A Son of the Rock

SFL Div 2, New Bayview, 15/02/11

Well. Seventh!

East Fife ought to have scored three times over in the first five minutes but we came into it and scored a well worked goal from Pat Walker after great work down the right from Gilhaney and Geggan. We had two dodgy offsides given against us but may have benefited from that as our second looked as if an early pass was to an offside player but play carried on and a great ball across was swept in by Gilhaney.

East Fife had fallen out of things but got back into the game just before half time and nearly got an equaliser. All we Sons fans were gloomy about the second half.

But Andy Geggan scored from another well worked move pretty quickly after the restart (scorer announced as Andy “Greggan” followed immediately by a sarcastic chorus of, “Ther’s only one Andy Greggan,” from the Sons fans) and we played quite sweetly from then on and could have added more with a bit of composure in the final pass or shot. Ryan McStay had a brilliant game in midfield.

To be fair to Stephen Grindlay (posts passim) he spared us a worrying final five minutes by making a great save from the penalty the Fife were awarded – the only real threat they posed second half.

The referee gave some baffling decisions and failed to be consistent in doling out yellow cards, giving one E Fife player a caution for handball but not another for an even more deliberate instance but for which he did award the free kick.

One amazing stat I heard from behind me. Of all Alloa’s points before last night only one had been gained on grass. The rest were on their plastic or that of Stenny or Airdrie Utd.

Ten points from the last twelve and three away wins on the bounce is certainly an improvement and the boys looked settled, always a good thing. These have mostly been games against those around/near us. Only two more of those to go before we are up against top half opposition. A better side than E Fife would have seen us off in that early phase. No room for optimism yet.