The Arbroath Thread

[b ross]

6 hours ago, SimonLichtie said:

Good news! We now have an online archive containing our entire history! The archive is now fully live and can be found here; Arbroath Archive. Below gives a rough idea of what we've got on there:

·  A record of every game we've played from 1878 until present day, with over 6400 total games in total, with game date (teams, subs, scorers, ref etc) where known, and highlights for modern day games

·  A match report for every almost every game with thousands of old reports from the Arbroath Herald & Arbroath Guide and dozens of other sources, as well as fan reports from the old arbroathfc.org.uk website for our games in the 90s and early 00s

·  A profile for every player who has played for the club containing their full playing record for the club as well as player info, a picture where we have it and a biography

·  Our all-time player appearance records, goalscorer records and clean sheet records

·  Hundreds of pictures, programme covers, a managerial timeline, hat trick heroes and lots more!

As well as the site itself, we will be looking to keep our social media pages fairly active with regular posts on a whole host of things, such as 'Guess the Player', 'On This Day', 'Did You Know?' etc. as well as hopefully further articles/ interviews in the future.

We have a fantastic history as a football club, and I'm delighted we have our full records online for all to see and hope the social media channels will help bring some wonderful stories of players, matches etc. to you all over the coming months/ years. If anyone wants to get involved or has any material they think we should have on the site it'd be great to hear from them.

It'd be great if people we're able to share the site/ social media posts on their own online profiles to get things out there. Any and all questions/ contributions/ ideas etc. are welcomed and very much encouraged  

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[Fraser210]

If any fellow lichties are looking for something to do on their free Saturday, you could always come and see Lochee United play. They are at home, I've been to a couple of their games now and Bobby is always really appreciative. It's £6 for adults, £3 for concession. Would be nice to see a few groups of Arbroath fans to cheer him on. He said he's coming to our game on Friday.

[JoseMarooniho]

5 hours ago, Tattie36 said:

Ace. Able to relive the details of this shambles. 4-2 up with 8 minutes to go only to lose 4-5.

I remember (at 4-4) the feeling of dread when Watty Boyd went galloping up the pitch in slow motion to try and salvage the win only to lose the ball at the half way line and Roberts ran on to smash it past Balfour. Then the feeling of disbelief when the final whistle blew.

Some games just stick in your memory, normally the disasters. The Partick cup game when they were down to 8 and still won or the Cowdenbeath game in ‘93 when we were 2-0 up going into injury time and it ended 2-2.

Great stuff.

 

I mind these 3 calamities pretty well. Interesting that the Cowden one (Diver scored I recall) lives on in someone else’s head too. 
This site is outstanding Simon, thank you. 

[36-0 Maroon]

3 hours ago, Tattie36 said:

It was something else. It was back in the days of when me and my brothers would get the bus down to games from Aberdeen.

The 2 hour journey home on the slow coast bus was particularly depressing (pretty regular back then) - soaked and pissed off. We would normally have a few beers back in Aberdeen but I think that was a straight home job.

Looking back on games like those really puts where we are now into perspective.

It’s honestly crazy how 30 years later I still totally  remember it like it was yesterday, It was honestly like a scene from Harry Potter  

One minute all sunny and abody happy we were 4-2 up then the skies turning pure black with dementors lol  and it totally pissing down with torrential rain and losing them 3 goals sucking the energy & happiness  out the ground, Was a total nightmare and I’ve never seen my dad like that. The walk home was so sad

[Tattie36]

5 minutes ago, 36-0 Maroon said:

It’s honestly crazy how 30 years later I still totally  remember it like it was yesterday, It was honestly like a scene from Harry Potter  

One minute all sunny and abody happy we were 4-2 up then the skies turning pure black with dementors lol  and it totally pissing down with torrential rain and losing them 3 goals sucking the energy & happiness  out the ground, Was a total nightmare and I’ve never seen my dad like that. The walk home was so sad

I think there was just a stunned silence at the end of the game. The players just stood in the middle of the pitch trying to understand what had just happened.

