Well, what a turnaround in recent weeks. The Board's Vote of Confidence in John has had precisely the effect everyone was hoping for: 3 matches, 3 wins, 6 goals scored, no goals conceded, and (most importantly) a play-off spot secured with a week to spare.
On a more trivial note, the recent upturn in our fortunes will hopefully represent a reprieve for the fledgling 'Warriors TV' service. I was beginning to fear that it might be withdrawn, on account of the fact that ever since it launched, our form had been pretty catastrophic - was it bringing us bad luck?! Fortunately it has made for much more pleasant viewing in the last couple of weeks, and is an excellent and much-appreciated service, especially for long-distance supporters like myself.
And the line-up for the play-offs could scarcely be more mouth-watering. If anyone has ever been tempted to bemoan the fact that whilst the play-off contenders in the English leagues get to play at Wembley, we don't routinely get to go to Hampden - fear not! Fate has declared that our opponents in the semi-final will be Queens Park, so the away leg will be at the National Stadium - always a favourite venue for away trips. The Hampden trip is on Saturday week, which means that the home leg is on the preceding Wednesday. As it stands, our dear tenants at East Stirlingshire will be away to Cowdenbeath on the Wednesday, thus avoiding any clash between our home leg and theirs, both of which will be at Ochilview. If Cowden were to overtake the Shire on the final day of the regular season, however, this would be turned on its head: ourselves and the Shire would both have our first-leg ties at Ochilview... presumably the Shire game would then be brought forward to the Tuesday?
The potential arrangements for the final, meanwhile, are nothing if not bizarre. (Hopefully I'm not jinxing us by talking about this?!) If both ourselves and the Shire win through, we will face a two-legged final, with both legs at Ochilview! I'm told the away goals rule doesn't apply in the play-offs, which is probably a blessing given the general ridiculousness of the situation, but the concept is nevertheless a tad strange. One thing is for sure, the prospect of two local derbies to decide promotion is one which both sets of supporters would relish; the Ochilview atmosphere would be nothing short of electric. There are, of course, various other permutations: a Stenny-Cowdenbeath final, providing us with an opportunity for revenge after they pipped us to the title in 2006; or, if we miss out, the prize of trip to Hampden for Cowden or the Shire.
Before all that, of course, we have a trip to Forfar to look forward to, for our final game of the league season. Here's hoping for a win to set us up nicely for the fun and games to come...
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