The Arbroath Thread

[glasgowlichtie23]

42 minutes ago, KeptieKyle said:

Nae at all surprised. Wrong (cheap) decision to give the job to gold and hammy. Nae a feckin clue  leaves us in a ropey spot in the table to say the least

f**k are you talking about hahahaha

[1320Lichtie]

36 minutes ago, keptie said:

It was like at half time the Dumbarton players had had a right gee up from their management and our players had a fifteen minute nap and were still half asleep when we kicked off again

Aye it was a pretty bizarre start to the second half that. Today was terrible 

 

Do not want to over think that one because I thought we were absolutely cruising for a spell and looked good but second best second half today by far 

 

Kind of think we might struggle if teams play like that against us, almost be better if teams had a go too with how we play - anyway 3 wins from last 4 league games - perspective 

3 minutes ago, glasgowlichtie23 said:

f**k are you talking about hahahaha

Not checked the table but are we not like 4 points off top now. This league is wild. Think Caley and Annan will be sitting in the bottom 2 spots come end of season and the other 8 teams could end up anywhere. Still fancy us for top 4 though. A lot to like but a lot of questions too

[ellichtie]

Not to bring the Facebook gimps onto here but I’ve seen some absolutely wild takes on that page but this one has to be one of the maddest I’ve ever seen. 

“Are the players in a huff with him due to the televised cove rangers game?”

[A.K. Barr]

whoever at the club decides to segregate these game needs to give their head a wobble. it effects the “fan experience”  ITS f**kING SHIT AT HOME, AT GAYFIELD, TO GIVE UP 1/4 OF YOUR GROUND, TO NOT SEE YOUR TEAM SHOOT BOTH WAYS TO ACCOMMODATE 50 MAXIMUM AWAY FANS ABSOLUTELY NO NEED. And I fully believe it is detrimental to the team.  We struggle shooting that way when we aren’t behind the goals. 
 

But aye we were pish today and deserved nowt. 

[RedLichtie86]

I counted about 70 away fans in the terracing just as the 2nd half kicked off.

And another 30 or so in the stand.

[glasgowlichtie23]

5 minutes ago, ellichtie said:

Not to bring the Facebook gimps onto here but I’ve seen some absolutely wild takes on that page but this one has to be one of the maddest I’ve ever seen. 

“Are the players in a huff with him due to the televised cove rangers game?”

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha

“No one feeding him because of the televised cove game” what the f**k does that even mean

[keptie]

5 minutes ago, glasgowlichtie23 said:

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha

“No one feeding him because of the televised cove game” what the f**k does that even mean

Think she means he stole all the limelight away from the rest of the team that game which made his team mates jealous, strange way to think but there you go. Football fans..........mental 

[RedLichtie86]

Today was a performance full of so many faults. From front to back.

First half we looked good up until we scored. After that we were on the back foot and struggled.

Bisland and Smith were under constant pressure and both made multiple positional faultd that led to attacks down their side. On the other Wilkie was pushing forward and either making bad passes, getting tackled or just out of position when Dumbarton broke forward. And far too often there was no one in front of him to help.

Gold struggled in the middle and Flynn was wasteful. 

Stewart was a big threat down the right but he needs to sometimes take that extra touch, take his time to pick out a player to pass/cross too. First half he cut the ball back 4 or 5 times into the box but each time it either hit a Dumbarton player or went behind Reilly.

Reilly left on his own for large periods of the game and constantly had 2 defenders on top of him and made their job so easy. With no AM close enough and in between the Dumbarton defence and midfield then they didnt have to worry about a players late run in.

Taylor and Dow CANNOT play in the same team as they both do the same thing. Drift out of position and get drawn to the ball. The attacking shape is all disjointed which left Wilkie playing the entire left side by himself at times.

Dow at one point was next to ToB trying to get the ball as he just kepf following it about. If he is the AM behind Reilly he needed to be much closer to support him. But he was either 5 yards further back or out wide where the ball was played in from.

Taylor at LW constantly drifting in but dropping back and not offering enough of a threat from the left.

I will say that Taylor had some great passes in the first half and it would have been better if he was in middle of the park making quick forward passes. Rather than Flynn or Dow getting the ball and taking 3 weeks to decide where to pass too.

Dumbarton did knew exactly how to beat us as Bisland/Smith was a weak point especially after Stewart had pushed forward. Our team selection just made life so much easier for Dumbarton.

[ExiledLichtie]

I think this is where watching 20 or so years of lower league failure stands people in good stead.  Gives you a bit of perspective.

Edited Saturday at 18:22 by ExiledLichtie

[afc_36_0]

Unfortunately as our support has grown over the years so have the amount of absolute wallopers that don’t have a clue about the game. Today was a massive off day where nobody seemed to be on their game, gold and hammy will know this and hopefully address the issues and bounce back next week.

[DUAFC]

Total lack of leadership to be seen anywhere today. 

Deserved nothing out of that match 

[1320Lichtie]

31 minutes ago, RedLichtie86 said:

Today was a performance full of so many faults. From front to back.

First half we looked good up until we scored. After that we were on the back foot and struggled.

Bisland and Smith were under constant pressure and both made multiple positional faultd that led to attacks down their side. On the other Wilkie was pushing forward and either making bad passes, getting tackled or just out of position when Dumbarton broke forward. And far too often there was no one in front of him to help.

Gold struggled in the middle and Flynn was wasteful. 

Stewart was a big threat down the right but he needs to sometimes take that extra touch, take his time to pick out a player to pass/cross too. First half he cut the ball back 4 or 5 times into the box but each time it either hit a Dumbarton player or went behind Reilly.

Reilly left on his own for large periods of the game and constantly had 2 defenders on top of him and made their job so easy. With no AM close enough and in between the Dumbarton defence and midfield then they didnt have to worry about a players late run in.

