Arbroath3–0Albion Rovers

Following the defeat against Alloa, Dave Baikie changed the starting line-up against Albion Rovers by playing John McAulay along with Mark McWalter. Kevin Burns and Brian Grant, who could be suffering from an injury according to a fellow fan, were on the bench alongside Stevie Scott. Rovers lined up with two former Gayfielders in their ranks - Lee Gardiner and Willie "I did nothing at Gayfield - not even score" Watters.

The pre-match pie was cold! What has happened since the days we used to get really fine pies at Gayfield? I will have to start popping in to Flemings prior to the match, get a pie, stick it on the bonnet of the car to warm it prior to taking it into Gayfield to eat.

It was a fine Gayfield day as the first half kicked off with the Lichties playing towards the Switchie goal. The sun was shining and a howling gale was blowing towards the harbour end. We had a superb chance of going one up in the first couple of minutes of the match but Peters just put the ball wide of the post. This was then followed by another close thing, a few minutes later, when Thomson (playing in the jersey which the Web Page has sponsored for the season) shot just passed the post again. Looking good we missed yet another chance when a Spence shot also flashed past the post. Rovers, with the assistance of the gale, then came more into the game and poor Hinchcliffe was having problems kicking the ball into the wind. Our players were learning the hard way that, to play against a hurricane, you needed to keep the ball on the ground, something which they were not good at. McWalter’s had to go off for a few minutes following an elbow in the face which was either accidental or the referee did not see. It reached the stage, just before half time, when we lost a corner from a Hinchie goal kick, well taken, but the wind lifted the ball and took it out for a corner to Rovers. We held out till half time.

A half time visit to the club shop failed as they had no AFC mugs - either no demand or all sold out. In fact there was very little in the club shop - a couple of old programmes, an old strip, and some AFC bunnets - Martin bought one.

The second half continued where the first half had finished except we had the advantage of the typhoon and the Rovers keeper was having an awful job coping and it was near enough one way traffic towards the Harbour end goal. McWalters headed home from a free kick. Gallagher scored from a corner - a lovely wee chip which assisted by the wind floated over the defenders and forwards heads into the corner of the goal (well placed said some bright spark!). Hinchcliffe nearly scored from a kick out with the ball just scraping the upper side of the Rovers bar. Burns replaced Peters and then (or did the substitution occur after the last goal) Cooper was brought down in the box and converted his third penalty of the season and we ran out worthy winners.

Whilst we could have won by more if our luck had been in at the start of the match and Spence had made more of a couple of relatively easy chances which he had in the second half, it was a good win to take us back to second place in the league. Albion Rovers were poor with Willie Watters being replaced, in the second half, to the chants of "fat b******" from the home support.