John McGlashan is proud of the way his Arbroath players have stepped up their game for the tough challenge that is the second division. His side fell to a 2-1 defeat away to Ayr United—despite opening the scoring—a result which causes him no fear for the future.
"The result was a disappointment for everybody, because we were looking to go and win the game," he said. "We were beaten by two good-quality finishes, but there was nothing at all between the teams.
I would be very, very worried if we were getting thumped, were out of our depth, not competing and had our backs to the wall. But I am not, as it hasn't been like that at all. My players are playing as good as they possibly could be at the moment.
"I have no complaints—it was a really good team performance. The players were excellent, as they have been since day one of the season. We have competed for 90 minutes against really good second division teams and have raised the bar since stepping up."
Kevin McMullan fired the visitors ahead on the 26th minute and they held the lead going into the break. In the second half, Ryan Stevenson levelled after netting from a run inside his half, with home celebrations sparked by a Bryan Prunty winner shortly before the end.
McGlashan said Arbroath had two chances to put the game beyond their hosts before the equaliser arrived. He said, "That would have killed the game but, through some very good defending, we were unable to extend our lead.
"We thoroughly deserved to take the lead after taking the game to Ayr. They have good-quality players and I expected them to come at us in the second half.
"We need to make sure we keep doing what we are doing, as the mix is right and the sleeves are rolled up. "What we need is a bit of luck in front of goal."
McGlashan gave Paul Tosh a five-minute run-out on Saturday, as the striker returned after his hernia repair.
However Ayr fans on Pie & Bovril seemed less impressed calling the Lichties knuckle-dragging thugs who sitll managed to pass the ball around quite well.
ever the Optimist "If the definition of commitment is to kick your opposition up in the air, timewaste and try and con the referee ie cheat, then yes Arbroath are full of commitment. It doesn't matter what level of football you are at, some of your antics yesterday have no place in football. Please don't use the excuse of lower league football to justify what went on. That lunge from behind yesterday could quite easily have put a man out of the game for several months. Thankfully it didn't and we went on to win. So as for Arbroaths antics...they got exactly what they deserved in the end...nothing.
As has been said perhaps if you did concentrate on playing football you could have won yesterday as you had us on the ropes for a long period, but justice prevailed in the end.
Nocturnal Groove commented "I was quite impressed with Arbroath until they scored thier goal, then thier game plan clearly changed, your team clearly were looking to time waste all the time after that, and only got some urgency when we took the lead.
If your team was giving it a go, then they would not have only played for about 20 minutes of the game, before resorting to time wasting, kicking players, and faining injury. If your team continued to play like they did before they scored, then i have no hesitation in saying that you would have beat us yesterday, but for some reason, changed the way they were playing and in the end got what they deserved out of the game, NOTHING"