SPFL Tier 3, Palmerston Park, 28/9/24.

Reality biting hard?

That’s two games lost in a row now. AndMark Durnan got himself sent off.

Plus we’re bottom of the table.

It’s getting hard to see where the win is going to come from.

I’m not convinced it’ll be next week at home to Stenhousemuir. They owned us last season.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 31/8/24.

Well. Here we are again.

Yet another draw.

And yet again coming from behind. Twice this time.

We were the better looking side in the early exchanges. Indeed Kelty really didn’t have an attack worthy of the name until they scored, a quick break showing an alarming fragility in our back line, waltzed through as if it were not there.

They looked extremely confident on the ball after that with a great awareness of where their teammates were and making seemingly blind passes. They were also very well organised defensively, always able to get a man in to make the crucial tackle or block. And if that failed their goalkeeper managed to make the save.

Not until the 43rd minute, after a few corners from the left had produced nothing, one from the right found Mark Durnan able to head in at the far post.

The second half followed a similar pattern. They scored when we lost the ball in midfield and worked the ball well into the area where the free guy stuck it through Brett Long’s legs.

It looked like the unbeaten run would end but then another Craig McGuffie corner was again headed in by Mark Durnan. That could almost have been a response to the immediately prior announcement of Durnan as man of the match. Personally I thought he was uncomfortable on the left of the centre back pairing.

Still, a draw against the team at the top of the league can’t be bad.

So it’s five league draws in a row now to start off the campaign (albeit with a Challenge Cup win against Berwick mixed in.) That sequence surely must be a club record.

But draws don’t get you up the league table. Not in these days of three points for a win. We really need to get one of those on the board.

There’s a break next week for the next round of the Challenge Cup, a long trip to Peterhead, before we’re down at Annan in a fortnight.

SPFL Tier 3, Balmoral Stadium, 17/8/24.

Well, it’s another draw, but we left it late, Mark Durnan equalising in added time.

It’s shaping up to be a tight league though so perhaps draws are to be expected.

Our next two games are at home. We ought to have a better idea of how things are going after those.

SPFL Tier Three Play-off Final, Second Leg, Ainslie Park, 17/5/24.

I’m still processing this.

For so long this season promotion looked a long way off, but seven wins out of the last eight games in the last quarter gave us momentum and in the play-offs themselves the team handled the situation perfectly.

Mind you after three minutes of this one I had that familiar sinking feeling. I knew as soon as the cross was hit a goal was coming. And so it was.

Thank goodness we got back into it quickly so that there was no possibility of nerves getting the better of us. Jinky Hilton’s corner was well met by Sean Crighton and – not for the first time at Ainslie Park this season – their keeper spilled it. I didn’t see who scored. I was on the grass banking behind the goal near the corner flag and Ainslie Park is tight and does not have good sight lines when there’s a big crowd. Only when I got home did I find out it was Michael Ruth.

From them on the first half was quite dour with Jay Hogarth having only one save to make and their keeper not much troubled either. The most worrying thing was Sean Crighton having to go off injured. Aron Lynas has played at centre half for us before though he’s really a right back but up against the foot taller Blair Henderson I feared for him. Yet despite losing their first mutual challenge easily he pretty much handled him relatively easily. 1-1 at half time and a nervous 45 minutes (plus) beckoned.

We came out better than Spartans in the second half. First Finlay Gray hit the post after good work by Kalvin Orsi and Michael Ruth. I wondered if we’d rue that not going in. But then Michael Ruth stood up to be counted. A brilliant first touch near the halfway line saw him set off on a run at their defence. He cut inside and then placed a shot back across the goal, leaving the keeper stranded. Superb stuff.

Only once did Spartans threaten our goal but a combination of a defender (Cian Newbery?) and Jay Hogarth forced their player wide and it went out for a goal kick. Then they were given a penalty in stoppage time. I was too far away to see what had happened for it to be given. As it turned out there was too little time for Spartans to capitalise on their equaliser.

The final whistle nevertheless still came as a relief .

So now 2024 joins 1972, 1984, 1992, 1995, 2002, 2009 and 2012 as promotion seasons I have witnessed.

Even if Mark Durnan has been a defensive rock since he came back from injury it was fitting that Michael Ruth secured promotion for us. Throughout the season he has been our best player.