It started off so well for Arbroath, with a the side settling down well after a nervy first 10 minutes, and despite not giving Willy McCulloch in the Stenny goal much to do Arbroath had the bulk of the possession and made some good passing moves forward from midfield. Clarke looked very good in the air and seemed to be gelling very well with the midfield.
At half time, the Lichties fans were in a confident mood of taking at least a point from the game, and 2 minutes after the restart the mood got alot better as Jay Stein gave Arbroath the goal they deserved. A short corner was whipped in from the right, and after a bit of a scramble in the box, Jay Stein crashed the ball home from 20 yards. Two minutes later, the 3 points looked more likely than ever to be staying in Arbroath as Colin Cramb was sent off. A tough challenge from Flyer soon saw Flyer's face met with a flying fist which say the Stenny number 10 sent to have his cold shower 40 minutes early.
A man and a goal up against a team who hadn't troubled Cairns all day, Arbroath seemed to be cruising towards their 2nd league victory of the season. Sadly, after the sending off things went abit pair shaped. Stenny suddenly looked much more alive, with Arbroath starting to look tired. The referee wasn't helping things with some embarrassingly poor decisions. Both teams had decent chances with Stein being a greedy little b....oy and shooting on several different occaisons where a pass was a better option.
Arbroath continuing with their negative tactics and soon enough Stenny got the equaliser, although it was VERY dubious. Paul McGrillan, who had continually fallen on his arse all game won the visitors a last minute penalty by falling over the ball. For some baffling reason the referee then decided to give the Stenhousemuir hammer throwers a penalty. It was clear to all from the players reaction this was the wrong decision. McGrillan slotted home from the spot and after McCulloch in the Stenny goal made a complete tit of himself by jumping up and down infront of the Arbroath fans the game got started again. Jamie Bishop had a good shot in the last seconds, which was plucked out the air by McCulloch.
At the start of the game, I would have definately taken a point, but after a shambolic display by the officials, and some shocking 2nd half play and tactics after our first half showing im dissapointed. The sudden turn in our players was unreal, especially after Stenny went down to 10 men, and the referee should stick to ruining u10s football, instead of SFL football. Incompetent twat that he was, letting the Stenny players punch and elbow whoever they wanted during the 90 minutes. Bring on Berwick eh!