SPFL Tier 3, Gayfield,* 19/10/24

What on Earth just happened?

It seems like we never win in the league at Arbroath, which is why I wasn’t going to go to the game.

But I did and we did – and mighty pleased I am. (Plus it wasn’t cold or windy, a minor miracle in Arbroath in mid-October.)

Not that we started all that well; and they scored a poor goal from our point of view, a free header from a free-kick.

But  after their brief heads-up flurry we came back onto it and Michael Ruth’s enterprise from the right wing into the box and cut back deflected in to Carlo Pignatiello’s path he hit it sweetly with the outside of his boot for 1-1.

There wasn’t much in it for the rest of the first half though Ruthie made the goalkeeper work several times very unlucky his first spilled shot didn’t spill quite far enough on one occasion. They looked the better side but didn’t really threaten Brett Long in goal much, if at all.

Then, suddenly, in the second half we were ahead David Wilson’s corner touched into the net. The announcer gave the goal to young loanee centre half Ethan Brown but it may have been an own goal.

I thought “we won’t be able to hold out for 40+ minutes” but we did, reasonably comfortably. Icing was put on the cake in the last minute when sub Joel Mumbongo headed on for fellow sub Tony Wallace to progress down the left and centre for third sub Finlay Gray to finish things off.

As we were walking out of the ground an Arbroath fan said to my son and I, “You deserved the win today.” That’s not a comment you often hear from the opposition.

So that’s the first league win this season monkey off our back. Mind you, we’re still bottom of the league.

Big game next week, then.

*Call it the Greenversity Stadium at Gayfield if you must.

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.

Scottish League Cup*, Pittodrie Stadium, 27/7/24.

Well, at least it was 0-0 at half-time.

We had more or less done ourselves justice in the first half and even got the ball in the net but Michael Ruth was offside. (Well I thought it was Ruthie but the club’s website says it was Carlo Pignatiello.)

Two minutes inro the second half and the wheels began to fall off. Their pace got them in behind our right and it was slotted past Brett Long. Three minutes after that it was game over. I didn’t actually see the build up because some idiot scoming back from somewhere or other stood in front of me for longer than necessary – this in a sparsely populated away end – before sitting down again.

Thereafter it was more than an uphill struggle. Our substitutions were copious and by the time all five had been made our defensive organisation had gone completely. Their last three goals were the result. In general they looked faster, fitter, stronger and better passing angles than us. They are full time though and at this stage of the season that makes a big difference.

As to us new signing Mouhamed Niang looked good in midfield and Ruthie ploughed his usual lonely furrow up front. His replacement, latest signing Joel Mumbongo, did not have much time on the pitch to be able to make a judgement on him.

On to the real stuff next week.

*Call it the Premier Sports Cup if you must.

SPFL Tier 3 Play-off, Semi-final, First leg, The Rock, 07/04/24.

A pretty nerve-racking 90+ minutes all in all.

Unlike in the past two seasons’ play-offs we came out of the blocks quickly. Kalvin Orsi and Carlo Pignatiello were all over their left hand side and it was from their combination that Orsi put over a cross for Jinky Hilton to bury. We really ought to have gone on from there.

However, an attempted clearance by their left back bounced up onto his hand and fell for him to pass it up the wing. When their forward cut in I just knew he was going to score and he did indeed put it past Jay Hogarth’s right hand at the near post. Hogarth went down like the proverbial sack of potatoes. Were we too busy waiting on the handball call? (As I undertood the rules any touching of the ball by an attacker’s hand in the lead-up to a goal counted as handball. But who knows the handball laws these days?) Whatever, Manager Stevie Farrell was booked for his protest.

The first half from then on was a slog, noticeable only for Finlay Gray twice being chopped down – once off the ball which the ref and both linos completely missed, though the other was punished by a yellow card – and Kalvin Orsi suffering a set of studs high on his leg – an incident also somehow missed by the officials.

The second was also a slog. Towards the end James Graham came on and injected a bit of pace which resulted in a penalty being awarded to us. I was too far away to tell if it was justified. Comments on Pie & Bovril suggest it was. Whatever, the ref perhaps owed us one.

