SPFL Tier 3, Ochilview, 3/5/25.

And so an utter car crash of a season comes to an end.

They were the better team, shifted the ball about well and scored early on. We didn’t start to come into it till later in the first half.

We got back into it from a corner nodded on by Mark Durnan to Matthew Shiels whose shot wasn’t cleared by their defence and ended up in the net. It was difficult to tell exactly what happened as we Sons fans were in the enclosure at the opposite end of the pitch.

Their second was hard luck on Shay Kelly in goal as he made a great point-blank save from the first effort but the rebound was put in off the post. (The guy almost put it past which would have been a shocking miss.)

So who knows how many of these players we will see again in a Sons shirt? Not Michael Ruth I would wager. He would provbably deserve a place in a Tier 2 team. Player of the year Mouhamed Niang might also be off. So might they all to be fair.

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 ac cahlenge 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, Recreation Park, 29/3/25.

A win!

Our first since December. And we lost the first goal. I think the last time we came from behind to win was at Arbroath in October.

They missed a penalty to make it 2-0 though. That would most likely have been game over.

For us Michael Ruth scored with a penalty and then Craig McGuffie embarrassed the keeper with a free-kick which it seems the wind took and he could only palm it into the net.

Then they equalised and that could have been it – or worse – but Mark Durnan popped up with a header from a corner to score the winner.

Strange how a win brightens the mood even if we’re going down.

SPFL Tier 3, Gayfield,* 15/3/25.

Someone once said, “It’s a funny old game.” Someone else said, “Football. Bloody Hell.”

Despite our position at the bottom of the table and theirs at the top I had a curious feeling of optimism during the warm-up. Or maybe it was the sunshine bathing Gayfield. Hints of Spring and all that.

There was more selection bingo from boss Stevie Farrell. Quite how Finlay Gray was supposed to affect the game from what was in effect the left wing position is beyond me. He did his best but he’s not a left-footed player and his crossing therefore wasn’t a threat.

The optimism didn’t last long. We had dominated the early stages and then in what was their first really concerted attack they scored, a completely uncontested header from a cross you could see coming long before it did. To make it worse it was ex-Son Sam Stanton who scored it. (Mind you there was another Arbroath player waiting behind him if he hadn’t headed it.) Another long day beckoned.

Thereafter the first half was something of a bore: two poor teams misplacing passes or miscontrolling the ball and it had the general feel of an old-style end-of-season game. Mouhamed Niang was impressive, though, imposing himself on the midfield, which continued throughout the game.

The second half was more of the same really but we began to come into it more as the game progressed and we looked more confident since they hadn’t added to their lead.

But down 1-0 and two subs come on so that we switch to a back three and what had looked like a reasonably solid defence restricting Arbroath pretty well to shots from outside the box suddenly became shambolic – almost as if we had never practiced that formation. I could only see one outcome from that. And it wasn’t favourable.

Then we scored. Don’t you just love football?

Niang won the ball in midfield, fed sub Craig McGuffie, who sent a delightful defence splitting pass through to Michael Ruth, who still had a lot to do though, beating a defender before slotting it past the keeper.

So the day ended on a high. There’s still a football side in there somewhere.

*Greenversity Stadium at Gayfield, if you must.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 4/3/25.

Yet another defeat; this time in front of BBC Alba’s cameras, so I got to see the game.

Arbroath started brightly but we scored first due to Michael Ruth winning a free kick and then taking it himself banging a beauty just under the bar.

We were riding our luck though with Arbroath having a few chances and lonee goalie Milosz Sliwinski doing well at times to thwart them.

But a misjudged attempt at a header back from Michael Miller allowed their forward to squeeze a shot in.

Second half we lost an early goal (it’s been our habit this season in one half or another.) A long-hit corner was headed back towards goal and we didn’t react quickly enough to stop the effort that resulted, poked in by an attacker.

That was effectively game over, though we huffed and puffed towards the end.

We’re now 18 points behind ninth with only 27 still up for grabs.

Still, one of the club’s administrators was interviewed at half time and made encouraging noises about indentifying a preferred bidder. We can only hope.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 15/2/25.

Well, we scored twice; Michael Ruth with a pen and Carlo Pignatiello with a second equaliser. But we lost three. And once again to a team who, if we’d won, we might have put a bit of fear into.

It’s getting depressing. We might at least look as if we were making a fight of it.

SPFL Tier 3, Ochilview, 7/12/24.

I hadn’t expected much from this since both of our front two Michael Ruth and Jinky Hilton were missing through injury but I didn’t contemplate this disaster.

We were two down in 25 minutes and then to compound our problems Finlay Gray was sent off just before half time. As if that wasn’t enough Brett Long joined him in the dressing room on 70 minutes after another red card. And with Carlo Pingatiello going off injured as well …..

To cap it all Inverness Caley won and Annan got a draw marooning us further away from any hope of making 9^th place never mind 8th.

Not that I was too hopeful of staying up anyway but failure to win at home against Annan next Saturday will just about doom us.

Scottish Cup*, Round Three, The Rock, 29/11/24

What a good result for our first game after entering administration. And we motored into it, two-nil up after thirteen minutes, three-nil in 39. Mohammed Niang, Jinky Hilton and Michael Ruth on the score sheet.

The copy book was blotted a bit by losing a goal just before half-time and another on 65 minutes but we held out for the win which puts us into the next round and gets us a bigger tranche of prize money.

There’s also the prospect of getting a Premiership team away from home and the potential of a big gate which wouldn’t do the finances any harm.

(Knowing our luck we’ll get the team placed lowest in the pyramid, Musselburgh Athletic, away instead.)

*Scottish Gas Scottish Cup.

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 16/11/24.

A much needed win after a nothing first half in which the only things of note were a great Brett Long sideways leap to prevent QoS’s first away league goal this season, a QoS defender’s attempt to score into his own empty net with a header which their goalie just scrambled off the line and a Michael Ruth effort that just squeezed past. It seemed his (bad) luck in front of goal still continued.

The second half was much better with Sons doing most of the attacking. Jinky Hilton hit the bar and the keeper was lucky it fell into his arms when it came down again after rebounding off the ground. Then Michael Ruth was shoved in the back in the area but it wasn’t given – despite the ref flinging yellow cards about like they were confetti.

Ruthie got his reward about 70 minutes in. That rarity, an early Kalvin Orsi cross, found Finlay Gray whose strike was blocked but fell for Ruthie to bury it. I’m pleased for him. His overall wrok-rate is simply brilliant but I think his rcent lackd of goals had been getting to him.

Then they were awarded a free kick a few yards outside our penalty area. As he lined it up I thought Brett Long  had got his positioning all wrong. So it proved. The up and over duly found the opposite bottom area of the goal. QoS’s first away goal of the league season and to watch them you could understand that stat.

The lads’ heads could have gone down after that but they kept plugging away and we git a series of unfruitful corners as time -up loomed. From the aftermath of one of them Mark Durnan got his foot in the way of the defender’s and the ball and was kicked. So: penalty. From where I sat I hadn’t realised it was in the are until the ref pointed at the spot.

Sub Tony Wallace duly dispatched it, to much rejoicing in the stands.

I hope the win does the boys ‘ confidence some good; our next two games are tough. Both against Alloa, at their place next Saturday in the league then at ours the following Friday in the Cup.