SPFL Tier 2, The Rock, 16/4/16.

It started well. It finished; well…..

Pity about the bit in between. And the injury to big Christian Nade is a blow as we’ve only looked a team this season after he joined us.

I watched this courtesy of BBC Alba of course and things were looking okay at half time. Tom Walsh had even hit a good cross!

What happened in the second half though? We totally fell out of it even before Nade’s injury. Jamie Ewings didn’t have much of a hope with any of the three goals; a poorish kick-out led to one of them but the defence should still not have let Raith through so easily. They seemed to just walk through for two of the three, the other coming from a not deep enough clearance by Fraser Wright.

Despite never having hit a decent cross before this game Tom Walsh ended this with two assists, and doesn’t Steven Saunders love a goal against Raith? Too little too late of course.

We really need something from Saturday now but a draw against St Mirren might not be good enough. We don’t want to be relying on Rangers and Raith even if Queen of the South do the needful.

I note that with Rangers and Hibs progressing to this year’s final East Fife’s record of being the only team outwith the top division to win the Scottish Cup has now been lost. And wouldn’t it be just the thing if Hibs finally win the thing again after totally horsing up the league? (Or Hibsing it as now seems to be the parlance.)

Mind you it’d be a laugh to see them navigating a European campaign from the second tier.

Then again maybe not.

SPFL Tier 2, Ibrox Stadium, 5/4/16.

I meant to post about this yesterday but for some reason it slipped my mind.

This could have been worse. Given the significance of the evening for Rangers we could have been in for a doing and I feared that. I also feared the outcome even more when Livi went one up on Hibs, but that went our way as well in the end.

But how can a team go from an abject surrender to Queen of the South to what seems to have been a resolute performance against the best team in the division? Unless, of course the players tried harder on a bigger stage: but that would be a form of cheating all the other times.

Queen of the South up next on Tuesday, but we could be a point behind Livi by then.

On a more cynical note: how long will it be after Hibs get back to the top tier once again before we in the lower leagues are cut off once more (as we were by the SPL)? That’s the subtext I read into this “good for Scottish football” spiel which has greeted Rangers Tier 2 win. The way things were was only good for two clubs, not Scottish football as a whole.

SPFL Tier2, The Rock, 8/3/16.

A welcome win and Christian Nade scored a hat-trick!

Had this game gone on last week I had thought of travelling through but of course it was postponed. Domestic circumtances this week precluded a trip to the west.

Slight fly in the ointment was Jon Routledge’s red card. But he was out for the Hibs game and didn’t get back in the team for Saturday’s debacle at Livingston.

Let’s hope the team that showed up against Hibs rather than the (same strating) side who misfired at Livi is the one that turns uo against Falkirk on Saturday tea-time. Yes, it’s a BBC Alba kick-off time.

SPFL Tier 2, The Rock, 27/2/16.

I wasn’t at the game – the good lady and I went to an antique fair in Edinburgh then roamed the charity bookshops in Stockbridge before entertaining ourselves with a meal out on the road home – I didn’t even look for the score till nearly midnight so sure was I that we’d get nothing from this.

I was astonished at the result. The best I’d hoped for from this was a 0-0.

Yet we had gone three up. Not so easy to hold on to against a full-time team pressing for promotion; as it proved.

Christian Nade opened his account for us, which is good, and I see Jamie Ewings got the call in goal.

With Livi playing Alloa we certainly needed something from the game. I’m delighted.

Our next two games are against the only two teams below us. It could be our season right there.

SPFL Tier 2, Easter Road Stadium, 17/10/15.

OK so we had the first effort on goal, a turn and shot by Jordan Kirkpatrick, and a header by Wullie Gibson but Hibs dominated the first half almost totally. Eventually Dominique Malonga was neglected after he passed the ball inside and when the ball came back out to him he had too much time and curled a lovely effort into the net.

A minute later though we hit them on the break and Grant Gallagher thumped the ball in. Even so Mark Oxley in Hibs’ goal ought to have done better. That was the sole point in the first half I thought we might get something from the game. Too soon they got a soft free-kick (soft; as in it wasn’t one) and scored with a header from it.

The penalty killed us. When the guy fell down in the box with two of our defenders round him Brian Colvin was always going to give it.

Second half started as more of the same. Their goal was well worked; game completely over. Then Fraser Wright went off after being injured (replaced at left back by Mark Docherty) and we immediately looked more settled. The double forward substitution that followed had us going forward with purpose. With the Stevens Craig and Ross up front suddenly the Hibs defence looked more pressured. Even more amazingly Steven Craig got on to the end of a floated free-kick from Mark Docherty and put the ball in the net in almost a carbon copy of Hibs’ second.

Whether their substitutions reduced their effectiveness I couldn’t say but we certainly looked more menacing towards the end. Our penalty claim in the 90^th minute was for an almost identical push/coming together as the one which they’d got an hour earlier. (Our forwards were also screaming for a penalty for handball in the first half but the opposite penalty area is so far away at Easter Road it was impossible to tell from where we were seated.)

