Arbroath’s 2010-11 championship-winning season has gone into the 133-year-old Gayfield annals bookended by the astonishing coincidence of 5-3 results against Elgin City.
Back on August 7, Paul Sheerin’s men made a winning start to their campaign in the eight-goal opener at Borough Briggs.
On Saturday, with the champagne on ice and the third division trophy ready for a post-match handover, Ross Jack’s side were slight party-poopers after coming from behind to record the same winning margin.
It hadn’t looked that way in the early stages.
Arbroath had delivered some showpiece skills but unfortunately no goals for the expectant 1125-strong crowd, carving out some excellent opportunities.
Just before the half-hour, Lichties manager Paul Sheerin did get the party started with a flawless finish to an Adam Strachan ball across goal.
But no-one had told Ross Jack’s men to stick to the script, and the mood was dulled by the break after a quickfire double from David Gormley put the visitors in ahead.
Elgin might have gone even further ahead had Gormley and Ross O’Donoghue been able to make their mind up over who would prod home a glorious chance within a minute of the restart, and the Lichties used the let-off as a spur when Gavin Swankie’s 24th goal of the season a fine, dipping long-range shot levelled things five minutes later.
City sub Craig Gunn stunned the home support with a long-range counter which crept in at Darren Hill’s back post before Gormley duly delivered his hat-trick just after the hour.
There was a further home fightback, which brought a Josh Falkingham goal in 72 minutes, but Elgin did not pass up their opportunity to mirror the opening day scoreline when Jason Crooks struck from the spot after a 79th minute foul by Stuart Malcolm on Paul Kaczan.Click here for a full photo galleryLichties boss Sheerin was disappointed but not down-hearted that the result had taken some of the shine off the historic day.
“It would have been nice to seal the title on a high, but it wasn’t meant to be,” he said. “I’m disappointed the way it finished because some of the stuff we played going forward was excellent and if we had maybe made it two early on then it might have been a better day for everyone.”
However, Sheerin had nothing but praise for his side over the campaign.
“The ultimate aim (of winning the championship) had been achieved. League tables never lie over 36 games, the best team win the league and that’s us this season,” he added.
“It took us a bit of time to gel. Perhaps there were some players who thought things in this division might not be so tough, but you have to work just as hard and earn the right to play at this level.
“Once we found that and started to play the football we wanted to play then things started to happen.”
The season has also been a voyage of discovery for Sheerin, who pinpointed a key turning point in his own journey.
“It was difficult early on to get the manager/player balance right to start with,” he admitted. “I lost the plot a bit at Montrose earlier in the season and I think that’s when the penny dropped a wee bit.
“From then I was more able to concentrate on what I was doing on the park and let SP (Stewart Petrie) take control of things from the sidelines, and he’s done a great job of that.”
Looking ahead, Sheerin added, “We have to be realistic, we’ll go in as underdogs but if we can keep the nucleus of that squad I don’t see why we can’t go up and kick on in that division.”