Scottish League Division 3
	Arbroath	1
	Sellars
	Queen's Park	2
	Trouten, Bowers
Saturday, October 14, 2006

GULLIVER must be getting old. It seems like just yesterday we were all looking forward to the start of the season with high hopes.
Yet here we are today setting out on the second quarter of the league campaign. Tempus fair fugits when you're having fun, but just how much have we had to enjoy thus far?
In truth, the league form has been a big disappointment.
There have been magnificent highs in the cup, and we've occasionally sparkled in the league as well. But seventh place, a distant 11 points behind the leaders, and five off the last play-off spot is definitely not what the doctor ordered.
And what makes it all the more frustrating is the certain knowledge that we are far better than the table suggests. We gubbed East Fife 3-0, and could have had six. True to form, we then lost our next game to East Stirling.
There lies the problem, inconsistency. The only certainty about following the Spiders is that you're never certain what team is going to turn up.
One thing was for sure, if we were to start climbing the table today, we would need the right heads on the park.
Gayfield is not a happy hunting ground, and to make matters worse, the boss was distinctly short of goal scorers. Carroll and Dunn were both absent, but with due respect to both of them, an even bigger loss was the pace of David Weatherston.
The good news was that we had a full quota of centre backs to choose from, so perhaps the ideal scenario would have been a solid rearguard action, and the hope of picking one up on the break.
The team sent out to achieve that mission bore three changes from the side that lost at Firs Park; Dunn, Weatherston and Canning being replaced in the starting XI by Bowers, Sinclair and Trouten.
Every time you play at Arbroath, it seems you have to weather an early storm, and today was no different.
After just four minutes Steve Reilly caught the referee’s eye – and Alan Brazil’s ankles – but he escaped on that occasion with just a warning.
Tempers threatened to boil over seconds later when Brazil went over the top on Ferry, right in front of the linesman. Handbags at four paces ensued, before the referee intervened … and gave a foul to the home side. Surely it wasn’t going to be one of those days?
Mr Norris then managed something that few referees can achieve – he made us all laugh. All except Tony Quinn that is, who was felled by the ref as he tried to burst clear. Both men ended in a tangle on the deck, but the referee declined all invitations to card himself for a cynical body check.
Queen’s were showing some signs of settling and Reilly had a header cleared off the line from a Paton free kick.
It all started to happen around the 20 minute mark. Firstly Paul Ronald hobbled off to be replaced by Steve Canning. Almost immediately a lovely effort from Mark Ferry was cleared off the line.
But we weren’t to be denied for long. And with 21 minutes on the clock we took the lead.
Bowers used his pace to make Dobbins look like a carthorse, before steering the ball across the six-yard line. Canning couldn’t connect; Trouten couldn’t miss … and didn’t -1-0 Queen’s.
We were now in the rare position of being in charge of a game at Gayfield, but we needed at least one more goal.
It duly arrived after 30 minutes, and what a thing of beauty it was. Mick Dunlop and Ferry carved out space down our left and the midfielder sent in a simply delicious cross. It begged to be battered into the net, and it was; Richard Bowers arriving at the perfect moment and just the right angle to volley home.
Two-nil, and it was no more than we deserved. We held it fairly comfortably to the break, the only setback being a booking for Richard Sinclair, who was only trying to get close to his old pal Willie Martin. Unfortunately for Richard, he got a bit too close for the ref’s liking.
The home side made two changes at the break, swapping Smith and Cook for Rennie and Watson.
Almost immediately their intentions were clear, as were Steve Reilly’s. Nothing was going to get past if he could help it, but when he went through Stein within a few minutes of the restart, we were walking a disciplinary tightrope.
We all knew that it would be nervy if Arbroath scored, and they should have done just that after 67 minutes when Stein, who had been anonymous in the first period, burst through and shot wide.
He had the bit between his teeth, however, and led us a merry dance for much of the second period.
Arbroath full-back McCulloch entered the ref’s book for a clattering challenge on Kettlewell, and we carved out a couple of half-chances before the dreaded goal came.
Sellars was allowed far too much space to advance and shoot, and Cairns will be disappointed not to have kept out his long-range piledriver. But it was a different game now, and we were going to have to survive a very uncomfortable 18 minutes.
We did, with a bit of luck when we cleared one effort off the line, but mainly with a fair bit of guts and determination that we weren’t going to throw this one away.
We’re still seventh, and still a long way back from East Fife, but this was a big result.
We even had the satisfaction of seeing the our latest recruit from the conveyor belt of young talent with Paul Cairney coming on to replace scorer Alan Trouten for the last few minutes.
He showed enough to give belief to the feeling within the camp that the lad might just be a bit of a player.
If we can go to Gayfield and bring home three points, we should be confident of getting a result anywhere in this league.
Yes we still like to make things far harder than we need to, but we managed a victory without our leading marksman.
Everybody got plus marks, but Kettlewell and Quinn get plus, plus marks for a quite tremendous shift.
The really good news is that Elgin got their first victory today, so we don’t need to fear that monkey next week.
All we need is to concentrate on our performance, and tuck away the chances.
Did Gulliver really just say all we needed to do was score goals? … I must be getting dafter than I thought.
Keep the faith.