Sons’ reward for getting past Alloa Athletic in last weekend’s Third Round of the Scottish Cup* is a home tie against Airdrieonians to be played on the weekend of 18^th January.

Not the money spinner we hoped for but even though they’re in the league above us it’s still possibly winnable as they haven’t been going too well this season.

By the time the tie gets played all that could have changed of course.

*Scottish Gas Scottish Cup

It seems I won’t be going to East Kilbride after all. Sons’ League Cup game against them will be at home on Sat Jul 13th.

Then on the following Tuesday we’re away to Queen of the South before taking on Airdrieonians at home on Sat Jul 20th and finally Aberdeen away on sat Jul 27th.

One of the finest Scottish footballers of the post-Second World War era, Ian McMillan, has died, at the age of 92.

He started his senior career at Airdrieonians (the original Airdrieonians) for whom he played for ten years before being transferred to Rangers (the original Rangers.)

In his time at Ibrox he was nicknamed “The Wee Prime Minister” for his performances (and also in recognition of the actual Prime Minister at the time) and was part of that semi-legendary forward line Scott, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson (Later Henderson, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson.) He won six caps for Scotland, four Scottish League titles, three Scottish Cup finals,  and two Scottish League Cups and played in the 1961 European Cup Winners’ Cup final a year after playing in the European Cup semi-final.

It’s lost in the mists of time but I believe I may have seen him play for Rangers in a League Cup game against Hibs in the early 1960s. (I was very young at the time.)

McMillan returned to Airdrie for  one season before retiring but later became manager of the club.

He has a connection to the Sons of the Rock in that his grandson Iain Russell played for Dumbarton FC in two spells.

John Livingstone “Ian” McMillan: 18/3/1931 – /2/2024. So it goes.

One of the things that happened while I was away was the draw for the group stage of the League Cup (apparently now called the Viaplay Cup.)

We play Airdrieonians, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Bonnyrigg Rose and Dundee, the first and last away, the other two at home.

I suppose we’ll be out of contention after two games as usual.

SPFL Tier 3, Shyberry Excelsior Stadium,* 16/4/22.

Another game at the Shyberry, another 3-2 defeat with them scoring the winner late.

Fate sealed then.

There is now no chance we can avoid ninth place and the relegation play-offs. Indeed we can’t avoid ninth as East Fife’s defeat means they cannot catch us.

So another miserable season grinds on.

We were apparently down 2-0 then George Stanger got us back into the game. A headed goal from a corner! Our signature method of scoring from last season sadly lacking in this.

Then a further lifeline as they went down to ten men, former Son Adam Frizzell sent off.

An own goal even gave us an equaliser.

But with two minutes left they scored the winner. That’s our season in a nutshell.

At least the next two games are free hits – though Cove Rangers (up next) need a win to clinch promotion.

Then the nail biting really starts with the semi-final away leg on May 3^rd or 4^th, and the home leg on May 7^th.

*Call it Penny Cars if you must.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 1/1/22.

The same old story. We didn’t play badly but….

What with injuries and Covid we were down to bare bones with only four bodies on the bench and even though it was a makeshift defence we actually played quite well defensively, by and large restricting Airdrie to shots from outside the box. (Except for Sam Ramsbottom’s flap at a cross just before half-time when we were lucky to get a free-kick for it.) But it only takes one of those long-range shots to succeed. As it was, when Sam Ramsbottom got his hand to ex-Son Dylan Easton’s effort I thought he’d pushed it round the post – until somehow it still hit the back of the net. The game was effectively over then.

We huffed and puffed throughout but had only a couple of half-chances to show for it, with a Sam Muir shot cleared near the line the closest we came.

We’ll need to hope manager Stevie Farrell can conjure something out of the bag during the January transfer window. Otherwise it’s only East Fife’s even poorer performance than us that will save us from automatic relegation.

And I wouldn’t be too sanguine about our prospects in the relegation play-offs either.

SPFL Tier 3, Excelsior Stadium, 23/10/21.

This seems to have been a bit farcical. We had three players sent off, plus the manager. This speaks of a card happy ref at the very least, if not one that lost control of the game. But it seems from comments on Pie and Bovril there were few bad challenges.

But if the ref has been issuing yellow cards willy-nilly then it’s daft to commit any more fouls, or mouth off at him.

At least we managed to score – twice. And one of them was when we only had eight men left on the pitch – after 6 minutes of added time. Pity we couldn’t hold out for the remaining two.

The next four games are against teams below or around us. We need to pick up points from them but I’m afraid the suspensions accrued today won’t help with that.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 16/10/21.

Well, I settled down in time to access the live stream – and all I got was an error message. ( “internal server error” Even going direct to the univtec page there was no way to connect as a season ticket holder.

It looks as if I didn’t miss much of a pleasing nature though.

That’s two games in a row without scoring – added to a combined loss of eight goals. From +5 our goal difference has gone to -3.

That mid-first quarter optimism has waned considerably.

We’ll need to get things sorted soon or we’ll be looking nervously over our shoulders.

Tough one away next week too, at Airdrieonians, whom I thought looked decent in the 2-2 draw at the Rock in August.

SPFL tier 3, The Rock, 7/8/21.

We got away with this one.

After a brief early flurry where Edin Lynch ought perhaps to have hit the target on a rebound we mostly fell out of this, but when in possession we did look like we wanted to play football. (A blessed relief after the last two seasons.)

Nevertheless their first goal came a bit out of the blue when their forward looped a header back over Callum Erskine (deputising for an isolating Sam Ramsbottom.) For the rest of the first half we weren’t in it and Airdrie ought perhaps to have scored again, Connor Duthie cleared a shot off the line.

It seemed all over when the ref awarded them a penalty with the second half barely started. I’ve seen them given – and not given – but the guy slotted it.

The game changer came when Sam Wardrop was yellow-carded for the second time giving us a man advantage. Fron then on we had the majority of possession but didn’t really trouble their keeper till Ryan McGeever powered in a header from a corner to provide hope.

A few minutes after that Andy Geggan pounced on a loose ball at the edge of the box to drive it low into the corner and secure us a point.

There were some good signs here but if not for the sending-off we would most likely not have got back into this. Then again we didn’t quite have our full team out due to injuries.

Amazingly we’re still joint top of the table. Away to fellow four pointers Queen’s Park next week will be a tough one.

SPFL Tier 3, Broadwood Stadium, 31/7/21.

Wow. I didn’t see this coming. It’s welcome all the same.

But it remains to be seen whether we’re actually any good (though comments on Pie and Bovril suggest we are managing to look like a football team) or whether Clyde were just gash.

The home game against Airdrie next Saturday will give me more of an idea about that.