SPFL Tier 2, Easter Road, 18/3/17

I’d have taken this result before kick-off, but given we were twice in the lead and all three teams below us managed to win, it somehow feels more like two points dropped rather than one gained. It was a great performance by the lads just the same, every single one of them putting a shift in. There’s no doubt Hibs are a better team with better players but they failed to carve us open anything like consistently and we deserved the draw. The occasion was also livened up by the “Swiss Sons” – on their annual visit – keeping up their usual bouts of chanting; some in a language which I could not decipher.

Hibs had a lot of possession first half but not much in the way of efforts on goal to show for it whereas we had two Andy Stirling shots; unfortunately he snatched at them and they went wild. He it was though who was the subject of a wild swipe by one of their defenders. From where I was way up the other end it looked about two yards outside the box but the ref gave a penalty. I have since seen a still photo on Pie and Bovril which seems to show the contact was made inside, so fair dos. We don’t often get freebies from refs anyway. Big Christian Nade stepped up and slotted it home. We navigated the rest of the first half with not much problem. During half time I offered the opinion that Hibs could, just possibly, be given a soft penalty.

The expected onslaught at the beginning of the second half didn’t quite materialize and we had a fair bit of possession but they did gradually ramp it up. Alan Martin made a great save from a thumped effort but they eventually scored when a cross seemed to be knocked on to Daniel Harvie by Martin’s touch and rebounded into the net.

We might have expected there to be only one way traffic from then on but we did occasionally sally up the park and a long ball was met perfectly by Nade to guide it into the path of Robert Thomson whose movement had taken him into space and he swept it past the keeper (whose positioning seemed to me to be too far to the left of his goal; but hey-ho.)

Then drama. The predicted soft penalty for Hibs duly arrived but Alan Martin made a magnificent save. A lead still to defend. Unfortunately a long ball to the edge of our box resulted in a mix-up between an attacker, David Smith and Alan Martin where Martin failed to collect the ball when he might have been favourite. I’ve seen fouls against the keeper given on such occasions but 2-1 up at Easter Road against Hibs? Perhaps too much to hope for. Despite Smith’s efforts the attacker managed to get it into the net. We survived a barrage of corners throughout and made it to the end with Hibs not ever really looking likely to score again.

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that while he’s still a presence Nade’s legs have gone. He can still hold the ball up but if opponents crowd him he doesn’t often get it away to a team mate. He’s a nuisance to defenders still though.

Days like this, a draw away at a big club, beating the odds, are what makes being a fan of a wee team worthwhile. They don’t come round that often and are relished all the more when they do. It’s just a pity that the overall reward was slipping a place in the league. Next Saturday’s game at Ayr assumes greater importance now.

SPFL Tier 2, Falkirk Stadium, 25/2/17.

The referee was Mat Northcroft again.

Despite that – and his usual baffling decisions – it was a decent enough game, even if both teams weren’t quite at it.

Falkirk didn’t really threaten much in the first half. We forced a few corners early on but fell out of it a bit. Their goal may have been a fluke. Their left back was played in and hit it on the volley from where it looped over Alan Martin’s outstretched hand and into the net.

Our equaliser was a peach and came within a minute. Lewis Vaughan picked up the ball and ran at their defence, evading three men before dodging into the box and thumping it across Danny Rogers into the top corner. Honours even at half-time.

Our second ended up a mirror image of our first. Christian Nade chased down a ball in midfield, dispossessed the Falkirk player and played it to Andy Stirling who proceeded to waltz past defenders and then despatch it past Rogers the opposite way to Vaughan. Beautiful stuff.

Unfortunately we couldn’t keep the lead though there was a hint of offside about their equaliser. They did have the ball in the net again but that offside was given and we cleared a shot off the line. They had a looping effort that hit the outside frame of the goal and Daniel Harvie’s header from a corner also hit their bar.

A draw was just about right and a point was more than I expected from the game. It’s awfully tight just above the play-off places though.

SPFL Tier 2, Starks Park, 28/1/17.

What an odd set of emotions this evoked. We won and I’m still raging at the referee.

We had the better of the first half, Robert Thomson and Sam Stanton had good efforts on target and I was beginning to think we might regret not scoring when on top. I didn’t expect to lose a blatantly illegal goal. Daniel Harvie was shoved over by the forward in the build-up – how the ref and stand-side assistant missed it is beyond belief – and the subsequent cross was converted. 1-0 down at half-time having played well with nothing to show for it I feared the worst.

Second half we started brightly and got the goal when Christian Nade headed in from a cross. Then the second decision under the Val McDermid stand that was criminal. Andy Stirling cut inside the fullback and looked to be scythed down in the box. even if there was no contact he was taking avoiding action from the lunge and that still makes it a penalty. No penalty. Andy Stirling got booked for “diving”. Why would he have dived? He wouldn’t have gone over in that position if not fouled. It definitely was not a dive. No-one dives at that angle. It was a pen and a sending off. That decision could have cost us. In many a game it would have. Today though Raith weren’t up to much.

Our second was a thing of beauty. A piece of intricate passing up the right seemed to have got us up a blind alley but the ball was suddenly switched over to the left and Daniel Harvie steamed onto the ball, took a few paces and lamped it into the far corner.

Six minutes later we made it three. A low corner looked to be a wasted one but it evaded everybody and reached Gregor Buchanan beyond the far post and his shot crashed in.

We saw out the rest of the game with not much trouble and Sons’ 87 fans making a noise fit for many more.

Those two decisions weren’t the only bad ones in the game but I can’t recall any iffy ones the ref made going in our favour including loads where he let things go which he should have pulled back for a foul for us. At one point he and the assistant stared at each other for seconds not knowing what to give. Eventually it went Raith’s way, of course. But those two in particular had been so appalling that even though we were winning somehow I still felt we weren’t and had been robbed. It is apparently not the first game this ref has given baffling decisions mostly against us. Let us name the guilty man. Mat Northcroft.