SPFL Tier 2, Almondvale Stadium, 21/3/15

What an odd game.

We started brightly and had two efforts on goal from Garry Fleming neither of which were on target. Then Chris Turner dangled his leg out to stop a Livi player getting past and was booked. An unneeded foul which I said to Onebrow would be even more unnneeded if they scored from it. So what happened? 1-0 Livi. Danny Rogers seemed a bit immobile as it went in.

There followed a succession of fouls by Livi layers on ours all of which went unpunished – even the one that resulted in Darren Petrie having to be substituted. Dylan Easton came on but this wasn’t really the sort of game where he could shine as Livi were very physical. Despite that it was two more of our players who got booked. In Mark Wilson’s case it looked to me as if he played the ball onto their player. I thought it wasn’t till late in the game that the ref saw fit to book any of their players but the BBC says one was yellow carded after 45 mins. The worst refereeing decision came in the second half when Garry Fleming was given offside despite the fact that he had run on to a pass misplaced by one of their players.

From five minutes into the second half Livi were time-wasting. That was an irritating spectacle. I was thinking we’ve beaten way better Livi teams than this.

The time-wasting came back to bite them late on when Scott Agnew drove a free-kick into the net. Is that Aggie’s first goal from a free-kick since we got promoted to this division?* It wasn’t even in the corner, hit on the goalie’s side of the wall, but I wasn’t caring.

No time-wasting by Livi now. But it was us who scored again, Garry Fleming latching on to a ball after a set piece wasn’t fully cleared and fairly belting it into the net. He simply wanted it more than the defender.

So a win that sees us 11 points clear of 8^th place with 7 games left (with Alloa only having 18 points to play for and Cowdenbeath 24.) Livi are 17 points behind us with only 21 to play for. I think we won’t finish last, then.

*Edited to add:- Apparently not. I seems he got one in the 4-1 demolition of Hamilton Accies last spring. I wasn’t at that game.

SPFL Tier 2, Recreation Park,¹ 6/12/14

A welcome win – second away win in a row – an even more welcome clean sheet, and breathing space between us and eighth place.

We could have gone behind early on as Alloa hit the post and the ball screwed back across the goal to go out for a goal-kick. Danny Rogers also had a good save with his legs in the first half. The only goal came from the aftermath of a corner which was cleared out to Mitch Megginson who spurned the obvious ball back out to Scott Agnew and advanced to cross the ball for Andy Graham to nod it to Chris Kane. That close in and in space Chris doesn’t miss.

Kaneo could have had a hat-trick in this game as he went close several times in the second half but mostly from outside the box. Jordan Kirkpatrick, on as sub for Chris Turner, had a fine strike saved by the keeper.

But I spent most of the second half looking at my watch as we didn’t really show any sign of putting the game away and Alloa had a lot of the ball (without, it has to be said, ever looking really dangerous) and the defence always looked vulnerable against a pacy break. It was us, not them, who looked as if we’d had a big game in midweek.

I’ll take a scrappy one-nil any day though.

¹Indodrill Stadium? I think not.

SPFL Tier 2, The Rock, 26/4/14.

Wow! 4-1.

Makes up for the doing we got at their place early on in the season.

It also sets up the last day nicely for nail biting by Hamilton and Dundee fans – and perhaps Falkirk ones too. Plus Alloa must be bricking it now Cowdenbeath are only two points behind.

Sadly fourth spot is now beyond us. I can’t see a twelve goal swing in our favour next week. Fifth is achieved with a game still to play though. This is a magnificent achievement by the management and players. We can bask in it over the summer.

SPFL Tier 2, The Rock, 5/4/14

Much belated congratulations to the team (managerial and players) in thumping Alloa again and so securing second tier status for at least another year. I didn’t even know out scorers till Sunday as telly has been pretty much on the back burner and internet access not really a priority for the last few days. I’ve still not got the main computer hooked up.

I know technically Cowdenbeath could still catch our points total but the goal difference difference is also massively in our favour. They’ve also won only nine times all season so to get four out of four would be incredible. Time to look up the table. One more win for us – or loss for Alloa – would mean we’re the top part-time team in Scotland twice in a row.

On to Raith on Saturday. They’ll be buzzing after winning the Challenge Cup though.

Scottish Cup Round 5, Recreation Park, 8/2/14.