Like you, I remember it vividly. Arbroath actually played really well and scored 4 but could have been about 8. Had loads of chances and dominated the game but just fell to pieces when they scored their third.

I really wish games were recorded back then as it would have been something to be able to watch it back.

[Broken Algorithms]

9 hours ago, ExiledLichtie said:

Was browsing through the archives (this is an absolute wonder of a resource), and amazingly, there is a list of every signing made by managers.  For all we complain about last year's transfer business, nothing, absolutely nothing can top John Brownlie's  signings.  Jim Gardner?  Steven Fallon?  Innes Ritchie?  Craig Feroz?  Andy Dow?  I can't even remember some of the others, they were obviously purged from my memory.  I apologise for any criticism of our current management's signings.  I have a new perspective now.

 

 

Ah Paul Browne. The halcyon days of the early 2000s...

[clashcityrocker]

Any rumours or updates on a possible left back - it's all went a little quiet.

Guessing that Mulgrew won't be signing ?

[1320Lichtie]

8 minutes ago, clashcityrocker said:

Any rumours or updates on a possible left back - it's all went a little quiet.

Guessing that Mulgrew won't be signing ?

Don’t think Mulgrew ever was but think the MacDonald thing is probably not happening now - will still be looking though. 

[SimonLichtie]

15 hours ago, ExiledLichtie said:

Was browsing through the archives (this is an absolute wonder of a resource), and amazingly, there is a list of every signing made by managers.  For all we complain about last year's transfer business, nothing, absolutely nothing can top John Brownlie's  signings.  Jim Gardner?  Steven Fallon?  Innes Ritchie?  Craig Feroz?  Andy Dow?  I can't even remember some of the others, they were obviously purged from my memory.  I apologise for any criticism of our current management's signings.  I have a new perspective now.

 

This is my childhood.  It also features our worst ever run of 11 straight defeats. 

Part of that run included the following:

25/02/2003 - Last minute winner for Alloa.

01/03/2003 - Winning 1-0 in 89th minute, lose 2-1.

04/03/2003 - Lose second goal to end game in the last minute.

08/03/2003 - Last minute winner for St Johnstone.

15/03/2003 - 1-0 up with 23 minutes to play, lose 3-1.

Three weeks later we played St. Mirren at Love Street, got awarded a penalty in the last minute to equalise. Andy Dow, who had been taking pelters all game from the St. Mirren support, decided to step up and take it instead of regular taker John Cusick. He missed. We lost 1-0.

5 hours ago, Broken Algorithms said:

Ah Paul Browne. The halcyon days of the early 2000s...

[Tattie36]

28 minutes ago, SimonLichtie said:

This is my childhood.  It also features our worst ever run of 11 straight defeats. 

Part of that run included the following:

25/02/2003 - Last minute winner for Alloa.

01/03/2003 - Winning 1-0 in 89th minute, lose 2-1.

04/03/2003 - Lose second goal to end game in the last minute.

08/03/2003 - Last minute winner for St Johnstone.

15/03/2003 - 1-0 up with 23 minutes to play, lose 3-1.

Three weeks later we played St. Mirren at Love Street, got awarded a penalty in the last minute to equalise. Andy Dow, who had been taking pelters all game from the St. Mirren support, decided to step up and take it instead of regular taker John Cusick. He missed. We lost 1-0.

That second season in L1 (second tier) was awful. Only won 3 all season and ended on 15 points. Did really well the previous season and I remember being positive about the new season but that didn’t last long.

[36-0 Maroon]

13 hours ago, Tattie36 said:

I think there was just a stunned silence at the end of the game. The players just stood in the middle of the pitch trying to understand what had just happened.

Like you, I remember it vividly. Arbroath actually played really well and scored 4 but could have been about 8. Had loads of chances and dominated the game but just fell to pieces when they scored their third.

