SimonLichtie

It is definitely worth people bearing in mind that all of the 'must win' games last season were called wrongly by those who said they were. None of them were must win games, as proved by the fact we stayed up. I think it unlikely, but there's still a chance people could again be proved wrong this season

I would say that one other person definitely did see it - and that's Colin Hamilton. I didn't see anything myself, but Hammy clearly did and was immediately over having a go at someone opposite me. I've no idea if it did or did not happen, but it's worth keeping in mind Dick isn't the only one who thinks it did. I actually take much more issue with the second part of what he says in terms of us basically not begging him to stay on as our manager. That's really quite a wild take and only appeals to those outside of the Arbroath bubble in Scottish football. To say he wanted the chairman to come out publically and basically give him free reign regardless of how the rest of the campaign panned out is absurd. We weren't even halfway through the season! A year prior to his departure when we were initially struggling after our miracle season that would've been much more understandable and he had more than enough credit in the bank at that point. At the stage he resigned he was running on empty, incredible he'd want the chairman to come out and publically back him to continue for at least another year or whatever at that point! I think Dick deserves a lot more respect than he gets from a lot of our fans for all that he achieved at the club, however he's never been a person I've warmed too. He's always embellished and exaggerated things whenever possible in his usual cheeky chappy way, and it's pissed me off since the mid 00s while he's managed both for and against us. This won't be the last time Dick references being hard done by or similar comments when it comes to ourselves, and it shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone to hear him say as much.

Social media..... My personal opinion is that our social media output could be massively improved through having a basic hierarchical structure in place that would benefit everyone, allow the club to actually post more content than ever and allow the fans/ community to be much more streamlined in seeing the content they're interested in. Taking Facebook as an example..... You have Arbroath FC - our official and number 1 page Structurally, you then have other pages for things like Arbroath Archive, Arbroath FC Woman, Arbroath FC Shop, Arbroath FC Community Trust and any other offshoots you want to have/ that are put in place in the future. The archive/ woman's page, club shop, community trust pages post all their own content, and obviously anyone can like and follow these pages if they wish to do so. This allows these offshoots to post as much content as they wish, without the main Arbroath FC Facebook having posts being made every hour or two. The Arbroath FC Facebook then reposts/ shares some of these. I.e - the womans team can do live updates for their games on their page, and anyone interest will follow the page, and see all of these on their feed. The Arbroath FC Facebook page shares a post the day before the game about where/ when it will take place, and on the day the page then again shares the full time result/ comments. These two posts keep people informed without overloading them with it, and if they want further updates they can follow the Woman's page. The same goes for the club shop - there can be daily posts on their page, even becoming more personalised with more photos of happy customers etc. while the official page focus on just sharing some of the posts relating to new merchandise/ stock currently on sale. This would enable the official Facebook page to continue to post a variety of things relating to the mens team, womans team, merchandise, our history, the community trust etc. without overloading things, and for people who wishes to have multiple posts everyday specifically about merch or whatever can follow that page. Overall we would have more content than ever going onto social media, but with it being seen by those who wish to see it, and not seen by those who don't wish too. The official page would still keep everyone updated with the bigger things happening in each of these areas without overkill and while in the shorter term it would take some work to get people liking/ seeing what they wanted too, in the medium/ longer term we would end up seeing our social media output grow both in terms of output and in terms of interaction in my opinion. If we want to really build up certain areas of the club we have to keep pushing content to those who want it, but we need to make sure we're pushing the right content to the right people. If 500 people see a post about something, and 100 are interested/ find it useful but 400 don't, there's a problem there. If you can post the same post on an offshoot page, still have it seen by those 100 who are interested but not on the feed of the 400 who aren't, then the problem is solved.

