A Son of the Rock

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.