McCord hopes to make amends for 2015 final by helping Lichties progress

Ryan McCord would love to see Arbroath go all the way in this season’s Irn-Bru Cup to make up for the disappointment he experienced when reaching the final of the competition with Alloa in 2014-15 when his side lost 4-0 to Livingston.

The midfielder made a rare start for the Lichtes on Saturday, but played an important role in his side’s comfortable victory over Annan at Gayfield.

McCord, who has had to be patient to earn a place in the starting line-up this season,was at the centre of many of the Lichties’ attacking moves and set up the third goal for Michael McKenna.

He said: “The boys have been brilliant and it has been hard to get into the team so you just have to take your chances when they come along. I felt I did OK today so we’ll see what happens.

“We’re in the last 16 of the cup and hopefully we’ll get a home tie in the next round. In a cup competition anything is possible. I’ve been to a final before but we got thumped. So we’ll keep going in this one and see where it takes us.”

The Lichties totally dominated the tie with goalkeeper Darren Hill only being called upon to make one save, late in the first half, when he tipped a Ryan Sinnamon shot over the bar.

Other than that it was one-way traffic. Bobby Linn got the opener in the eighth minute, cleverly curling the ball low into the far corner after the Annan defence failed to clear a corner. Before that McKenna had hit a post and McCord fired narrowly over the top.

Annan keeper Jonny Jamieson did well to block a Tom O’Brien thunderbolt as the Lichties pressed for a second but the home side had to wait until the 71st minute for the next goal, Danny Denholm firing home from 15 yards.

Finn Graham then came close before McCord brilliantly set up McKenna for an easy conversion for the third with seven minutes to go.

Lichties manager Dick Campbell made seven changes from the side which started the previous weekend’s game against Brechin in order to give some game time to squad members and was delighted with the response.

He said: ”We were very clinical and very professional. We also had Steven Doris on the bench a year after his serious injury. He was never going to play today but I put him there to give him a bit of a lift.”