with savage suspended (always good for a goal v stenny). moffat, mckenzie, thwysen & kelly possibly all out, i fear for the worst in this game. If we play simpson up front on his own we will never score and with oates & king at the back, we will conceed barrow loads. hopefully its not a 4-5-1 formation. Our only option for a striker other than simpson is brownlieand he cant do the holding role. we need to go 4-4-2 and try and hold out for a 0-0.
Ideal option is to get totally hammered and not really see what goes on on the park & not be able to remember the game.
Stenny better open the away end after last game fiasco.

Strangely enough I don't have a good feeling about this either but thats just cause I'm pretty pessimistic.

If we play like we did against East Fife we will win comfortably, if we play like we did against Elgin we will lose heavily.

Both teams probably without their best player for this one, or at least Shires most dangerous (basically worth a goal a game against us) whilst we are without Gordon Lennon, a cut above at this level.

I will miss the game as I am working which is fucking gutting.

2-1 Warriors

I think the Tonkas will win this game tomorrow, for the reasons you state Willibob. The Forfar game is more important now so fingers crossed we get these new guys in before that one.

Thwysen gone to Garmischpartenkirchen? Its good for Joe to cool off a little and some for Forfar, anyway I think wer gonna do well vs. Stenny, theyre jus crapy home team, and they got game against Urawa comin soon. Seriously, Shire will be jus fine.

Lennon aside will Stenhousemuir be that much changed from the teams that beat East Fife and Stranraer? They cost me last week when i disregarded their injury situation. Is it bad?

thanks

edit: Gibson from Partick will be on from the start and ok at this level again wont he?

Gibson doesn't look fit. Would imagine Dalziel will come right in for Dempster.

Lennon will be a massive miss to us as much as Shire will miss Savage.

This is anyone's game.

Fancy us to win 4-0 though.

Perhaps the biggest contradiction ever...

I don't fancy this game to be honest, something in my waters...


...could be that urinary infection

Well spotted.

Which Gibson would that be? We've had many to choose from past few years but only one remains

Andy Gibson who is at Stranraer
Graeme Gibson who was released in the summer - Peter Crouch's brother
Jimmy Gibson - our captain who never plays

Not a bad start for Scott Dalziel, 2 goals in the first 15 minutes of his debut.

We played poorly and won 3-0.

I'm gutted my opponent for the penalty competition didn't turn up. I'm sure the Shire fans would have given me a warm welcome.

Penaltys against us r - us.

Does Scott Dalziel know how to stay on his feet? Everytime the ball came to him, he fell to the floor.

Three goals handed onto Stenny's plate. I counted 4 shots on the Shire goal in the first half, from Stenny and they scored 3 of them. Yet again, we're giving teams head starts and it has to stop.

On the plus side, the side's play in 2nd half was encouraging and if Marc had put his chance away right at the start of the half, it would have been a more entertaining game.

First time I've been in the terracing at Ochildump, it's got good acoustics, I'll give it that. Shame we only heard the Stenny fans when Dalziel went off the pitch...

So lets get this straight, we played utter shit yet we reamed you comfortably. How bad does that make you?

Yet another singing jibe. We can't all start drinking at 6am and get tanked up for the biggest game of the season (for yous anyway) - enjoy the battle for 9th. Money well spent eh.

GIRFUY

Pretty much like his Cowden league debut!

Game of two halves today. In the first half hour of the first half, every time we went forward, we looked like scoring. I was really impressed with Scott Dalziel, looked very quick and I like the way he plays, just off the shoulder, gives us plenty of options. He tired a bit towards the end of the game, but I guess he's a bit unfit at the moment.

The penalty was a definite penalty - DL charged into the box and was clearly tripped by the #4 (who was total murder the 45 minutes he was on the pitch). I thought his second goal was going over the bar until it dipped late on and fell into the net. Willie Lyle's goal was a total beauty and one of the best I've seen us score this season.

For the first twenty five minutes of the second half, Shire were all over us and we couldn't get the ball out of our own half. They had two excellent chances to claw back the deficit, Marc McKenzie missing from three yards and Andy Brand (first time I've seen him this season, looks a class act all the way) hitting the bar. The game died out towards the end, but I reckon over the piece we deserved our win.

Most of our players had good games, although we really missed Lennon at the back. Thom and Gilbride looked OK for most of the match, but Thom seems to want to shepard the ball out a lot of the time rather than hoofing it out of play. He was caught out a few times too.

