The Arbroath Thread

[Leicesterlichtie]

Hopefully Low can be that bit of creativity we need to stay up. Have to see if he can hit the ground running.

[lichtiekev]

Would be a great signing, send omar round to convince him

Pretty happy with Nicky Low. If dick had 3 planned from down south before Linn’s injury, I wonder if there’s one more planned. How about that little diving c**t Easton from kelty?

[Arbroath36.0!]

Get Paddy Deane and Pat Scullion signed up tae!

[Northfield 53]

Nicky Low will be a great signing for you he was excellent at Queens  only problem was his fitness out injured a lot 

That is why he left full time football he can't train every day he has to manage a long term groin problem .

He seems to be mangeing it now as he has played a few games for East Stirling .

[stan3600]

Jack Hamilton started like a rocket but has been poor of late. His body language is terrible at times - shoulders slump, head down. He should take an example from Hilson.

[Tattie36]

Oh well, same old story. Just like the start of the season, actually probably worse. If you can’t get attempts on goal, you can’t score. 0 goals in 3 league games and barely an attempt on target.

Hate to say it but the way we’ve collapsed since the first 20 minutes of the QOS game, I think our best possible finish now is 9th. Tuesday has proved for me that we’d struggle to win that too.

Also hate to sound negative but is signing two players from 4 levels down the best we can do? there is no way they will be good enough or fit enough for this level, especially as they haven’t played for months. Depressing stuff.

[lichtie23]

Not good enough again unfortunately. 

[timlichtie]

3 home games left against fellow strugglers. No need for despair. Low looks a tidy player and not out of place today. He certainly looked better than Sumo Scott Allan.
Beat Alloa next week and push on from there.

[Tattie36]

9 minutes ago, timlichtie said:

3 home games left against fellow strugglers. No need for despair. Low looks a tidy player and not out of place today. He certainly looked better than Sumo Scott Allan.
Beat Alloa next week and push on from there.

I admire your optimism. Unlike us, the teams around us at least seem to be up for the fight. We need to be throwing the kitchen sink at games not passing it about hoping for something to happen out of the blue.

Find a kit big enough to fit big Rab, put him up front and launch high balls at him. I’m obviously joking but it’s getting to the point where that’s looking like a better option than what we’re doing week in, week out at the moment.

[AFC360PUNK1320]

I will back DC to the hilt but some of his decisions are baffling??

9 minutes to go and 1-0 down and chasing the game so we bring on a sub and it is a......defensive midfielder???? and our 2nd or 3rd highest goalscorer (Doolan) and a new striker on loan is on the bench = bizarre to say the least.

It has been clearly obvious where our problem has been for most the season (putting the ball in the net) and DC and the club should have pulled out all stops to get goalscorer supreme Nathan Austin from Kelty Hearts on loan until the end of the season before East Fife got him.

MASSIVE game next week, need to treat that as a Cup Final.

C'MON THE RED LICHTIES, 36-0.

[lichtiekev]

Unless Campbell has anyone else lined up to come in I can't see where our creative spark comes from, the likes of Hilson, Mckenna, Stewart will all run all day and give 100% but sometimes a bit more quality is needed,
Agree with all the comments about Hamilton, he needs to give much more,

[clashcityrocker]

3 home games against Alloa, Ayr and Morton and away matches against Raith and Dunfermline.

It's still in our hands and all to play.

I think we need 10 points to be safe.

Last game of the season at home to Morton - this could go to the wire.

 

 

[Tattie36]

26 minutes ago, clashcityrocker said:

3 home games against Alloa, Ayr and Morton and away matches against Raith and Dunfermline.

It's still in our hands and all to play.

I think we need 10 points to be safe.

Last game of the season at home to Morton - this could go to the wire.

 

 

In theory these are games we should be looking to win but I personally wouldn’t back us to beat anyone at the moment - see Tuesday. 

The QOS capitulation knocked the stuffing out of us and were now playing like we were in the first third of the season but we now have the added problem of being missing some of our better players. We need to fundamentally change the way we’re playing to even look like scoring goals, never mind winning 3 out of 5. Basic all out attack IMO.

[unknown1954]

Its clear as day our problem all season has been scoring goals Dick has tried to address this and when J Hamilton arrived it looked to have worked unfortunately his form has dipped not helped I think by constant changes to the midfield which occasionally has been unavoidable . Today was another example of how well we can compete in this league and as long as the team have more belief in themselves than some of our supporters I for one think we are good enough to stay up we have lost 3 league games from 12 this season which is not bad form and the teams we have still to play we have already taken points from . C"mon Arbroath.

