First Leg v Smokies

 

After an edgy quarter final play off win over Partick Thistle, we face Championship team of the season Arbroath on Tuesday night at 7:05pm. Dick Campbell takes his team North as favourites to progress to the final, with St Johnstone being the likely candidates for the opposition. The game will also be screened live on the BBC Scotland channel. 

Arbroath have had a fantastic season falling just two points short of automatic promotion and finishing second in the Championship, six points ahead of third placed Inverness, and with a superior goal difference of seven, and losing only five Championship games all season. The one thing in our favour is that we beat them twice, the most recent a slightly flattering 3-0 win a couple of months ago.

TICKET INFO

OFFICIAL PREVIEW

Venue H2H all comps

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	21	16	2	3	56	18	+38
Away	19	9	4	6	26	22	+4
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	40	25	6	9	82	40	+42

This seasons meetings with the Smokies

3 - 0 (H)

0 - 0 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

1 - 0 (A)

Interestingly, over the final six games of the Championship, Inverness were the team on form, finishing with a flourish ahead of the Play-Offs

			Overall					Home					Away
Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Pts
1.	Inverness CT	6	4	1	1	12	5	3	0	0	8	1	1	1	1	4	4	+7	13
2.	Arbroath	6	3	2	1	13	6	2	1	0	11	4	1	1	1	2	2	+7	11
3.	Kilmarnock	6	3	2	1	9	6	3	0	0	6	2	0	2	1	3	4	+3	11

Last time we faced Arbroath we were on an eleven game run of no wins since we thumped Morton 6-1 at Cappielow on December 11th

CTO Report March 12th: 3-0: The spell is broken: A blistering start by Inverness put them on their way to a first win in 12 starts. Goals from Shane Sutherland and Reece McAlear set them on their way inside eleven minutes. Billy Mckay sclaffed in a third with twenty minutes to go and there was no way back for Arbroath who lost ground at the top of the table with Dick Campbell sent to the stands. As Partick Thistle lost to Morton, we closed the gap to two points behind them with Raith still one point behind us. Away to Rovers next week. That's a massive game now as both sides chase a play-off spot. I said to my grandkid's at the game "that was an emphatic win" At only seven years old, Ava said "granda, what does win mean?" Yes, it's been a long time coming...

 

Well done Mark, great stuff.   

68 clean sheets, that's some size of linen cupboard pal!

TEAM NEWS

Roddy MacGregor has cracked a bone in his jaw and could be out for the next few games. Tom Walsh is likewise after being injured inside twenty minutes at Firhill. Wallace Duffy missed the last couple after being injured against Accies on matchday 36. Scott Allardice made it onto the pitch as an injury time sub for the first time in months, so that's a positive and here's another one, Aaron Doran came on as a sub for the last half hour after taking a knock at Cappielow on matchday 35.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A well deserved April's Player of the Month award for Logan Chalmers who has chipped in with some massively important stunning goals recently in our drive for promotion.

He scored five goals in a five game purple patch starting with a match winning fiercely struck brace over Raith Rovers. He followed that up with a belter against Ayr United, a sweet winner against Killie and a wonderful solo thumper against Queen of the South.

After a somewhat slow start, Logan has benefitted from more game time and you can see why he is highly rated by parent club Dundee United

That's some left peg lad. 💪

 

 

 

 

 

 

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28 minutes ago, Moogthurso said:

Arbroath were playing to their home advantage ,  but I am not in love with their idea of football or entertainment. They did not deserve to go through. 

Totally agree. Still we got our own back on Tuesday's time wasting goalie towards the end of last nights game. Haha.

40 minutes ago, Naelifts said:

Was looking to book stuff for Friday but just heard on the radio it is Thursday......better check.

Advertised everywhere as Friday, and I've just found it in the Sky Sports schedule for Friday.  I had assumed that it would be BBC.

Guess who doesn't have Sky....

37 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

Well done to their fans though in turning up in such numbers.

Deservedly earning the chant from us, “Where were you when you were sh1te?” 😀

5 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

Deservedly earning the chant from us, “Where were you when you were sh1te?” 😀

Love throwing stones from our own glass house.

So, after all these years, have we now found a name to go in option 9 below?

should be a 10 box ( worst possible)for him!!!