Couple of off field things which are obviously sitting poorly with some fans - firstly, Always Arbroath... I understand initial worries from people, but it only takes a minute to look at our publically available accounts to see that the vast majority of worries are completely unfounded. I've no idea why anyone is talking about money troubles etc. for the club..... For the club to be in any sort of difficulty, we'd need to have basically tripled our wage to turnover ratio Our income over the 20 odd months or so hasn't significently dropped, and we've not suddenly added 10k a week to the wage bill over this period. At least one of these scenarios would have to be true to get near any sort of 'financial difficulties' and to have gone from a cash balance of over 1 million at May 2022 to struggling now. Surely the far more logical, sensible reaction is 'oh, the corporate director we have at the club is doing his job'? I'd be far more concerned if one of the presumably higher earning staff members at the club was sitting about doing f**k all thinking 'ach, I've done enough this year financially for the club' I'd be far more concerned! Instead we're still trying to innovate and bring in finances with a scheme that is doing by many other clubs in the country and is nothing new. Having issues with the scheme itself - understandable and totally fine - adding 2+2 together and getting 100 regarding our finances seems to be happening a lot here though.... Personally it's not something I'll be getting involved in, like buying merchandise or a brick in the wall etc - they're not things that interest me personally. I prefer to show my support in person at games and through putting time into things like the archive.... both of them take a significent amount of time and money every year themselves However, everyone is different and some people for a variety of reasons are unable to attend games/ have the time I do and therefore they contribute financially to things like Always Arbroath to do their bit.

The Evening Tele did a some excellent player profiles of our main players during the 1897-98 season, see below:

Ladies football at Gayfield! Alexander Penny profile, 16th Match 1895 A description of the Orion front line in 1895.... Forfarshire Cup finals from 1883 - 1897 December 1896 - the club professional in name, but without the resources of the bigger clubs.

This is very amusing. We're literally one of the most solvent clubs in the entire country FFS

I'm not angry, I'm not disappointed, I'm not even particuarly annoyed at all about losing that. There's absolutely nothing the guys on the park can give further and the current situation we find ourselves in isn't anyones fault. There's no-one to blame, there's no 'how has this happened?' or 'what has gone wrong? etc. its quite simply down to an absurd injury crisis. There's not much point in saying much regarding the injuries as we all know just how ridiculous the situation really is. I guess it's best summarised by a fellow fan joking pre match about how we average two injuries a game and just getting through one without any would be great, and 20 minutes in we've got one guy already off the park and another constantly communicating with the dugout about his ongoing struggles with a niggle who eventually comes off at half time. The thing that got me this evening was the wind. To the surprise of everyone the wind, even at it's worst, was just about playable and it would've had to have been at it's worst for a sustained period of time to have questions asked. The kicker for me was at half time, with things fairly turgid but 0-0 even the wind picks up massively for the second half and we suddenly find ourselves absolutely penned in for 45 minutes. We've had absolutely no luck this season (we had a massive amount in previous years.... what goes around comes around) and this really summed it up. I think if the wind had been as it was in the first half, we probably escape with a 0-0. As it was, within 2 minutes of the second half you could see clear as day it was just going to be us holding on for dear life through no real fault of our own. If we had the majority of our squad available from tomorrow, I really do believe we'd have as good a chance as Queen's Park and Ayr of staying up. Unfortunately we're massively hindered at the moment and by the time we have enough Championship quality players back to full match fitness the season may be over. So many of the injuries we have currently are muscular, and everytime someone comes back or thinks they might be good to go they end up having the same recurring problems. In terms of Saturday, by the looks/ sounds of things we're going to have 11/12 fit players and a couple fit enough to manage the bench and maybe do the last 20 of a game.... The two week break surely has to see us get 3/4 of our injured guys who have minor issues back into the squad..... surely As things stand in my opinion we have 8/9 Championship level players available, 3/4 guys who should be rotation players/ out on loan/ bench players due to age/ stage of their career and another 11 injured with a similar ratio. More than enough players & quality of player to get results in this division, but not with 50% of them unavailable ffs....

I think we're now looking at 6:30 when the ref arrives, 7:15 during warm ups or at latest 8pm abandonment. All utterly useless

Likewise - utterly farcical. I'm now hoping the game is called off before I have to leave Glasgow for Ayr - 6ish, and it's 'just' a 5 hour return trip to Glasgow for nothing.....

Considering the forecast, other games already being called off, the trains being off etc, this absolutely has to be called off by 2:30PM latest tomorrow, which is coincidently the time I need to start travelling at...

