Lichties leave it late to sting St Mirren

Arbroath made their perfect start to their Premier Sports Cup group stage campaign thanks to a late, late show at St Mirren Park.

The match was trickling towards a penalty shoot-out for a bonus point with the score locked at 0-0.

But Dylan Paterson popped up in injury time to send the Lichties support home beaming.

With manager Dick Campbell on a family break, assistant Ian Campbell took the team for the day.

Keaghan Jacobs made his competitive debut with Kieran Shanks also appearing for the first time up front.

St Mirren’s Alex Grieve had an early sight of goal with just a few minutes on the clock but he nodded wide from close range.

The Lichties defence is known for how well organised it is and again it was keeping its shape well away from home.

Grieve came close again but still couldn’t find a way beyond Derek Gaston in the Arbroath goal.

Bobby Linn’s free-kick shortly before the 25 minute mark failed to trouble the St Mirren goal.

It was a rare attempt at goal for Arbroath who were being penned back into the own half.

Against the run of play, though, they almost took the lead when Scott Stewart’s shot came back off the base of the post.

Joe Shaughnessy hit the woodwork as well for the hosts, his effort on 53 minutes coming back off the crossbar.

St Mirren were turning the screw and only an excellent Shanks header off the line on the hour mark denied Declan Gallagher from opening the scoring.

The longer the game went on, the more likely it became that St Mirren’s inability to score while on top would come back to haunt them.

Dale Hilson, James Craigen, Nicky Low and Daniel Fosu were all introduced from the bench as Campbell looked to shift the momentum of the game.

The changes paid off and sparked a new life into the visitors.

Fosu was competitive in the middle of the park while Hilson was a nuisance to deal with.

Craigen came close to making it 1-0 with a well drilled strike which just cleared the bar.

Campbell’s changes were paying off and now it was St Mirren who were doing the defending.

Paterson came off the bench with just under 10 minutes to go as the Lichties looked to heap more pressure on.

Hilson went close on the 85th minute but it looked as if both sides, who each had had chances to win the match, were facing a shoot-out for a bonus point.

But Arbroath gave it one final push – and it paid off in style.

Fosu collected the ball on the wing before picking out Michael McKenna whose delivery was met by Paterson.

The forward still had plenty of work to do but he got in front of his man and sent a neat finish beyond Trevor Carson.

Arbroath were scheduled to play Cowdenbeath on Wednesday night as we went to press.