Date: 8th August 2009	Kick off: 4:00pm
Competition: Irn-Bru 2nd Division	Referee: Colin Brown
Venue: Central Park	Attendance: 302
Man of the Match:

After spending the week preparing for games against East Stirlingshire and Airdrie United respectively we came head to head with Arbroath after Livingston’s demotion to the Third Division. It was a bizarre build up to the league opener with step up being announced on the Wednesday afternoon and the game only given the go ahead on the Friday morning at 11 a.m.

After a quiet open the game burst into life with the afternoon’s main talking when Kenny Adamson was red carded for a foul on Lunan after 11 minutes. Three minutes later the visitors had the first chance of the afternoon when a McCulloch free kick fell to Hyslop who shot wide.

At the other end McQuade fed the ball to Wardlaw who hooked his shot across the face of the goal. In 25 minutes Wardlaw was fouled 25 yards out and Fairbairn’s free kick was saved by Hill at the second attempt.

On the half hour Arbroath had their best chance of the opening period when Sellars took a pass from Lunan and ran clear through but a poor finish saw him fire high over the bar.

Despite being a man short Cowden kept on plugging away and opened the second period strongly with Wardlaw sending a diving header just wide of the post three minutes into the second half and soon after Stein had a 25 yard effort which went just too high.

In 70 minutes Mbu blocked a Lunan 20 yarder but a minute later we were given a further mountain to climb when Dene Droudge picked up a second yellow card for a late tackle on Bishop.

Despite being two men short we managed to hold out until the 80th minute when Rennie’s cross was met by Barry Sellars (Goal, 80 mins) who steered the ball goalwards from 10 yards and Baxter trying to stop it only succeeded in turning the ball home.

Four minutes later it was 2-0 when Lunan ran into space and his 20 yard shot was parried by Hay but Bryan Scott (Goal, 84 mins) was lying handy to slot the ball home from close range.

In the last minute we pulled back a consolation from the penalty spot. Scott McBride (Goal, 90 mins) fired in a free kick with the ball striking Scott’s arm and the young loanee fired home the resulting spot kick via the post as we went down to our first home league defeat since November.

As well as the two red cards McCulloch of the visitors also picked up a yellow card.

Danny Lennon spoke to the Blue Brazil Online after the match:

"It was certainly a difficult start to the campaign. To have had such a short time to prepare for life in the 2nd Division then find ourselves down to ten men after only 11 minutes was far from ideal but it is great to be competing at this level and there were many encouraging signs from the performance.

"I was very surprised that Kenny received a red card as there was not much in the challenge but even with ten men we more than held our own and created the better chances. We started to defend too deep after Dene's sending off and they eventually took advantage of the two man advantage."