SPFL Tier, Meadowbank Stadium, 6/12/25.

Well. Not a good start to the new era. It might as well be a continuation of the old one. (Oh, wait.*)

We lost four goals again. That’s three games in a row now. And we lost a goal early on – to another penalty conceded. Yet another penalty followed just before half-time and things were made worse before the break by losing another goal at 45+5 minutes.

We couldn’t even keep it tight after the break. 4-0 down after 47 minutes.

I’m guessing Edinburgh City took their feet off the accelerator then – or it may have been their substitutions weakened them. Whatever, we actuually managed to score three unanswered goals from then on, two of them penalties of our own – but all much too little too late.

*The installation of Frank McKeown, the previous assistant manager  under Stevie Farrrell, late in the week probably means it is a continuation. I would have said it’s an ill-considered appointment except it maybe wasn’t considered at all. It smacks too much of haste and didn’t really inspire much hope, a feeling only underlined by this loss.

McKeown has a lot to do to win the fans over and increasingly the same might apply to new owner Mario Lapointe, to whom many thanks are due for saving the club from going under totally but whose lack of knowledge of Scottish football and the way things work is beginning to look a touch ominous.

Manager Stevie Farrell has gone.

Relief is immediately followed by trepidation.

The club has to get the appointment of the new manager right. It’s a big ask to turn the situation round but we simply cannot afford to finish bottom of the league and risk the play-off.

Scottish Cup, Third Round, The Rock, 29/11/25.

Is this definitively the worst result in our history?

I know Talbot are only two divisions below us and Bonnyrigg were (nominally) four when they beat us in the same round nine years ago.

I said at the time that was the worst result we’ve ever had. But that was only 1-0.

This, by contrast, is an utter humiliation.

Surely manage Stevie Farrell has to go? (In his post-match interview he said he doesn’t run away from problems. However, if he had any care for the club’s future welfare he would resign. Now.)

If he stays we’ll certainly be renewing acquaintance with Talbot again next season as we’ll both be in the Lowland League West. (They are a stick on for that, being licensed, plus unbeaten in the West of Scotland League Premier from which ten clubs are likely to be promoted to the LLW in the reconstruction of Tier 5, while we’ll finish last in Tier 4 and lose the Pyramid Play-off.)

The fans have had more than enough of him but unfortunately I don’t have confidence that the powers that be at the club have the will to sack him.

So after six games against 3 B teams and 3 from the division above us in the league phase of the Challenge Cup as was (now the KDM Evolution Trophy) we ended up 11^th and so have been “drawn” to play Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the first knock-out round  (the draw was largely pre-determined by the league placings.

Since they won all six games they have played so far this season I doubt we’ll get any revenge for them defeating us in the final of the equivalent competition in 2018.

Well, with one potential banana skin negotiated, we have ended up with an even bigger one, Auchinleck Talbot at home.

Talbot are second top of the West of Scotland League’s top division (two levels below us) but have won every game so far. Moreover, they have  beaten SPFL teams in the Cup before. (In January 2019 they beat Ayr United at home in Round 4, later that year they beat newly promoted Cove Rangers in Round 2 in the next season’s tournament and in 2021 they beat Hamilton Accies in Round 3.)

The game is due on the weekend of 29^th and 30^th November.

SPFL Tir 4, The Rock, 18/10/25.

Another home game, another loss. Three attempts at goal from open play in the whole game – only one of them on target; and that a sclaffed effort easy for the keeper. Plus Spartans were waltzing through our midfield almost at will. Things aren’t good.

Quite why Scott Tomlinson was playing up front alongside Leighton McIntosh I have no idea. He’s more effective cutting in from the wing. And McIntsoh and Ally Roy (who came on late as a sub) had been reasonably effective as a front pairing earlier on the season.

Their first came from a feigned short corner where we put two men out to defend it. It was swung in and they scored from the resulting ping-pong.

We did put a bit of pressure on late in the first half (without of course testing the keeper,) getting a series of corners. Finally McIntosh’s leap forthe ball gave us the equaliser.

Thrown away a few minutes later when they got down our right too easily, Shay Kelly’s parry – away from goal though it was – went straight to the shooter, whose header across goal wasn’t contested and was deflected in well by their scorer.

