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, 2/5/09

I still don’t quite believe it. Barring a catastrophe we’ve won the league. Even a Dumbarton side surely can’t blow a three point and eighteen goal lead in one game; so Division 2 beckons.

Firstly, Elgin were poor and looked like a team who wished the season was already over: ideal opponents for a day like today. We took a while to score, though, and it was one of those that happens to a team at the bottom of the league. Their keeper made a good parry to Derek Carcary’s shot but it looped up and dropped down over the line despite a defender’s effort to clear. The second was beautifully worked (great cross for Dennis McLaughlin to more or less tap in) as was the third (Carcary rounding the keeper after a fine move.) The fourth was an individual effort, Carcary running almost half the length of the pitch with the ball and putting it past the keeper from what looked, from where I was, an impossible angle. Game was over and we awaited updated scores from Central Park.

The second half was a nothing, really. Carcary got his fourth taking advantage of a defensive error to round the keeper again, and Stevie Murray took a through pass and scored despite the keeper getting his hands to the shot. (But he was offside: I was in line, he wasn’t. Still, we’ll take it; it more often goes the other way.)

And the club record for consecutive minutes played without losing a goal was broken today. Considering our lack of clean sheets earlier in the season this is a minor miracle. Seven straight games now, and counting. This is Dreamland.

Borough Briggs, 31/3/09

Back up to second.

I’d have taken a scabby one-nil, but two is even better.

And a welcome clean sheet; away from home.

Pity Stenny won too.

Sets up Saturday nicely, though.

We could drop down to fifth then.

The Rock, 10/3/09

Another win, another clean sheet and two forwards scoring.

That’s three wins in a row now and no goals conceded.

I’m getting jittery.

Borough Briggs, 9/8/08
Hmm. Maybe a longer, harder season than the first half at Airdrie suggested. Worrying echoes of last season when Fergus Tiernan was top scorer after two games.
Seventh after two games and both teams we’ve played still below us is not good news.
Still we were injury ridden, remain unbeaten in the league and it’s three games in a row now we’ve come back from 1-0 down. That wouldn’t have happened under Gerry McCabe – or Paul Martin.