Circle obviously!

 

Ever since the play offs were introduced I have always thought that if the sides were still level after the conclusion of the second leg the tie should go straight to a penalty shoot out.

The home team already have an advantage and an extra half hour of open play at their home ground in front of mainly their fans gives them a significant additional and unearned advantage.

Fatigued players are more susceptible to injury and the team prevailing in the end are at a further disadvantage over their next opponents who are probably better rested and will have the benefit of a home match in the decisive leg of the next round.

4 hours ago, Moogthurso said:

Trust the kids believe in Broadfoot and Ridgers, and hope we dont get Douglass Ross as part of the referees as he's the only pratt I like less than Willie colum. 

We should be alright Douglas Ross is injured 

4 hours ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

Advertised everywhere as Friday, and I've just found it in the Sky Sports schedule for Friday.  I had assumed that it would be BBC.

Guess who doesn't have Sky....

I believe that you can purchase a NOW TV day pass for under a tenner which gives you 24 hours access to SKY Sports.

On 5/14/2022 at 12:33 AM, Robert said:

Now we need to go one better than the class of 2014 and win the final!

Shocking refereeing deprives us of Duffy and, subject to an appeal we should win, Devine for the first leg.

It looks like we have lost Sutherland too.

Somehow though I’m starting to think we may just do this. I’m scared to be optimistic but we have great team spirit and the feeling of wanting to overcome adversity may just get us through this.

Well done to all!

 So Duffy would be available for the 2nd leg, but Devine might also be available for the 2nd leg? I hadn't realised that. If we win any appeal and Devine can play in the first leg, then things don't seem so bad. Sutherland is the big miss I reckon as, he is the most physical presence upfront, maybe McAlear will be pushed higher up, to help out, but we may need a third midfielder in the middle of the pitch.

20 hours ago, buckett said:

I think the elephant in the room, which very few seem to have noticed, is that we were embarrassingly poor and couldn't string more than 2 passes together. Arbroath were way better than us and adapted to the conditions extremely well. To say they were desperately unlucky is no exaggeration. Just hope we don't embarrass ourselves against St. Johnstone.

That said, I am absolutely delighted, and still can't quite believe that we prevailed. Perhaps in the next few days, if we could learn to string a few passes together, keep possession and keep the head, who knows what could happen. We do of course have history in defeating St. Johnstone to win promotion!

Yes it wasn't great watching, but Arbroath strung 5 across the middle, the wind was terrible, and the pitch didn't run true, so even passes on the deck were difficult, and several times the ball got stuck up and players legs ruining chances [for both sides]. Yes it was the same for both sides, but Arbroath will be used to playing there week after week, which probably explains their excellent home record. I did wonder why we didn't try playing out from the back from Ridgers, but would it only work if Arbroath went for a high press, and the way the ball was bobbling around probably not the best tactic. It also rather explained why Samuels come off at half time, as he was not going to get very much out of that pitch [and let's be fair his first touch ball control needs a bit more work]

Fortunately two good pitches to play on for the final, and St Johnstone will be a bit more open, which should help us.

15 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

I believe that you can purchase a NOW TV day pass for under a tenner which gives you 24 hours access to SKY Sports.

Thanks, Kingmills.  I was looking at that yesterday, and as far as I could see, there are no strings attached - no other payments or subscriptions needed.  £5.99 yesterday and today, normally £11.99 - no problem since I've been paying £15 for ICT PPV.  My TV has the NOW TV app, and I have also installed their player on my PC.  Will give it a go early on Friday.

Alternatives are finding a pub (very easy in St Albans, the home of CAMRA) showing the game (not so easy), or inviting myself round to a mate's.  But then I would not be able to make use of the language that I was utilising on Friday, mostly directed at Willie Gollum 

I’ve just been able to watch the game back tonight.

What guts it took to see us through that given the adversity we faced.

I was impressed by the spirit, teamwork and determination watching it at the ground on Friday, but even more so watching it back tonight.

Many teams would have crumbled given the adversity faced but our guys stuck together and encouraged each other through it.

True, we didn’t play a lot of football, but the ground conditions and wind had a hand in that.

I hope justice is (partly) done and we have Devine for Friday’s game.

We can still dream!!