Saturday December 4, Arbroath v Raith Rovers. A game that won’t live long in the memory.
The 0-0 encounter lacked real quality in front of goal and in the end the sides, separated by just two points, cancelled each other out.
Much of the clash was battled out in the middle of the park in the scrappy game.
Arbroath did start off the stronger of the two teams but, after about 30 minutes, Raith managed to get a footing on the game.
John McGlynn said afterwards that they set about to match the home side’s “physicality”. That was certainly the key word of the day.
Despite the lack of goals, there were still a few talking points.
Brad Spencer injury
There were quite a few full-blooded, but fair, challenges throughout the 90 minutes.
Around the 58-minute mark, Arbroath’s Michael McKenna and Raith’s Brad Spencer both went in for a 50-50 around the half-way line.
Straight away you could tell Spencer was in distress and his agony could be heard from the stand.
Once play was stopped, as the tackle wasn’t given as a foul, medics came to his assistance. A stretcher was brought on and Arbroath’s physios also tended to the stricken Raith player.
Thankfully, Spencer was able to get back on his feet and hobble off the field. After the game, boss McGlynn admitted the injury to his shin “didn’t look good” and will have to wait on the results of an X-ray.
Spencer suffered a fractured foot earlier in the season, but since his return has been a near-ever present fixture of the Raith team.
Rovers will hope the X-ray will provide some good news on their man.
Nouble v Berra
John McGlynn’s strategy to face Arbroath was to fight fire with fire.
To combat their big and physical attack – or as the Raith boss put it, to stop his side being “steam-rollered” – he packed his defence by playing five at the back.
One intriguing match-up that came from that was commanding defender Christophe Berra coming up against Joel Nouble.
This was one of the big English striker’s quieter games but he did show some flashes of skill with the ball at his feet, which outwitted Berra on occasion.
On the whole though, the former Scotland defender used his experience to get the better of the forward and some of his teammates, much to the frustration of the home fans.
Arbroath supporters complained about aspects of referee Craig Napier’s performance, but much of that could be down to the professionalism of Berra.
Ricky Little
The Arbroath centre back could, and should, have opened the scoring early in the first half. Unmarked from a free-kick, his header went sailing over the bar.
It was another set-piece around 30 minutes later that would see the end of his afternoon.
A corner from Michael McKenna came into the box and both Ricky Little and Christophe Berra had their eyes set on the ball.
Their heads came together in a nasty clash leaving them both on the floor. It seemed just a matter of seconds and the pair were back on their feet, seemingly resisting medical attention. Little even groggily sprinted back to his position much to the surprise of his teammates.
You could see his teammates were concerned for him, with James Craigen and Thomas O’Brien stepping in to physically move him to the sidelines.
After some treatment on the sidelines, Little was determined to continue and made his way back onto the field.
But it was all over for the 32-year-old moments later as he sat on the half-way line unable to continue.
It was gallant of Little to try and continue, but this episode shows that head injuries should not be taken lightly by players.
