The Rock, 6/3/10

Down to only one goal against.

If this trend keeps up we’re bound to get a point on Tuesday night.

But then we’re playing the league leaders; so how likely is that?

Four losses on the trot.

This is relegation form, guys.

Balmoor Stadium, 2/3/10

It was only two this time.

Looking at the team sheet I’m wondering if this was Chappie’s attempt to show that his usual selections are the right ones. But…. three changes to the midfield and still no place for Ross Clark?

Yet the Blue Toon fans on Pie and Bovril say we ought to have won.

And down to seventh.

Who’d be a Sons follower?

Gayfield, 27/2/10

Well the goals against predictor didn’t need to be changed……

I don’t know why I bother going to Gayfield. We almost never do well there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen us win in Arbroath. Maybe I should just stay away.

Despite the fact we started brightly and the trialist (David Winters) blasted in a great cross by Chissie we soon began to go up blind alleys on our left hand side.

Even though in the first half Arbroath were poor, at half time I didn’t fancy us holding out for another forty five minues.

And so it proved. The midfield became more and more invisible as time wore on and in the end we lost our customary three.

Apart from Dr Jan, only the trialist and maybe Dennis Wyness (who did get the ball in the net for 2-2 but was given offside) of the starters get pass marks. Scott Chaplain and Ross O’Donoghue had the worst games I’ve seen them play – which is saying something. Even Ben Gordon was rubbish; and Chris Smith continues to look like a mistake waiting to happen.

The fans gave Chissie some stick but he was cruelly exposed by lack of support from midfield.

Ross Clark and Derek Carcary improved things a bit but we were chasing the game and pushed up too much, so lost the third goal.

The trialist seems to be a player, though. Onebrow’s verdict on him was he’s too good to sign for us. He and Wyness linked up well and he’d have put Wyness in for a one-on-one if Dennis had been alert enough to it.

Arbroath’s defence looked decent which makes me puzzled as to why they’re so low in the table.

Yet for all the above we’re still fifth.

How?

The Rock, 17/2/10

Oh dear.

Much as I don’t want us to get promotion this season – it’s too big a step – I don’t like us being humped at home.

Stirling, though, will probably be in and around the championship come May.

Goals continue to leak like there’s nothing in front of Dr Jan.

It’s been a better season away from home for some reason.

New Bayview, 6/2/10

Or, as Onebrow put it to me after he scored their (and his) second, “Are we playing Stevie Crawford on his own?”

This was a good open game with both sides trying to go forward and something of a goal fest for the first quarter hour when I thought that it was going to be one of those goal-every-nine-minute fiascos.

We started off brightly with some good passing and movement but it was still something of a surprise when Ben Gordon headed in a corner unchallenged. East Fife hadn’t really threatened when they equalised. Our defence failed to clear properly and the ball was swept across the six yard line to where Crawford couldn’t miss.

Our second was a peach, a great pass from Ryan McStay hit on the half turn by Scott Chaplain. The third was pure Del Boy. He thoroughly outpaced the defence, rounded the keeper and seemed about to pass to an unmarked player in the box from near the by-line but instead thumped it into the net. A bit like one of his goals in the 6-0 against Elgin last season.

Their second was one of those great strikes you can’t do much about. I suppose Chris Smith might have got more depth on the clearing header but if it had fallen to anyone else it wouldn’t have been a goal. It was a brilliant volley, an internationalist’s goal.

With twenty minutes to go we started to fade badly. Ryan McStay in particular looked all in. Only to be expected I suppose with the lack of games recently. But we held out.

The ref had a good game, letting it flow and only reaching into his pocket in the last ten minutes, more or less when he was forced to. None of the offenders could quibble. He might have given E Fife a pen in the first half when Ben Gordon seemed all over one of their attackers but there was something similar he could have given us late on so it maybe evens out.

Scarily, we’re only seven points off top spot.

PS: I wish Dr Jan would catch the ball rather than punch it; he did this several times today and it gave me kittens every time. He’s a good shot stopper, though. He had one great tip-over in the first half.

The Rock, 23/1/10

Woo-hoo!

We haven’t played for over a month, we haven’t signed anybody in the transfer window- not even a loanee – our home form has been rubbish, yet we beat the league leaders.

I’m delighted. I was fearing three goals lost as per the early season norm.

I’d also heard the half-time on the radio and resigned myself to the defeat.

Well done the lads; and especially Roddy Hunter and Ross Clark who got the goals, though according to the BBC Derek Carcary was instrumental.

Dare we hope Ross Clark will get a regular game now and return to the form of this time last year?

To make it a better day the teams below us (except for Peterhead) lost or drew. Ground gained.

For clubs like Dumbarton it’s been like a close season this past month – only without the friendly matches.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

While I’m all for bright, expansive, expressive football – Dumbarton have a tradition of being a passing side, not just lump it and run merchants – I don’t want it to be at the expense of our divisional status.

Allardyce managed to establish Bolton firmly in the Premier League and even qualified for Europe. Surely that, and the odd cup run, is the most a club of Bolton’s size and history can aspire to? It is arguably, overachieving (Nat Lofthouse and the 1950s FA Cup win notwithstanding.)

The style Coyle promoted at Burnley is by no means guaranteed to ensure their survival and might, indeed, still entail relegation.

Be careful what you wish for, my friends.

Both clubs may well be in the same division next year.

But which one?

So we got the good result, then. And only three goals would have won it for us.

I’d have taken it before the game but going into the lead twice and losing it both times, the last with two minutes to go, is a bit of a kicker.

I couldn’t face the drive to Stirling so I started “watching” this on the BBC website when it was 1-1 and was immediately apprehensive. Our second goal was a nice bonus. Downer at the second equaliser, though.

But an away draw against the joint leaders can’t be bad. And up to fifth again.

The Rock, 12/12/09

I take the goals against predictor off for one league game and what happens?

We revert to early season type.

And it allowed Peterhead to climb above us on goal difference even though they lost.

Methinks the cup games have been too much of a distraction.

We’ve now got two difficult games against top four opponents to come. I’m not looking forward to them at all.

So: do we need to score four on Tuesday night to get a win? (A draw will be a good result.)

*Edited to add:-
Thanks to onebrow for letting me know I originally had the score wrong. (0-1. Must have been wishful thinking.)