Arbroath v Rovers

[pub car king]

On the face of it with our makeshift defence and what was at stake for arbroath a draw is a good result. However it's the season long story of what 18/19? Matches where we've blown the lead in the last quarter of the game. 

Nice for varian to actuly score a goal hopefully he can get another couple by the end of the season. 

Matej is on fire at the moment and I don't know why he never git a run of games until so late in the season.

That's a better result for Kilmarno k than either of the teams in the match and gives them some breathing room. Arbroath need to prepare themselves and get in the right set for the play offs. 

As for us we get string along with false hope for another week at least. 

[Ro Sham Bo]

The usual mixed feelings there. A good result, but it could have been a great result. Having said that we did dig in well that last 20 minutes and deserved a draw I think. 

The way we played wasn't pretty but it was certainly effective and we could have even scored more with a bit of luck. 

Unfortunately we were always going to be toiling with that defensive line up and we just didn't deal with the high ball anywhere near well enough. 

I can't fault any of them for effort though. 

Roll on next Sunday. 

 

[Tattie36]

Scrambled a draw but that was not great no matter how you look at it. Looked pretty comfortable up to Raith's first goal but struggled after that, even when it went to 3-3 Raith looked very dangerous going forward. Our normally rock solid defence was sliced open a few times and if Raith had timed their runs a bit better they would have scored more.

Really, really ugly football from us, Raith tried to keep it on the deck going forward and were using their wingers and trying nice through balls for the forwards to run on to, whereas everyting from us was ultra direct, one dimensional hoofball.

Also - what do Bakare and Ford have to do to get some game time? Surely bringing on a physical player like Ford is more sensible when we're insisting on route one football, as opposed to Linn, Hilson or Donnelly.

And I'm sorry but Antell is just not good enough to be playing in games like that - first goal 100% his fault and looked shaky as hell any time they went forward and got lucky more than once.

With ICT coming onto some good form, second place isn't looking too comfortable. Interestingly, we hadn't conceded 3 goas in a game all season until ICT two weeks ago.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Tattie36

[Sweaty Morph]

On 24/03/2022 at 12:19, Sweaty Morph said:

As an aside, you can still get Arbroath at 11/10 at some bookies.

Just one of the many reasons the bookies love me!

[Paco]

That was a hell of a game. After half an hour you’d think we’d be lucky to get out with a two or three goal defeat, after 65 mins we’re 3-1 up, on 70 mins you’d take a draw…

Raith fucking Rovers.

[Scary Bear]

I fucking hate draws.

I can see why the yanks hate them. 

at 1-3 up I was thinking we may be in with a chance of putting some pressure on Partick Thistle. Not to be. I suppose that given all our centre halves are out, we’ve done well to get a point, but again it’s two points chucked away from a winning position. It just sucks the life out you.

[Hammerafc]

Shame we couldn't have held on, but putting a nail in the Campbells title coffin is quite nice.
Given the players we had out, resorting to long balls all game was a weird one from Arbroath.  We were probably worth the draw in the end.  They looked like a team punching against their weight running out of ideas in terms of the title, but all to play for for them in terms of playoffs.
Point closer to the playoffs, that'll do me.

I couldn't understand the constant route 1 tactics we went for. The ball was never on the ground. Then with 5 minutes left actually brings on some width but the same hopeful punts into the box. So frustrating to watch. I hope Gaston is back next week. Need to get back to playing some football but that's not likely with the Partick pitch.

[Paco]

Today was maybe an exception given the defence we had available but it’s ten goals conceded in our last four matches, with room for a clean sheet too. I think saying ‘well, once we get Berra/Bene/Musonda back we’ll be fine…’ is probably naive.

We played pretty well after the howler let us back in to it. Two really good goals to get us into a strong position and then one of the mad couple of minute spells that we’ve done for the last two or three seasons.

Thomson made a good save in injury time but after 3-3 I thought we were more likely to win it. Not sure how Varian missed a cutback from Stanton and two very narrow looking offsides when we were in on goal.

The big number 99 is what we’ve lacked all season eh?

[timlichtie]

I couldn't understand the constant route 1 tactics we went for. The ball was never on the ground. Then with 5 minutes left actually brings on some width but the same hopeful punts into the box. So frustrating to watch. I hope Gaston is back next week. Need to get back to playing some football but that's not likely with the Partick pitch.

It wasn’t pretty but it played to our strengths with Jack Hamilton winning a lot of headers. The second and third goals came from that.
It’s clear why Gaston has been pivotal in our success this season. Our defence lost all confidence after the first Raith goal.

[Ding Dang Doo]

Many times I've said it. Nothing to do with us being unable to score goals this season. Our defending, bar a nice spell when Berra and Lang got a wee partnership going, all season has been embarrassing at times.