Good to see we have signed "the new Jim Mercer" too.

Scotts a good player and will do really well for Stenny - he always gives 100% and should score a lot of goals for you. He will be a bit unfit no doubt - never given a good chance at Cowden. Made more sub appearances than starts for us and will need too get his fitness up.

Unless anyone else comes in (which I doubt), he'll be the guy we'll look to to lead the line for us, so we'll need him fully fit. He'd look even better if he had someone up with him to thread balls through to. Like the look of DL already!

I had a personal circumstance to attend to so i couldn't be at the game, but the scoreline doesn't surprise me at all. Actually thought we would get hurt a lot more than that the way we have been playing. Just means that our season could well depend on Forfar, who may think the 3rd time is a charm.

At least Stenny opened the terracing this time round, and good to see Dubya being friendly as ever.

Aww, want me to put your toys back into your pram for you?

Actually, Carl Thywissen pulled back DL and should have left him because he was going away from goal, a needless foul to give away, there was no trip.

His 2nd goal was put into the place he had to aim for, to be honest, good finish though. Michael Brown couldn't kick the ball out at all, something your keeper had no problem with. Just a fraction of a second before the third was put in I remember shouting at the Shire to stop standing back and admiring your lot, and BOOM, 3-0.

The Shire were nothing but pure unadulterated pish in the first half and deserved to be losing. Paul Doyle kept farting around in his own penalty area. I've never seen a central defender with so little mobility.



You didn't exactly work hard for your goals although the 3rd was a decent passage of play. Too many "if only's" on our part though to make more of a game out of it.

Enjoyed half time, one of the subs warming up tried to boot the ball in the air and he fired it out the ground - fantastic and Hillcoat warming up in front of us gave us no end of entertainment as well. Bless Brown though for the abuse he took from us in the 2nd half though, he handled it well until he faffed up a couple of back passes.

We need to seriously get our act together and play for 90 minutes, the way we played the 2nd half though.

Now, let me see....what could a new Jim Mercer be like?

• Did he look like Adonis in a football strip, and the ideal poster boy for the Warriors programme, yet was completely unable to trap a ball?
• Was he 6ft 4, but 4ft 6 when he jumped?
• Did he fail to move for 89 mins, but then amazingly banged in the winner?
• Or, was he reading the Racing Post in the warm-up?

There's only one Jim Mercer - all others are pale imitations

Yeah man, the first two points you describe pretty much sum up our new man Graeme "Gabbo" Gibson. The new Slim Jim Mercer. Balls played into him at 5mph cannoned off his shins and despite his 6'7" frame, he seemed unable to win or go for headers against opponents one foot shorter than him.

He didn't really have many chances to score, and I'm not sure what Gabbo's choice in literature is, but he's the new Slim Jim Mercer, he "gives us something different" when we're playing.

Things are looking bleak for The Shire now...

It was a joke lad.

It was obvious we would pump you.

Look at the season we are having. We have played dreadfully most of the time and are in the play offs whilst little Shire are having their best season for years and are still not on our radar.

East Stirlingshire - insignificant.

Albion Rovers - the next victim.

Well put.

We were crap in the first half. Doyle was pish, and with Shaggy making a hell of a lot of blunders over the season, the middle of the defence was a joke. It was a soft penalty, but a penalty none-the-less. Shaggy pulled the jersey when he didn't need to, and the player made a good job of going down.
I've been worried about our 4-5-1 formation in past weeks, but it seemed like we played a 5-5-0 at this game. Then there is the second half, when we were great but could not put the ball away.
Whatever happened to Simpson after his great start to the season? He's non-existant in games nowadays. McKenzie was good, Brand was good, Kelly made a difference, but that is it. We need more. or else it's the end.

What happened to King at the back?
He looked solid untill they moved him to left back?

Time to bring him back in

what game were u watching yest seen the boy mckenzie no excistint first half sold the third goal and done nuhing the second apart from missing from 3 yards how does that mean he had a good game as 4 simpson ask mr wild still second top goal scorer at the club and hardly ever plays and there tyring 2 play him upfront but at the start of the season he was in midfield scoring goals and playing well miss king at the back need 2 start playing with a sweeper were to flat at the back costing to many goals

king has been a nightmare when playing after september. Only players who got pass marks yesterday were Brand, & kelly. others were poor. It really shows how bad this league is that stenny can be up there as they were also poor yesterday.
1st half = joke
2nd half = passable
shire fans = outnumbering home fans (AGAIN) & great singing.
stenny fans = non existant. Really poor home support who were silent throughout whole game.

biggest dissapointment was fudge not taking a penalty. was looking forward to that one.

