My worst, most embarrasing 90 minutes as a Stenhousemuir supporter

It’s a long way to Castle Douglas and an even longer way home after watching our latest crop of imposters. I travelled down thinking that we would get a morale boosting victory and hopefully kick start the season but when I look back on things, I think the 5-0 defeat to The Shire was eclipsed by that result yesterday. Threave, were, and are, utterly hopeless. They play in a league where their match the previous week was called off because the opposition couldn’t field enough players. And our lot of arrogant wannabes obviously thought all they had to do was turn up and stroll in to the next round. This is the same group of players who have routinely this season embarrassed themselves and the club time after time with quite inept performances. Well this one took the biscuit. Okay, the keeper was badly at fault at the goal but at the end of the day it shouldn’t have mattered; it should only have been a consololation. So while it wasn’t necessarily his fault that we lost, it didn’t help. Come back John Hillcoat, all is forgiven. Threave were there to be ripped apart but we just didn’t have the wherewithal to break them down. We seemed to have two tactics. Get the ball to either of the 2 full backs to lob the ball into their keepers arms, or try and walk the ball through the packed defence. Option 2 can work if you try and pass the ball to one of your own players when you get to the edge of the box, rather than straight to one of the opposition defence, or if the players you are going to pass to actually move about and make it difficult for the defence to mark them. I don’t think we once managed to get the ball behind their defence for one of our forwards (sorry, our forward) to run on to. An absolute disgrace. And here’s a novel idea, after you’ve made a pass, why not make a run instead of standing watching the pass? Too many of the players were anonymous. Steve Hampshire came with a glowing reputation, but yesterday he simply looked like he couldn’t be arsed. I’m sure he is getting paid a decent wage. Are the club allowed to restrict payment for non-performance? John Dillon looks like he is petrified to take possession of the ball. No wonder, as no sooner does he have it than he is passing the ball straight to an opposition player. When you are playing a top class side who don’t give you time or space to make a pass, you can understand this, but it was Threave bloody Rovers. Captain Marvel – perhaps if he concentrated on playing football instead of disputing every decision or encouraging the referee to book the opposition players he might actually have a chance of living up to his reputation. Yesterday he was just embarrassing. Brian McLaughlin – at least he put a good shift in but when he is playing with a team of statues, it makes it difficult to do anything creative. I could go on and on, but it is just depressing. The players have had chance after chance to do something about this. Presumably Coughlin realises what he has walked in to. I am really worried about where this club is going. We seem to be timing our run to become the worst team in Scottish senior (ha, that’s a laugh) football just as talk of a pyramid structure takes off.

Take Cough

So the word on the street, well the internet forums, is that John Coughlin is to become our new manager, which I think will be a good move from our perspective. His teams at Berwick in particular have always been impressive, despite eschewing the so called big name signings. He seemed to build well organised sides that were motivated to succeed despite appearing, on paper, to be weaker than most other teams in our league. Of course we tried to take half his team last season and failed miserably. Hopefully this will not be repeated once his (inevitable) appointment has been confirmed. He will have his work cut out as we are a team at an all time low, in my time watching Stenhousemuir at least. There is a complete lack of confidence in the team, together with a shortage of ability and depth to the squad. What exactly Money thought he was doing going into the season with only one goalkeeper is beyond me. Scott Johnstone might well be a good shot stopper, but he is just too short. I can't help feeling that the 1st goal we lost on Saturday against Elgin was down to his inability to command his goalmouth. If we hadn't lost that goal who knows, we may actually have gone on, well maybe not to win, but to at least avoid defeat. In any case there was an element of killing time about the game on Saturday. There was an unusual atmosphere, as if we were just spinning our wheels waiting for the new manager to come along and make everything OK! So now we have got the 1st quarter of the season out of the way, we have a couple of weeks off, we have a new man in charge (almost), so we can come back after the international break, motivated and encouraged to succeed and before you know it we might actually overtake The Shire!

Roll on...

I have to say that I was pleased to hear the news on Saturday evening. I am not referring here to Campbell Money's resignation as manager - I think we all guessed that would be on the cards after that afternoon's result - but rather to his decision to stay on as Head of Youth Development. Whatever the rights and wrongs of his managerial reign, Campbell has done terrific work with the youths, and I had worried about what would happen to this aspect if he were to depart as manager. The news that his work with the youths will continue is, as such, a terrific boost, especially in these difficult times.

It is only natural, of course, that attention will turn to Campbell's successor. Such decisions are, by definition, difficult for the board. The new manager will need something more than just a good track record, as history has proved that a good track record is no guarantee of success.

One basic decision is whether to go for a manager with experience in the senior ranks, or to recruit a first-time manager or an up-and-coming coach from the juniors. To me, of course, the only names which spring to mind are those with league experience - John Connolly was terrific at QOS, ditto Jim Chapman at Albion Rovers and Joe Miller at Clyde. Or dare I suggest Gordon Wylde, currently working wonders with the Shire?

On the other hand, the club may be able to identify a less well-known candidate; great managers often come from unexpected sourcers. In any case, the board are supporters just like the rest of us, and I am confident that they will identify the right man.

It is important to remind ourselves of one thing: this season should not be a write-off. We do have quality players here; clearly players who haven't been performing to their capabilities, but talented players nevertheless. This means that the potential for immediate improvement is there. However disenheartened we may feel after recent results, managing Stenhousemuir is far from an impossible job. From where I'm standing, the new man is in for an exciting challenge, and I look forward to supporting him, whoever he may be.