Team pictures

Arbroath gained promotion to the 1st Division for the second time in the previous season. The club had never really been relegated, as they were in the top division prior to the outbreak of the second world war, but on the resumption of football at the end of hostilities in 1945/46, they were placed in 'B' Division. They had ended up as runners up to Ayr Utd., and prolific striker Dave Easson had notched up the magnificent personal tally of 51 goals in all competitions.

The club would find life in the top league extremely difficult and went down to some heavy defeats in their season upstairs. There were also some memorable results, a 3-1 win over a much fancied Motherwell side which included the now famous TV pundit Ian St John, a 6-2 win over St Mirren, both at Gayfield, and a 1-1 draw with Rangers at Ibrox, one of only two points picked up away from home. The 15 points gleaned by the club during the season wasn't enough to save the club though, and they were relegated for the first time at the end of the season.

		pts	home	scorers	away	scorers
1	Hearts	54	1-4	Grierson.	1-4	Shirreffs.
2	Kilmarnock	50	0-3		2-3	Quinn, Easson.
3	Rangers	42	0-4		1-1	Grierson.
4	Dundee	42	1-1	Easson.	0-5
5	Motherwell	40	3-1	Shirreffs, Grierson, Easson.	0-6
6	Clyde	39	2-3	Shirreffs (pen), Easson.	1-2	Dunn.
7	Hibernian	35	2-3	Grierson, Easson.	0-5
8	Ayr Utd	34	1-1	Grierson (pen).	0-1
9	Celtic	33	0-5		0-4
10	Partick Th.	32	2-2	Dunn, Grierson.	0-2
11	Raith Rvs	31	1-2	Easson.	0-5
12	Third Lanark	30	2-1	Shirreffs, Grierson.	1-7	Quinn.
13	Dunfermline Ath	29	2-2	Dunn, Easson (pen).	1-5	Easson.
14	St Mirren	28	6-2	Easson 4, Quinn, Shirreffs.	1-8	Brown.
15	Aberdeen	28	1-3	Shirreffs (pen).	0-0
16	Airdrie	28	1-1	Hay.	1-2	Grierson.
17	Stirling Alb	22	4-3	Brown, Easson, Quinn.	0-5
18	Arbroath	15

Arbroath's best efforts were early in the season in the League Cup, when they emerged as winners of their section with 8 points.

		pts	home	scorers	away	scorers
1	Arbroath	8
2	Albion Rvs	7	0-3		1-4	Quinn.
3	Stenhousemuir	6	1-0	Hay.	3-2	Easson 2, Crossan.
4	Dumbarton	3	2-0	Quinn, Sherriffs.	4-3	Quinn, Logie, Glidden o.g., Easson.

They then faced Raith Rovers in a two leg quarter final, 2-2 ( Hay, Brown.) at Starks Park, and 2-1 ( Brown 2.) at Gayfield giving a 4-3 aggregate in favour of the lichties. A semi final appearance against Third Lanark at Ibrox, saw Arbroath go down 0-3, and end their interest in the League Cup.

In the Scottish cup Arbroath were drawn away to Rangers in the 3rd round, and lost the match 0-2. The only other recorded match was a 1st round Forfarshire tie at Tannadice, where the lichties went down by 3-7, goalscorers for Arbroath were Easson, Dunsmore, and Soutar.