Arbroath succumb to an East Fife come back at a blustery Bayview Stadium this afternoon.
The Lichties started with the same 11 players which started against Airdrieonians last weekend and they were soon in front through a well taken goal by Bobby Linn.
With Bayview being completely exposed to the howling gale coming from the North Sea there were several pockets of play without significant action but the Lichties were well on top of the first half creating the most opportunities with East Fife coming undone by the Arbroath off-side trap and balls forward being caught by the wind.
As expected East Fife with the strong wind at their back came out looking to attack but Arbroath had the better chances in the opening minutes of the second period.
Arbroath were given a warning to the East Fife threat as a corner kick bounced off the crossbar, however the game was lost as the Fifers scored 3 goals in an 8 minute period – a similar event happened in their last home game against Albion Rovers.
The first goal was scored by Chris Duggan but seemed to take a deflection leaving David Hutton helpless.
The equalising goal lifted the spirits within the home side and only 7 minutes later some sloppy play by the Lichties in midfield allowed Aaron Dunsmore to attack down the right wing and Chris Duggan scored his second.
It was to get worse as seconds after the restart Mark Lamont was given too much time and he tucked the ball away to make it 3-1.
The action didn’t stop as Kyle Wilkie was shown a straight red card for a crunching tackle on Colin Hamilton right under the nose of the referee.
Arbroath then went on the attack but despite all the pressure couldn’t really test Mark Hurst in the East Fife goal in a disappointing afternoon for the Lichties.
Arbroath
1 – David Hutton
2 – David Gold
3 – Colin Hamilton
4 – Ricky Little
5 – Thomas O’Brien
6 – Mark Whatley (c)
7 – Bobby Linn
8 – Blair Yule
9 – Ryan McCord (Kader 81)
10 – Danny Denholm
11 – Gavin Swankie (Hester 80)
Substitutes
12 – Kane Hester – 11; 80th
14 – Bryan Prunty
15 – Jamie Henry
16 – Omar Kader – 9; 81st
21 – Rab Douglas (GK)
Goal – Linn 16
Yellow Card – Little 89
Attendance – 565
Referee – Gavin Ross