I  now “have the fear” – as fans say – about the Cup game against Tayport next Saturday.

Edited to add (late 20/10/25.) We weren’t helped by the number of misplaced or short passes we played. Nearly everyone a culprit. Those need to be eliminated. As does the penalty give away. At least the taker this week clattered it against the bar or we’d have been another one lower on the goal difference.

On the Sons’ home page, I spotted the building featured below.

It’s in a photo of the ladies’ team’s game at Mountblow, Dalmuir, (which sadly the Daughters of the Rock lost,) and shows in the background the football pavilion at Mountblow which has obviously been given a much needed make-over since these pictures were taken (not to mention these.)

The pavilion dates from 1937 and I’ve seen it many a time when passing the sports ground on a train but had never photographed it myself.

Now I won’t have to.

It’s that time of the year again. Well, this season we’re in the draw a little earlier due to being in Tier 4 rather than 3.

Anyway it seems we’ve got a home tie in Round Two against Tayport of the Premier Division of the Midlands League, which at the moment lies at Tier 6 of Scottish football; two levels below the Sons.

That league is relatively new, only being formed when the clubs of the former Scottish Junior Football Association joined the senior football pyramid.

Since Tayport FC  are an SFA licenced club (if they weren’t they could not enter the Scottish Cup) they are likely next season to enter the new Lowland League East Divison when the present Lowland League expands to two divisions, though I’m not sure if the promotion criteria have yet been firmed up.

The tie is a potential banana skin, as they say. Home advantage ought to favour us but our home record has been very poor this calendar year. Only two wins I believe. We’ve certainly lost two out of four games at home in the league this season and only won one.

The game will be played on the weekend of October 25^th, most likely on that day.

SPFL Tier 4, K Park Community Stadium, 20/9/25.

A game of two halves.

But first, the K Park Community Stadium is a seriously awful place to watch a football match if you’re an away fan. We were confined to one end of the pitch in a small enclosure which had at most three steps up from pitch level and there was a net strung along the back of the pitch – presumably to prevent injury to spectators. Not an ideal view by any means.

Sons were awful in the first half. The home team seemed to have loads of room to play, with two wide men on their left getting two on one with Kristian Webster at right back far too often and also able to get down their right too easily.

Still, they didn’t force Shay Kelly into any kind of serious save. Then, on the stroke of half time they were given a penalty. This was up the other end from us Sons fans so whether it was justified or not I couldn’t say. Shay Kelly nearly got down to it but it had been struck too firmly.

The second half started much as the first had progressed then suddenly we came into it. This may have been because we had showed more urgency but seemed to coincide with Scott Tomlinson and Kai Kirkpatrick switching wings. Tomlinson began to interpret this as a licence to roam and was soon popping up all over the place in the attacking third. He missed a glorious chance to score, though by not hitting his shot early enough, then Kirkpatrick set up Dom Docherty beautifully but he opted for power rather than placement and blazed it over.

Then a fine move saw Tomlinson moving down the inside right channel before his shot beat the keeper.

It was nip and tuck from then on but East Kilbride ought to have scored at the death but somehow their attacker with only a touch required to put it in the net somehow managed to hit the ball backwards.

It was a much relieved set of Sons fans who greeted the final whistle as for all of the first half  a draw had seemed utterly unlikely.

SPFL Tier 4, The Rock,* 30/8/25.

Like a fortnight ago against Elgin this was a display of the footballing black arts. They were diving and falling over at the slightest hint of contact and the referee was conned by it nearly every time. It’s the sort of thing we need to get wise to and maybe develop ourselves.

Nevertheless this was a result we deserved. We didn’t create anything like enough and I can barely remember an effort on goal barring Ally Roy’s header (straight at the keeper) from a Scott Tomlinson cross. Our goal came from a corner and seems to have been put into his own net by ex-Son Edin Lynch.

Their goals were too easily won, though given the ref’s performance I suppose our players were thinking any sort of tackle would be given as a foul, which indeed their penalty was given as. It didn’t look like much to me but in the box perhaps best avoided.

Despite some signs of Ally Roy and Leighton McIntosh forming a partnership up front, they were living off scraps. We need a creative midfield fast.

*Marbill Coaches Stadium