Arbroath moved to third in the Championship table after a resounding 4-1 thrashing of Queen’s Park at Gayfield.
Gavin Reilly, Taylor Steven and Ryan Dow gave the Lichties a comfortable lead at half time and despite Timam Scott pulling one back for Queen’s, Findlay Marshall added a fourth before the end as Arbroath got back to winning ways.
It was one way traffic in the opening 45 minutes with the hosts needing just nine of those to open the scoring. With the ball rebounding around the box, nobody seemed able to get it under control, but it would break across the face of goal for Reilly to react and slam into the net.
Further chances weren’t far behind as Dow went close, being denied by a combination of Callum Ferrie and the post as referee Matthew MacDermid overruled his assistant’s flag on the far side and Steven also tried his luck with a rasping drive from distance that the keeper did well to hold.
On the half hour mark though, Arbroath did have a second as Steven netted his first for the club, picking up a clever pass from Dow just inside the box before unleashing a powerful effort that found its way through Ferrie.
The St Johnstone loanee was in again soon after, but chose to square instead of shooting himself, forcing the Spiders defence to turn the ball behind. Marshall was also close to getting on the scoresheet with a deflected effort that Ferrie did expertly to push away from the bottom corner.
Ferrie will feel he could have done better moments before half time however, as the Lichties moved three in front. Dow took the advice of his manager Colin Hamilton to ensure his free kick from out wide was at the very least on target, and that it was as his curling effort sailed over the keeper into the top corner to put Arbroath into a seemingly unassailable lead.
Queen’s Park brought Scott on at half time, and he proved to be troublesome to the home defence, with a low ball across goal just evading teammate Sebastian Drozd at the back post.
The substitute would get a consolation for the Glasgow side with just over ten minutes remaining however, firing home after some gutsy Arbroath defending had denied the Spiders a way through in the build-up.
Henry Fieldson should have reduced the deficit further when he rose highest to head goalwards late on, but his effort was too high and instead it was Arbroath who would find the game’s fifth goal.
Dow was again involved, doing well down the left to pick out Marshall in the area who saved the pick of the bunch for last as he gave Ferrie no chance with a brilliant finish into the far corner and help Arbroath above Raith Rovers in the table, ahead of next week’s clash with league leaders St Johnstone.
Arbroath: McAdams; Stewart, Muirhead (Kabongolo, 71), O’Brien, Wilkie; MacIntyre (Enem, 71), Marshall, Flynn (Cochrane, 70); Steven (Pettifer, 81); Reilly (Todorov, 62)
Queen’s Park: Ferrie; Murray (Pignatiello, 76), Fox (Scott, 46), Shiels; Friel, Longridge, Waugh (Sowa, 73), Fieldson; Savoury, Drozd (McLeish, 62), McDonnell (McLean, 62)
Attendance: 1,254
