What the football gods give, the football gods take away.

We won 2-1 at their place earlier and were hanging on a bit towards the end. Since then they have really hit form so I wasn’t really surprised by this result which means they have leapfrogged us so we’re back down to sixth.

That makes next week at Forfar a must not lose.

Scottish Cup,* Third Round, The Rock, 23/11/19.

Well, we’re through. This was an odd game though.

After a fairly even start we scored after a neat move culminated in Isaac Layne passing to Adam Frizzell who still had a lot to do, beating a man before shooting. It appeared to deflect a little but still it seemed the keeper might have done better.

We immediately fell out of it, surrendering the midfield and allowing Forfar to flood forward. Consequently it wasn’t a surprise that they equalised but it was a shocking goal to lose, as nobody seemed to put in a challenge before the cross which was headed out to a Forfar player totally unmarked on the edge of the box. His curled shot was just watched into the net by everybody.

Despite Forfar having most of the game they didn’t actually force Connor Brennan in goal into any saves after that except for dealing with crosses and the like. (I use ‘dealing with’ in the widest sense as in one case he palmed the ball out almost straight to a Forfar player who thankfully didn’t make the most of it.)

In what seemed like our first foray up the field in a long time we won a corner. Stefan McCluskey swept in the corner for Ryan McGeever to power a header into the bottom corner.

It was soon all over as the most Route One goal you’ll ever see came when their centre half misjudged a Connor Brennan kick-out and Isaac Layne latched onto the ball to drive it past the advancing keeper.

At 1-1 I was dreading them scoring as we could really do with them not getting the confidence boost a win could have brought. The way we played today I doubt we’d have got back in the game. Unfortunately Stranraer achieved just that likely boost against Dunfermline today. Let’s hope that it’s short-lived.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be too harsh as we were missing the influential Joe McKee today. His general play and delivery from crosses and set-pieces is a big asset. Also out was Rhegan Tumilty, I assume because his parent club doesn’t want him cup-tied.

*William Hill Scottish Cup

Sons have been drawn at home in the third round of this season’s Scottish Cup – facing Forfar Athletic on the 23^rd Noveember.

At least it’s not someone in a higher division and not a potential embarrassment against a lower league side. It might only have been the once but we’ve had enough of those this decade.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 5/10/19.

Well. That’s more like it.

We’ve still only beaten teams that are below us but we’ve done that to four of them now. But I note we still haven’t kept a clean sheet.

It was good to see that new loan signing Adam Frizell got on the score sheet straight away.

Before the season started I’d have taken four wins and a draw out of the first nine games. I’d not have thought we’d only be three points off third spot, though. (Only six off first spot too.)

There’s a long way to go yet, however. We’re only one point more than that away from the bottom.

Well. It’s been a season.

Not the one we’d hoped for, but also not the one that for a long time I feared.

Today’s 3-0 win at home to East Fife, combined with Brechin’s loss at Stranraer and Stenhousemuir’s at home to Forfar means we can not be relegated. There is even an outside possibility we could finish as high as fifth if we win our last two games, but I’d suggest that’s an unlikely scenario.

Where we would have ended up without our four wins against East Fife I dread to think. It’s a seriously odd statistic that we beat them four times this season when we lost to Brechin twice at their place and also twice to Stenhousemuir. Still, that’s what a league is all about.

A stress-free last two games of the season await but memories of Dom Thomas apart, this has been one to forget, really.

I don’t suppose it’ll be long before I get to worrying again, though. July is only three months away.

SPFL Tier 3, Station Park, 13/4/19.

The scoreline tells you all you need to know about this game.

Sometimes you get an entertaining 0-0 draw. Sometimes you don’t. Today we didn’t.

The nearest we came to scoring was with long distance efforts by Ross Forbes and Dom Thomas but they were fired down the goalkeeper’s throat. Calum Gallagher had a couple such off target as did the two previously mentioned.

Not that Forfar were any better. Grant Adam only had two shots to save all day.

Mind you I’d feared the worst as just when the teams were coming out the announcer said that due to an injury in the warm-up Stuart Carswell was being replaced by Boris Melingui. Carsy is so important to our midfield. It’s really an obvious miss when he’s not there. The announcer still gave out Carsy’s name as playing when he read the teamsheets again at half-time, though.

Boris was up front with Calum Gallagher pulled back into midfield where he put a good shift in (he’s like a modern day Chissie*) but his attacking partnership with Dom Thomas was therefore missing. Boris ran about well and pressed with a will but there was no spark to our play. Dom Thomas had few opportunities to run with the ball, they doubled or trebled up on him at times and his control got away from him too often. Plus he needs to play folk in when they’re better placed.

Looking at this Forfar side I’m amazed they’re pushing Raith for second spot. They looked as bad as us, with very little in the way of creativity.

