SPFL Tier 3 Play-off, Semi-Final, First Leg, Ainslie Park, 03/05/22.

Calamity.

Shambles.

Disgrace.

Choose your own noun.

Whichever, this was a come-uppance that has been coming all season.

We weren’t the worse team in the first half; indeed we had several opportunities to put in good crosses, notably from Ross MacLean, but the delivery was never acceptable enough except when Conner Duthie put one over for Josh Oyinsan to head. Josh’s angle was slightly wrong and the ball just cleared the bar. That would have made it 1-1 and might have changed the game.

But our perennial ability to shoot ourselves in the foot manifested itself when George Stanger underhit a back-pass and Kieran Wright couldn’t prevent the forward getting past him to be presented with an open goal.

Their second was also an abject disaster, a corner somehow not being cleared and the ball going in off Gregor Buchanan. At that point any thought of winning this tie all but disappeared.

Mind you, if we had approached the start of the first half the way we did the second things might have been different. For the first twenty minutes we were all over them, creating space down the flanks and getting crosses in. It was two odd substitutions though with Kris Syvertsen who had looked as if he might create something and big Josh (who admittedly wasn’t at his best) being replaced by Kalvin Orsi and Callum Wilson. At this point Paul Paton was bossing the game from the base of midfield and it was his cross that was looped over the keeper from the edge of the box for our goal. Young Callum did his best, twisting and turning past defenders several times, but nobody was able to be calm enough to finish off his work.

Their third killed it. Another defensive mix-up and a reasonable save from Keiran Wright was followed by a failure to clear the ball which fell to a guy who couldn’t miss.

At 2-1 and with us on top there was the possibility of getting an equaliser but that goal knocked us back. 3-1 was always going to be a different prospect.

The final nail in the coffin with minutes to go – another short pass back latched on to by the home attack – just completed the humiliation.

The thought of watching the second leg was by then almost unbearable.

So; unless some sort of miracle happens on Saturday we now know where we’ll be playing next season; Tier 4.

Who knows where we’ll be the season after that?

The club is in deep trouble on and off the park. It’s its 150^th anniversary later this year. What a sorry state it’s in to greet that.

Profound change is required.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 26/3/22

Well, it wasn’t a defeat, we didn’t lose a goal inside the first five minutes and we ended up with a clean sheet. It could be termed progress.

But we needed a win. Especially since Peterhead beat Falkirk so we’re now four points behind them. And it’s four games in a row now without scoring.

We’re just sleepwalking into relegation.

It could have been different. Yes, we didn’t threaten much in the first half (we didn’t threaten at all) but were reasonably comfortable.

We ought to have scored in the second when a fine Carlo Pignatiello run saw him unselfishly draw the ball back to Paul Paton in front of an open goal but he scuffed his shot miserably.

A minute or so later they were awarded a penalty which looked to be curtains for us. However Kieran Wright in goal made a very good save. It’s his first clean sheet for us. How he must have longed to have a defence in front of him.

Another plus point was Josh Oyinsan’s return. He gives us presence up front but isn’t fully match fit I would say.

Whether or not the appearance as a sub by the long-injured (and long unseen) Kristoffer Syvertsen is a plus was difficult to tell. He again probably isn’t match fit and didn’t do much in his minutes on the pitch to say if he’s an asset or merely a body.

We have five games left, two of them against the top two away. There’s no way we’re pulling this out of the bag.

SPFL Tier 3, Balmoor Stadium, 26/2/22.

This was somethiing of a disaster.

As if losing two goals in the first ten minutes wasn’t bad enough we were then down to ten men when Paul Paton picked up two yellow cards. And then they scored a third before half-time. Amazingly we got back into it with two goals through Ross MacLean and Eoghan Stokes.

Ross MacLean then also got a second yellow.

The inevitable followed as Peterhead got a fourth but the scoring wasn’t finished as Carlo Pignatiello got a third for us in injury time.

I’m not advocating we play with nine men in every game but that’s the second time this season we’ve managed to score in those circunstances – and with the same referee on both occasions. I hope we never get him officiating again.

This was a must not lose. And we lost.

We’ve got Queen’s Park (gainst whom we’ve played 3 and lost 3 this season) on our tatty field at the Rock next up.

It’s getting increasingly difficult to see where points are going to come from.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 19/2/22.

Oh dear.

I could say the pitch cost us this. It was in a dreadful state and the winning goal came as a direct result of it when the ball bobbled as loanee goalkeeper Kieran Wright was attempting a clearance from a back pass. The result was a sclaff onto which the Alloa player latched. Despite Kieran forcing him wide (and doing well to avoid conceding a penalty) he managed to score from a very narrow angle. With 7 minutes to go that was us more or less dead.

Alloa, though, were the better team all game, seeming to be able to surmount the conditions and actually pass the ball. They exploited our left a lot and that was where their opener came from.

We came into it towards the end of the first half and the equaliser, a great strike from Paul Paton, was deserved at the time.

I thought that we would keep forcing it in the second half but it was Alloa who started to dominate the game. Even so but for that sclaff it might have been us who stole it. We did pile on pressure near the end with a succession of corners but couldn’t get any efforts on target or through the thicket of defensive bodies.

This is beginning to look very like a relegation season. Incidents like the sclaff tend to happen to doomed teams. Ominously, East Fife have picked up since we beat them.

Peterhead away next Saturday is a must win. A draw will not be enough.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock,6/11/21.

It was a mustn’t lose – and we didn’t lose.

However we ought to have won.

There were enough dangerous crosses etc for us to have got on the end of one of them and then there were two sitters; Paul Paton scooped one high and wide when he ought to have buried it, then he was through one on one but failed to get the ball past the keeper and Eoghan Stokes skied the rebound. That was really the only save their keeper had to make.

I had the fear when I realised how bad the wind was – I’m still traumatised by that game up at Peterhead – and for a long time this resembled those dreadful games we witnessed last season. We barely made an effort at shooting from range (Sam Ramsbottom had to make a good save from a wind-assisted one of theirs first half.)

Still a change of tack at a corner when Callum Wilson came on saw his driven cross deflected on and saw Eoghan Stokes burying it. That was on the cusp of injury time we ought to have held out.

So what happened?

They strolled up the park, got in a unopposed cross and two of them were queuing up to put it in. Two points dropped.

With not taking the chances we create and defending like that we’re in a relegation fight again.

All September’s optimism has gone.