The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Gold-en display from Lichties midfield star
Arbroath: Academy coach puts into practice what he preaches in win over Spiders
David Gold capped an outstanding individual performance by grabbing the winning goal in Arbroath’s third victory of the season over Queen’s Park at Gayfield on Saturday.
The talented midfielder tormented the Spiders defence throughout the 90 minutes and might have been on the scoresheet on at least another two or three occasions but for some fine goalkeeping and frantic defending.
Gold utilised the full array of skills which he teaches youngsters of all ages at the soccer academy he runs with Ross Gray in Edinburgh.
He darted up and down the right side of the pitch, creating no end of danger, wrong-footing defenders with a series of pacy runs and stepovers which led to a succession of goalscoring opportunities.
Gold was also prepared to chase back and help blot out any of the visitors’ quickfire counter-attacks.
He said: “This is the stuff I do with the kids every day. We try to make them comfortable using both feet and focus on technique a lot.
“The youngest ones we have are threeyears old and we go all the way to 16. John Collins and John Hughes are ambassadors for our academy and Leigh Griffiths sends his kids to us. They all believe in the method we are teaching.”
Queen’s took the lead in the 12th minute, Lewis Magee lashing the ball into the roof of the net after Arbroath failed to clear a corner.
The home side responded with Leighton McIntosh and Gold both coming close during a scramble which ended with Michael White smothering the ball.
Gold was denied by White again shortly afterwards, while at the other end Robbie Leitch blasted high over the bar from a good position.
Just after the half-hour mark McIntosh went down under a challenge in the box but referee Colin Steven decided the Arbroath man had taken a dive and issued a yellow card.
The Lichties kept plugging away and equalised three minutes before the interval when Gavin Swankie swooped to score
Ryan Wallace should have given Arbroath the lead early in the second half but shot wide when clean through, but the increasing pressure finally paid off when Gold put the home side ahead on the hour with a cleanly-struck volley from inside the box.
Swankie came close to grabbing a third before Gold was again unlucky near the end with a near-perfectly executed overhead kick which went narrowly past.
Lichties assistant manager Ian Campbell was full of praise for his team’s performance and paid tribute to Gold’s contribution.
He said: “David was excellent but he got a few nose bleeds when he got into the box. He got a goal but he might have finished better at other times. Overall, however, he was first class.”
David was excellent but he got a few nose bleeds when he got into the box. He was first class. IAN CAMPBELL