@36-0 Maroon May actually be the best man too speak to - he has a whole range of strips he owns and pictures of them which he may be kind enough to share with you

1985-86: 1989: The quality of pics between 1986 and 1990 is just taken from the Arbroath Herald, like the last one in this post, so they're v poor. There are further pictures between 1980 - 86 if needed of decentish quality however

1983-84: 1984-85:

I prefer the term geek I've also no idea what this 'hobby' you refer too is - the Arbroath Archive is job. My day job is really just a side hustle to pay the bills so I can continue with the real work..... Selection of pictures below..... just ask if anything further would help/ a specific kit or whatever.... 1980: 1980-81: 1982-83:

I still fully expect at least 2 players to leave the club this window. The three injuries yesterday make a massive difference, and ultimately we're going to have to go with a really inflated squad up until May due to the longer term injuries. With a squad of 24 definitely at the club and on the wage bill, I suspect we might be 1 in 1 out over the next few weeks - although outs will happen right at the end of the window for obvious reasons.

Currently 'fit' Ali Adams Colin Hamilton (has a broken toe) David Gold (been carrying injury for a wee while, hopefully now cleared up) Darren Lyon Keighan Jacobs Scott Stewart Joao Balde Mark Stowe Adam Mackinnon Kenan Dunnwald-Turan Leighton McIntosh Jay Bird (carrying an injury the past 3/4 weeks, hopefully cleared up now) Kyle Robinson In terms of those who are out, the list from 'could make Ayr game in 10 days' too 'probably done for season' seems to be: Norey - pulled up in training? Murray - pulled up in training? Slater - back soon Gaston - couple of weeks (Welsh can be extended and be bench keeper to cover this) O’Brien - 2-4 weeks?! Delaney - 4-5 weeks?! McKenna - mid to late February Dow - running but still struggling Little - long term Steele - probably season Walker - probably long term/season So 13 'fit', 11 on the definitely injured list (these numbers could easily be considered the other way round, 'only' having a broken toe is considered fit right now ) , one out on loan and one who we don't know if he's still with the club. On that note - my presumption has to be Hylton is still at the club/ contracted. If he isn't and has left, it would be very poor for us not to have acknowledged this with some sort of update. So a squad of 25/26 and struggling to name 11 fit ones to play..... Going by the above - hopefully we'll have 16/17 available in 10 days time which would be relatively okay. Looking at the longer term side of it, our squad of 25/26 is really probably only going to hit a maximum of 20 available players come the end of the campaign, if that.

I'm saying I agree he put in a shift and looked lively. I am disagreeing that he looked likely to score or create a goal, as unfortunately on the half a dozen occasions he had the ball in the final third in the second half he either chose the wrong option or delivered a really poor ball into the box. I thought we were much more likely to score from Jay Bird doing something from nothing, McIntosh driving into the box or a midfielder arriving late to get on the end of something, as that is where almost all of our goals have come from outside of Hylton. Putting in a shift/ looking lively is absolutely not equal to looking likely to create/ score a goal. Anyway, hopefully the last comment from me on this for a while Overall today I'm very happy with the point considering the incredible situation we've got injury wise. Ultimately it's no-one's fault at all, it's just a 'shit happens' situation. The sort of injury situation that hits a squad of players 1 season in 50 type thing. If we can just keep ourselves in the mix come the middle of February and hopefully be able to consistently name a solid 17-19 from there then we'll give ourselves a really good chance with the players we have and the attitude they've shown over the past few months. Oddly I feel like come the summer, with the players we've got signed up for next season so far we'll be in as good a position as any of the last few pre-seasons, regardless of the division we're in. It really is unbelievable that we have 24 senior players at the club and literally 50% of them (not a Dick Campbell enhanced figure, the actual figure) are injured. Once you trim that down, we've got a really good squad of 18-19 who can definitely do it at this level, but the bulk of them are the ones out injured Finally - shout out to Keighan Jacobs. He quite clearly cant play more than a 30 minute off the bench role or he ends up fucked and walked all over, but he's shown he can play that fairly specific role for us. He's contributed more in the past 6 weeks performance wise than everything prior combined, a huge improvement. He's also been asked to play far more than the 30 minutes his legs have several times in the past few months due to the lack of numbers and while it's obviously shown in the latter stages of those games, that's certainly not his fault.

