Reaction

jim goodwin after comeback

A great comeback again great character from the lads, the first goal you can accept that as a manager, the players did everything we asked them to do from the set play – Andy Graham was tight with his marker and he managed to nick one round the side, I think it was going wide and Callum Crane kinda swung a leg at it and its ends in the back of the net, you can’t really do a great deal about that as a team, but the second goal was really disappointing defensively from our point of view, it was a poor clearance and then it was just one long ball hooked in behind and Ryan Wallace had acres of space to run into, a great first touch mind you and a great finish but that’s not the kind of goal we concede, so that was disappointing.

Our first goal came at a good time and to get the second just before half-time we were delighted. Its testament to the players and the character that they have shown to get back to 2-2.  I said at half-time  if we do not concede again we will win this game because I felt we would get another opportunity and although the winning goal had a touch of fortune about it, Jordan’s shot taking a nick of a defender before looping over the goalkeeper’s head but I felt we created enough throughout the game that we should have went on to win the game anyway.

I think the result was fair, Arbroath are a good team, well organised they play percentage football a lot of the time, you know what you get from them, we knew we would need to roll our sleeves up and get stuck in, but I felt we just edged it today really pleased for the players to be two nil down and win 3 – 2 its testament to their character and team spirit.

In the final ten minutes I thought their forwards did well and Leighton McIntosh caused us problems, he was unfortunate in the last game getting hooked at half-time having conceded a penalty so he had a point to prove today and he did well. We certainly had to regroup and we knew they would have a spell because they are a decent team but it’s about standing up to that and seeing it out and I think we did that really well and ran the clock down.

We want to finish as high up the table as we can and cement our position in the Play-Offs as soon as possible, it is not done yet, third place is up for grabs and I don’t think there is any shame finishing third behind two big full time teams.