SPFL Tier 3, Glebe Park, 12/1/19.

I’ve the feeling we’re doomed.

This was a mustn’t lose.

We lost it.

That we ought not to have lost it is neither here nor there. If we can lose to a team as abject as Brechin things are beyond bad.

Okay, extenuating circumstances, we had only three subs on the bench – only two outfield ones and only one of those actually fit to play. Plus Michael Paton was drafted in to right back and Cammy Ballantyne shifted to the left to cover for the absence of Willie Dyer.

It was Paton who made the day much harder than it needed to be when he dived in to bring down an attacker when he’d already been booked. Down to ten men was going to make the win all but impossible. (Not that his first booking was much of one but you don’t dive in when you’ve had it.) I must say the ref was reluctant to wield the yellow card to any of the home defenders making loan signing Ben Armour’s debut a trial. Armour was himself booked before any of his tormentors was. His substitution by Brad Spencer near the end might have been to try to make sure the ref wasn’t tempted to give him a second too. By the time the ref did start booking Brechin players it was too late and he spread the cards around.

The odd thing was we looked a better attacking force after the sending-off than before – possibly due to Cammy Ballantyne being on his natural side of the pitch. But I was always aware we were short of numbers whenever Brechin counter-attacked.

We were the better team throughout in any case – even if we didn’t actually threaten their goal much. Their keeper made a great save from an Andy Dowie header from a corner to stop us taking the lead. (Dowie, it seems, was making his last appearance for us, his new day job commitments meaning his availability isn’t guaranteed. That leaves us with the sum total of zero centre backs available for the Montrose game in a fortnight – unless long-term absentee Craig Barr recovers in time for that. Or some other miracle occurs.)

We kept them out reasonably well till injury time when we began to look a tiny bit ragged. The goal though, from a corner we couldn’t clear, scrambled in with the second last kick of the game (the last was the kick-off which followed) was cruel in the extreme. The players (the ten still on the pitch anyway) didn’t deserve that. It’s the sort of thing that happens to a team on whom Lady Luck has turned her back – compare our late winner in the first game at the Glebe last season when Brechin were the sufferers.)

By my count that’s four points we’ve dropped on this ground this season. We ought to have had three in the first game and at least one here. But combine that with the six Brechin gained from the two games and we could have been more than comfortably ahead of them. As it is we’re not.

And we’re down below the bare bones now.

This season feels like revenge karma for the good times in the tier above for so long. I hope something turns up before January ends or we could be staring down the barrel of a second successive relegation and that could be a disaster for the club as the rot might not stop there.

SPFL Tier 3, Ochilview, 29/12/18.

Well this was a mustn’t lose – and we almost lost. Thankfully we didn’t.

On our first half performance it would have been deserved – we created nothing and had only one shot on target, Ross Forbes’s free-kick right on half-time despatched with aplomb and hit so hard the keeper couldn’t keep it out. Their goal was a defensive travesty, a litany of mistakes strating with a poor Stuart Carswell ball out (I’m not blaming him, he’s making a fair fist of centre back duties despite being a midfielder, injury needs must) an atrocious Andy Dowie (lack of) challenge and Chris Smith in goal didn’t cover himself in glory with his effort at saving it.

The start was bizarre. We walked out in Stenny’s away kit – or a Stenny away kit an Argentina clone, blue and white stripes and back shorts. Seems the ref didn’t read our email asking if our red strip would be okay. It’s the second time I’ve seen us in the home team’s away kit. The first was at Bayview (the old Bayview) many, many moons ago.

Second half was a different game – after we let them waltz through our defence to retake the lead. We then totally dominated (apart from the odd break) and had a great chance from a Dom Thomas cross which Kyle Hutton put over. Ryan Thomson had an effort from a rebound blocked.

But the amazing thing was the series of corners from Ross Forbes, one hitting the bar and another the near post with a third flapped at by the keeper. If only we had somebody to attack the ball Forbes’s delivery could be decisive but we lack height just now.

Forbes stepped up again right at the death to fire an even better placed free-kick than his first in off the post. Cue celebrations.

The comments from some Sons fans when we were 2-1 down were less than helpful. I don’t seriously believe the players aren’t trying. The time that brought it to a head was a gamble on where the ball would break that didn’t come off. It might have looked like it but it wasn’t laziness on the player’s part – just a misjudgement. If we’d been going well it would never have raised its head as an issue. But we aren’t going well.