I really wish games were recorded back then as it would have been something to be able to watch it back.

yeah it might give my dad some closure to watch it back but your right it should have been about 8 or 10 before the dreaded rain hit. My dad seems to recall though the Arbroath Herald the following week printing the headline BalFOUR blunders as Lichties suffer late collapse  blaming him for the loss and then his dad (Derek’s) marching down to the herald offices for a punch up with the reporters accusing them of slander and false accusations ️

[Tattie36]

39 minutes ago, 36-0 Maroon said:

yeah it might give my dad some closure to watch it back but your right it should have been about 8 or 10 before the dreaded rain hit. My dad seems to recall though the Arbroath Herald the following week printing the headline BalFOUR blunders as Lichties suffer late collapse  blaming him for the loss and then his dad (Derek’s) marching down to the herald offices for a punch up with the reporters accusing them of slander and false accusations ️

interestingly, my older brother used to go out with Balfour’s sister before we moved to Aberdeen. Pretty sure they used to “babysit” young Derek. If only my brother had advised him to give up goal keeping at a young age, or at least hid his gloves.

He wasn’t a great keeper tbf but I don’t think he could be blamed solely for such a capitulation. Personally, I was furious with him and Wattie Boyd but it was likely a team effort.

I’ll have to ask my brother if the dad had a hot head.

[afc_36_0]

So i take it we’re starting the season without a left back and only 3 fit(ish) defenders? Pretty happy with the rest of the squad but this is a concern

[Tattie36]

9 minutes ago, afc_36_0 said:

So i take it we’re starting the season without a left back and only 3 fit(ish) defenders? Pretty happy with the rest of the squad but this is a concern

I agree. I can only imagine there are a couple of defensive loans lined up but it’s very concerning going into, who knows how many, league games without a full defence and defensive cover.

[ellichtie]

If Tam is back tomorrow we could feasibly play 3 at the back, although I’m not sure I trust us to play that properly.

[ExiledLichtie]

Just googling through the Arbroath Archive, and I believe this should be Craig Wight rather than Craig White:

https://arbroatharchive.co.uk/player.php?id=410

Yep, still scrolling down memory lane!

[1320Lichtie]

So now the Queens Park fixture has changed our first 3 league games are 

 

Dundee United at home 

Queens Park away 

Queens Park at home

 

A very very tough start… 

[SimonLichtie]

16 minutes ago, ExiledLichtie said:

Just googling through the Arbroath Archive, and I believe this should be Craig Wight rather than Craig White:

https://arbroatharchive.co.uk/player.php?id=410

Yep, still scrolling down memory lane!

No idea what you're talking about, it says Craig Wight and always did so.... 

There will be plenty of wee mistakes here and there I'm sure - would encourage people to point them out like you've done so I can get them corrected  

1 hour ago, 36-0 Maroon said:

yeah it might give my dad some closure to watch it back but your right it should have been about 8 or 10 before the dreaded rain hit. My dad seems to recall though the Arbroath Herald the following week printing the headline BalFOUR blunders as Lichties suffer late collapse  blaming him for the loss and then his dad (Derek’s) marching down to the herald offices for a punch up with the reporters accusing them of slander and false accusations ️

[TheRoundO]

34 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said:

So now the Queens Park fixture has changed our first 3 league games are 

 

Dundee United at home 

Queens Park away 

Queens Park at home

 

A very very tough start… 

Totally ridiculous and unfair for the whole league competition. It’s supposed to be played as 4 quarters and teams’ form can very greatly from one quarter to the next, as we know well. 

[Tattie36]

On 02/08/2023 at 17:04, SimonLichtie said:

Something I'm hoping the social media profiles will be useful for is highlighting some things that, while they are on the archive itself, can easily get lost in amongst everything else. For example, I'd be very surprised if someone stumbled upon the previously unseen 20 minute long highlights of George Best playing at Gayfield for Arbroath Vics against ourselves to celebrate the Vics centenary, but through the wonders of social media I've been able to highlight them on posts on Twitter and Facebook.  Both posts have a link to the highlights, and the Facebook post explains how we got our hands on them

I was there somewhere as a 13 year old. Pretty sure I was behind the goals in much the same spot as I normally stand but may have moved around a bit.

Amazingly Best was only 35 years old then, a bit sad really seeing an all time great reduced to playing exhibition games for a wee bit of £.