Spent Money

These are worrying times being a Stenhousemuir fan. I thought that the appointment of Campbell Money would work out just fine. I didn't necessarily think that all of his signings were great players but when you assessed his squad there was enough quality in there, if not to challenge for the title, then at least to get a play off place - comfortably. Even now, when you look at it there are decent players there - e.g. McCulloch, Smith, McEwan, Ferguson, Dempster, Hampshire. So where did it go wrong? Personally, I have absolutely no idea! And that is the problem. It seems when players who we have lauded at other clubs end up at Ochilview they became a bag of nerves. All confidence goes out the window, and no sooner do the opposition look threatening, and our team just crumbles. This isn't a recent phenomonon. Since the start of 2006, following Stenny has been torturous. What is wrong with our club? It's like the problems at Aberdeen, no matter who they signed, who they appointed as manager, there was just something wrong at Pittodrie that meant good players became bad. It's the same here. I don't envy the job of the Board of Directors. For the last two years it has been one disappointment after another. It's too easy to simply sack the manager, and quite often, it just isn't the right thing to do, but when the results are so deflating as they have been recently, it was no surprise that Money had to go, for his sake as much as the clubs. But where do we go now. Who do we replace Money with? What do they do with the squad of players whose morale will be so low? The club has done so much in recent times, really despite the results on the pitch, but now I feel that we are so low it is going to be so difficult to get that motivation back. Are all the new season ticket holders going to want to be associated with a team that gets humped every week? School can be difficult enough without having to bear the pain, and the slaggings, that come with being a Stenhousemuir Nil fan! I just hope that the new man, whoever it is, can at least get the team playing competitively straight away. We will just have to get through the Elgin match and then forget about the last 18 months and come back, after the international break, a proper football team again. Fingers crossed.

Tade & Lyle

Where to begin? There was so much wrong with our team, their tactics and their performance I quite honestly don’t have the time, or the appetite to write it all. (1) For me, the main issue is that I don’t think we created one chance in the whole 90 minutes. This isn’t just Paul Tyrell’s fault; let’s face it, he isn’t in the team because of his creative passing; but the team in general, and the tactics. Why were we playing 4-5-1 exactly? I presume we did this because Money realises that our midfield is the weakest link, as opposed to simply the weak link, and we needed some creativity in there in the shape of Hampshire. Fair enough, but why not play him in there as part of a 4-4-2? If we can’t create anything up front, we aren’t going to do it with one striker, are we? (2) You’d think if Money was good for nothing else, it would be that he could spot a good keeper. Aye right. The only time Hillcoat came off his line was to give the Stranraer fans some verbals and to flick the “V” sign at them. Nice one John. Willie McCulloch or John Hillcoat, ex Brechin reserve keeper? It’s a difficult one isn’t it? I don’t think I have seen him catch a cross ball once. Admittedly, yesterday they were difficult in swinging corners (as opposed to delicate chips into the keepers arms, which we have made our trademark) but you surely expect more from an experienced keeper like him. There’s more to being a goalie than the spectacular diving saves, surely Money must realise that? But what’s the alternative? There isn’t one. (3) The last time I saw us the one saving grace was that our defence was quite solid and was playing with confidence. Where has this confidence gone? As soon as we went one down the back 4, plus the goalie, just crumbled The two full backs, Lyle in particular, were appalling. Persistently mis-hitting passes, with Lyle also being culpable in two of their goals. And remind me why we play a right footed player at left back? (4) After the Arbroath game, the one dramatic change from last season was that the team gave loads of commitment to the cause. We might not have liked Tade’s antics yesterday whenever anyone went near him, but at least he gave his all . Typified when he dived, OK, not for the 1st time, to score with a header from the corner, while our two centre halfs stood back to make his path to the ball as clear as they possibly could. It is just so reminiscent of last season. Different players, but same problems. (5) And finally, who does that wee gnaff Lindsay think he is. When you get subbed you shake the hand of the player going off. You can maybe get away with it if you have had a good game and don’t deserve to be subbed but he was hopeless. I can’t even be bothered to find out what his first name is, as in 6 months time he’ll be lucky if gets a game for the Juniors, never mind Stenhousemuir. I don’t think getting rid of Money at this stage is the answer. We are not going to win the league but we should be good enough for a play off position, and given the quality, or lack of, in this division, a decent run of results from January onwards should be enough to get a play off place. So I would be inclined to give Money till early December and reassess then. Although having said that, if there are (m)any more performances like that, he might make the decision for us. East Fife will be quavering in their boots. I am so pissed off I can’t even be bothered to mention the fact that Keogh should have been sent off at the end for his assault on John Dempster, or I wonder if Frank McAvennie had a good day out at the game. I guess he turned up when he heard there was Hen Do in town.