Tony Wallace kept his cool through the Stirling keeper’s almost Emiliano Martinez levels of sh**housery and out it away.

So, a slender lead to take into Saturday’s second leg at Forthbank.

Another nervy 90 (or even 120) minutes no doubt.

Spfl Tier 4, The Rock, 27/4/24.

We started this quite well with Kalvin Orsi and Carlo Pignatiello tearing up their left hand side. One such foray saw a great cross onto Michael Ruth’s head but he somehow managed to skew it over the bar.

Then Elgin began to come into it and some comic defending, a missed header and poor marking, left their player alone  ust outside the six-yard box and he squeezed it in.

Jay Hogarth didn’t look comfortable at all, he fails to command his box. Their second came from a free header from a corner. 0-2. At this point it was all Elgin. A long-range shot clattered our bar. If it had gone in the game would have been over.

As it was a carbon copy Orsi, Pignatiello combination again saw the ball home in on Michael Ruth’s head. No mistake this time. 1-2 half-time.

The second half was not uneventful but not inspiring. Twice Jay Hogarth was exposed in a one-on-one and both times made the save. Good at these and shot-stopping it’s a pity about his box-commanding.

Flurries of substitutions didn’t much affect the game but James Graham got himself some space in the area to use his feet to get a shot past their keeper. 2-2. As it finished.

So one game to go before the normal season ends and on to our now traditional humping in the play-off semi-final.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 26/3/22

Well, it wasn’t a defeat, we didn’t lose a goal inside the first five minutes and we ended up with a clean sheet. It could be termed progress.

But we needed a win. Especially since Peterhead beat Falkirk so we’re now four points behind them. And it’s four games in a row now without scoring.

We’re just sleepwalking into relegation.

It could have been different. Yes, we didn’t threaten much in the first half (we didn’t threaten at all) but were reasonably comfortable.

We ought to have scored in the second when a fine Carlo Pignatiello run saw him unselfishly draw the ball back to Paul Paton in front of an open goal but he scuffed his shot miserably.

A minute or so later they were awarded a penalty which looked to be curtains for us. However Kieran Wright in goal made a very good save. It’s his first clean sheet for us. How he must have longed to have a defence in front of him.

Another plus point was Josh Oyinsan’s return. He gives us presence up front but isn’t fully match fit I would say.

Whether or not the appearance as a sub by the long-injured (and long unseen) Kristoffer Syvertsen is a plus was difficult to tell. He again probably isn’t match fit and didn’t do much in his minutes on the pitch to say if he’s an asset or merely a body.

We have five games left, two of them against the top two away. There’s no way we’re pulling this out of the bag.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 5/3/22.

This was grim. We were barely in the game, couldn’t string any passes together worth the name. I’d be tempted to blame the pitch but Queen’s Park managed it quite easily it seemed.

Those two red cards last week potentially cost us but Queen’s were so much better overall that perhaps they didn’t. Big Josh missing up front through injury has been a big loss in the last few weeks.

Their first two were due to defensive errors. In both cases the bounce of the ball (or lack of it) deceived Stephen Bronsky and Gregor Buchanan respectively allowing a Queen’s player through on goal. Kieran Wright made a save at the second but couldn’t prevent the rebound reaching the attcker following up.

The only time we vaguely threatened was in the first five minutes after the restart. First Joe Mckee was free in the box but he took a touch which allowed their keeper to position himself for the save. A natural striker would have hit it first time. Then Carlo Pignatiello worked a bit of space for himself with a good take and turn in the box but the keeper made himself too big.

Their third was a joke with them exploiting too much space down our left and the cross finding a man completely unmarked.

I’m just about resigned to relegation now.

Wake me up when it’s over.

SPFL Tier 3, Balmoor Stadium, 26/2/22.

This was somethiing of a disaster.

As if losing two goals in the first ten minutes wasn’t bad enough we were then down to ten men when Paul Paton picked up two yellow cards. And then they scored a third before half-time. Amazingly we got back into it with two goals through Ross MacLean and Eoghan Stokes.

