What a Saturday! From the team photograph, to the well attended and very successful open day and then a very dramatic win! A pulsating game of football where you couldn’t take your eyes off the action for one second!
Ricky Little smashed in a header in the 10th minute as he connected to a Ryan Wallace corner kick. Some stunning saves from Stranraer’s keeper, Max Currie kept the score at 1-0 as Arbroath played some beautiful football but a break away by Luke Donnelly with a simple ball over the top allowed him to round Darren Jamieson and pull the Blues level at 1-1 in the 24th minute.
The Lichties continued to press but try as they might they just couldn’t get past Currie in the Stranraer goal.
The second half was a bit more even in the opening minutes and Stranraer enjoyed their best period of pressure in the game but Arbroath soon found their feet and really went for it, but again the post, the gloves of Currie and some last gasp defending meant the tension was building in the ground.
A heated moment in the 76th minute seen Jamie Hamill and Adam Cummins shown a yellow card with Thomas O’Brien and Michael McKenna also going into the referee’s notebook but it fired the Lichties up and 60 seconds later and McKenna fired in to make it 2-1.
Arbroath started to really push the tiring Stranraer defence and a surging run down the wing by Bobby Linn allowed him to cross into the box where Ryan Wallace was there to fire the ball into the net into the 81st minute to make it 3-1.
There was a real energy around Gayfield after the tension was lifted with the second goal and the Lichties who were cheering on their team enjoyed every second.
It is very early, but 7 goals, 2 wins and sitting at the top of League One is a sensational start from this very talented team of players and coaches.
C’mon the Lichties!
Possession – Arbroath 60% – 40% Stranraer
Total Shots – Arbroath 27 – 6 Stranraer
On Target – Arbroath 15 – 3 Stranraer
Off Target – Arbroath 10 – 3 Stranraer
Blocked – Arbroath 2 – 0 Stranraer
Corners – Arbroath 15 – 2 Stranraer
Fouls Committed – Arbroath 11 – 11 Stranraer
Arbroath
1 – Darren Jamieson
2 – David Gold (Thomson 61)
3 – Colin Hamilton
4 – Ricky Little
5 – Thomas O’Brien
6 – Mark Whatley (c)
7 – Omar Kader (Denholm 67)
8 – Michael McKenna
9 – Ryan Wallace
10 – Gavin Swankie (Graham 82 )
11 – Bobby Linn
Substitutes
12 – Kane Hester
14 – Danny Denholm – 7; 67th
15 – Ryan McCord
16 – Jason Thomson – 2; 61st
17 – Finn Graham – 10; 82nd
21 – Darren Hill (GK)
Goals – Little 10, McKenna 77, Wallace 81
Yellow Cards – McKenna 76, O’Brien 76
Attendance – 582
Referee – Craig Napier
