SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 4/3/25.

Yet another defeat; this time in front of BBC Alba’s cameras, so I got to see the game.

Arbroath started brightly but we scored first due to Michael Ruth winning a free kick and then taking it himself banging a beauty just under the bar.

We were riding our luck though with Arbroath having a few chances and lonee goalie Milosz Sliwinski doing well at times to thwart them.

But a misjudged attempt at a header back from Michael Miller allowed their forward to squeeze a shot in.

Second half we lost an early goal (it’s been our habit this season in one half or another.) A long-hit corner was headed back towards goal and we didn’t react quickly enough to stop the effort that resulted, poked in by an attacker.

That was effectively game over, though we huffed and puffed towards the end.

We’re now 18 points behind ninth with only 27 still up for grabs.

Still, one of the club’s administrators was interviewed at half time and made encouraging noises about indentifying a preferred bidder. We can only hope.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 1/3/25.

Another dispiriting result, Carlo Pignatiello’s goal after half-time possibly the only bright spot. Then again Stenny have had the upper hand against us for the past two seasons.

Next up, a home game versus the present league leaders, Arbroath, at home – and on the telly (BBC Alba) – on Tuesday night.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 5/10/24.

Well, at least we scored, Carlo Pignatiello doing the business.

But that’s us played everybody now and we still haven’t a win. It’s looking grim.

Next up, after the international break, is Arbroath away on the 19th.  In other circumstances I might have considered going but I can’t remember us winning a league game there. (I don’t think I’ve even see us draw, though we did once beat them in a play-off first leg.)

Edited to add: I forgot to say they hadn’t scored away from home before today.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 21/9/24.

Well, I suppose the unbeaten league run had to end sometime, but from the comments on the game I’ve read we were all over them apart from their goal.

This result, combined with Arbroath’s win over Annan, means we’re now (joint) bottom of the league. Ominous.

We really need to start winning games soon.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 24/8/24.

Another draw. Four in a row in the league now. And again we had to come from behind, this time from two goals down, Michael Ruth and Matty Shiels doing the business. Perhaps we should have won, though, as it seems Michael Ruth missed a penalty earlier in the second half than he finally scored.

I see we’re top scorers in the league with 7. We’ll need to begin stopping them at the other end though.

This lies opposite Gayfield football ground.

Entranceway. The balcony and canopy above the door, the windows in and beside the door, plus the rounded corner to the left – and the flat roof – are deco features. The glazing has been mucked about with though:-

Showing rounded corner, balconies, strong horizontals and verticals:-

View of side and rear:-

Typical Art Deco style Woolworths building, now an estate agents:-

Ridged roofline, pillaring. Plus buddleia!!

Reverse entrance is a Nickel and Dime:-

(aet 0-2.)

SPFL Tier 2 Play-off Final, Second Leg, The Rock, 13/5/18.

Well; we all knew that the good times wouldn’t last forever.

Yet for 93 minutes of this we were still a Tier 2 team.

Then all of a sudden no longer. That it was such a scruffy goal only put the knife in even more.

But after that I knew it was hopeless. Our defensive substitutions meant that there was no way we would be conjuring a goal in extra time. Our only hope was hanging on for penalties and that was unlikely given the momentum was against us and Alloa would be lifted and us deflated.

And the final nail in the coffin was driven in by an ex-Son in Jordan Kirkpatrick. Cracking goal though.

If only….

Kevin Nisbet had directed his header downwards more – or even to the near post rather than back across the keeper….

Andy Stirling had kept that rebound chance down instead of skying it….

Liam Burt had taken the ball for a walk to the corner flag instead of trying to score in injury time….

Alloa had scored from that double chance in the first, not the last minute. We’d have had to come out a bit and at least try to score. Froxy might even have been given a run-out….

We’d made the most of our breaks up the park in the second half last Wednesday….

Craig Barr hadn’t been suspended again. Dougie Hill looked much less comfortable than he did against Arbroath and Andy Dowie seemed affected too….

We actually had a striker….

Manager Stevie Aitken was not so wedded to defensive tactics….

It was a game too far really. We looked leggy and inhibited. All those catch-up games and the Challenge Cup run had taken their toll.

And so the great adventure comes to an end after six years.

Back to proper football grounds again next season. Ones where you can stand, not sit, that you can walk round to the other end at half-time, where you’re not stuck in a wee corner of the main stand. (New Broomfield, Stark’s Park and possibly Ochilview excepted.*)

We’ve had seven promotions in my lifetime. And now eight relegations.

I wonder how long it will be before we get promoted again.

And from which division.

*Edited to add:- and New Bayview. I’d forgotten it’s a one stand effort like ours at the Rock. Only the Angus grounds for the old-style experience, then. I can’t see me making it down to Stranraer.

Just two seasons ago Dumbarton finished third in Division 2 of the SFL. Arbroath ended five points and one place better off.

Despite that apparently greater pedigree it was Dumbarton that prevailed in the play-off semi-final between the two, consigning Arbroath to another season in Div 2, while the Sons climbed, via their play-off win, onwards and upwards to SFL Div 1 (now the SPFL Championship.)

That mere two years later Sons have ended the season fifth in Tier 2 while Arbroath finished bottom in the next league down and so the clubs will play two divisions apart next season.

Morton were runners-up in Tier 2 last season. This year (despite beating Sons twice!) they were more or less dreadful and finished a poor last.

Things can change so quickly in football.

I’ve just seen on the club website the announcement of the death of Colin McAdam.

“Hoof,” as he was known, was one of the first of Sons then youth players to break through during that golden period when we were promoted from Div 2 in 1972 and the few glorious years afterwards. (Glorious in Sons terms.) His brother Tom also played for the Sons.

Colin scored one of the most remarkable goals I’ve ever seen awarded. In a game where we were two down to Arbroath one of their players was given offside three yards inside our half. Colin hoofed the ball up into the box and it skited rather than bounced – straight into the net without anyone touching it. The goal was given. As an offside free-kick it ought to have been indirect. We won the game 5-2.

Colin McAdam: 28/08/1951 – 1/08/2013. So it goes.