So it’s all squeezed up again at the bottom. We could have done without the wins for Stranraer and Stenhousemuir. We’re four clear of ninth and the dreaded relegation play-off spot with three to play but the bottom two play each other on the last day. The highest either of them could reach is 44 points. They could both reach 42. We’re on 39.

*Ian Chisholm, late of this parish.

Now we have the dates for the League Cup games. I suppose I ought to mention it’s now called the Betfred Cup (but I shan’t do it again.)

Forfar Ath, Away, 16th July
East Fife, Home, 19th July
Dundee, Away, 23rd July
Peterhead, Home, 30th July

So, despite my son arranging his wedding day to avoid the football season, the powers that be have managed, by changing the opening day by a considerable margin, to put a game on then anyway. The season’s barely over and the new one’s only just over a month away.

Sons have drawn Dundee, Peterhead, Forfar Athletic and East Fife.

Which will be the two away games is yet to be announced at time of writing.

A magnificent achievement by Wigan Athletic to win the FA Cup yesterday. A place in Europe to boot.

One more illustration of the unpredictability of football – and the romance of the FA Cup.

Wigan join a long list of Lancashire clubs (including Blackburn Olympic, the first to do so) to win the trophy. Congratulations to the Latics.

Given that Wigan were playing Moneybags United (sorry; Moneybags City*) they ought not to have had a prayer. Yet it’s there in the record books for ever now. And manager Roberto Martinez has won one more major trophy than new Manchester United boss David Moyes. It’s a funny old world.

Not least that, come Tuesday night, Wigan could be relegated.

There was another unlikely event involving teams named Athletic on Saturday. In the SFL Div 2 play-offs Dunfermline of that ilk eventually beat Forfar Athletic on aggregate over two games and extra time.

Yet by that extra time Forfar were down to eight men, thus giving Dunfermline an overwhelming advantage. I was listening to the radio reports coming in from the game. Forfar had taken the lead (4-1 on aggregate) and it struck me that with the one man down they were at the time, extra time was the most likely outcome. Given that Dunfermline were at home even that one man advantage would probably mean they would go on to win.

But how fair is it that Forfar would have to play extra time with a disadvantage in numbers? A football game lasts only 90 mins. In effect extra time is a new game, why should the sending-off extend into the 30 minute extension? I had an idle thought. Should not both teams be allowed to have a full complement of numbers for the extra period? (Unless there are further sendings-off, of course.)

When I discovered that Forfar were down to only eight players for extra time I knew it was curtains for them. But had they thought of it there was a way out. A way which goes against the spirit of the game – but so does any sending off really.

I believe there is a provision in the laws of football that should a team have fewer than eight men the game must be abandoned. I remember Neil Warnock, when he was manager of Sheffield United I think, – in exactly that situation of eight men remaining – encouraging his players to get themselves sent off to ensure an abandonment. Full marks to Forfar for not going down that road.

Dunfermline will be playing yet another Athletic – Alloa – in the play-off final.

*Wigan’s owner Dave Whelan is not short of a bob himself but the scale is a little different.

SFL Div 2, Station Park, 14/2/12

I said we’d have to be sharper; but we weren’t.

Instead, we were more profligate.

Stephen Grindlay had a great save early on then four gilt-edged chances for us elapsed before Forfar scored. Over-elaboration, failing to shoot first time, too many touches, passing instead of taking responsibility for a shot, every possible failing in front of goal was in evidence. Their keeper did OK but should have been beaten: more than once.

Midway through the half play became rather scrappy.* (*Thank you Ian McMillan – those of a certain age will remember his summations of games for BBC TV in the long ago. Wiki says he is the grandfather of former son Iain Russell.)

In the end at half time I was grateful for the equaliser. Brian Prunty seemed to have taken the ball on too far but finally got a shot away into the corner of the net.

Our formation was puzzling for a time. I hadn’t really noticed among the mayhem on Saturday at Ochilview but we are playing three at the back. Onebrow was of the opinion that the two full backs aren’t pushed on enough to make it work, though, and our midfield can get overrun with this system.

The second half more or less followed the pattern of the first, both teams having chances – one shocking miss by a Forfar player who blazed wide when he should have placed it, a good save by Grindlay after a headed back pass fell short – our failure to shoot early enough enormously frustrating. Their keeper had a great save from the only one Scott Agnew really got hold of all night and scrambled a Mark Gilhaney effort away late on.

Gilhaney nearly always takes the wrong option. The system may be employed to free him up but too often he flatters to deceive. When wide he wanders infield instead of taking on the man on the outside and trying to get a cross in. Typically he ends up losing the ball. I can’t remember when I last saw him really play well. When Mark Lamont came on for James Creaney he became predictable very quickly.

We kept threatening to score up till the end but never convinced that we would.

Still; a point’s a point and we’re now third. How on Earth did that happen? Our goal difference is still to hit positive numbers.

When I got home I discovered the reason why our winning run had come to an end.