Before the tough trip to Berwick in midweek, mixed news arrived. Gavin’s agent, Heidi Klum, phoned in to say that the pair were both very satisfied with the outcome of our negotiations and would I want to go out to dinner some time to celebrate. Well I’ll have to think about that. That phone call was sadly soured by a fax displaying Eddie’s results. Internal bleeding suffered in training had cause some serious wounds, which would, need 3 months of absolute rest before he could be considered for action. That effectively had wiped out his season.
For the trip to Berwick, Gary Gow replaced the very ill Craig Hinchcliffe who was recovering from a quite unexpected bout of Malaria. Roberto Sensini returned for the still hospital bound Eddie Forrest whilst Duncan McLean and Gavin Swankie switched roles. A quiet first half saw little goalmouth action, but that is good enough for me. I needed people to not get injured and they did superbly. Sensini and McGlashan came off, with Innes Ritchie and Andy Cargill coming on. Paul Brownlie replaced Duncan after 50 minutes.
After the break some intense home pressure had me worried, and when Alex Burke scored an excellent volley goal from 16 yards on the angle, ala Paulo Di Canio, I thought we would crumble. Fortunately though we did not and with 12 minutes of a decent game remaining we drew level.
Paul Brownlie curling home another excellent 25-yard free kick. After that we had to withstand some fierce attacks but thankfully Innes Ritchie demonstrated why he feels he deserved a run in the side with some excellently timed tackles.
That point kept us in touch at the top and was something we could take to Albion Rovers at the weekend. Albion were technically in the relegation zone but they were less than 10 points from the top 4. It would be a tough game and one that Sensini would sit out as he attempted to recover from Wednesday night. He only played 45 minutes but it was still stretching his aging limbs to the limit. Innes deserved a starting role. Andy Cargill also started in place of John McGlashan and Paul Brownlie started ahead of Duncan McLean.
This half began much brighter for us and for 22 minutes it was Arbroath all the way, as we led thanks to
Paul Brownlie’s superb solo effort on 17 minutes. However mid way through it Albion picked up the tempo as they threw everything that had at us. Paul Bonar and John Bedford went agonisingly close on 3 occasions as Gary Gow hurled himself left right and centre. Amazingly, and fortunately we were still ahead as the half time whistle blew.
As Steve began working on the defence in the dressing room – I surprised a few fans by taking the offence out onto the pitch. I was going to get them working on a few routines I had in mind, like give-go plays to speed things up. If we sat back in the second half I had no doubts we would be crucified. Here the best form of defence was certainly to attack.
In the second 45 minutes it paid off as we had our own chances. True, Albion relished the added our space our attacking play conceded but we weren’t bogged down in our own half. Then, around the same time as that fine rain began to pitter out we scored and what an outrageous goal it was too. Chris Fahey’s clearance fell straight to
Jim Gardner’s feet and the sharp winger immediately played the ball back over Fahey’s head from fully 50 yards – it was an exceptional goal! Steve, Jake and the rest of the sideline crew could not believe it! Anyway we were 2 to the good and the balance of the game had swung dramatically in our favour. When
Gavin Swankie scored a penalty in the final quarter of an hour, after coming on for Darren Spink it was game over. Iain Diack banged in a late reply as Albion sought a quick reply but we had enough in the tank to nullify their threat and that victory kept us well in touch with the leaders.
John Christison bought the whole side some proper Smokies when we returned late in the evening as a way of celebrating. The big man harboured ambitions of a solid mid-table finish and clearly we were still on course. From my view though I was still looking at greater things. Being 13 points behind Ross County and 6 behind Brechin I wanted promotion.
On Sunday as clubs began to take advantage of the transfer window, Paul Farquaharson looked to be on his way as I accepted an offer from Airdrie United. The lad had potential but he simply wasn’t good enough for us at the present time. The 6k we picked up and the 20% sell on fee will be more useful to us. Currently nursing a long time injury it was with best wishes that he leaves Gayfield.
