Just not football

Kerr McInroy- “At half time the manager told us to use it as much as we can, get shots away and try to do to them what they had done to us in the first half.

It was a week when ‘standing orders’ went viral but there was no way that anyone would have found it easy to comply at the windswept Gayfield on Saturday. Referee Craig Napier deemed it possible to start the ‘game’ as the North Sea crashed on to the shoreline in the kind of storm that would have sunk Sir Patrick Spens.

In the wake of his manager defining the decision to play the match as ‘farcical’, Dunfermline midfielder Kerr McInroy revealed that he and his team mates were surprised with the decision to go ahead with the game:-

"When we first turned up the conditions were really tough and I kind of expected the ref to give it a call but obviously they decided to put it on and we must never dealt with it as well as we should have done in the first half.”

While Arbroath manager, Dick Campbell, dismissed the conditions as only to be expected at Gayfield insisting “it is always windy here’, his side cashed in to take a two goal lead in the first half as they played with the wind on their backs. Dunfermline struggled to get out of their own half after Kerr McInroy had set up Kevin O’Hara for a first minute shot on target.

The home side’s goals came as a result of attempts from distance. Captain Thomas O’Brien’s 27th minute effort from 30 yards took a deflection to end up in the net. Nine minutes later a speculative ball launched in from the left touch line by Bobby Linn hit the far post to allow Dale Hilson to nip in to score.

In the first half Arbroath had registered 13 shots at goal but in the second half Kerr felt that Dunfermline had not managed to capitalise on the wind in the same way as their opponents had:-

"We had the wind in the second half but we just didn`t utilise it as much as we should by getting shots away or whatever. You could see that is what they had tried to do, hit a lot of shots from distance and make it tough for Owain in goals. We probably should have done that more in the second half and utilised it as much as we could.”

The conditions were tough and Arbroath play ‘Blow Football’ better than any visitors can. Kerr though followed his manager’s half time instructions and he had a couple of good efforts before the hour mark:-

"At half time the manager told us to use it as much as we can, get shots away and try to do to them what they had done to us in the first half. I had a decent effort that brought a good save out of the keeper but we should be creating more probably.

"Everyone is just disappointed but we need to pick ourselves and go again at home to Dundee. We have got two back to back home games to look forward to so we hope to pick up points there.”

Twenty year old Kerr is on loan from Celtic but he was missing for the matches at Morton and against Ayr. He was pleased to start at Arbroath, his first since at Inverness on 29 December but he is as desperate as the rest of his current team mates to feature on match days:-

"I have not started in a good few weeks but I started today so I hope that I can get a run again. There is a lot of quality in the squad especially since the January window and a lot of competition for places. You need to do well to get in the team and need to do well to stay in the team. That can only be good for the team."

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