Interesting to see how Moore & Lumsden have responded against Berwick to the worrying tendency to leak goals. Replacing El-Zubaidi with McBride in the centre-back pairing was a bit of a surprise but it looks like Hunter was charged with staying put in front of the defence. He didn't figure in attacks to the same extent as in previous games
Moore had mentioned concern in The Herald about recent goals against (see below). We lost 10 goals in the previous 7 games, compared with only 6 in the first 10 so there was clearly an issue.
The solid performance against Berwick vindicated this. The centre backs did OK, though probably not the fastest. What's encouraging is the good form of our fullbacks - Little and Johnstone. Not only doing well defensively but really adding a key dimension to the attack, and allowing us to pass the ball out from defence and also create that extra threat. Little had another good game and against contributed crucially in attack (the assist for Murray's goal, following the great dribble against Shire which led to our second) - he's also strong in the air. For someone who took a bit of time to adjust to the fullback position, it's encouraging. Johnstone's contribution has been great since coming on at Bo'ness and it was his run last week that gave us the winner
Arbroath Herald
The win at Shire clocked up a catalogue of frustrations for manager Allan Moore.
“We made it really hard for ourselves,” he said. “We were too comfortable in the first half affording them chances and not pushing hard enough.”
The lackadaisical start didn’t affect their efforts in securing a goal but Moore insists it wasn’t good enough. He said: “We got that goal from their mistake and did not take the opportunity to put their goalkeeper under enough pressure.”
Moore is most concerned with the number of goals being chalked up in the against column.
“What it is really going to show is that we give the ball away too much and it is costing us goals.
“It is frustrating. From good performances we are losing too many and it is something I am seriously starting to think about, particularly with the transfer window coming up at the end of the year.”