No-one's saying he didn't put in a shift and look lively - I'd totally agree with that. I've absolutely no issue with the amount of effort he puts in at all - and I don't think anyone should be having a go at him at all. However the facts are he has played in 22 games this season and scored 0 goals with 0 assists. It's all well and good looking lively and getting on the ball, but if your final ball is consistently poor and you're taking pot shots from 30 yards when others are in better positions it breaks up a lot of our better chances in the final third. All I'm saying is that in an ideal world it would be much better for everyone if he was getting regular game time at a level or two below and building up his confidence while learning the game. It's not his fault he's been chucked in at the deep end at a team scrapping for points four levels above the one he was playing at just last season. It's an absolutely massive jump. With 100 odd appearances in L1 or L2 to learn and adapt his game to the faster pace and sharpness and he could become a Championship player. This would be far better for his development than struggling most weeks for us in a struggling team. If he was playing in L1 or L2 right now and had made 22 appearances, there's no chance he'd not have contributed in terms of goals/ assists wherever he was.

Every single ball into the box was at least 5 yards off - several times he simply skudded it out for a goal kick. I can't believe you'd think the player most likely to score a goal was Mark Stowe, who has 0 goals and 0 assists in 22 matches this season. I don't like picking on individual players, especially in the situation we're currently in, but it's clear as day he's not up to Championship level. Not his fault at all - I'd really like to see him go out on loan to L1 and L2 where the game is a yard slower and he can build up some confidence and learn the many things he needs to at these levels.

April 1891, the Northern League is setup, meaning Arbroath will play league games for the first time. Dundee Our Boys badge, 1891 Alex Keillor and George Bowman of Montrose represent Scotland in 1892 - the only two Montrose players to do so: A poem written in the local paper prior to a cup final played in 1892. 1893-94 season record - a good year for the Lichties!

January 1887 - Ned Doig becomes the first and only player to be picked for Scotland while an Arbroath player A slightly odd sentence from the 1886-87 season regarding one of our players making love to a young damsel on a train back from an away game in Glasgow.... A review of our team that that lost the Forfarshire Charity Cup Final to Forfar in April 1888. A slightly odd ditty that appeared in the paper prior to the Forfarshire Cup final against Strathmore of Dundee that season; the game ended with a 10-2 win for ourselves. Our record for the 1887-88 season as published in the Evening Tele in May 1888. Probably our second best season of the 1800s, although difficult to say with so many of the games being friendlies. We won the Forfarshire Cup easily, got to the Scottish Cup Quarter Finals and lost the Forfarshire Charity Cup Final. February 1889 - an article detailing how Ned Doig got on in the trials for the Scottish national team trials.

There's not that many numbers between 22 and 24/ 25!

While it absolutely warms my heart everytime I see Eednud reguarly posting material from the Arbroath Archive (please continue to do so my good man, the more people who see and enjoy the archive the better ) it does make me feel like I should get my finger out my arse and make some further posts on this thread myself. It was after all this thread and a few other things that made me start looking into our history and creating our club archive.... Over the next wee while I'll try to post up the more interesting bits and pieces from our history that aren't on our archive as they don't quite fit anywhere currently... Mainly newspaper cuttings etc. from 1878 up until WW2. So, on 22nd July 1878 a meeting was held in the towns George Hotel, and low and behold a football club was formed! A summary of our first season as a club, taken from the AGM report in the summer of 1879. After our initial first home game was played at Woodville, the rest of the home games in our first two seasons were played on land at Hospitalfield. In late summer 1880 Gayfield was ready and the club played there until 1925 when 'Greater Gayfield' was built and the pitch moved to allow for a bigger ground. In 1882 the Forfarshire Football Association was formed: The famous Queen's Park were booked to play at Gayfield for the first time in 1884. The game ended up being played on 22nd May, and Queen's visited Gayfield around the time of the Queen's birthday for the next five years. Our fixture list for February - March - April 1885. Details of the post match reception given to Queen's Park after our game in 1885: A fixture card from the paper in August 1885: That'll do for now

It really is this simple. I've obviously no issue with anyone who thinks we'd be better off having a squad of less quality but more bulked out, it's a perfectly fine opinion to have. The main point I'm trying to make is that I think people don't seem to realise the knock on effect having a bigger squad has on the quality of player in the regular starting 11. It's a trade off and all about finding the right balance, but you can't have it both ways. Two or three quality first team regulars will win you more points over the course of a season than having a load of guys sitting about doing nothing the majority of the time, in my opinion.