HOLI SPIRIT
Arbroath back off beach to dump Buddies as boss relaxes in Turkey
Arbroath’s Ian Campbell praised his club’s holidaymakers for staying fit enough over the summer to put St Mirren on the deck in the Paisley sunshine.
The Smokies assistant manager was standing in for twin brother Dick, himself away in Turkey celebrating his wife’s birthday.
And he was delighted to see the Championship side take control of Group E after Dylan Paterson’s dramatic extra-time winner sealed all three points.
Campbell admitted after the eventful victory he still “can’t stand” how early the Premier Sports Cup kicks off every summer.
But he was happy enough to be departing their Premiership opponents with a moraleboosting win safely nestled in their luggage.
Campbell said: “We came here expecting a tremendously hard game and that’s exactly what we got.
“I’m on record as saying I can’t stand this competition. We’ve only got 14 or 15 players, all the players we’ve got coming in are coming in later.
“We’re restricted on numbers, like a lot of part-time teams. That being said, I thought our boys were tremendous.
“Everyone knows what’s expected of being an Arbroath player now. I’m delighted to get the win, especially when Dick’s not here!
“The residual fitness here is superb. There’s four boys who just came back from holiday on Wednesday. They never trained but they were playing today and did superbly well.”
Stephen Robinson’s new-look Buddi es were s lug g ish throughout yesterday’s clash, with several of their new signings struggling for match fitness and sharpness.
After an opening 45 minutes where the punters were more likely to be caught watching the planes soaring over the stadium, the Paisley side were fortunate not to be behind after Scott Stewart’s low drive smacked the base of Trevor Carson’s post just before the break.
The home team did show signs of sparking into life at the start of the second half, with Declan Gal lagher seeing a header cleared off the line and Joe Shaughnessy cracking the bar with a close-range effort.
Saints sub Kieran Offord did his best to break the deadlock late on, dancing past three Arbroath players before teeing up Mark O’Hara on the edge of the box.
The former Motherwell midfielder slammed wastefully wide, a miss that would come back to haunt the hosts as Arbroath sub Paterson netted his first professional goal in added time.
The 21- year- old showed composure beyond his years to slam home Michael McKenna’s pinpoint back-post cross to send the 200 Smokies fans behind the goal into raptures.
Campbell added: “It’s a welcome boost. I feel proud of the players. We wanted to give a good account of ourselves and we definitely did that.”
St Mirren boss Robinson insists the demoralising opening-day defeat will serve as a wake up call for his side.
He bel ieves the
Buddies will get better with time as they continue to get to grips with each other and their new system.
Robinson said: “We looked really leggy throughout the game. If we’d drawn and maybe won on penalties it might have papered over the cracks.
“We need to be fitter. As a team, we’re much, much better than that. It’s a wake up call. We didn’t press very well and we sat too deep.
“There’s lots to work on. We had chances to score, hit the crossbar and had balls cleared off the line. “Collectively we al l need to do better. It’s three weeks into a pre - season where we ’ve added six players to the squad. “Credit to Arbroath. They’re a part- time team, they fought to the death.”