on the Smokies since January.

Departures

Dylan Paterson - midfield on loan to Stirling Albion FC for the rest of the season

Harrison Clark - end of loan period from Livingstone for the midfielder

Joel Nouble - Influential in the 2nd January away fixture the Centre Forward has returned to Livingstone after his loan spell at Gayfield

Anton Dowds - The centre forward was on loan from Falkirk FC, ended in the January window.

Additions

Arbroath have added to their front line options with three Centre Forward players joining in the transfer period.

Craig Wighton - On loan from Dunfermline Athletic for the rest of this season

Sam Ford - arrived from Felixstowe FC on a free transfer

Michael Bakare - left the "Non League Premier" side Leatherhead FC in January and joined Arbroath in February

 

 

View full article

6 minutes ago, MrCaleyjag said:

While I applaud the team for their display and performance yesterday along with an excellent result, I remain grounded and realistic about games to come and what the remainder of the season holds.

I can understand the reactions above and do believe most of it is through sheer relief more than anything else but rewind to the last few weeks and remember the outcry and outpouring of criticism forwarded to all at the club.

I stand by my previous comments and do believe the BD and most of the coaching staff need to go, I could be wrong but I think yesterdays result may just be papering over the cracks. If I am wrong then I will quite happily admit at the end of the season and will apologise however the cynical part of me doesn't think that I am.

Could it be merely the breathing space that all involved require to just limp home until the end of the season.

You may be right and I have been as critical as anyone but, unless or until we are no longer in the promotion hunt, let's just get behind the team and leave such decisions for a bit later.

CTO Report

 

It's great to get a win at last.  The margin of victory probably flattered us but hopefully the win will give us a bit more confidence to push on.  Arbroath are where they are in the league on merit, but yesterday I thought they played as well as they were allowed to play.  We gave them little time on the ball and forced them into mistakes.  This clearly rattled them along with us (for once) being beneficiaries of a very erratic refereeing performance.

I thought the effort from the whole team was excellent, with Sutherland being outstanding and Devine having a commanding performance at the back.  It was good to see Doran have as good a game as he's had for some time and it was noticeable how he was being much more positive than of late.  That is reflected in the team as a whole in that we are looking to get players forward.  The 2nd goals was a thing of beauty and shows what we are capable of when we play with a bit more boldness and take a few risks.

For all the positives, it must be said that we didn't actually create many chances.  There is still too much of the long high ball to small strikers who are being jostled for position by big defenders.  If we are going to go on a run we absolutely must maintain the level of intensity we showed yesterday.  There is not a lot of difference between the teams in this division and any team can beat any other on their day.  If players are not up for it on the day, they will lose.  But keep the intensity, be bold and who knows, we just could be back in the top flight next season.

My first trip up North this season [thanks to Covid] with my wife, and we had bright sunshine for the whole game and a very decent win. A great start with two early goals, really settled the nerves, not sure what would have happened if that Arbroath attempt that hit the post had gone in, but we contained Arbroath pretty well for most of the match, even if some of the play was a bit agricultural, there were enough moments of good play from the side to come away in good heart.

Sutherland was my MOTM, I felt he put in a very solid and classy display. Doran put in some excellent dead ball kicks, he looked more like his old self in parts, as did Dave Carson. I couldn't fault anyone for effort [Welsh/McAlear ran the midfield for large parts, and Billy M was busy and took his goal very well], overall the defence was pretty solid, and Mackay in goal looked really good. I kept an eye on Hardy a lot, and wasn't sure what he was contributing in the first half, he looks an intelligent player but was a bit powderpuff in challenges and slow, but his second half showing was so much better and he carved out a great chance that went begging. And a player who took me completely by surprise was Wallace Duffy, who hasn't really figured at all at right back, but was immense at centre back winning virtually everything in the air, was that a one-off, because if not he needs his contract extended.

As the saying goes 'One swallow doesn't make a summer' and automatic promotion is now a distance dream, but although Raith also won [finally also], maybe Partick losing yesterday makes the play-off fight still 2 from 3. And maybe, just maybe Arbroath will run out of puff in the play-offs... Every match is now a cup-final.

Aye, it it was a lovely trip up.

Glad you enjoyed your trip north: you picked the right weekend!!

Duffy has not really done anything wrong when he has featured, either at right back or centre half. With Broadfoot (presumably) bowing out in the summer, it makes sense to keep him on board, particularly if we may lose the likes of Deas.

Devine also needs credit for his performances this season. He has really matured into a really good defender and talks the defence through games.

Devine and Duffy could be a decent pairing for us next season. 

Excellent result and one that will hopefully see Dodds reduce the amount of time we fire the ball into the air. We played had some very nice, crisp passing moves at times, like the second goal, which were wonderful to see after weeks of the ball being shelled vaguely in the direction of Mckay and hoping for the best. After some really quite clinical finishing from us it was a shame to see us return to the more direct approach as I felt we lost our way a little after that.

I was surprised at how "Route One" Arbroath were. We seemed to deal with their endless long balls pretty well for the most part. I felt our defence was largely untroubled except for Broadfoot making a horses arse of dealing with a clearance and almost letting Arbroath snatch a goal back. IIRC he was hooked not long after and Duffy did well in his place.

Sutherland also performed well in the slightly odd, for him, right midfield slot. He worked tirelessly again and deserves praise for his efforts. I also think Mckay showed his class yet again and McAlear continues to show real promise as he dominated the middle of the pitch for large spells. Carson also looked like his old self which is nice to see in the week that Michael Gardyne was searching for his own name on social media and liking Tweets from County fans calling him "Agent Gardyne".

Gaston will be having nightmares about the third goal. He looked really poor and Arbroath in general looked pretty tired. Perhaps it is to be expected that, cliché alert, a part time team would start to tire at this stage of the season after all their efforts. Smashing away support in the away end from the Smokies. Best of the season given the relative size of their club. Looked to be about 300 odd at a minimum.

On to the next one!

21 minutes ago, RiG said:

Excellent result and one that will hopefully see Dodds reduce the amount of time we fire the ball into the air. We played had some very nice, crisp passing moves at times, like the second goal, which were wonderful to see after weeks of the ball being shelled vaguely in the direction of Mckay and hoping for the best. After some really quite clinical finishing from us it was a shame to see us return to the more direct approach as I felt we lost our way a little after that.

I was surprised at how "Route One" Arbroath were. We seemed to deal with their endless long balls pretty well for the most part. I felt our defence was largely untroubled except for Broadfoot making a horses arse of dealing with a clearance and almost letting Arbroath snatch a goal back. IIRC he was hooked not long after and Duffy did well in his place.

Sutherland also performed well in the slightly odd, for him, right midfield slot. He worked tirelessly again and deserves praise for his efforts. I also think Mckay showed his class yet again and McAlear continues to show real promise as he dominated the middle of the pitch for large spells. Carson also looked like his old self which is nice to see in the week that Michael Gardyne was searching for his own name on social media and liking Tweets from County fans calling him "Agent Gardyne".

Gaston will be having nightmares about the third goal. He looked really poor and Arbroath in general looked pretty tired. Perhaps it is to be expected that, cliché alert, a part time team would start to tire at this stage of the season after all their efforts. Smashing away support in the away end from the Smokies. Best of the season given the relative size of their club. Looked to be about 300 odd at a minimum.

On to the next one!

Just when you thought Gardyne couldn't be an even bigger prat!! 

9 hours ago, old caley girl said:

Just when you thought Gardyne couldn't be an even bigger prat!! 

Little prat not worth the mention CG. What a result for the boys tho.