With us not having any matches now until Stenhousemuir on the 31st much of the incidents have occurred off the pitch. Gordon Wallace, still believing he had friends here, asked about Andy Dow, and was met with short shrift even if he did alert us to the fact that Andy’s contract was up for grabs in the summer. We’ll begin negotiations with Andy soon. John McAulay fell off his adder and Kenny McMillan the poor sod was involved in a nasty hit and run accident, still he’s sharing a ward with Eddie Forrest for now so he won’t feel too left out. Kenny will probably miss the rest of the season whilst John will need a few weeks to recover. Craig Feroz though has opted to join our rivals Montrose in the summer. Feeling a step down is what he needs to gain some security in his career he leaves with our best wishes – although he never really made much of an impression whilst here – a shame given how much praise I adorned him with when I first saw him in action.
The Saturday off was for the Scottish Cup 3rd round and there were wins for
Brora Rangers, Celtic, Clyde, Dumbarton, Elgin City, Falkirk, Queen of the South, Kilmarnock, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Livingston, Motherwell, Dunfermline and Aberdeen over Brechin, Rangers, Ayr United, Dundee United, East Stirling, Stenhousemuir, Morton, Hibernian, East Fife, Alloa Athletic, St. Mirren, Ross County and St. Johnstone. The defeat for Morton also saw the end of John McCormick’s reign in charge of Morton as he was sacked.
The following week was another hive of activity and a mess of telephone messages, agent’s faxes and many arguments. Andy Dow proved to be one of the easier people to persuade to stay as he accepted a 25-pound increase on his contract. Airdrie were told to bugger off fairly sharpish after making inquiries over the availability of Gavin Swankie and Eddie Forrest. Sadly though, I was left cursing Steve’s idiocy for not informing me that Eddie was up for grabs in the summer and even from the confines of Ward 3A he managed to engineer a move to St. Mirren in the summer. There are no hard feelings though, given that as he was on a high salary of 475 pounds per week, I couldn’t really see his agent, Anne Widdicombe, accepting a 200 pound pay cut.
Moments before our home tie with Stenhousemuir and now there were 3 in the beds, as Andy Cargill fell under a steamroller. He’ll take 3 months to get back into shape. Innes Ritchie though gave me a boost by extending his contract. For the Stens game, Hinchcliffe returns, as does McGlashan, Feroz, Campbell, Sensini, Brownlie and McLean. Given that Duncan’s loan contract ends mid February – a fault on my part – we should be looking to take advantage.
The first half was an uninspiring mess, which saw neither side gain any foothold in the game. A midfield tussle was the name of this half, which ended all square 0-0. At half time I focused on encouraging the lads to bypass the crap in the middle and hit the ball long for Duncan or Paul to run onto. We are the home team so clearly the onus is on us to provide the attacking bite. We improved slightly in the second half but playing into a gusty wind made it all the more difficult to release our attacks. As the half wore on I called for a basic all out assault on their net and finally in the 88th minute we had a goal. Paul Brownlie was felled in the area and [b] Darren Spink [b] banged home the penalty to give us a well-earned lead. 2 minutes later and any lingering doubts were eradicated as Darren Spink returned the favour setting
Brownlie run after he beat a poor offside trap by ‘Muir to smash home a second.
That was an excellent way to round off the month. With another win we were now right amongst the promotion chasing pack, leaving the bottom half behind to the fans delight. Hopefully it would perk the Herald up a little too, the paper having gone quiet in recent weeks.
Results Wed 07/01 Stranraer 1
Arbroath 1 Wilson 10,
Brownlie 19 Sat 10/01 Arbroath 2 Queens Park 0
Swankie 61, 82 Wed 14/01 Berwick 1
Arbroath 1 Burke 56,
Brownlie 79 Sat 17/01 Albion Rovers 1
Arbroath 3 Brownlie 17 ,
Gardner 66 ,
Swankie pen 75 Diack 87
Sat 31/01 Arbroath 2 Stenhousemuir 0
Spink pen 88, Brownlie 90 / Transfers
Out: Farquaharson – 6k – Airdrie United.
OUT: Craig Feroz – bos – Montrose
OUT: Eddie Forrest – bos St. Mirren
Table after 24 games
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">TeamWDLFAGDPts1. Ross15274625+21472. Brechin131163830+8403. Airdrie 10952820+8394. Arbroath10773123+8375. Queens P104102633-7346. Stranraer93122939-10307. Albion85112838-10298. Stenhouse911437370289. Berwick77102833-52810. Dumb91143245-1328</pre>
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