Temper Temper Mr Baikie

Gayfield was looking its usual picturesque self this afternoon, the clouds had cleared and there was another fantastic sunset to appreciate. A good support was here to see this game, with more than the usual number of lichties turning up. I had to queue to get in, something which generally only happens for Mo games and promotion clinchers.

The match started shockingly with an announcement that the match was now segregated (this has to be said in an ominous voice and accompanied with the clanking shut of the steel gates). East Fife had brought a very good support with them (Ill give them their due credit later), although they obviously looked at our stewards funny because there was absolutely no sensible reason to segregate the match. In fact, it was possibly more dangerous because the entire Arbroath support jammed themselves into half the seaside enclosure….this presented far more of a safety risk than a hundred inbred fifers. It's also the reason why this match report is somewhat short of actual facts, sorry about that.

The match started okay, just the usual stuff really, couple chances, some runs etc. etc. Most were done with passion, but with no end product.

Paul Watson evidently has a part time job murdering cute puppies by the treatment that some elements in the crowd were giving him. He didn't have the best of games, he tried a lot of stuff, some of which worked, and some didn't. He had a couple shots, played some lovely passes and even had a couple of runs, but whenever he made the slightest mistake, the crowd was on his back like children wanting a kiddy back. He wasn't the only player to make mistakes, but he was the only one roundly abused for each and every one. The only time I will criticise a lichties on pitch performance, is if he looks like he isn't trying a leg….and this was blatantly not the case! Alright, he maybe isn't suited to the club and might not be able to cut it, but the abuse he got was over the top!

Twenty minutes in, and the Fifers scored, bugger. Still, we continued to push forward and a few minutes later, we won ourselves a corner. The ball was launched into a ruck of players, bounced its way through, and who was waiting at the back post, but everyone's favourite puppy killer, Paul Watson. He made no mistake from half a centimetre out and poked it home to put us back on level pegging.

After this though, the game started to peter out somewhat, we sat a bit deeper, and Willie Martin got left to do everything up front without adequate midfield support. Come half time, we squeezed ourselves into half an enclosure, and with the Fifers in the other side, it must have looked like one busy stadium if you were only to look at the one bit and ignore the ends.

As for the second half, the first 25 minutes were a complete non event. We sat deep and did nothing, and East Fife were on top but couldn't do anything will all the territorial advantage they had. If you want a blow by blow account, go find a fifers match report. I just spent the entire time being worried and wondering why we had gone off the boil so much.

The East Fife fans were in good number and good voice today, credit to them, they were singing throughout and were a good laugh. Our support wasn't doing a lot of the singing, but I'm putting that down to nervous energy, I could feel the tension throughout as we struggled to put any pressure on the fifer goal for the first 25 minutes or so of the second half. Eventually however, our passionate full blooded approach started to wear them down.

We were laying on plenty of the sliding challenges and not giving them a moment's peace, and like other teams have done against us, they imploded eventually.

By around 70 minutes, the fifers had began to unravel, the discipline was going and the tackles and niggles were starting to fly in. Mr. Baikie took exception to the decisions of the referee and it looked from where I was standing (although I'm not 100% sure) that he pushed the linesman at least once. The East Fife dugout attempted to hold him back, but like a man with a criminal record for assault, he just couldn't leave it and kept trying to go for the ref's assistant and our players. I've never seen a manager get sent off at Gayfield before, and it must have been strange having to walk down the tunnel past all the committee members who he had such a falling out with some years previously.

This led to a complete breakdown in discipline on the part of the Fifers, and as the by now rampant lichties pushed and pushed for a winner, East Fife lost their cool and hacked, niggled, and picked up some late bookings, and a sending off. I have to admit, I didn't actually see the incidents in glorious Technicolor as I was too busy shouting, bouncing, and generally making lots of noise about stuff I knew very little about. Sorry about that.

We were unfortunate not to get a winner in the dying minutes, we had our chances, and Andy Reilly looked particularly lively when he came on. Our defence did a good job of working the ball out to the wings, and they got forward, we just didn't have that clinical touch.

The final whistle went, and evidently this was a cue for the players to turn on each other. I didn't see much as I was walking away before I noticed, but the players appeared to be fighting their way down the tunnel and multiple police vans pulled up….a post match battle report would be nice!

I thought the ref called it right today, he didn't get any decisions wrong that I can recall, was fair to both teams….and the only criticism I have is that he lost control a bit at the very end, but then again he did have to try and control the rabid animals that were East Fife. Their impressive support deserves better.

We had a definite will to win about us today. Our tackles were passionate and committed, our work ethic was outstanding, and the team entertained us. Kudos to our defence for not simply punting the ball long, but actually playing the ball out of trouble and directing it towards Stein and Flyer on the wing. We seemed to lack that clinical touch in the box though, with no final product to our effort, and our centre midfield was a bit ineffective – although that might be because they had hurt their necks watching the Fifers punt it over their heads.

All in all, an entertaining match, a bit quiet for some of the second half, but a cracker of a finish. A 1-1 draw with the psychotic league leaders is nothing to complain about, and it sets us up nicely to take on Robertson's ‘high flying' Montrose in a couple days. If we play like we did today, then we will beat them.

XbassLichtie