Hinchcliffe
Tait Rowe Ritchie Florence
Brownlie Cargill Cusick McGlashan
Bayne Mallan
Substitutes: Anderson, Swankie, McKinnon, McAulay, Heenan.
Innes
Ritchie returned to the starting 11 after serving his one match suspension in
place of the injured Moffat. The maroons lined up again in their 4-4-2 formation
as manager Brownlie hoped to get a repeat of their Tuesday night victory over
Partick. Arbroath started on the offensive and it was Mallan who almost did the
damage early on with a shot that Arthur couldn't hold despite two attempts but
the home keeper eventually managed to scrambled the ball to safety. The home
side struggled to cope with crosses from either flank by Brownlie and Cargill
before Cargill played a perfect pass into the path of McGlashan but he made a
hash of the shot and missed the target. A quickly taken free-kick gave Cusick a
chance and his effort didn't miss by much. It was no surprise when Arbroath
opened the scoring in the 23rd minute following a Cargill corner which was
headed goalward by Rowe and Ritchie nodded home from close range. Arbroath came
close again when Tait got his head to a Mallan cross but Archibald was well
positioned to block. Five minutes before the break we went 2 nil ahead when
Cusick thumped a great free kick past Arthur following a foul on Brownlie.
Arbroath continued to hold the upper had at the start of the second half and almost scored a third goal when Florence burst into the box but Bayne took over and shot too high. McAulay replaced Cusick and Mallan stretched the home defence with a good run across the box before back-heeling the ball to Cargill for a shot that the keeper turned over the crossbar. Arbroath had the ball in the net again in the 58th minute, Rowe heading in a Cargill free kick but referee Clark had spotted an infringement. Two minutes later the Jags got themselves back into the game when Rowe was dispossessed on the left and they scored from the cross. In 68 minutes we went down to 10 men when Florence was sent off for his second bookable offence. The home side got back on level terms in the 81st minute and were denied taking the lead late on when a spectacular volley forced Hinchcliffe to make an equally spectacular one-handed save.