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, 1/9/18.

There was a dreadful inevitability about this.

Apart from a few minutes after they equalised – when it looked like the score might be something like six each so fragile did both defences appear – we seemed mostly in control, yet without managing to create clear chances, but not quite secure at the back.

New loanee Jack Aitchison put himself about a bit and had some neat touches, it was his control and pass that set up Iain Russell for the cross which Rory Loy flicked on for Bobby Barr to score, but I suspect he found the game an eye-opener – not least in not getting free-kicks against adult defenders who disguise the foul well. Also new at centre-half Scott Allardice seemed nervy at times while midfielder Brad Spencer could be careless with his passing.

That equaliser posed several questions as to positioning, both of the defence and goalkeeper Grant Adam, whose tendency to flap at balls in the air and to slice right-footed clearances thankfully wasn’t too prominent in this game. He doesn’t get much depth on his kicks though.

Edited to add:- I’d forgotten the great pass Aitchison laid across the box for Bobby Barr in the second half. Unfortunately Barr pulled it just wide.

The real game changer was the substitution of Ryan Thomson by Ross Forbes. Okay manager Stevie Aitken did it to try to win the game and Forbes made two great passes and had a shot on goal within minutes of coming on but while Thomson hadn’t looked entirely comfortable and was on a booking he made a fair fist of right back but Spencer looked like he’d never played there in his life. Twice he was got at and we survived the resultant cross. Not the third time.

And so after five games we sit second from bottom and only off the bottom spot by goal difference. The four teams we’ve not yet faced are above us – in some cases considerably.

I do hope that once the injuries clear up things will improve but at the moment it’s looking like the last time we dropped down into Tier 3.

A straight fall into Tier 4 (which was followed by total rock bottom of that division the next season.)

This time around there isn’t the safety net of no relegation out of there.

SPFL Tier 3, Glebe Park, 25/8/18.

OK we didn’t have our injury problems to seek – we couldn’t fill the bench yesterday – so players were shoehorned in all over the place and then we suffered two more injuries during the game.

But…

We were two goals up. And seemingly cruising.

Fair enough Brechin had more of the ball early on but they never threatened to score. Bobby Barr beat his man and slipped over a great cross which Rory Loy couldn’t put on target. Then a corner wasn’t cleared away but fell to Barr on the other edge of the box. His effort looked like a cross to me – intended for Iain Russell – but the keeper’s fingertips perhaps diverted it enough for it to make the net. Not long after Iain Russell was one-on-one but the keeper managed to get his knee to the shot.

Michael Paton had been looking comfortable enough but suddenly pulled up after a challenge clutching his hamstring. Sub 1. Ross Forbes on.

Grant Adam in goal never inspired confidence, punching balls he could easily catch and an absolute nightmare on his right foot.

At half-time Stuart Carswell came out of the dressing room to run about and stretch a bit but didn’t last long after the interval, leaving to make room for Sub 2, a trialist (Brad Spencer apparently.)

He it was who cracked in the second a bit after Iain Russell had had a headed chance from a Bobby Barr cross which maybe came a bit behind him. From there it ought to have been plain enough sailing but the ref gave them a free-kick on the halfway line for a foul that never was and they managed to score from the attack. From then on it was not comfortable watching. Our makeshift defence began to creak and bend and despite some flurries – Rory Loy having the feet taken from him in their box only for nothing to be given, Bobby Barr being cleaned out on the edge of their box, a failure to pull back the play when Iain Russell was caught after releasing the ball and absolutely clattered into the surround fence resulting in an offside goal from third sub Calum Gallagher (well taken but offside.) No goal, no free kick. The ref by this time was a joke. He’d simply stopped giving fouls for anything.

Our defence by this time had become a shambles especially when our midfielders or attackers lost possession. Brechin more or less walked through it for their last two goals, the final one way into injury time. I suppose it’s karma for our first win there last season also through an injury time goal.

Things are not looking good though.

If they don’t look up we’re heading for a relegation battle.

Even this early in the season.