Taylor and Dow CANNOT play in the same team as they both do the same thing. Drift out of position and get drawn to the ball. The attacking shape is all disjointed which left Wilkie playing the entire left side by himself at times.

Dow at one point was next to ToB trying to get the ball as he just kepf following it about. If he is the AM behind Reilly he needed to be much closer to support him. But he was either 5 yards further back or out wide where the ball was played in from.

Taylor at LW constantly drifting in but dropping back and not offering enough of a threat from the left.

I will say that Taylor had some great passes in the first half and it would have been better if he was in middle of the park making quick forward passes. Rather than Flynn or Dow getting the ball and taking 3 weeks to decide where to pass too.

Dumbarton did knew exactly how to beat us as Bisland/Smith was a weak point especially after Stewart had pushed forward. Our team selection just made life so much easier for Dumbarton.

I think Taylor and Dow can play in the same team, but only if there is an option out on the left. If there was only one sitter in central midfield I think it could work well in a 4-1-4-1
 

Taylor on the left hand side of the 3 though like today just lead to him coming inside all the time leaving acres out on the left 

[lichtiekev]

I was happy with the starting 11 today, but ultimately it didn't work, Need to be mote positive and forward thinking, especially In home games, Far to slow on the build up and far to many players in the middle of the park, 

Funny how the majority of the support seen this but management didn't,

When Gold went off we were getting beat, the sub to make was Couslon, 

Frustrating day

[SimonLichtie]

Club wise - we're grown massively over the past decade, with our average home crowd being double what it was when we were mid table at this level. This is fantastic and it's comical to me that people talk about the club being on a 'downward trend' etc. However as mentioned it comes with a load of expectation and a lack of experience of what the majority of the time is like supporting a part time football club in Scotland..... at least 50% of the games are a total grind and if you're expecting to be entertained, it isn't going to happen anywhere close to as often as is expected. Playing Dundee/ Dundee Utd etc regularly in league fixtures is what happens for a purple patch in history, playing against teams like Dumbarton, Stenhousemuir and Alloa in slugfests with minimal quality in the game is how it is for clubs like ourselves for the majority of the time. The Inverness game was hardly enthralling - simply an even game decided by a bit of quality in our favour, today we lacked that quality and made some poor mistakes among other things in another game lacking in quality in general.

Football wise - we've won 3 out of our last 4 league games, and while today was poor, especially second half, it'd take another performance or two like that in the coming games to make it a run as opposed to a singular poor performance. How we react in the next game is very important.

I've no idea why people are talking about Taylor - he had a poor game and positioning he struggled. Quite clearly when we made subs he would be one of the first people to be taken off in order to give us more width. The reaction to things not working for him today has to be for him to play a different role, or drop out, for the next game. I think the line up today is close to our starting 11, with Spalding in place of Goldy who has clearly struggled on the park since becoming manager off it, and with Taylor playing a different role and staying wider or dropping out for Murray. I like Quinn Coulson, but I prefer him coming off the bench and changing a game tactically than starting. Subs wise I didn't disagree with a huge amount today - however having Slater and Flynn on the park at the same time is a big no-no for me unless our hand is forced. They both play the same role - it seems very obvious to me that in our midfield three we essentially have the options as follows:

Flynn/ Slater

Gold/ Spalding

Dow/ Gallagher

One of those two plays each position (for me that's Flynn, Spalding when fit and Dow/ Gallagher time will tell when Gall is fully fit). You can't ever have a midfield with these combinations mixed up - Flynn/ Slater are the sitter/ option to take the ball off the defence short, Gold/ Spalding are the energy and Dow/ Gallagher are meant to be more creative/ late runs into the box/ play off the front man. Essentially we had a situation where we had two sitters on the pitch in a game we were chasing a goal in, leading them to play in areas that aren't their game.

In terms of the above, we need to work out where Taylor fits in. He's obviously not the 6, I don't think he's got the defensive awareness to be the 8 and Dow/ Gallagher play the 10 and are both good players. Can we get him in out wide and working, does he have the defensive awareness to play ahead of Spalding if he's injured still next week or could he come into the 10 role? I wouldn't like to see Dow or Gallagher out wide....

 

 

 

[ecto]

8 minutes ago, lichtiekev said:

I was happy with the starting 11 today, but ultimately it didn't work, Need to be mote positive and forward thinking, especially In home games, Far to slow on the build up and far to many players in the middle of the park, 

Funny how the majority of the support seen this but management didn't,

When Gold went off we were getting beat, the sub to make was Couslon, 

Frustrating day

Tbf, think Dumbarton figured us out, the managers need to learn from this

and yes Coulson for Goldie might have made a difference, but hindsight is 20/20

[lichtie23]

5 hours ago, KeptieKyle said:

Nae at all surprised. Wrong (cheap) decision to give the job to gold and hammy. Nae a feckin clue  leaves us in a ropey spot in the table to say the least

4 points off top?

[mo83]

Had you boys down for a win and ye f**ked my coupon 2 up and the lichties f**ked it for 3/3...Always next week a suppose.

Also how did big Sena play in the middle of the park for Dumbarton? Absolutely bossed it when we played a few weeks ago....Very good player.

[DUAFC]

29 minutes ago, mo83 said:

Had you boys down for a win and ye f**ked my coupon

 

Oh well, at least some good came out of today 

[glasgowlichtie23]

1 hour ago, mo83 said:

Had you boys down for a win and ye f**ked my coupon 2 up and the lichties f**ked it for 3/3...Always next week a suppose.

 

Every cloud eh lads 

[mo83]

5 hours ago, DUAFC said:

Oh well, at least some good came out of today 

Hey at least your big team won that's the main thing