Dumbarton Rocks

What a week to be a Stenhousemuir supporting member of the Tartan Army. The best away win in history; and Scotland win in Paris. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to Dumbarton; oh, how I wish the situation had been reversed and I could have swapped a few days in Paris earlier in the week for a murky Saturday afternoon watching, by all accounts, a scintillating performance by the Warriors! Disappointingly, I have not felt as if I was missing out on much over recent weeks when I have been unable to get to our games. Already there is a pervading sense of doom and gloom about the place. Okay, we beat Dumbarton, but they are hopeless, and we weren’t much better, seems to be the general consensus. I have this horrible feeling that already this season is following the path we went down last year, all of which makes for pretty grim viewing and doesn’t exactly make me excited about spending Saturday afternoons watching Stenhousemuir. Hopefully, my opinion will be different come 4.45pm this coming Saturday when I see for myself exactly how the team is shaping up. I don’t think it will be an easy game. Stranraer are one of those teams that I dread playing against as, probably for no good reason, I always think of them as being a decent team at this level who are difficult to get the better of. They have signed some decent players (eg Gillies, Keogh) but that doesn’t always guarantee success, as we know only too well. However, with Montrose beating East Fife and the wheels coming off The Shire bandwagon, it seems, as ever, that there are no great shakes in this league. Can we take advantage?

McFadulous

Regular readers (!) of my blog will know that the last few weeks have taken me nowhere near the Home of Football, but instead I have been galavanting across the globe (well Prague and Manchester). The last 7 days have taken me to Glasgow and Paris for the final leg of my World Tour. For about 30 minutes last weekend, I thought that the dream was about to be blown apart by the cheating, diving Hearts Reserves team. OK, I know our lot like the odd bit of simulation (looking at you Mr O'Connor) but we are useless at it, so it doesn't seem quite so bad as what those pesky Lithuanians got away with. They really must practice at it to be that good! In the end we played our Get of out Jail card (again) and headed for Gay Paris in high spirits. I was just happy that the dream lasted a little longer, and OK, the French were going to wreak revenge on us following the game at Hampden when the ballboys had stolen vistory from the illustrious visitors. So, I headed off to Paris to complete my "Stenhousemuir-free" football watching extravangza. Expections = very low. But it turned out that the highlight of the trip wasn't the bars before and after the game; for once the match itself was the highlight. So many times in the past I have travelled away with Scotland, where the fact of the matter is that the game has got in the way of a good piss up. I am still coming to terms with McFadden's goal - didn't it creep past the post? surely someone must have been offside? over zealous French ballboys maybe threw 2 balls on the pitch at the same time? - but it really does seem to be true. The goal stood. We just beat the French - again. And still we haven't qualified for the finals. How does that work?! If you look closely, as the camera pans across the jubilant Scottish support, immediately after the ball hit the back of the net, you can see me jumping about like a loony. But I don't care how idiotic I look, when they re-run the "Greatest Ever Scottish Goal" I'll be able to say I was there, and I'll be able to prove it! Now it's back to normality, and the truth is that I was actually enjoying not thinking about our trip to Dumbarton. Hopefully Campbell Money has used the break to good effect and that the players will be up for it. For me, Dumbarton is a bridge too far, so I will have to make do with Jeff Stellings updates, but hopefully we can round off a fantastic week is style!

