Tattie36

Ireland have a much larger pool of players to choose from at every level, they have 4 pro teams to 2 for starters. Scotland have by far the lowest amount of players out of the 6 nations/rugby championship teams. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more players in countries like Romania and Portugal than here.

The only people to blame for this are the powers that be at the SRU. When professionalism came in you could argue that Scotland were in a stronger position than Ireland. However complete mismanagement, tiny, old fashioned thinking l, and the insistence of putting everything into two pro teams, a minuscule pool of players and foreign imports means we are light years behind Ireland now. There’s literally no reason why this couldn’t have been us but that horse bolted 20+ years ago.

Ireland are masters at playing right on the edge of legality, they get away with it because of their current standing in the game. Constantly offside, forward passes, squint line out throws, collapsing scrums, blocking off competition at rucks. It’s very clever and works for them nearly all the time.

Not a bad day for us without kicking a ball. Keeps us clear of the bottom and keeps us in touch at the top.

I remember being at the 1-1 cup game v Aberdeen. My dad got stand tickets for himself, me and my older brother. The first time I’d sat in the stand and the first time I’d been in a proper big crowd at Gayfield. I thought we had a chance in the replay but I think we got pumped 5-0 at Pittodrie . The Ibrox win was my first ever football memory. I remember watching the highlights and my granny’s in Dundee at night. Even as a 5 year old I remember being chuffed that my home town team had won and that it was on the TV.

I think it’s common knowledge with our fans that many of us think he’s lost form of late. Certainly the group I go to games with all think he’s become a bit of a liability at times. The opposition seem to have it sussed too as he seems to be getting directly targeted with long balls over the top and passes in behind. You just have to look at how solid we looked at the back v Airdrie once he went off. However, Ricky is one of the players who has rightly banked an enormous amount of goodwill so it’s difficult to criticise him too much. As lichtie23 says, he should probably be dropped for the Pars game and imo should have to play his way back into the team. As I said earlier, a lack of competition leads to complacency. FWIW I had a message typed out last week suggesting keeping the same back 4 as the Partick game for these reasons but thought better of posting it as didn’t want to come across as being negative or criticising a fans favourite - particularly while on such a great run. Ricky has rarely let us down and I’m sure we all hope he returns to his best form asap.

I agree and the management shouldn’t have changed the defence from the Partick game in the first place. We conceded zero goals in 1.75 games without Little. To then change everything about just to fit him back in was a mistake imo. I think he’s been poor for sometime and perhaps a wee spell on the sideline might be good for him. To add, he’s been one of my favourite Arbroath players for years so this is definitely not a Ricky bashing exercise. We all know how great a player he’s been for us but I think having no real competition for your place in the team can lead to complacency.

Personally I would have left the defence unchanged today. We arguably improved at the back when Little went off v Airdrie and keeping Partick to 0 at home is no mean feat. So why change it? I know it’s like admitting to shagging your best mate’s granny on here but I think Ricky has been poor for sometime. Also the lack of competition at CB has allowed home to underperform without threat of losing his place. He should have had to play his way back in imo.

Why change it from last week?

Well this is certainly a reality check.

Not at the game - WTF is happening?

Personally I would like another player or two, however the fact that we have a full squad of signed players and 0 loans is brilliant imo. Ok some of the players are on short term deals but not relying on the uncertainty of loans is great. Just need to get a few of those short term contact guys signed up on longer term contracts.

Obviously things are going well at the moment but I think we’re still light on numbers so I’d still like to see a signing or two. Cant see it mind. Just hope injuries and suspensions don’t bite us in the @rse.

Using two random games as reference - If the Airdrie game 2 weeks ago was a “hurricane” (20mph) and the Killie game 2 seasons ago was a “wind tunnel” (>5mph) then using the “Arbroath Wind Scale”, I reckon 7-11mph would qualify as “gale force”.

