NEVER MIND HUG OF WAR
O’Brien skips goal party for a late pile-on
TAM O’BRIEN didn’t have to worry about keeping a lid on his goal celebration – as he was too busy trying to get the game going again.
The 29-year-old skipper capped Arbroath’s comeback from two goals down with a bullet header midway through the second half.
Football authorities have ordered players to stay as distanced as possible when celebrating strikes to reduce the risk of Covid-19 spreading.
O’Brien smacked the ball home to avoid a sixth defeat in seven games, only to urge his team-mates to race back up the park in search of what would have been only their second league win this term.
On any hugs and kisses, he said: “There was none of that!
“I just had a natural fist pump and wanted to get back in the game and get that win. It would have been different if that had been the winner.
“It’s always good to score but the main thing was it showed that great spirit in the camp.”
After a first-half bore the second period sizzled within 11 seconds of kick-off when
Aidan Fitzpatrick made a terrific run down the left then picked out Connor Shields with a low cross for a tap-in.
Shields, who arrived in Dumfries last summer, struck his seventh goal in five games in 52 minutes, surging down the left before darting into the box and blasting a near-post shot into the roof of the net.
The Red Lichties stormed back with two goals in two minutes. First, Scott Stewart mugged Rhys McCabe on the edge of the box and drilled an angled shot inside the left post in 63 minutes. Then O’Brien headed in from close range thanks to a Bobby Linn corner.
O’Brien added: “It was disappointing to lose a goal straight away and we’ve not lost one as quickly as that in a while. To lose a second soon after took the punch out of us.
“But it showed the spirit and character we have to come back and at the end we could have gone on to win.
“I’m sure a lot of people looking at their phones and seeing us 2-0 down would have written us off.
“It was some finish at the end and I nearly blew a gasket getting up and down the park!”
Shields now joins Dundee’s Osman Sow and Dunfermline’s Declan McManus at the summit of the Championship scoring chart.
And while the
Doonhamers are four games unbeaten, the 23-year-old admitted it felt like a loss.
He said: “We should’ve seen the game out. Two-nil is a dangerous lead because Arbroath got one back and then the confidence for another.
“It was good to score two but to end up with a draw is a hard one to take. We could’ve gone on to get a third, which would have killed the game.
“We fell out of it and kind of crumbled for some reason. But that is four games unbeaten in a row and we can take small positives from this.”