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Stenhousemuir V Arbroath


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Stroll in the park apart from maybe 10 mins before half time, 

Swankie was superb,  Best Wallace has been for a few weeks too, 

Few nice touches from Donelly but early days to judge,  Absolutely unbelievable options on bench too, 

Good day with Raith slipping up, thankfully don’t need to go back to stenny this season, absolute shambles getting in and having 1 stand open 

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An absolute pounding from the first kick of the ball to the last. Other than a five-minute spell towards the end of the first half, Arbroath dominated the game - they were rock solid at the back, energetic in midfield and ruthless in attack. Gavin Swankie was the man of the match, he wouldn't waste a pass all afternoon, and Tam O'Brien and Ricky Little let nothing by them (other than Mark McGuigan's goal, which seemed to fall to him after a weird ricochet inside the box). They're the best team we've played against and they're going to win the division.

Stenhousemuir were rubbish, absolutely rubbish. I couldn't give pass marks to anyone today. Maybe Alan Reid as he did okay playing in an unfamiliar position but other than that, there are no positives we can take from the game. We were so haphazard in defence - a recurring theme this season - and effectively lost the match in the opening nine minutes. Aye, the standard of finishing from Bobby Linn and Ryan Wallace was excellent but why was Linn allowed to volley home an unremarkable floating cross towards the back post? Why was Wallace given the space to pick his shot and send a laser-guided finish into the net? And later, in the second half, Wallace's second goal was well taken, a flurry of passes putting him through on goal, but why did no-one track him? How on earth did Linn score directly from a corner?

Dreadful stuff. Graeme Smith can't return to action soon enough - Lewis McMinn was very nervous today and his anxiety and lack of command spread throughout the team. About three times he came off his line to claim a cross only to retreat when the ball was in flight. Jesus Garcia Tena's time at the club must surely be up. If the manager is playing full-backs in central defence then it shows he cannot be trusted. Mark McGuigan tried hard, as he always does, but he was easily bodied by Little and O'Brien.

Brechin City beating Dumbarton doesn't necessarily change things but unless we can upgrade the defence, we're going to be at the foot of the table for the rest of the season. Worrying stuff.

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Basically a load of sh*te. We have been bad for many games but today was possibly the worst.

Why stand and hope that the ball is going out only to watch the opposition chase it, cross and score. Unbelievable defending and no wonder Arbroath strolled the game. Only glimmer we had was the five minute spell when we scored and Cook hit the crossbar.

Our midfield today was a total joke and having to play Reid and then play him at centre half about sums up what our team, manager and board are all about - a club with apparently no ambition.  I think that there is little doubt that we are going down and it now appears that McMenamen was the cheap and easy option to appoint as manager and will probably be punted in the summer when we are relegated.

McMenamen has known the weaknesses of the team for several weeks now and his first signing is to bring in a midfielder who did not look anything special today.  Surely the first signing should have been a defender even if on trial for a couple of weeks.  He cannot possibly go into the Aberdeen game with either Reid or Tena as the second centre back. Really fear what the score could be next week and that could really knock any confidence that is left out of the team.

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We were unplayable at times today, swanlike was sensational pulling the strings in the middle of the park, bobby class again. On Donnelly thought he showed enough signs that he will be a good player, overall a very good win and a further 3 points closer to the title, fingers crossed come May we will have our name on the trophy

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Good display, massive gulf in ability between the two teams. Swankie was outstanding from start to finish and Bobby just so dangerous.

Special mention to Wallace who’s not my favourite player and not been quite at it recently but he delivered today. 

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Good display, massive gulf in ability between the two teams. Swankie was outstanding from start to finish and Bobby just so dangerous.
Special mention to Wallace who’s not my favourite player and not been quite at it recently but he delivered today. 


Second goal came from two one twos between him and LD I'm sure.
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Never got in till quarter past 3, queuing for 20 minutes, one gate opened..!  

Easy as you like, got to worry for Stenny against Aberdeen next week. Wallace and Swankie stand outs.

 

Your a liar! I seen you scoffing your face with a Greggs steak bake in stenny high street....don't lie to fellow lichties Jesus 🤫[emoji21] 

 

 

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14 hours ago, beaver1 said:

Oh shit. Arbroath scored when they wanted.

And McMenamin as first (and only) sub says it all. We are doomed. Could have been 10 last week and could have been 6 or 7 today. 

That is utterly embarrassing. He can't influence anything as a player anymore this needs to stop.

As everyone knew at the time, the board have had a fucking mare getting rid of Bomber. 

McMenamin for whatever reason was always getting that job. Something still stinks about the whole situation.

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11 hours ago, Smokerson said:

Good display, massive gulf in ability between the two teams. Swankie was outstanding from start to finish and Bobby just so dangerous.

Special mention to Wallace who’s not my favourite player and not been quite at it recently but he delivered today. 

Agree with this fully, apart from Wallace being one of my favourite players :D Swankie, Bobby and Waldo all had excellent games today and it's great to see one of our strikers getting a couple of goals in a competitive game, hopefully that'll be a bit of a confidence boost and Wallace will be back in the scoring charts in the weeks to come - our best goal scoring striker by a mile this season. He was distinctly average for a period of 4/5 weeks which understandably saw him drop out for a few games, played a good hour v Montrose, did well as a sub last week and has now grabbed a couple of goals and if he can get back onto goalscoring form showed earlier in the season he should get over 15 this year which would be a superb contribution. I wonder if biglichtie will add this to his list of good appearances Wallace has had for Arbroath, which at last count stood at 2 good games :D

I felt after some scrappy games/ points gained in December it was important for us to beat the bottom two when we played them to keep us on track and keep the confidence up and that's exactly what we've done, with yesterday being a superb performance. We dominated the game, kept the ball on the ground, passed it about and opened up Stenny on numerous occasions. It seems fairly obvious by Dick repeatedly shouting 'passes' every  5 seconds for what felt like the entire 90 minutes that he doesn't want us to be pumping it long and he wants us to play it around. Swankie is obviously oustanding technically with the ball, Gold can spray it about and has good vision, both Donnelly and Wallace are good with the ball at their feet and did some excellent link up stuff yesterday and we really played to the strengths of the players we had on the park. Even Danny Denholm had probably one of his best games this season, with glimpses of the Denholm of old showing as he took on/ beat players to get the ball into the box. Every player contributed and had a good game in my opinion.

Based on yesterday, you can see McKenna really struggling to get back in as a striker. I love him and his workrate, but he isn't a striker in my opinion as he struggles to get himself in the right positions to score goals and his link up play isn't close to that of Wallace/ Donnelly who I think are both very clever players. I can see him becoming a regular sub who can fill in for us anywhere across the midfield or front line with the occasional start.

 

 

 

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Both Donnelly and Denholm did well yesterday, but against a weak defence. In a closer, more physical contest I would pick McKenna every time for his more dogged style. He is much more likely to win headers or chase back and win the ball in midfield. It's great to have these options!

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