Special Thanks to the Arbroath FC Playing Staff and Management Team
The Arbroath FC Chairman and his Board of Directors would like to go on record to thank our Management Team and playing staff who have once again performed exceptionally as a team and provided the highest of performances week in, week out against 9 very good Championship sides.
With two games in hand, and the prospect of another 10 exciting matches to play out including hosting Dundee United and Dundee at Gayfield we are of course disappointed that the season has come to a premature end and we are not able to show our appreciation from the stands to our players.
Of course safety to ALL is paramount in these unprecedented times and the season has now been voted to end, with the Lichties moving up to a final position of 5th in the league on a points per game basis.
The final standings reflect on the tremendous hard work undertaken by everyone at the club.
Our Manager Dick Campbell and Ian Campbell, our assistant Manager with Coach John Young and Goalkeeping Coach Robert Douglas have yet again coached and produced the very best out of each and every one of our players.
Dick, Ian and John recently celebrated their 4th anniversary since taking charge of our football club. On that day we lay second bottom in League 2. The following season we will never forget the sunny afternoon in Stirling as we celebrated clinching the League 2 title on the very last day of the season.
The next season in League One we pushed all the way making the Championship play-offs. Nobody could have predicted the success of last season. Having led from the very first day, the League One title was finally ours on a day of celebrations at Glebe Park.
Before a ball was even kicked in our debut in the Championship many pundits and journalists predicted that we would go straight back down, well didn’t they get that wrong!
Wins over Dunfermline Athletic, Greenock Morton, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Alloa Athletic, Partick Thistle and Queen of the South at Gayfield and on our travels wins over Alloa Athletic, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Partick Thistle and who could forget the two games at Tannadice.
The first game was oh-so-cruel, but our second match seen a Craig Wighton goal give the Lichties their first league win at Tannadice since November 1958 and United’s first defeat at Tannadice since July 2019.
Needless to say we are extremely thankful to our Management Team, and we hope that we will all soon be able to look to our 5th season together.
The players have had their bodies looked after and healed and put through their fitness by the talented and experienced Craig Reynolds and before she departed to Australia for the chance of a lifetime, Anna Murray also made sure all of our players were looked after before matches and after injury.
It is one of the best Arbroath teams on record, is something we don’t tire of saying. Not only are our players technically the best we have had in a very long time, but as a dressing room we have a spirit that has given us an extra edge.
We have been incredibly fortunate to have some of the best part time players in Scottish Football and these players have been with us for several years.
Our longest serving players are Ricky Little and Bobby Linn both signed in 2013, then Mark Whatley in 2014 and David Gold in 2015 are our long standing team members all with Omar Kader and Colin Hamilton who both joined in 2016 all with 2 league medals for the club.
Colin Hamilton is in his 6th season with the club and Gavin Swankie has pulled on an Arbroath shirt in 11 different seasons. Gavin joined in 2017 with Thomas O’Brien who has been a sensation for the club.
In January 2018 we welcomed Michael McKenna whose determination and grit epitomises our team spirit.
Jason Thomson and Darren Jamieson arrived in the summer of 2018, both being absolutely key players in League One with Luke Donnelly arriving in January to bolster our attack as we won League One convincingly.
For life in the Championship we welcomed Derek Gaston, Scott Stewart and James Murphy who have all slotted seamlessly into the dressing room and given us much more on the pitch.
In January we signed Dale Hilson who in a short spell has become an important player and fitted in so quickly to the club.
With the co-operation of Aberdeen, Dundee United, Heart of Midlothian and AFC Fylde we have benefited from the loans of Miko Virtanen, Logan Chalmers, Craig Wighton and James Craigen.
Miko arrived in August and has been an ever present in our midfield and became an instant hit with the Lichtie support with his technical ability and love of a tackle and one of the nicest people you could hope to meet.
We knew Logan would have a big part to play as the season came to an end, with some incredible goals for the Dundee United development squad while on loan at Arbroath sadly those chances won’t now happen but we know Logan has a huge future in the game.
Everyone was very excited at the signing of Craig Wighton and he didn’t disappoint making an instant impact with 3 goals including scoring the winning goal against Dundee United at Tannadice. We were all so excited to see Craig turning out for Arbroath for the remainder of the season.
The signing of experienced midfielder James Craigen on the final day of the transfer window showed to everyone our ambition and again we are sad that we didn’t get the chance to see more of James in action. In our final game before lockdown James started against Greenock Morton and put in a man of the match performance.
With all seasons we have players depart, and we would also like to thank Steven Doris, Greig Spence, Robert Wilson, Josh Campbell and Ben Stirling who all played their part in our season.
A special mention to Louise Walker, as despite not being on our playing staff kicks every ball from the sidelines making sure all our players are looked after and have everything they need on and off the pitch and is always there for us all.
Thank you again to all our players, backroom staff, coaches and Management Team.
Keep Safe and we hope to see you all again soon.
C’mon the Lichties