Shire fans in mentioning our lack of vocal support shocker!

could someone remind me who shithousemuir have in the next round of the scottish cup?

the lad needs a chance again. he was given a chance at the start and look what he done and then for some reason was punted out the team
then when he gets a game wyldey plays him up front!??

One man with a bag's inane ramblings whilst a combination of halfwits and newly found ned type supporters bounce behind him doesn't generate the noise you would think.

We've heard all this before though. Keep to the great vocal support as you cheer Shire on to bottom of the league!

Woo Hoo!

whit a blether you are... yer staying down wi the shire

Could someone remind me how many seasons in a row it will be now that Shire have finished bottom of the league?

Fucking shite, hope yous fold.

Possibly.

At least our season is not finished at the turn of the year though.

Wylde is clueless as a manager he doesn't have the know how in this division.

Got to disagree with you Lorel, i really think Simpson is the sort of player you don't want when things are going against you, he is more of a luxuary. Yes a great start to the season and i was raving about him, i really thought he was the real deal, now i'm starting to think he is a big time Charlie. He just seems to lacks for my liking and i just wonder what role he will play in the future.

The guy has got talent, we have all seen that i just wonder where it goes sometimes.

Aww, and which team would you target with your boring, non-sensical gibberish if we're not around to take it?

I love you soooooo much. Come on, give us a hug

Thats abit harsh

wylde doesnt know where to play him he wouldnt know a player if it bit him on the arse he got lucky cos stevie mcbride brought hill and simpson from scotland amateurs and now mcbride has had enough and pulled out and therefore the shire will also lose a valuable sponsor, and by the way have Hill and wylde fallen out after he was unfairly blamed for what happened at albion rovers ?, hill hasnt been back i believe, coats on a very shaky peg methinks

Simpson is basically the cover guy for Andy Brand and Gary Kelly. Why Wylde insists on putting him upfront as a striker is beyond me, he clearly can't hack it.

Could do with a new team the way this lot have been playing. Except for the odd few who turn out game after game, most of the team isn't even memorable.

If we don't win against Forfar, it's safe to say we really are fucked again. at least we only came bottom for the last 4~6 matches last season.

Didnt Simpson scored some good goals earlyer this season?

yes from midfield can someone tell wylde and brownlie ?

looking at the stats it looks like he has only started 2 games then gets on when either in shit creek or 8 minutes to go

Right on, Rock!

Yes, he did, against us, and he looked a really good player.

young simpson has started eleven games and scored eight times brownlie twelve starts goals none mckenzie eleven starts goals one. wonder who the luxuarys are what doyouthink.

Surely it boils down to the manager though?

You can't blame Sean Simpson if the guy is being played out of position. He is not used to having his back to the play yet Wylde is asking him to do this and it's kind of obvious Simpson can't play this way.

Why did he sign Kevin Struthers? Why have Shire only 1 striker?

Wylde has had the funds to have Shire better prepared than they are and has failed to do so.

This comes up quite a few times and some people will say yes, and others will say it comes down to the players that cross the white line at 3pm on a Saturday.

It's a mixed bag imho.

First of all, we're not going to get superstars coming to us because of our non-existant history so we have to make do with who is available (best of the rest).

Secondly, the players are the ones who have to score the goals, play together etc, not the manager. He picks the players that best fit whatever system the manager has available on the back of a beer mat.

Thirdly, the manager picks the team and has to show his tactical nause when your team's backs are against the wall. So far, GW has only really played 4-5-1 and it's become a predictable formation to play against once everyone has seen it for the first time. We started the game with 4-4-2 on Wednesday and we were really crap, but we had 6 players playing across our own 18 yard box and that's not 4-4-2. The two up front had very little service.

We're lacking organisation when the players cross the line and although the captain has to ensure the manager's tactics are followed, if the players do not know something basic like staying in position in a simple 4-4-2 formation, then why the hell are they playing football? It's not that difficult!!!

At full strength playing that 4-5-1 Shire absolute raped us so I'm not quite sure what has happened. They looked a very decent side and a possibilty for the playoffs. What a fall they've had since then.