The bad news: an anaemic and suicidal display saw us throw away the lead 3 times and hand Forfar a victory. We were the poorer side, and second best throughout
Forfar hadn't won away for 20 MONTHS. and in the past few weeks had been the whipping boys of everyone they played. On the other hand, their record at Gayfield has always been good (this win takes the record to 22 all time wins for our country cousins at Gayfield compared with only 20 for us).
First half we did well to score two rather fortunate goals in rare attacks in the 21st and 38th minutes. The first from Campbell (his first for the lichties) came from a loose ball in the box following a good Watson corner. Webster's was well taken from the edge of the box after the ball broke to him. in between Forfar's Stewart took a well taken goal - poor reward from most of the first half camped in our half.
We thought it was the wind that kept us back. Halftime our stars wer out 3 minutes ahead doing fancy exercises in the cold and rain - an extra dose of motivational hairdryer might have been preferable.
The signs were ominous when they scored a minute after the restart (Lunan on 46). But we went ahead again on 50 minutes when Darren Scott was upendend by their keeper and Hegarty scored his first for the club - tho' not a totally convincing strike.
Downhill from then on. Forfar passed the ball well, we surrended midfield as usual, gave away a series of petty fouls in dangerous areas and couldn't capitalise on the occasional breakaways WITH the wind at our backs.
Most Lichties fans knew that we would need another goal so it was no surprise when Forfar equalised (Kerrigan on 80) and soon turned persistent pressure into the winner (Tulloch 86th).
Few passmarks for Arbroath - Webster tried hard and Scott was a handful efore he was subbed after 30 odd minutes. Apart from the enforced replacement of Bryan Scott by Darren S, Manager McGlashan made one sub - Reilly - too late. Yet you could see Brazil was hobbling at the end and anybody would have been better than what was on show
The game ended in boos. Abject display lacking guts or nous, and any leadership on the pitch or maybe even off it. The manager must now be under pressure.
Forfar deserved this though were a bit physical from the start and lucky to finish the game with 11 men. They had five booked and, unusually we had only one Watson
621 fans there. The ref S McLean was too lenient and too fussy. The linesmen were diabolical - so average performances there.