[lichtie23]

17 league goals this season. Says it all 

[unknown1954]

Its clear as day our problem all season has been scoring goals Dick has tried to address this and when J Hamilton arrived it looked to have worked unfortunately his form has dipped not helped I think by constant changes to the midfield which occasionally has been unavoidable . Today was another example of how well we can compete in this league and as long as the team have more belief in themselves than some of our supporters I for one think we are good enough to stay up we have lost 3 league games from 12 this season which is not bad form and the teams we have still to play we have already taken points from . C"mon Arbroath.

Lost 3 games from 12 this YEAR I meant

[Tattie36]

51 minutes ago, unknown1954 said:

1 hour ago, unknown1954 said:

Its clear as day our problem all season has been scoring goals Dick has tried to address this and when J Hamilton arrived it looked to have worked unfortunately his form has dipped not helped I think by constant changes to the midfield which occasionally has been unavoidable . Today was another example of how well we can compete in this league and as long as the team have more belief in themselves than some of our supporters I for one think we are good enough to stay up we have lost 3 league games from 12 this season which is not bad form and the teams we have still to play we have already taken points from . C"mon Arbroath.

Lost 3 games from 12 this YEAR I meant

True but when you realise that those 3 loses are in the last 4 games and we only have 1 point out of 12 it doesn't look so impressive. Also only 2 goals in those 4 games - both in the same (heavy defeat) game.

340 minutes without a league goal. Add in Tuesday's cup game and we've scored 1 goal in 430 minutes and that was a complete fluke/goalkeeper error. I would also imagine we've had no more than 6 or 7 attempts on target in that time.

Definite relegation form I'm afraid. Need a win and big performance next Saturday.

Edited March 27, 2021 by Tattie36

[RedLichtie86]

Go back to the start of last season.

We have never been prolific in attack. Last season we scored an average of 0.92 goals per game in the league.

And this season we are at 0.77 goals per game.

We have spent the past 2 seasons relying on our defence to keep teams at bay looking for us to earn us a 1-0 win or salvage a draw.

Sadly this season we are less proficient in front of goal and the results reflect that.

Poor recruitment and showing too much faith to certain players despite not being good enough for the Championship will make survival difficult.

If we do manage to stay up big changes are needed.

[Lichtie78]

Go back to the start of last season.

We have never been prolific in attack. Last season we scored an average of 0.92 goals per game in the league.

And this season we are at 0.77 goals per game.

We have spent the past 2 seasons relying on our defence to keep teams at bay looking for us to earn us a 1-0 win or salvage a draw.

Sadly this season we are less proficient in front of goal and the results reflect that.

Poor recruitment and showing too much faith to certain players despite not being good enough for the Championship will make survival difficult.

If we do manage to stay up big changes are needed.

Agree with this. You can never doubt our players application and graft, but sentimentality might need to take a back seat if we want to improve.

[SimonLichtie]

I firmly believe we have some of the best part time players in the country in our squad, but it's been over 2 years now since Dick decided Ryan Wallace wasn't for him (no need to debate if this was right or wrong ) and we've not actually replaced him yet. When we stopped playing him, we started struggling to score, and we've really not been fully sorted upfront since.

The problem when you get to our stage, up there as being one the best part time teams in the country and wanting too stay at that level consistently and build a squad to do so, is that you need to be able to sign and retain the best part time players for a number of years we all know. We've managed to do that all over the park in the last few years, apart from with a striker. Unfortunately one of the differences between ourselves and Alloa is over the past few years they've been able to sign a loan striker or two to supplement Alan Trouten, where as we've been signing a loan striker and pretty much solely relying on him to do the business.

For me, it's a weird situation. We're 90% of the way there too being an absolutely superb part time team and being mid table in this division, but at the same time we're miles off simply due to our huge striking deficiencies.

Ultimately there's only around half a dozen or so strikers who we could realistically have signed/ sign at a part time level of the standard we need and who we could have at the club for a number of years, and it's easier said than done to go out and just get one of them too sign for us. I feel like we had one of them, decided it wasn't going to work out, and took the chance we could sign someone as good/ better, and that gamble hasn't paid off yet, and here we are 2+ years later.