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The Arbroath Thread


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By all accounts Wilson is a great guy and top to have about. On the park, he's one of the most inconsistent centre backs I've ever seen, very prone to error and is incredibly slow. With Gold there was always potential though he probably never fulfilled it at Shielfield, while McKenna was always far better than us and it's no shock to see him make the impact he has. To say it's a surprise to see Wilson make this step up is an understatement.

The flipside is that Dick Campbell is far likely to get more from him than any of the shite we've had in charge. He'll recognise his weaknesses and won't have him trying to play out from the back as though he's Pique whenever he's needed. He's always been a trusted figure in the dressing room (sure he was captain at 21), he's still relatively young and he may fare better in a better team, especially if deployed as someone who's there  to head bricks and with a partner quick enough to cover him. Good luck to him.  

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See also Michael McKenna and David Gold

If he does half as well as either of those 2 he'll have been a very good signing
Mckenna and been a brilliant signing for you lot to be fair.
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What BTU said, really. Always thought our laughable defence last year was in large part down to the midfield that gave the ball away for fun and couldn't be arsed to try and get it back. It was also down to Johnny Harvey pretending Bob Wilson and his pals could play their way up the park with silky passes. 

He can read the game well, good in the air, fully committed and brave. But he is a bomb scare when he has more than half a second to think and can't pass to save his life. He has the turning circle of an oil tanker and gives away penalties with alarming regularity, collecting red and yellow cards on the way. Get in first and head/boot it up the park - that's his forte. 

If you want to see the worst of him, checkout the Berwick Rangers channel on YouTube. I particularly recommend the 0-5 defeat at home to Peterhead, especially the first few minutes. 

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There were similar warnings about when we signed Michael McKenna and his disciplinary record at Berwick Rangers in that he seemed to red-carded every other game but in our time with us he has only been sent off once, and it was a dodgy second yellow card for an apparent "dive." 

I think McKenna has been one of Dick's best signings 

It's hard to gauge how a player is going to fair at a new club and especially with pre-season fixtures but Wilson has settled in well and stuck to the basics.  He looks taller than any of our players and relatively young compared to our other defenders. 

With TOB suspended for the opening day of the season it's crucial we have someone signed who knows the players and the way we play and I'm sure he is bound to chip in with a few goals from set pieces. 

 

 

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I forgot TOB was suspended. I’m happy Wilson is here as a back up but I don’t expect him to crack the starting XI much this season.

Segregation for the Montrose friendly I see. Not entirely sure why the club agreed to playing them. I know plenty of boys that aren’t heading through. I personally miss it due to work

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Wouldn't be playing pretty season friendlies on a plastic pitch if at all possible.


I'm not sure, think Montrose have a great surface and they don't seem to be plagued with injuries. A good plastic pitch is a very good surface I think.

The poorer ones such as Airdrie or Stenny worry me a bit but EF, Raith, Montrose and Forfars pitches always look excellent I think. Don't think players would be any more likely to get injured. Doris done his ACL on our park when it was like a bowling green, nobody near him. That's our only really bad injury I can think of in recent times

QoTs night be the only one in the league this season I think?
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I'm not sure, think Montrose have a great surface and they don't seem to be plagued with injuries. A good plastic pitch is a very good surface I think.

The poorer ones such as Airdrie or Stenny worry me a bit but EF, Raith, Montrose and Forfars pitches always look excellent I think. Don't think players would be any more likely to get injured. Doris done his ACL on our park when it was like a bowling green, nobody near him. That's our only really bad injury I can think of in recent times

QoTs night be the only one in the league this season I think?

Alloa as well
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The poorer ones such as Airdrie or Stenny worry me a bit but EF, Raith, Montrose and Forfars pitches always look excellent I think.
?

Wasn’t it an injury at Station Park that finished off Brian Kerr’s playing days a few seasons back. And it wasn’t caused by a bad tackle. Maybe the newer generation are slightly better and it’s true that injuries like Steven Doris’ took place on grass..... but I think plastic still carries a higher injury risk despite other advantages.
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Wasn’t it an injury at Station Park that finished off Brian Kerr’s playing days a few seasons back. And it wasn’t caused by a bad tackle. Maybe the newer generation are slightly better and it’s true that injuries like Steven Doris’ took place on grass..... but I think plastic still carries a higher injury risk despite other advantages.

Regardless of opinion, I’m not sure there’s any evidence which says properly looked after plastic pitches are more dangerous than grass ones. A lot of the ill feeling towards plastic pitches IMO comes from ex-pros crying about them in the paper, whilst ignoring all the research that has been done on them. The next generation of players will have likely played all of their careers on them and are used to it. For example, Craig Watson at East Fife has had 2 major injuries to his knee and has no problem signing on again at Bayview, which has an Astro pitch.
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Playing on them for a hard 90 minutes is completely different to training on them, I don't like them and prefer grass. Toshney who came on loan to us last year was told he was coming to us because our pitch was grass although he lasted one game, Murphy at Rangers has been told he wont be playing at Killie or Hamilton this year I think. 

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Playing on them for a hard 90 minutes is completely different to training on them, I don't like them and prefer grass. Toshney who came on loan to us last year was told he was coming to us because our pitch was grass although he lasted one game, Murphy at Rangers has been told he wont be playing at Killie or Hamilton this year I think. 

 

Both very injury prone players who've been injured on grass numerous times..

 

I don't like some of the plastic parks purely cause of the spectacle on some of them, mentioned Airdrie, Clyde and Stenny stick out but think some of them are great and we have played some of our best stuff on them

 

Callum Patterson.. told not to play on kazakhstans plastic... San Marino's grass injured him

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There has been much research done on this and as far as I have read all analysis comes back saying there is no increased risk of injury on a plastic pitch. People are entitled to their opinions, people are most than entitled to dislike them and not want to play on them/ not want them in the SPFL etc. I personally would be very, very unhappy if Gayfield was ever not a grass pitch for multiple reasons. However, arguing that they cause more injuries than grass pitches in the face of all research done to compare the two seems somewhat silly, no?

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