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.