The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Advice to substitute pays off for Arbroath
CHAMPIONSHIP: Manager told Donnelly ‘wherever he was, he should have a go and just hit it’
ARBROATH 1 DUNFERMLINE ATHLETIC 0
Arbroath manager Dick Campbell could be forgiven for thinking that Greig Spence’s first-half yellow card was a game-changing blessing in disguise in Saturday’s Championship clash at Gayfield.
The Lichties striker was looking sharp, working very well in partnership with Bobby Linn and causing the Dunfermline defence a few anxious moments.
However, he picked up a booking after fouling Pars keeper Ryan Scully – and that led to him being replaced at the interval by Luke Donnelly, who went on to grab the only goal of the game with virtually his first touch.
The result was nothing less than the Lichties deserved from a game which was entertaining despite the spoiling effects of the strong wind which battered Gayfield for much of the afternoon.
Campbell said: “I took Spence off at half time because he got booked, and when one of my players gets booked in the first half of a game I’m always likely to take them off.
“So I put on Donnelly and the last thing I said to him was that wherever he was, he should have a go and just hit it. He did that right away and it won us the three points.
“The elements certainly played a part but we adapted to them better than Dunfermline.
“My goalkeeper didn’t have a save to make and we totally deserved to win the game.
“It’s a great three points and another clean sheet. That’s seven points we’ve got from our first four games and I’m delighted with that.”
There wasn’t a weak link in the Arbroath line-up with Tom O’Brien standing strong at the centre of a rocksolid back four while James Murphy showed a mature coolness in the middle of the park along with skipper Mark Whatley, and Bobby Linn looked sharp on the wing.
It was Linn who came closest to opening the scoring when, with just seven minutes on the clock, he ended a flowing move with a rasping shot which Ryan Scully did well to beat away.
Kyle Turner had a chance for the visitors but his weak effort was easily gathered by Darren Jamieson.
Then Kevin Nisbet wasn’t far away with a powerful curling shot from the edge of the box which the wind carried beyond the far post.
Arbroath made the all-important breakthrough shortly after the interval with a swift counter-attack, Linn bursting into the danger area to set up Donnelly who wasted no time in pulling the trigger to fire low beyond the helpless Scully.
Turner then had a half chance to equalise when Jamieson fluffed a clearance but the keeper got back in time to save the Dunfermline man’s shot.
The Pars huffed and puffed after that without putting the home defence under any serious pressure and it was the Lichties who came closest to scoring again: firstly with a Linn effort which went narrowly wide, then a Mark Whatley piledriver in the closing stages which Scully got his body behind.
There were few positive for Dunfermline to take from the game.
Manager Stevie Crawford said: “It’s disappointing. We didn’t create enough chances, there weren’t enough shots and not enough crosses.
“We weren’t organised at the goal,” he added.
“It was a counter-attack and a soft goal for us to concede. It wasn’t good enough.”
When one of my players gets booked in the first half of a game I’m always likely to take them off. DICK CAMPBELL