[Mel Hutchwright]

Words kind of fail me to be honest. This was a total shambles and if anything the scoreline is flattering to us.

First things first, Forfar thoroughly deserved the win as they looked far more up for it and quite frankly were easily the better side. Hope those Loons that were contemplating not going read what myself and other Lichties had to say about how poor we've been lately and had a change of heart.

However, that was a frankly unnaceptably poor performance from us and the ony reason we managed to score 3 goals was due, to a greater and lesser extent, to Forfars defensive shortcomings and a moment of idiocy from their keeper. Beyond that we offered next to nothing.

The second half performance was simply fucking dreadful and I'm at a loss as to what's happened to our defence this season. McCulloch's been a big loss, but how our central defence has gone from being arguably the best in the division last season, to the nervous looking accident waiting to happen of this season is somewhat baffling. Possibly the fact they no longer have Peat behind them is one factor. There simply failing to do the basics like clearing there lines.

Once we'd gone 3-2 up it looks like JMcG decided we should try and just hold onto this lead, and we sat back and invited Forfar to come at us for the majority of the half. With inevitable consequences. We've been stung by attempting this more than once and I wish he'd learn from his mistakes.

I'm still confident that McGlashan is the right manager for us, although there's a growing body of the support who'll disagree, but things have to improve quickly as it's not been good enough in recent weeks. This result has undoudtedly been coming because we don't look a very good side at the moment and the lengthy unbeaten run was, to some extent, papering over the cracks.

[farflung lichtie]

Mel Hutchwright, on Dec 1 2007, 20:48, said:

Words kind of fail me to be honest. This was a total shambles and if anything the scoreline is flattering to us.

..
I'm still confident that McGlashan is the right manager for us, although there's a growing body of the support who'll disagree, but things have to improve quickly as it's not been good enough in recent weeks. This result has undoudtedly been coming because we don't look a very good side at the moment and the lengthy unbeaten run was, to some extent, papering over the cracks.

We managed to make Forfar look good. It looked like we were facing into the strong winds in both halves we were that clueless. And what was that - one shot second half with the wind?. With Scott going off, we have no attacking threat and so with a flimsy midfield and shaky defence there's not much going for us right now. Confidence is low.

I'm counting on a bad spell of winter weather to see us through till the tide turns

[GoodyWoody]

farflung lichtie, on Dec 2 2007, 05:43, said:

We managed to make Forfar look good.

I tell you from Forfar's performance against us a couple of weeks ago this must have taken some doing!!

[Radford]

How is Neil McCallum getting on at Forfar? I see he's yet to get off the mark in terms of goals, is he contributing much though?

[edinlichtie]

Forfar @ 13/2 pre-kick-off... Match fix anyone?!

[Captain Kerthorse]

*wibble*

[loon]

edinlichtie, on Dec 2 2007, 10:53, said:

Forfar @ 13/2 pre-kick-off... Match fix anyone?!

Nah Arbroath were just shite.

[Captain Kerthorse]

Money = Stealing.....

Talking of Money Loon, have you been settled up with yet

[55022]

Arbroath didnt create anything we gifted them there 3 goals.

Hopefully this will kick start our season.

[Mel Hutchwright]

farflung lichtie, on Dec 2 2007, 05:43, said:

It looked like we were facing into the strong winds in both halves we were that clueless. And what was that - one shot second half with the wind?............Confidence is low.

That's the most damning thing about that second half debacle That was a pretty strong wind we had at our backs but, not only did we fail to take advantage of it, but our performance deteriorated dramatically from the none too impressive level we set in the first half. Barring Brazil's long range effort, no one else was prepared to have a pop which is just ridiculous. Watson's never usually shy at having a go, with fairly eratic results granted, but I wonder if all the vitriol directed at him from the terraces in recent weeks has got to him and he's now reluctant to do so.

As you say, confidence looks shot and the management team are going to have to do something about this quickly, otherwise we really do look like we could nosedive down the table.

[farflung lichtie]

Talking of wind... it's been a strange quirk of Arbroath history that, despite being at home, they have over the years, been very poor in knowing how to use it. Visiting teams seem to catch on quickly.

I would even venture to say that more goals are generally scored by teams playing INTO the wind than with the wind behind them. In the latter case, they seem to overrun the forwards too easily.

[Lichtielegend]

If our manager and team showed the same kind of courage and determination that Forfar's did yesterday, we'd still be challenging for the title.

Can only say well done Forfar. At half time, I thought we'd go on to win comfortably, but we were outplayed in the 2nd half.

Again, it shows how toothless we are in attack without Bryan Scott.

[Lichtielegend]

Insight, on Dec 2 2007, 21:24, said:

Honest question...............i remember dundee game being off years back at new year and me and a couple of mates went to see arbroath away to montrose - i must admit i was a tad shcoked at the venom between the 2 sets of fans and indeed there was fighting amongst young lads after the game........is arbroath's big game v monstorse and what is the rvialry like between arbroath, forfar, brechin (is this forfar's big game?) and montrose?

For Arbroath it goes;

Montrose
Forfar
Brechin

Brechin games are barely a derby and the Forfar games are generally mild.

I think Brechin's main derby is Montrose too, although I can't be sure.