For a long time during this game I was despairing as we were basically being overrun and not at the races. (I wondered if it would be the longest two hours of my football watching life.) The last 15 minutes, though, were something else. More of that, please. (And to start playing before the game is lost.)

SPFL Tier 2, The Rock, 3/10/15.

Three points! And I’m no longer a jinx! I managed to pick up a home strip before the game as well.

We started with a flurry and Fraser Wright (fielded at left back) had a header from a corner just over but then Livi began to dominate and we more or less failed to threaten for the rest of the half. But we won the ball back quickly in midfield after a corner had been cleared and got into the space Livi had left, leading to a lovely Wullie Gibson cross for Kevin Cawley who didn’t miss the header.

Our defence hadn’t learned the lesson of last week though. Only three minutes of a lead and too many of our defenders plus keeper were drawn to the incoming corner. The Livi player’s header back across was to an unmarked man. Mind you he actually had to head it; it didn’t just bounce off him like last week.

I missed the incident which led to Livi’s Miles Hippolyte being sent off as the ball was well away, but it seems he was a silly boy. Curiously after that we were the team who looked more ragged for a while.

The winner came from another broken down set-piece, a throw-in this time. (New signing Steven Saunders has replaced Scott Linton in long throw terms. That improved our performance at throw-ins no end. We’ve got no height up front though. Saunders was decent enough in the right back role.) The ball came back out and sub Jordan Kirkpatrick hooked it back in. Eamonn Brophy took the ball down, swivelled and scored. It’s the first sniff of a proper chance he’s had in the one and a half games I’ve seen him – and he took it. He looked delighted too.

We’re still too ponderous in the build-up, but I’ll take the three points.

Next up: Hibs at Easter Road on the 17^th. They’ll be looking for revenge for our 2-1 win in August.

Edited to add: Young Donald McCallum troubled them a bit with his pace when he came on and was instrumental in their goalie being booked for fouling him away out on the touchline but he looked awful lightweight against Livi’s tall muscular defnders.

So. Motherwell it was who stayed up. Convincingly in the end.

Tier 2 is going to be very tough again next season. There’ll be two of the biggest supported clubs in Scotland in Hibs and Rangers (having now found out for themselves that this division is devilishly difficult to escape in an upwards direction: can it be long before noises are made to increase the size of Tier 1? Or is that too cynical?) Also there will be six other full-time teams and an Alloa Athletic seemingly somewhat revived by new(ish) manager Danny Lennon. Eighth for the Sons would be a magnificent achievement. I’d take that right now.

We’ve got a new manager ourselves of course.

But I’m feeling nervous already.

At time of writing it looks as though Motherwell, after their 3-1 victory in the first leg of the play-off, will retain their top level status at the expense of Rangers.

Chickens should not be counted, however. Last year Hamilton were 2-0 behind in the tie after losing at home, the same total deficit as Rangers face now, but still won through by beating Hibs by the same score at Easter Road and then winning the penalty shoot-out.

While an overall Motherwell win would be a poke in the eye for those who feel a sense of entitlement rather than realising that they follow just another (at present not very good) team and it has been amusing to see Rangers not scooshing this division the way they did the lower two, my own preference would be for Rangers to prevail – but this is only for somewhat selfish reasons as it would avoid the possibility of them winning the Tier 2 title next season (or the year after?) and thus robbing Dumbarton of the unique distinction of having won championship titles at four different levels of Scottish football.

SPFL Tier 2, Easter Road, 21/2/15.

Painful. That’s the word I would have used at half-time to describe our performance. Nothing that happened in the second half changed it.

We looked utterly toothless. Our set-up was strange (what’s new this season?) – the absence of Darren Petrie from midfield, as last week, was baffling considering his debut at Falkirk. Also not starting was new loanee Chris Duggan.

Hibs dominated throughout. While the two first-half goals came from poor defending and the third was a deflection we also had Danny Rogers to thank for good goalkeeping and that Hibs clearly relaxed and didn’t force things once the game was won.

The substitutions were odd too. Fair enough Dylan Easton being replaced by Chris Turner but why take off Mark Gilhaney rather than Archie Campbell? Gils could have taken up his usual position on the right where he is generally effective. And perhaps they ought to have been made at half-time rather than after Hibs had scored again. And Darren Petrie for Scott Linton with nine minutes to go?

It is painfully obvious that Chris Turner isn’t half the player he was in his first two half-seasons. Since his injury he’s lost pace (and that was never his strong suit) and his confidence looks shot.

This was 3-0 going on a total doing.

Before the game, considering we had lost our last two home games to Livi and Cowden, I was looking at the fixture list and wondering where the points are going to come from. After it I’m deeper in gloom than ever.

Home of Hibernian FC.

I took these at the League Cup game in August, not the 0-0 last week.

From the access road:-

Main Stand Exterior:-

South Stand Exterior:-

East Stand:-

North Stand:-

Main Stand:-

The teams at kick off. You can just about see the hoops on the front of the Sons strip on a couple of our players. It’s a particularly horrible shade of green Hibs are wearing this season. And no white sleeves. Poor show.