We dominated the first half of this and only had one hairy moment when Stephen Grindlay made a good stop and Paul McGinn didn’t look favourite for the rebound but still managed to scoop it away. The goal was well worked, Scott Agnew did brilliantly to bring the ball down and then hooked it across goal for Colin Rhyming Slang to volley in from close range. Then Chris Kane won himself a penalty – almost a carbon copy of the incident in the recent league game but this one was more definite. Unfortunately his shot was a carbon copy of the previous one and the keeper saved it (while injuring himself in the process.)

The second half was a bit more even but we were really troubled only twice – another great stop from Stephen Grindlay and an absolutely magnificent goal line clearance from Andy Graham after it looked a certain goal. Scott Linton hit the bar with a belter but the game was pretty scruffy and scrappy in the latter stages.

So a Cup quarter-final to look forward to. When was the last time we had one of those? Was it 1979? I don’t remember one since.

SPFL Tier 2, The Rock, 5/2/14

I wasn’t at the game and didn’t catch up with the result till late today.

Not a bad result considering we were down to ten men early in the second half – before there was any scoring.

A good effort from the lads to come from behind twice when a man down.

With Saturday’s Cup game at Alloa in mind I hope not too much was taken out of them.

SPFL Tier 2, New Douglas Park, 1/2/14

I’d have taken this before the game. I’ll take it even more after we went 3-2 down with two minutes to go. But up popped Chris Kane with the equaliser a minute later.

I “watched” this on the videoprinter from about 4.30. I hadn’t felt up to the trip across.

From the report on Sportscene Results it sounded like Stephen Grindlay had twice spilled the ball to lead to Accies goals.

But not much damage done; only one place lost.

Amazingly we are now the outright top goalscorers in the Division, two better off than Dundee. Our defensive record is the third worst though.

Big week now. Home to Livingston on Wednesday then a chance to reach a Cup quarter-final at Alloa on Saturday. I’m not expecting that game to be a 5-1 away win again.

SPFL Tier 2, Recreation Park, 18/1/14.

Stunning. Simply Stunning. I’d never envisioned this when I looked towards this match.

I can’t remember seeing such a one-sided first half when we were the side on top – especially away from home. (Even the 6-0 at East Fife two and a half years ago wasn’t so lop-sided.) We were two-nil up, at 30 mins in, before they had a decent attack. Stephen Grindlay had had only pass backs and one pick up to deal with until after Mark McLaughlin deflected a cross in and Chris Turner got his head onto another. He did have to make a save from close-in header at 2-0, though. Chris Kane had hit the bar about 5 mins in and late in the first half converted a chase with their keeper to the corner of the box into a penalty which he took himself. There was contact but he’d seen it coming and didn’t avoid it. 3-0 at half time was already dreamland. I’d worked out that our goal difference – not to mention our points – was now better than Alloa’s.

They came out a bit more fired up in the second half but couldn’t make any impression. Jordan Kirkpatrick set up a shooting chance for himself but his piledriver just cleared the post, Mark Gilhaney had a great chance, one-on-one with the keeper whom he rounded but sent his shot over. (Well, we were shooting downhill by then.) They, however, ran up the park and scored but only while Mitch Megginson was temporarily laid out in our penalty area.

Any thoughts of a comeback were snuffed out when a cross reached Chris Kane – what a worker he is; brave too – he played for about an hour with a bandage up his nose after a clash. He ought to have put the cross in with his first touch but instead it teed up for him to belt it past the keeper.

The best was the last, a peach; a superb cross from the right was hit first time on the volley by Jordan Kirkpatrick and rocketed into the net. Jordan’s reward was an immediate substitution! That gave Scott Agnew some game time though.

Brilliant performance. Pass marks all round, I even noticed Colin Rhyming Slang making defensive clearances. Alloa were much poorer than I’d thought they would be. No need for Paul Hartley to chuck in the towel as their manager after the game, I’d have thought though.

Moreover, an unlikely concatenation of results means we’re now fourth in the table. In a promotion play-off spot. Our highest league position in 30 years.*

When will I wake up?

*Edited to add: Our highest league position in nigh on 30 years.

SPFL Tier 2, The Rock, 4/12/13.

I feared the worst when I tuned in to the club’s website for the twitter feed and saw we were a goal down. But we’ve come back in a few games recently so not all hope was lost.

In the end I saved it for teletext after the game.

It seems Brian Prunty did his overhead kick thing again. Against one of his old clubs too! I can’t remember too many of our players finding the net against previous employers; it usually happens the other way. (Iain Russell’s a shoo-in to score against us today.)

A draw’s not too shabby out of this. I’d like to see us start picking up points at home but it seems we just play better away.

Alloa apparently.

Can we not get away from them at all?

I suppose it’s over two months away yet but we’re scheduled to play them twice before then.