Ross MacLean then also got a second yellow.

The inevitable followed as Peterhead got a fourth but the scoring wasn’t finished as Carlo Pignatiello got a third for us in injury time.

I’m not advocating we play with nine men in every game but that’s the second time this season we’ve managed to score in those circunstances – and with the same referee on both occasions. I hope we never get him officiating again.

This was a must not lose. And we lost.

We’ve got Queen’s Park (gainst whom we’ve played 3 and lost 3 this season) on our tatty field at the Rock next up.

It’s getting increasingly difficult to see where points are going to come from.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 29/1/22.

This was encouraging even if Cove were clearly the better team. They passed the ball well, seemed confident in possession, looked as if they had been together for years (which they have by and large) and absolutely brimmed with the confidence you’d expect from the league leaders.

But we were never completely out of it.

We played against the wind in the first half and coped well with it, though without making their keeper do much. Sam Ramsbottom, too, had no more than a couple of things to deal with. Five minutes before half-time we got a penalty when Ross MacLean (reprieved from his ban by the reversal of last week’s red card) sucked ex-Son Morgyn Neill into tripping him at the bye-line in the box. At this point my live stream started buffering so I missed Carsy’s conversion. One nil up at half-time is an unusual experience for Sons latterly but very welcome.

I was less sanguine six minutes into the second half. They were given a penalty that no-one in the ground or watching on the stream could see a reason for – bar the ref. 1-1.

Cove immediately looked in total control and scored again. A cross ball found their man on the right in too much space. His cross was deflected up and Sam Ramsbottom could only tip the ball across the six-yard area where it was scrambled into the net. Game unxpectedly on its head inside two minutes. From then on I had no hope whatsoever of getting something from the game. We couldn’t seem to get a decent out ball. As soon as we cleared it it would come back. Passes forward were hit too long (the wind contributing but account ought to be taken of that) or not to feet.

But despite their dominance Cove didn’t score the goal that would have killed the game though they had a glorious chance which their player somehow managed to scoop over the bar from about six yards.

Towards the end we started to penetrate their half more. It was good to see the team hadn’t resigned themselves to a defeat. Then we got what was perhaps a lucky second penalty when Carlo Pignatiello was adjudged to have been fouled in their box at a fifty-fifty. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the free-kick go the other way. But it was about time our luck changed.

Carsy despatched his second pen of the game superbly, so notching his first brace ever. All his goals this season – his best scoring – have come from set-pieces. I think it makes him our joint top scorer. He has four.

Our next three games are away against teams above us in the table. We’ll need to take something from those. How that will work out we’ll need to see.

The team ought to take encouragement from this performance though.

Scottish Cup, Third Round, The Rock, 27/11/21.

It took us a while but we won it in the end.

We were pretty comfortable first half. Sauchie had a few corners but never really troubled Sam Ramsbottom in our goal. Their one clear opportuniyty was blazed over the bar. Not that we had many on target ourselves but we did score a very good goal, Carlo Pignatiello slotting it under the keeper after an exchange of passes between Conner Duthie and himself.

Second half Sauchie came into it a bit more. But their goal was a joke. Their forwards had been falling over easily all game and one finally did it in the box. It was never a penalty. But of course they put it in and that gave them impetus.

Neverthless we continued to create openings, frustrated by a few poor crosses from Edin Lynch and other balls just out of reach plus an away keeper in inspired form.

About five minutes to go and sub Ryan Schiavone poked a cross over the line but neither the ref nor lino gave it. A replay after that would have been sore to take but we worked another opnening and the ball broke to Joe McKee who buried it. In the final minute of added time we got another, a Conner Duthie shot apparently spilled by the keeepr with Schiavone on hand to net the rebound. I say apparently because the live stream had stayed focused on Duthie not the ball. I only had the commentary and subsequent kick-off to indicate we’d sealed it.

A potential banana skin avoided then.

On Monday we’ll find out who we’ve got in the next round.