Arbroath recorded a narrow if deserved derby win over Forfar Athletic to reduce the gap at the top of League Two.
Lichties boss Dick Campbell stressed he had nothing to prove returning to the club he managed for so long, but a second win and a second clean sheet against Forfar must have left him full of early festive cheer.
“I think we were way ahead in the first half – territorially, possession wise and chances,” said Campbell.
“But at 0-0 the game is never finished.
“I knew at half time they would get a rocketing and they came out fighting.
“Yes, they hit the post I still didn’t see anything that really threatened us.
“It is a great result for us on the back of the week that we have had.
“We got beat from Edinburgh last week and got a doing from Clyde in midweek.
“People from outside have an opinion on my team but it is only when you are in the dressing room you know the players and you have to give them all credit today.
“I had to pull them in for an extra day’s training this week and we had to work a wee bit harder but I think it worked.
“I wasn’t wanting Forfar to extend their lead over us to 10 points – it is back to four points now, never mind games in hand.
“We have got Elgin next week now, so that was two games against teams above us – there was no problem motivating my players!
“I had nothing to prove to anyone coming back to Forfar – my track record at Forfar is the best they’ve ever had, in terms of games won and all the rest of it. Forfar are a good side and they are good people.
“That is two wins over the league leaders but they are still four points ahead of us. However, I don’t have any worries – I only have an influence over my team.”
In sharp contrast to the mood of the Arbroath camp, Forfar manager Gary Bollan was an angry and disappointed man.
He will be particularly concerned that Forfar’s woeful results against their Angus neighbours this season continued.
The Loons have only taken one point from a possible 12 in their games against Arbroath and Montrose, despite having enjoyed a substantial lead at the top of the table at times this season.
“In the first half we didn’t perform well enough – that was the big let-down,” said Bollan.
“In the second, we weren’t great, we were marginally better. We passed the ball a bit better and managed to get into some good areas but again the final ball wasn’t there.
“We lost because we did not defend the set piece better. That is the general rule and we did not do that. You could see at the end with the shot off the post we did not get the breaks. You have to be lucky sometimes and we did not get any of that today.
“But where we lost the game today was the first half. We had too many players who did not turn up today.
“It is games like this you just have to roll your sleeves up and grind out results. Now we have got to move on to Tuesday against Annan.
“You could maybe see today we had been idle for a couple of weeks – that’s not an excuse – but we have got to get back to the momentum we had before.
“There are no bones about it, we have got to win on Tuesday night.”
A niggly first half saw little in the way of silky soccer but Arbroath did create the two best chances.
An early clever free kick almost brought quick rewards for the visitors when the ball was played across a packed goalmouth to Colin Hamilton. He got his shot in but Forfar threw enough bodies in the way to scramble the ball clear.
On the half-hour mark, Ryan McCord was denied the opener by the woodwork. He crashed a shot off the crossbar from 12 yards as Forfar failed to clear their lines.
Gavin Swankie had a chance for Forfar at the start of the second half but he hooked the ball clear over the bar from only three yards out.
A great move from Forfar cut Arbroath open minutes later and David Cox got in a header that looked goalbound until David Gold, who had brilliantly tracked back, nodded the ball away in front of the open goal.
The Loons had their rivals under the cosh for much of the half but with just five minutes left, Arbroath grabbed all three points. A freekick just outside the box on the right was whipped in by Josh Skelly and McCord glanced his header in with the merest of touches.
Three minutes into stoppage time Eoghan McCawl almost rescued a point with a long-range shot that smashed back off the post with the keeper beaten.
