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The Mighty Fife vs Stenny

Sunshine Fifer

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Francesc Fabregas

Francesc Fabregas

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That was really disappointing. After the weekend's win over Albion Rovers, I thought that we'd be in a really good position to move away from the bottom of the table with a similar showing against East Fife. Imagine, then, my frustration when Stenhousemuir turned in one of their most passive, disjointed showings of the season so far. In a lot of our defeats this campaign, there seems to have been a bit of a hard-luck story where the team performs well enough but is undone by daft mistakes at crucial times; here, we didn't play well at all and I don't think East Fife ever really got out of first gear.

What a letdown. You can handle the failures, you have to, but it's the hope that kills you. I can't believe I allowed myself to think we'd get the three points tonight.

First, a word on the Fifers. They played well, albeit they weren't up against very much. Jonathan Page strolled through the match whilst puffing on a big Cuban cigar (he was probably the best player on the park) while I was impressed with the quick interchanges between Mark O'Hara, Kyle Wilkie, Scott Robinson and Jordan Austin. The short passing and elusive movement had us on the back foot for most of the evening, although I will say that we coped with it, by and large. The goal was well executed but I can't help think Stenhousemuir could have cleared the ball long before it found its way to the edge of the penalty area. I'll need to see the highlights but we cheaply conceded possession on our left flank, Wilkie took a touch and nudged it to O'Hara who hit a gorgeous first-time shot into the net. It was like a finesse shot in Fifa - he opened up his body and struck the ball ever so sweetly. There was nothing Colin McCabe could have done about it. East Fife had a couple of other decent chances in the second half and O'Hara had a second goal disallowed for offside but it was all pretty straightforward for them anyway.

Stenhousemuir were crap and it was worrying just how little we offered as an attacking threat. It's been a problem all season but our limitations have really been shown up in the last three matches. Yeah, we scored five at Airdrieonians but three of them came from set-pieces and another came after the Diamonds defence had more or less given up, and Willis Alves Furtado's strike against Albion Rovers was extraordinary and came from individual brilliance rather than clever team play. Colin McMenamin and Ally Roy try hard but nothing seems to come off for them, tonight or any night. They're not the kind of players who'll win aerial duels and duke it out with big centre-backs, so why did we punt balls up towards them all evening? The East Fife strike force are of similar stature but their willingness to get balls into feet, pop it off to a team-mate and then spin away into space was something we couldn't match. We don't seem to be making the most of our forwards' limited ability.

No-one really stood out for Stenny tonight. Vinnie Berry grafted and looked to get his foot on the ball and get things going; he was our best player. Colin McCabe dropped a cross but looked assured otherwise and made some good saves, especially from a close-range header in the second half. Fraser Kerr and Ross Meechan generally dealt with most things but their distribution was poor and they seemed to shell it long with little thought. The rest of the team didn't play very well - Kieran Millar rushed everything and seemed to kick the ball away as soon as it came to him, Furtado showed some nice touches here and there but dropped out of the game completely and Alan Cook had his worst game in a Stenhousemuir shirt. Cook's been pretty decent all season but tonight he was just rubbish - his crossing was poor, his delivery from set-pieces was all over the place and he fluffed the only real chance we had, firing a shot right at Ryan Goodfellow when put through on goal. Shout out to big Scott Walker who came on in the final moments - the highlight of the whole goddamn game was when he flicked the ball on to no-one in particular at a corner.

It's just so frustrating. Before the match, I was looking at our remaining fixtures of 2016 - a trip to Peterhead and a home tie with Alloa Athletic on Hogmanay - and genuinely believing we could win every game. What a nerd. One step forward, one step back again.

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beaver1

beaver1

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I think the run of games caught up with us. More or less, the same 11 have started those games. We don't have a big enough squad to allow us to rest players eg cook and mcmenamin.

Furtado was our best player but he isn't good enough to win games on his own.

Thought east fife were decent first half but still only had one shot on target that I can recall. Ultimately had it been a draw I don't think anyone would have complained.

Four games ago, I'm sure our target would have been 6 points. Now, let's see what Bomber can do in the transfer window.

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King Kebab

King Kebab

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Thought we made hard work out that!!!

By half way through the second we should have been out of sight, McCabe made at least three excellent saves to keep Stennie in it and was O'Hara's disallowed goal offside? It was hard to see from where we were but the outstanding display of ineptitude from tonight's officials makes me feel as if it could be arguable and what was that free kick/penalty/dropball scenario all about???

Credit to Stenhousemuir they didn't give up and at only 1-0 they managed to make the last 20 minutes squeaky bum time, but as 'Cesc says, without really troubling our goal!!!

You looked a better outfit than Peterhead but they do have the Rory Mcallister factor, he might dicide to turn up sometimes and win a game for them, I can't see where a goal is going to come for you though!!!

Another three points and another clean sheet, so all in all not a bad return for our depleted side, four subs and only two of them fully fit and one of those was the sub keeper, who will presumably be our first choice keeper as it doesn't look as Goodfellow will be back anytime soon, not sure what he injured but he was certainly in some distress by the time he crawled round to the tunnel, are there no stretcher bearers at Ochilview? I think having to hirple around the pitch didn't do him any good and probably a good chance it made things worse!!!

Our excellent December continues, Barry's good start continues and our never ending injury list continues, rough with the smooth and all that eh???

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King Kebab

King Kebab

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Only 2 games in, but are you lot noticing anything different in terms of style/philosophy etc between Smith and Naysmith?


We're definitely pressing higher up the pitch than we did under Gary and our back line isn't lying as deep as it did!!!

Other than that there really isn't to many differences, we need to give him a wee bit more time before a real comparison can be made and also the full availability of our squad, so that we can see what options he can chose from!!!
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