ARBROATH USING THEIR HOME ADVANTAGE
THERE are few things more certain in life than regardless of the weather elsewhere, it will be blowing a gale at Gayfield.
As the closest ground in Europe to major water — the North Sea — things have even got so bad at Arbroath’s ground that waves have interrupted play by crashing over the terracing and spilling on to the park.
It wasn’t quite that extreme on Saturday but the home side used the conditions to their full advantage as they blew Stevie Crawford’s side apart with Luke Donnelly’s winning goal.
And as they hit the heady heights of fourth place after four games, Arbroath are hoping that more Championship sides are ‘Gone
with the Wind’ this term. ‘Because of the way the wind is here you can sometimes use that to your advantage,’ said Donnelly. ‘The manager told me at half-time if I had a chance to shoot to go for it because the wind could carry it. Luckily enough my strike went in. The conditions can be so extreme here they can favour us.
‘We’re also playing without fear of our opponents, especially at Gayfield with the way the weather can be here because we are used to it. We go into every game believing we can win and that won’t change.’
Arbroath were outstanding and outfought Dunfermline all over the park. They snarled at their opponents’ heels every time the Pars had the ball and they caused panic in the visitors’ defence when they attacked.
Quite simply, they looked like they wanted it more and that sort of spirit will help them as they try to stay up.
Their winning goal came in controversial fashion as Dunfermline claimed winger Josh Coley was hauled down by Colin Hamilton in the build-up to Arbroath’s counter-attack.
But Coley himself refused to use that as an excuse for defeat. The Norwich City loanee said: ‘I’ve watched the incident back. There’s contact with me but some weeks they are given and some weeks they aren’t.
‘There were a few fouls that we didn’t get but that sometimes happens in a game — you can’t rely on the referee to win it for you. Arbroath scored just after I went down but that’s part of football.
‘Blaming the referee doesn’t change the fact we weren’t good enough as a team and, as a chance creator, I wasn’t good enough.
‘We are disheartened by the result but we have got good players and once we get one good result I can see us kicking on.’