O Flower of Scotland

O Flower of Scotland, when will we see your like again? The opening line of the national anthem took on a whole new meaning on Wednesday night: when will we next see a match as wonderful as this? Scotland’s defensive masterclass in Paris was the stuff dreams are made of, but down here in deepest Tuscany, my attempts to find somewhere to watch the game were notably less successful. Every time Scotland play, I resolutely check the listings of every obscure sports channel I can find, in the inevitably vain search for live coverage, before eventually settling for a text commentary on the Internet, accompanied on this occasion by streamed audio coverage from ‘Super Scoreboard’ on Clyde 1. What I hadn’t noticed, though, was the 30-second delay on the audio commentary. When the words ‘GOAL: McFADDEN’ appeared on the screen in front of me, clearly I thought my eyes were deceiving me: I was listening to the radio, and the ball was at the other end of the park with Craig Gordon! Thirty seconds later, alas, I heard the goal for real, and my fellow Internet café users may, at this point, have been a little taken aback by my animated behaviour. At full time I had the widest smile in Siena; I just wished I’d been able to watch the game. Imagine my displeasure, then, when I returned home to discover that the game had been live on Eurosport! My frustration at having missed it was such that, this afternoon, I had no option but to leave work early and watch the repeat broadcast in full. As for the match itself, our victory underlined the importance of a well-structured team. Every Scotland player had a clearly defined role, and every one of them stuck to it: at any level of football, a well-structured team tends to be a winning team. In our recent games Stenny have been found wanting in that regard: I hope we are now able to follow the example set by the national team. We have got plenty of quality, so if our players stick to their roles and do the simple things right, our season will soon be back on track. As Dumbarton attempt to ‘Raise the Rock’ this Saturday, it might just be time for us to turn a corner.

Goals allowed

This weekend's travels took me to Manchester, or to be more precise, Salford, for the Manchester United/ Sunderland match. Keano's not so glorious return to Old Trafford. It is such a different world, not just from Stenhousemuir, but from any other football club. The Superstore was jam packed before the match as Man U fans from all over the world bought their merchandise, including the new kit with the pre-prepared name and number on the back. Amongst the "7 Ronaldo" and "10 Rooney" shirts I searched in vain for one that said "24 Fletcher". He isn't the most popular player down there, but he did actually play well when he made an appearance in the 2nd half. As for the other significant Scot on the pitch, Craig Gordon was outstanding. Next weekend takes me to Hampden so hopefully the good form of these two will continue. All in all I had an enjoyable time, with the one obvious distraction. This weekend normal service was resumed as regards the internet, so I was well up to date with goings on at Ochilview. Our lack of goals isn't an altogether huge surprise to me based on what I have seen so far this season, but our inability to prevent the opposition from sticking the ball in the back of our net is. I was prepared to give Money the benefit of the doubt last season as we slumped to 4th bottom. He spent at least the last quarter giving youngsters a try out so it was no surprise that we lost as often, and by such wide margins, as frequently as we did. However, to see the same thing happening again this season does make me wonder what on earth is wrong with our team. Even if we had Gordon and Fletcher playing for us, I wonder if we would still struggle to actually look like we might mount a promotion challenge. Is it a problem that is endemic within the club? No matter who plays for us, Stenhousemuir will always be facing an uphill battle? Or am I just too pessimistic? It seemed that there were encouraging signs at the start of the season. The team wasn't perfect but there was something to work on. However, in the space of two weeks, we now appear to be as bad as ever and maybe we should be thankful Elgin are in the league, otherwise I fear we could be heading for rock bottom. Two home games, no goals, 7 against is not a good sign. Campbell has a lot of work to do.