Ian Campbell says Arbroath aim to fix their “criminally stupid mistakes” against TNS in the SPFL Trust Trophy.
This weekend’s long trip to face the Welsh league side – which includes an overnight stay in Wrexham – offers plenty of incentive for the Lichties, with a semi-final place up for grabs.
And Arbroath’s assistant manager admits it’s an opportunity to bounce back from three disappointing defeats.
“We’re leaving Arbroath at lunchtime and should be down there for about six, we’ll get dinner then have a team meeting on Friday evening,” said Campbell.
“They’ll get a long lie on Saturday morning and we’ll set our stall on the way we want to play on the morning of the match.
“It’s important we start well, East Fife went down there in the last round. I watched the game back and they never got started until 60 minutes.
“We’re used to playing full-time teams and it will be an enterprising trip for us, it’s something different.
“We’ve done our homework on them, they’re a highly fancied side but we have to look to go there and get a result.
“We haven’t been playing poorly, we’re criminally giving away stupid mistakes every week which isn’t like us, I don’t think the performance against Airdrie was bad but the mistakes were criminal.
“It’s hard to understand why but we’ve dropped our standards in the last three or four games.
“We’ve had a great week’s training and need to look to get back on the winning trail again, we’ve got two massive games in the cups over the next few weeks, we need a fighting spirit for those and we’re known for it.
“We’ll be up for our work, there are fans coming down as well which we’re acutely aware of and we don’t want to let them down.
“We’ll give them respect but there won’t be any fear from us.
“We’ve got to get back to winning ways and being a seriously tough team to beat, the travel isn’t the end of the world for us – there’s a place in a semi-final at stake and we’ll be up for it.”
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