Time and time again we've shown that we just can't deal with any pressure and our endings to games are poor. That comes down to management and it won't change until McGlynn and Smith are away.

[SirJimmyofNic]

4 minutes ago, Ding Dang Doo said:

Many times I've said it. Nothing to do with us being unable to score goals this season. Our defending, bar a nice spell when Berra and Lang got a wee partnership going, all season has been embarrassing at times.

Time and time again we've shown that we just can't deal with any pressure and our endings to games are poor. That comes down to management and it won't change until McGlynn and Smith are away.

I reluctantly have to agree

[pub car king]

I think we should have a look the midfield for the leaky defence. Regardless of the various permitations played in defence we have shipped goals. Although not an exact science the midfield has been more settled. 

I think this is another impact of losing Regan Hendry. If you have control of the middle there is a lot less pressure on the defence.  

[Tattie36]

13 minutes ago, timlichtie said:

It wasn’t pretty but it played to our strengths with Jack Hamilton winning a lot of headers. The second and third goals came from that.
It’s clear why Gaston has been pivotal in our success this season. Our defence lost all confidence after the first Raith goal.

As I said further up the thread, Antell was terrible. I watched on tv and and he was panicking every time they attacked which, as you say, projects onto the defence. The first goal he should have lauched it into the North Sea, nothing he could do about the third but he got very lucky on a few occasions. I know this is a bold statement but we would have won that today if Gaston was playing, even at "only" 99% fitness, as Dick said he was pre match.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Tattie36

[Michael W]

I can't be the only one thinking that hoofing it at a makeshift defence isn't a terrible idea? McKay, Mackie and Dick are nowhere near Berra or Bene in the air and will struggle. It's not pleasing on the eye, but it can be effective. 

Objectively, that's a good result, but what we really needed today was the win. 3rd is gone, but we had the chance to level on points with Partick and couldn't take it. 5 to go, 2 behind Partick and 5 ahead of Hamilton. I know the circumstances today were crap, but to be 3-1 up and not win is disappointing. Throwing away leads has however been the recurring theme of our season so, so it is unfortunately not a surprise. 

Coming back to Inverness being six clear of us - they were as bad as we were until recently, but back-to-back wins turned it around and they now look secured. That is quite literally all we had to do these last three months and we too would have been well placed; It really is so frustrating. 

[grumswall]

11 minutes ago, Ding Dang Doo said:

Many times I've said it. Nothing to do with us being unable to score goals this season. Our defending, bar a nice spell when Berra and Lang got a wee partnership going, all season has been embarrassing at times.

Time and time again we've shown that we just can't deal with any pressure and our endings to games are poor. That comes down to management and it won't change until McGlynn and Smith are away.

Tactically, pushing our lb and rb on is one of the reasons our defense is so poor. I thought we looked alot more solid last week until we were forced in to putting tumilty on the park just due to frankie not being as attack minded. He wasn't caught out of position, leaving a massive gap that bene then needed to cover. Without hendry this season we haven't had someone who will sit from midfield allowing our back two (when the fullbacks push on) to become a 3. Mcglynn has tried to play that way this season without the personal to do it. It worked at the start of the season because we had the attacking players linking up well and scoring goals but once that dried up, our inefficiencies where laid bare. 

 

I didn't watch the game today as it was a good day to get out with the wee one but I'm happy with a point with the defence we had available. Hopefully we have more defenders available for next week and gullan injury isn't too serious. 

[afc_36_0]

Poor game in terms of quality, good battling performance from both sides which made it exciting near the end

[keptie]

A helter skelter of a game, first 25 mins we could've had it won then lost a bad goal and struggled the rest of the half. When it went 1-3 it looked over but we came right back and could've won it. Can't fault the effort of both teams but a draw not what either teams was needing.

A shout out to the Rovers neds, christ it was like being back in the seventies.

[Hammerafc]

It wasn’t pretty but it played to our strengths with Jack Hamilton winning a lot of headers. The second and third goals came from that.
It’s clear why Gaston has been pivotal in our success this season. Our defence lost all confidence after the first Raith goal.

I don't think that's our strength personally. The 2nd goal did come from that but the 3rd was a cross not a long punt.

[baillieinleeds]

1 hour ago, CALDERON said:

You must be gutted that we got a result today.  

From 1-3 up to 3-3 aye that’s a great result

[baillieinleeds]

21 minutes ago, keptie said:

A helter skelter of a game, first 25 mins we could've had it won then lost a bad goal and struggled the rest of the half. When it went 1-3 it looked over but we came right back and could've won it. Can't fault the effort of both teams but a draw not what either teams was needing.

A shout out to the Rovers neds, christ it was like being back in the seventies.

You have thee best avatar ever.