A Son of the Rock

Ochilview, 7/11/09

It looks convincing and in the end it was, but I wouldn’t have believed this at the break as Stenhousemuir – wearing a peculiarly washed-out maroon, I thought – had much the better of the first half; though without troubling Dr Jan in goal very much.

Three minutes into the second half Roddy Hunter fashioned an opportunity for himself to shoot from outside the box and Stenny’s keeper didnt get down at all well. So much for Roddy being a penalty box player!

The second was a beauty of a move: a brilliant Stevie Murray back heel flick to Mick Dunlop whose sweet cross was headed almost perfectly by Roddy Hunter only to be parried by the keeper and Scott Chaplain was first to react to sweep it in.

We never looked in trouble after that and the third was fine too. Derek Carcary fended off a physical challenge by the defender, outpaced him and chipped the ball to Ross O’Donoghue’s head from where it met the pokey.

Roddy Hunter must like Ochilview. (At least this time he didn’t get sent off for nowt like in the Stirlingshire Cup final.)

Man of the match? Hard to choose. They all did well. The defence in first half, the whole team second. Chris Craig and Chissie just ran and ran and challenged all game. Chissie was booked for his challenge only because the ref had just yellow-carded a Stenny player for persistent fouling but nearly talked himself into a second yellow in the second half. The ref could have sent off Chris Smith and a Stenny player for a bit of handbags in the first half but kept the heid, gave them a talking to and so didn’t ruin the game.

Praise for a ref! What next?

Four away league games won on the trot! This is getting to be like the back end of last season. But we’re at the table toppers next.

Still, there’s daylight between us and seventh place now.

It’s getting scary. Like Onebrow (see comment here) I think we need to consolidate in this division before contemplating anything else.