Arbroath all-but clinched Second Division survival with a home victory against Stranraer.
The Gayfield Park side took the lead on 23 minutes when Barry Sellars crossed for Craig Forsyth to head home.
Robbie Ross extended Arbroath's lead in the 55th minute when he latched on to Sellars' long pass.
Ross and Sellars both hit the crossbar as the home side continued to pressurise Stranraer, who threatened little throughout.
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We've done it, now is just a case of whether its possible to beat East Fife. Considering the money theyve spent, although their manager was allegedly holding them back (), being only 2 points away is a tremendous achievement. We've done well! For me, the nadir of the campaign was when Ayr put 3 past us. We were on a terrible run, it felt so dispiriting, and I didn't think McGlashan could do anything about it.
Well he did. Come the end of the season, we've stayed up (barring a calamity of epic proportions), we've done it without breaking the bank, and the football was better than last season. All in all, a successful season. I personally had my doubts that we could stay up, but we did! We can build on this for next season, but thats for another thread!
For the game today, it was professional more than stylish. We did what we had to. We did give them far, far too much respect at the start (11 men back for each set piece? Against already relegated Stranraer?), but Hill was never tested. We just counterattacked in the first half. Ref made the right call on the passback IMO, but I was very surprised that he let it be played so quickly!
Normally, when the ref gives a free kick, in amongst all the arguing, the opposition gets to line themselves up all along the line, and we have to take a free kick from right beside the goal at an absurd angle! This time, the ref blew, the keeper and a few defenders turned to scream at the ref, we wrestled the ball out of his hands, put it down, played it quickly, and before Stranraer knew what happened, we had it in the back of the net. Good punishment for dissent. Scream at the ref, concede a goal.
Still, it was a bit of a strange one.
After that, we continued to look comfortable, Stranraer never got near us. Second half was a good bit more positive. We hit the woodwork a couple times, blazed a few over and wide, and didn't allow Stranraer do to anything with the ball. A good professional job that felt like an end of season game. It didn't feel like a crucial relegation game, the sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing, and on the pitch it wasn't particularly agressive (flyer excepted).
Kudos to the Stranraer fans that came up btw. Four and a half hour trip to watch an already relegated team...I salute you!
1320 lichtie: we outplayed and outclassed them totally and it should of been 5 with Gibbys 6 yard blaze over and Ross and Sellars both hitting the bar , Sellars was magnificent today and if that 70 yard volley he hit went in it would of shown how fucking good that boy is.
Anyway Peterhead next week and im wantin the 3 points to go into the last game with a chance of finishing 6th , who would of thought it eh