Manager Allan Johnston has been sharing his thoughts on our one all draw away at Arbroath.
"I thought the first half we played really well, we passed the ball well and scored a good goal from James Maxwell after a great ball from Gregor Buchanan and at that point we were miles ahead but then in the second half losing the goal so early makes it difficult as it gives them a massive lift. Then the physicality we found it hard to deal with. The boys aren’t the biggest or most physical team in the world so we maybe struggled with physicality but that is the only complaint that I would have. Maybe we need to have a wee bit more quality when we win the ball back. In the second half we got drawn into the way they wanted us to play and it became more of a battle instead of the first half where we controlled the game and passed the ball”.
“I don’t think anyone is happy getting a draw, we were so much in control in the first half and the goal we lost was sloppy. It wasn’t even great play that has cut us open but on a positive note we have been losing a lot of poor goals from set pieces lately but we defended them well today so hopefully it’s a spring board for them to go on and get some results now”.
The manager felt they were denied a penalty “especially the one with Dobbie it looked a clear penalty I can see why some of the other ones weren’t given but he was clean through on goal and he certainly doesn’t go down if he has a chance of scoring a goal. It looked clear we had a good angle I said that to the ref after the game, If I’m wrong I hold my hands up but you are hoping that the officials help out there we didn’t seem to get much in the second half but that is part and parcel of football”.
We were missing a few players yesterday through injury including goal-keeper Rohan Ferguson “He felt his groin so we didn’t want to take any chances, young Jack came in and did really well so I am really pleased for him and he made a couple of important saves so it’s good when you have competition like that”.
And with that in mind the manager will think carefully about the side ahead of our final Betfred Cup group match against Queens Park on Tuesday evening “obviously the league is the most important thing for us, we have had a few knocks lately so we will have to look at things and see who is available because the last thing we are going to do is take any chances with anyone that is feeling anything because it isn’t that important at this stage”.