I doubt the January transfer/signing window will change much either.

SPFL Tier 3, New Bayview*, 4/8/18.

A welcome three points and deserved in the end. It’s a long time since I’ve felt comfortable watching us protecting a lead. It didn’t seem likely they’d score once we’d gone ahead.

Having said that they ought to have scored in the first half. Their forward got more or less a free header which Grant Adam palmed away to the side but none of our defenders picked up the loose ball and the East Fife player who did looked to have an open goal after rounding Adam but didn’t pull the trigger and ended up moving across goal and having his final shot blocked.

We were pretty anonymous for the first quarter but came into the game towards half-time. Stuart Carswell picked up a clever Ross Forbes free kick on the edge of the box and forced a save then Willie Dyer’s cross from an overlap nearly went in, clipping the underside of the bar.

The second half had barely started when we went ahead from a Ross Forbes corner, Andy Dowie powering it in. The second goal was another Forbes corner but from the away end it looked like the keeper had saved Calum Gallagher’s header. The linesman and ref gave it, though, and there was no protest from the home side.

From then on we held them at bay reasonably easily. Sub Michael Paton latched on to a superb Forbes through ball, beat their keeper but the ball rebounded from the post.

Of the players new to me Cammy Ballantyne had a good spark about him at right back before going off injured and Rory Loy bristled about up front and did his share of tracking back too.

Folk round me were trying to remember the last time we’d won the first league game of a season. I realised on the way home it wasn’t that long ago, three years to be precise. We won the first two then.

Still early days though.

*Call it the Locality Hub Bayview Stadium if you must.

SPFL Tier 2, Glebe Park, 17/3/18

When was the last time we scored three goals? (Last season.)

When was the last time we scored three goals in one half? (I can’t remember.)

This was pretty much over at half-time. We’d scored three without really threatening their goal and lost one to a well-struck free-kick.

We had most of the ball early doors but hadn’t made their keeper make a save. Then we had a flurry of three corners in a row. The two from Andy Stirling were cleared out for more corners. The one from Froxy was headed (by Andy Dowie?) back across goal to an unmarked Calum Gallagher who only had to let the ball bounce off him but headered it anyway.

Then Sam Wardrop was fouled in the act of crossing the ball but not given the award. He tried to carry on but only lasted two more minutes. I hope he only went off as a precaution ahead of next week.

Another Froxy corner was then headed goalwards by Andy Dowie and deflected beyond the keeper by a defender. Two up inside half an hour. Unheard of this season.

They pulled one back with that free-kick. It was well placed but I thought Scott Gallacher was a bit too far across his goal at the set-up.

Things could have been tricky if they had get their heads up but after another Froxy corner not well cleared the ball was squared back across goal by Craig Barr and squirmed about the goal line before Danny Handling poked it home.

The second half was a bit of a non-event with Brechin having most of the ball. They were awarded a penalty. That could have made for a nervy last twenty minutes but it was screwed past the post to make their recent sub Isaac Layne, who had been wanting to take it, not at all a happy bunny.

We had two further chances with both Calum Gallagher and Danny Handling through on the keeper but their shots were too straight.

Three welcome points though.

SPFL Tier 2, Almondvale Stadium, 27/1/18

Well, we couldn’t punch our way out of a paper bag today.

All the more annoying for the fact that we had the majority of the ball in the early part of the game yet had no efforts on target to their 4 before they scored – another lost from a set piece.

The second was just laughable, when (Andy Dowie was it?*) got himself into a fankle on the edge of our box and as a result the ball was on a plate for Ryan Hardie to score against us for a fourth different club.

Game over.

We did eventually make their keeper make a save (four in all I made it) but all of those came from long range.

Our starting formation was an odd managerial choice in 3-4-2-1. We did look slightly better when Froxy came on for Dougie Hill in the second half and we shifted to 4-3-1-2 but by that time Livvy were comfortably in control of the game and looked at ease in everything they did.

New loan signing Kevin Nisbet did look to have something to him but both he and Iain Russell really got very little service, neither of them had achance of any description.

So it has come to pass. We’re now in ninth place. I know we’ve suffered with injuries but even with most of them back I seriously doubt that we’ll improve on that position by season’s end. Nerve-wracking play-offs loom.

*Apologies/ It seems it was Dougie Hill