Doris injury setback adds to Lichties’ woes

ARBROATH 1 ALBION ROVERS 4

Arbroath manager Dick Campbell fears he will be without striker Steven Doris for a considerable period after the striker sustained a serious leg injury in Saturday’s heavy defeat at Gayfield.

Doris fell awkwardly after avoiding a challenge late in the first half and was stretchered off the field and taken to hospital for treatment and further assessment.

Campbell said: “He has a suspected broken leg but it might actually be a cruciate ligament injury. We’ll have to see. I just hope he is all right and it’s not going to be a long-term problem.

“It hasn’t been a good fortnight for us. The international break came at a bad time as we played as well as I’ve seen during my time here when we beat Ayr United.

“Then we arranged two bounce games to keep the players ticking over but Josh Skelly and Bryan Prunty got injured and both will be out for three to four weeks.

“We have a squad of 16 players and that’s three now injured.”

Arbroath dominated possession for the opening 38 minutes, until Doris’s accident, but the loss of such a key player seemed to knock the stuffing out of the home side.

Within two minutes of his departure Rovers took the lead through Alan Trouten and, just 90 seconds after the restart, they added another when Gary Fisher volleyed home.

Danny Denholm wasted a golden opportunity to reduce the deficit before the interval but sent his effort well wide when through on goal.

The Lichties regrouped and began the second half on the front foot with David Gold stinging the hands of Graham Bowman with a powerful volley before the Rovers keeper safely gathered a Denholm overhead kick.

Connor Shields should, however, have made it 3-0 on the hour mark after rounding David Hutton but his final effort trundled onto a post and was cleared.

The next Rovers goal was only delayed a couple of mins as Ross Perry hooked home from a corner.

Substitute Kane Hester, who had earlier hit the post, pulled one back in the 66th minute when stooping low to head home from close range.

Any hopes of a Lichties fightback were extinguished nine minutes later when Shields restored Albion’s three-goal advantage.

Steven Doris: stretchered off after falling awkwardly.