SFL Div 2, The Rock, 7/5/11

Well. We’ve had four clean sheets this season in the league and I’ve seen two of them!

This was as much of a non-event as might be expected when nothing rode on it for either side but that’s two points in successive games from teams who had beaten us thrice already. Two points I thought we’d struggle for.

Here’s a typical scene from the game. All twenty outfield players within a space of about twenty by ten yards. Absolutely no width.

Dumbarton had the balance of the play but made few chances although the Forfar keeper made two good saves from Pat Walker and Andy Geggan in the second half. Stephen Grindlay barely had a save to make yet Forfar should have gone ahead late on when their forward headed it wide instead of on target.

Was Stephen Grindlay making a bid to be retained here? He actually came for two crosses. Even more astonishingly he caught them both!

In the photo below the players leave the field at the final whistle.

So Stenny made safety and Alloa face the play-offs. Interestingly our total of forty points would have seen us relegated or in the play-offs in seven of the seventeen previous seasons where there have been ten teams in Division Two.

Isn’t it bizarre though that Alloa choose now to get rid of Alan Maitland as manager? Either it ought ot have been done months ago (I gather he offered to resign but was turned down) or else they should have waited till after the play-offs. The team is hardly going to be in the best frame of mind for these crucial games. Though if he’d “lost” the dressing room then I suppose there may be an improvement. But they now face an Annan team surely on a high after making the play-offs, and if they get through that they will play a side on a roll. Wierd timing.

Galabank 18/7/09: 19/7/09

Dumbarton 1-1 Queen Of The South (6-7 on pens.)
Annan Athletic 3-3 Dumbarton (4-2 on pens.)

You can’t draw inferences for the oncoming season from pre-season games. Last season we didn’t win many pre-season encounters and it turned out well.

I must say, though, that while at the end of last season I couldn’t wait for the new one to start, as it has approached I have become more and more wary.

We have two games against higher opposition to kick off the new term; Morton in the Challenge Cup on Sunday, and Dunfermline in the CIS on Aug 1^st. The only consolation is that they are both at home.

There’s a friendly against Middlesbrough tomorrow night too, a Stirlingshire Cup tie versus the Shire to squeeze in next midweek and the squad is by no means settled. We don’t seem to have a left back. I hope things don’t fall apart.

Morton.

At least it’s at home.

We’ve not had much luck in the draws for the cups recently – except for Annan at home in the CIS last season.

Still, we did relatively well against 1st Division opposition last season (one of whom, admittedly, we will be meeting on an equal footing this.)

I’ve just looked at the BBC SFL page to check Morton’s final position and noticed – I didn’t pay that much attention to the competition after we got knocked out – that Airdrie actually won it last time out. We really ought to have beaten them in the first round.

Galabank, 9/5/09

So that’s the 100% record at Galabank gone, then. We’ve got a 50% record there now, what with our first win.

Well done the lads!

I didn’t go to the game as it’s a bit far away and I saw the effective clincher last week anyway. (In a comment on this post, Onebrow said 65 points would win the championship. As it turned out 64 points would have been enough. We reached that last week.)

The only (slight) downer about this game was the termination of the clean sheet record. It would have been nice to see the season out without losing another goal but we were 2-0 up so maybe the lads eased off a bit.

Still, it’s eight games unbeaten at the right time of the year.

If we can keep the manager and the players together – with maybe a few additions – we ought to do well enough next season.

Alloa, Arbroath, Brechin*, Clyde, East Fife, Stirling* – and maybe Airdrie* – here I come!

*Depending on play off results.

The Rock, 21/3/09

Not a good time to lose the unbeaten home record in the league (since August.)

By the next time we play we could be as low as fifth.

Three away games coming up so don’t look for an improvement soon.

Galabank, 20/12/08

A 100% record at Galabank, then. 100% defeats. We go there again on the last day of the season proper. Gloom abounds at Son Of The Rock towers.

Another away loss. It’s getting to be a habit.

With Stenny’s defeat at Forfar this was an opportunity lost – especially since Cowden grabbed theirs with both hands and the Montrose result went our way.

It looks like we were playing 4-2-4 again. In this division, on tight away grounds, that may not be too wise.

A play-off place at best, methinks.

The Rock, 4/10/08

I think we can definitely say Annan’s bubble has burst. They may well now struggle badly; at least until the January transfer window.

Nevertheless this is a good win. As I recall we haven’t scored four against anybody since the second last game of season 2006-7 when we put 5 past the Shire.

And we clawed back two points of the difference from Stenny at the top. Nice to see Forfar paying us back for last week’s late equaliser by doing it again.

Pity we couldn’t improve the goal difference in the second half but I suppose the players knew the game was won and relaxed a bit.

But: second place after the first quarter was something I think we’d all have taken before a ball was kicked.

Strathclyde Homes Stadium*, 5/8/08 (aet 1-1, pens 5-4)
Thought we could have scored early and Annan might have crumpled. They hung on and came into it more later on but never really looked like scoring. We should have buried them in the second half. Extra time and Annan score the only way they were going to when Geggan gives away a pen, and somehow gets sent off for dissent without me seeing it. Ten men and struggling, then the equaliser more or less out of nothing. One more goal than we ever got against Gretna!
First eight penalties scored, Monk saves the next then Stevie Murray blasts the ball home and goes mental. At least he seems to care.
If Annan had gone for it when we only had three at the back and no full back on we’d have lost. I don’t think they’ll stay top of the league for long but they’re unlikely to finish bottom.
I came away from the game thinking that one of manager Jim Chapman’s unlikely achievements has been to turn Mick O’Byrne into a player. Last season at this time he was dire.
Are we destined for a quick re-acquaintance with Gerry McCabe in the next round?

*From hereon in to be referred to as The Rock.