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The Arbroath Thread


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Every week that goes by the part time full time thing doesn’t seem like such a big deal to me. We are just as good and just as fit. I think the full time teams, the decent ones anyway, all seem to have a couple of good quality players in attacking positions, guys that can win them games whereas we don’t have as many. Guys like Bobby Linn etc. But overall as a squad we can definitely compete and were just as good. Need the right loans in in attacking areas to complement our team and we’ll be ok again next year I think.

I’d go a bit further and say with players like Gold, Stewart, McKenna, Craigen and Hilson we are one of the quickest and fittest teams in midfield, and at the back Ricky and Tom are no slouches.

As you say, a bit of creativity - Low would be a start - and killer finishing would make us one of the best Arbroath teams ever. Where are the new Jimmy Jacks and Eric Sellars?
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Nicky Low signs

With Championship football confirmed for a 3rd season at Gayfield we are delighted to announce our first summer signing as midfielder Nicky Low has agreed to sign for Arbroath in a 2 year deal when his current contract with East Stirlingshire comes to an end.

We would like to thank East Stirlingshire for allowing Nicky to make the loan move to Gayfield.

Nicky made a substitute appearance against Inverness Caledonian Thistle after signing on loan from East Stirlingshire on March 26th and then went on to start and star in our final 5 matches.

A penalty kick against Dunfermline Athletic, and a few assists, combined with some man of the match performances, Nicky has lifted the team and gave a real glimpse into the creativity, natural ability and real quality that the former Aberdeen, Dundee, Derry City, Queen of the South player possesses.

Always with a smile on his face, we hope that all our fans are smiling today hearing the news that they will be watching Nicky for the next 2 seasons at Gayfield!

Welcome to the club Nicky! 

C’mon the Lichties

Nicky Low signs.jpg

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2 year deal? That's an 'ooft' right there. A cracking signing if he stays fit as I've already said. But if he stays fit for 2 years I'll be absolutely gobsmacked. Hopefully that one doesn't come back to sting you guys.

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Two seasons for Derry City he made 56 appearances, and won the Player of the Year and the Player’s Player of the Year awards.

Since going part time at East Stirlingshire he scored 14 goals with 13 assists making 30 appearances in In the Coronavirus shortened season in 2019–20 and picked up both the Players’ Player and Fans Player of the Year awards.

Before this season was cut short due to the pandemic Nicky had scored 2 goals in 5 appearances and then 6 games and a goal for the Lichties.

Only injury in that time was unfortunately at Queen of the South.

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10 minutes ago, lichtiekev said:

Half fit and was outstanding, can only hope with a full pre season he is even better,
As been said before part time football might suit him better,
Great signing and Hopefully more to come

100 percent will suit him better you’d imagine more recovery time, although I don’t think he was at his fittest and he bossed a couple of games for us so after a pre season hopefully he’s flying.

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Sincerely hope it works out for him, he's clearly a very good player who has been desperately unlucky with injuries pretty much throughout his career. If fit I'd have him at Queens in an instant, but if he had stayed fit he'd never have been down at this level in the first place.

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We may have just made our signing of the summer before the summer has properly kicked off :lol:

On paper, with what we've got signed up from last year, just adding Nicky Low to that makes me feel we have a stronger team than we did last summer prior to the season starting. An excellent start - and as we all know if we can add the couple of strikers we need we'll be in an excellent position in a couple of months time prior to the loan signings.

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3 hours ago, lichtiekev said:

Half fit and was outstanding, can only hope with a full pre season he is even better,
As been said before part time football might suit him better,
Great signing and Hopefully more to come

Got fitter as time went on

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Nicky Low is a great signing he has looked the part on his showings for us, good on the ball  and for someone who is apparently injury prone he isn't afraid to get stuck in. Looking good.

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17 hours ago, 1320Lichtie said:

Every week that goes by the part time full time thing doesn’t seem like such a big deal to me. We are just as good and just as fit. I think the full time teams, the decent ones anyway, all seem to have a couple of good quality players in attacking positions, guys that can win them games whereas we don’t have as many. Guys like Bobby Linn etc. But overall as a squad we can definitely compete and were just as good. Need the right loans in in attacking areas to complement our team and we’ll be ok again next year I think.

Yes, I'd go along with all of that. Even in the nineties and in the noughties when, in my opinion, what was then the first division had more individual quality than it has had in the last decade, a part-time team with good quality players didn't always look like a part-time team in fitness terms. That is, in the normal rhythm of things. Weeknight games in the league almost always showed up the fitness difference however. Particularly as the games would wear on.

I think what might distinguish Arbroath from the part-time teams of that era a little would be that they don't set up quite as stuffily week in week out. Then again, they share with the part-time teams of that era that they're a reasonably big team with some players who either are full-time (loan players), have got real pace or who, everything else aside, could easily be full-time simply by being as good as they are in other respects. The teams I'm benchmarking against from earlier eras would be the likes of Neil Watt's Stranraer. Allan Moore's Stirling. And perhaps QoS before they went full-time.

Good luck again lads. Will keep an eye out.

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Nicky Low = excellent signing and the nearest player we have had to the superb Pongo McCord.

I honestly do not think we need to change last seasons squad much, obviously need a back up Goalkeeper (either a young goalie looking to gain experience and happy to be involved in senior football or an older keeper happy to be a back up goalie like when we had Darren Hill as back up a few seasons ago) as i do not think we would get a present first choicer coming to warm the bench.

Defence - well what can i say, the back 4 picks itself and we have versatile players like Craigen and Goldie who can fit in there if required so again maybe one young player or an older head to warm the bench in case of an emergency.

Midfield - I honestly even with probably losing Williamson do not think we need to add here now that we have Low signed up, maybe a loan player later in the season if things are not working.

Forward - this is the area where we really need to work hard to bring in quality strikers someone like Nathan Austin who is experienced but still young and fast and has an eye for goal (and for reasons he only knows wanted to sign for Kelty Hearts even although plenty of Senior clubs wanted him) or dare i say it see if we can keep Jack Hamilton on loan again.

I would say our only natural striker (a number 9) we had to begin last season was Doolan who although done a decent job with holding the ball up and linking up play and did score a couple of goals but sadly his pace has left him hence we really did start getting results when a younger pacier Hamilton joined plus when Bobby got back in the starting XI, I would not class Hilson or Swanks or McKenna as a number 9 striker.

I honestly think now that we have signed Low really only need  another 2 or 3 new signings and the remainder of the squad can be loan players if required.

In regards of the "full-time/part-time" debate all i am going to say on this is the gap outwith maybe the top 6 clubs in Scotland has narrowed but at the end of the day if a full-time club plays a part-time club over 5 games then the full-time club should win on aggregate or then you have to ask yourself what is the point of being full-time?

But being the BEST part-time club in Scotland again is SUPERB.

Anyway well done to everybody connected to the Red Lichties as again you have made the club and town proud of you, 36-0.

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Doolan / Whatley / Swankie / Gallagher I’m guessing. Maybe keep Swankie as player coach. But also had 6 loans. 
 

I dunno why but would put money on Trouten ending up here. We’ve tried to get him before I think. Think DC would like a season with him.

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