Arbroath were completely written off after shipping four goals to Dundee United on the opening day of the season.
Under the glare of the BBC cameras, Lichties faced a trial by TV and were dismissed without being given time to offer new material evidence.
Admittedly, the evidence provided during that 90 minutes was fairly damning.
But it was only 90 minutes.
With their new team beginning to settle, recent witnesses at Gayfield are already feeling like the shackles can come off.
This could, indeed, be an exciting season at Arbroath.
Courier Sport watched on in Arbroath as Dick Campbell’s side claimed a 2-1 victory and here are four talking points:
Arbroath: Smells like team spirit
𝐅𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞!
Andddd breathe! The referee blows the whistle and the celebrations begin!
An excellent second half earns us our second win in a row!
(2-1) #ArbroathFCLive #MonTheLichties pic.twitter.com/6HAeoOA3fk
— Arbroath FC (@ArbroathFC) September 2, 2023
There’s something iconic about the goal celebration at Jermaine Hylton’s winner.
The huddle showed the players living up to the mantra that is emblazoned on the Gayfield tunnel.
And they are not paying lip service to it.
Michael McKenna told Courier Sport in July that there was ‘a feeling of excitement’ in Arbroath.
He cited off-the-field efforts to arrange team nights out as being key to fostering a togetherness.
That has very much been on display on the pitch over the last few games.
Moments after players re-emerged at half-time, Scott Stewart, Kenan Dunnwald-Turan and Craig Slater got together for a conflab.
The topic of conversation was clear – Logan Chalmers.
Chalmers had posed problems for Arbroath in the first period and the trio worked out a plan to nullify him – together.
It clearly worked as they marked him out of the second half.
And once again, Arbroath won their individual battles all over the park.
Classy Craig Slater the blade runner
There were so many top performers in maroon on Saturday.
At the heart of it, was Craig Slater.
Slater took a few weeks to settle at Arbroath after his move from Forfar and came into the season on the back of injury.
But right now he’s flying.
His energetic displays from a deep-lying midfield area, complemented perfectly by David Gold, have allowed Michael McKenna the freedom to attack.
McKenna was excellent again too and regularly involved in Arbroath’s attacks.
He registered over 11km on his GPS vest in the win over Morton last week and the GPS vests for McKenna, Slater and Gold must have been doing real numbers this week.
Scott Stewart: Mr Versatile for Arbroath v Ayr United
Arbroath fans have been crying out for a new left sided defender since Colin Hamilton was injured in a 2-0 win over Ayr in March.
Hamilton tore the hamstring off the bone that night and is working back to fitness.
Lichties have looked at various left backs and been close to securing some really exciting prospects.
But they haven’t, yet, got a deal over the line.
That has meant Scott Stewart – an orthodox attacking right midfielder – has deputised at left-back.
📸 | 𝐀 𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 . . .
— Arbroath FC (@ArbroathFC) September 2, 2023
Stewart’s a real worker.
A teacher by day, he’s used to delivering lessons but he’s not shy of learning new tricks himself.
And to be fair to him, he’s really grown into his new role – staking a claim for man of the match on Saturday.
Jermaine Hylton: Sprinkling magic dust from the bench for Arbroath v Ayr United
Every team needs a little bit of magic dust.
A player who can do things out of the ordinary and cut defences open.
Hylton is still getting up to speed at Arbroath and gaining his match fitness but even from the bench he’s a real weapon.
Kenan Dunnwald-Turan did a terrific job of tiring out the Ayr right back and when Hylton came on he cut them open.
He then did superbly well to get on the end of the ball to scramble home a late winner.
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