Nah. I made a conscious decision a few weeks ago (actually pre-season) to try and post less as I was very aware of coming across as pretty negative. Not something that I want to be known as, I was just worn down and scunnered with last season and the start of this. Absolutely delighted with the turnaround. As I said in a post yesterday I hold my hands up to it and also stated that, traditionally I’ve been a very positive and realistic supporter. I’ve had to be as someone that’s been going to Gayfield since the late 70s with the vast majority of those years travelling from Aberdeen. Don’t think you can question my, or anyone else’s credentials.

It’ll be the usual 40-42 points for safety and possibly fewer imo. Last season was an unusually low points total for 8th due to Cove, Accies… and us, being really crap. I agree that the bottom teams this season won’t be as poor but over 40 should easily be enough to stay up. 50 points will be comfortably mid table and a team on those points will likely be still in the playoff hunt until late in the season.

I’ll hold my hands up as one of those doom and gloom merchants. Last season and the start of this one, just wore me down, and I really couldn’t see a way out of it, aside from big changes. I’ve mostly been a very optimistic and positive supporter in my years following Arbroath - even back in the really bad days, I always felt we were better than league positions suggested and was convinced that we were always on the cusp of better things… we got there eventually. Yes, there was cause for optimism after the QP home game but never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d go on a run like this, with performances like this. There’ll no doubt the quite a few kicks in the nuts to come this season but I’m now very confident that we’ll be fine.

God I wish we didn’t have that double header v QP the other week. They appear to have fallen off a cliff and we’ve found form but those games came too early for us.

I’ll give that a watch. That last bit is one of my pet hate comments and is just lazy. Anyone can google Gayfield’s pitch dimensions in about 10 seconds and see that it’s actually a relatively large playing surface, particularly amongst older grounds - bigger than many including Pittodrie, Dens, Tannadice, Starks Park and Tynecastle for example. An Aberdeen supporting pal was with me at the game on Saturday and he said something about the small pitch. He was surprised when I goggled it for him to show that Gayfield is 5m longer than Pittodrie and 1m narrower. I suppose watching the game from lower down, nearer the pitch makes things look tighter. ETA - that was a good watch. Some belting comments though “small pitch”, playing with a “hurricane” etc, I’ve been to Airdrie once and can’t remember much about it but looking forward to going back if a stiff 20mph breeze is considered a “hurricane”.

That’s us won as many home league games this season as the whole of last season already and half as many games in total as the whole of last season. What a difference having an attack minded attitude and attack minded players makes. Last season we would have shut up shop and tried to defend our 1 or 2 goal lead from early on but that was so refreshing to see attacking players coming on even late in the game and then pushing for more right up to the final whistle. Some fantastic individual performances, Slater was superb, particularly in the second half Yesterday very much reminded me of the 21/22 home games v Dunfermline and Partick etc - solid, no frills at the back, lots of energy in midfield and relentless in attack. Tough run of games coming up but carry on playing like this and we’ll be ok.

Ridiculous wasn’t it. Stupid of Ricky to get a second yellow though. I also thought their red was soft. First one definite yellow, second was just a foul, no way was that a bookable offence. So the ref’s incompetence evened things out eventually.

Can’t we just all agree that the ref was an absolute embarrassment… for both teams.

Not going to bother trawling back through the forum for the Morton v Arbroath match thread where an Airdrie fan was laughing at Morton for losing to Arbroath. Hope you’re having a lovely evening.

I think they took around 450 to united the other week so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was similar tomorrow. The general consensus with away fans is that Arbroath is a cracking day out (it is), the weather is going to be decent and it should be a close game too. Add in that we haven’t played them in the league for a bit and I could see them bringing a decent support. Still a bit peed off that they’re getting the entire Switchie end. Even 400-500 could fit comfortably in the bit of stand and section of terracing up to the corner flag.

Stewart has definitely improved but him playing there means we miss out on his attacking capability. It’s good to have him as backup for left back though. That’s also my big worry re Hamilton. It was a horrible injury and it must be in the back of his mind every time he stretches or goes in for a challenge. I’d be very surprised if he returns at the same level. Could all work out fine though of course, with Hamilton back to his best and Stewart as cover.