SPFL Tier 4, Galabank, 10/2/26.

Well, I wasn’t at this, but it could vey well be the death knell for our SPFL tenure.

Made worse by the fact their winner was scored by Joel Mumbongo who couldn’t hit a barn door for us last season.

It’s now five points taken from the past thirty three possible. That’s not just relegation form. It’s oblivion.

We’ve only won twice at home in the league all season.

And this Saturday we’re at home again – to Stranraer, historically our Kryptonite.

There’s no hiding place any more. We’ve played the same number of games as Edinburgh City and are only two points in front – which could be evaporated by game end on Saturday (though they are playing leaders The Spartans.) But we can’t rely on others.

The overly hasty appointment by new owner Mario Lapointe of Frank McKeown as manager after Stevie Farrell was given the boot looks increasingly disastrous.

Mario may have a brain for business but it seems he doesn’t know a lot about football.

It’s now very, very difficult to see where even a point is going to come from – never mind a win.

Moreover, finishing bottom will mean we’re gone. We won’t win the Tier 4 play-off. And going down into the Lowland League (West) will be all but impossible to come back from.

SPFL Tier  3, The Rock, 26/4/25.

The last home game of the season and an entertaining one.

Annan had the best of the opening twenty or so minutes but really only created one opportunity. It was a golden one though but loanee keeper Shay Kelly pulled off an incredible point-blank save. I still don’t know how he did it.

Then we got a free-kick reasonably far out from which I wasn’t expecting much but Ryan Blair beat the keeper with a shot at a fairly savable height I thought but which squeezed in close to the post.

One-nil at half time and soon Annan’s task got more difficult when a second yellow card was shown to one of their defenders. from where I was it looked as if his slip had simply caused Michael Ruth to fall over him but the ref signalled it was a trip.

Annan then brought on sub Tommy Goss. At 6 feet 4 inches he towerd over everybody else on the park. Not good when we were playing with a makeshift centre back pairing neither of whom are centre backs. (Curiously the same was true of Annan’s line-up. No centre backs playing at centre back on either side is surely an extremely rare phenomenon.) Goss began winning balls in the air bringing out another superb save from Shay Kelly but their forward blazed the rebound over when it was surely easier to score. Goss then converted a corner and Annan looked more likely to win the game – which they had to if they had any hope sof avoding the relegaton play-off spot.

A few minutes we had a pitch invasion. No, not really, but the crowd did end up on the pitch. A fire alarm had gone off in the stadium and the game had to be suspended.

That turned out to be the turning point. After the restart we scored twice in quick succession. Firstly Tony Wallace was played in by fellow sub Joel Mumbongo but he took what felt like an age in beating the same defender twice before finally planting the ball in the net. Also Mouhamed Niang was put on Goss at set pieces after which Annan seemed to stop trying to find him.

Two minutes later another quick break saw Finlay Gray play the ball across the box. Joel Mumbongo perhaps ought to have scored but seemed to miss the ball. However he mananged to confuse the keeper who then failed to stop the ball reaching another sub Jinky Hilton who put it away.

Things were not over. They were given a penalty and Shay Kelly took his good time getting into place going behind the goal line and seeming to aplly something to his gloves, time-wasting for which he was given a yellow card. His ….housery worked, though, as he got down well to save the shot from Goss. Man of the match for me.

The home season ended on a playing high, then. Only Stenhousemuir away next week before a season unforgettable for all the wrong reasons is over.

Will we still be around for the next one though? An owner whose only interest in the club is as a site for housebuilding might well pull the plug. Fans are powerless in this regard.

SPFL Tier 3, New Central Park, 05/04/25.

Or maybe I should go….

Selection bingo obviously works.

We controlled this from the beginning even if I was nervous every time they moved up the park before we scored but at times it looked a bit like an old-fashioned end of season game.

Then Joel Mumbongo scored with a header from a Kalvin Orsi cross. A collector’s piece.

Then Kalvin got the ball on the wing, skinned his man and proceded to waltz past three of their defenders before striking his shot from about the D.

The next was a peach. Their keeper had just hit the ball aimlessly out for a throw-in, which was taken – to Carlo Pignatiello. Carlo moved infield and curled a Froxyesque curler into the top corner.

There was one strange moment when the ball looped up in our box and keeper Shay Kelly was in two minds about how to deal with it. He kept it out somewhat awkwardly.

Mouhamed Niang and Joel Mumbongo had picked up bookings in the first half and at three-nil up it made sense to remove Niang for the second half as being more likely to pick up another. Craig McGuffie was the replacement with Michael Ruth on for Orsi at the same time.

A telling sub as within five minutes a Kelty defender didn’t get his header in and Ruth was able to run in from just past halfway before slotting it past the keeper and inside the post.

Just after Joel Mumbongo went down after a challenge in the box and had to be stretchered off the pitch.

However, things went from bad to worse for Kelty when one of their players got a second yellow card for a trip.

A few minutes later Matt Shiels – on for Tony Wallace – nudged a Ruth free-kick past the keeper.

I just about missed our sixth. A cross looked to be Michael Ruth’s to head in but he was shoved in the box. I looked at the ref expecting him to blow but instead Craig McGuffie put the ball in the net.

By this time we were full of flicks and backheels and generally playing exhibition stuff.

Football is really bizarre. Where did this display come from? I know Kelty were poor but we were more than good enough to take advantage.

The lads obviously took confidence from winning last week. They should take even more from this.

SPFL Tier 3, Galabank, 8/2/25.

Well, another away defeat.

And another failure to win a crunch game.

Relegation has been all but certain since the points deduction. The ‘all but’ can now be removed.

One noteworthy thing from today’s game though. Joel Mumbongo actually scored. His first for us. After 24 appearances. Mostly as sub; but still.

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.

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.