Kevchenko

PJ is a bit of an enigma and last night summed him up quite well - he produced a number of good saves and the one just before the goals where he saved 1 handed down low to his right was a pretty incredible stop, and then a couple of minutes later he looks less than convincing at the Megginson goal. I agree he has definitely improved in the 2nd half of the season compared to the first and we’ve seen a number of decent saves from him in the 2nd half and he’s looked more like the decent shot stopper we seen when he was on loan with us but I think he’s still been less than convincing on a number of occasions and is particularly vulnerable when dealing with crosses. I’d still say it’s been one of the weaker positions for us this season and I’d be a little disappointed if Andy wasn’t looking for competition for PJ next season even if it’s League 1 we are in. Wouldn’t say goalkeeper has been a particularly impressive area in general for the part time teams in the league this season (none of them have been particularly bad tbh but no one really standing out) but even looking below I would view a Darren Jamieson or maybe a Brett Long (appreciate he broke his leg this season) as potentially being upgrades on PJ.

Under the weather so didn’t head up today but what a brilliant win to take us into the playoffs and guarantee 3rd. We started well and were moving the ball with confidence. Felt 1-0 was about right at halftime and the early 2nd half goal put us in total control. I thought the double change bringing on Scougs and Buchanan was the exact right ones to make but we unfortunately completely lost our way for the next 15 minutes or so conceding the 2 goals. Have to say our reaction to Megginson’s goal is probably the worst we’ve reacted to conceding all season and we were a shambles in that period. Massive credit to the team to get back in to it though and did think we looked the most likely in the last 5-10 minutes with a great chance for Buchanan before Bobby Goals worked his magic and won it for us. Good delivery from Sutherland but the header from Wales is class - this kid is a special talent. Playoffs (and grabbing 3rd) is a massive achievement for a squad that was so much less than the sum of its parts in the first quarter of the season. Regardless of what happens over the next 3 or 4 weeks it’s been a brilliant start to Andy’s managerial career and he deserves so much credit for bringing together the team and the support.

Ha! I don’t want to tempt fate!!

New episode of the podcast is up, chatting about Luke 'The Boot', the draw against Montrose, Quinn Coulson and finishing up with a preview of the Cove game. https://waspsnest.buzzsprout.com

No chance, sure Mike has a vault hidden under there. ETA - although the KFC spinning round to be in the middle of Clackmannan Road would be a laugh

From FIFA stadium guidelines, apparently North/South (ish) is best practice: https://publications.fifa.com/en/football-stadiums-guidelines/general-process-guidelines/design/orientation/ My guess would be taking the sun as a more consistent factor (e.g. East to West) versus wind direction being variable. Can already see my Sunday is going to be spent on google maps looking at the pitch orientations in the SPFL

I suppose not all games can be like the last meeting of these two at Links Park, but the conditions without doubt contributed to a poor spectacle today. Alloa will be the happier of the two with the draw and I thought Montrose just shaded it over the 90 minutes. Probably tough to say either side really did enough to grab 3 points but Montrose should have won it with the chance near the end. Thought we were ok today but frustrating the support with a reluctance to have a shot, with Coulson probably the biggest guilty party a couple of times in the 2nd half. The front 4 we finished with is what I’ve been wanting for a few weeks and I thought we seen a couple of glimpses of them linking up in last 15 minutes. That’s the front 4 I’d start with next week. I thought the penalty/dive call was correct, felt the Montrose defender had stood their ground and not moved towards Coulson and, as much as I’d have loved to see us get a penalty, I don’t feel the defender should be punished in that instance. Will need to have a look at Webster’s (I think it was) early tackle in the highlights tonight - im seeing it from behind Neill so obviously an obstructed view but looked for all the world a straightforward red card at the time.

Podcast episode is up, you'll be surprised to hear there's a fair bit of chat about a certain massacre down Forthbank way https://waspsnest.buzzsprout.com

Luke Rankin in great form at East Stirlingshire, the run (and finish) for the second goal is class

Huge congratulations, especially delighted for the ex-Wasps in the squad! Obviously hope we aren't here waiting for you in League 1 next season but will certainly enjoy the trips to Ochilview if we are. Enjoy your night! (and somebody take some shears to @Francesc Fabregas man-bun in the wee bar to celebrate!!)

Thought id hold off until after today seeing as we played all four of the runners and riders over consecutive games! After today, we are left with: 6. Kelty - 40 pts (-11 goal diff) – Stirling (H), Falkirk (A), Montrose (H) & Hamilton (A) 7. QoS – 34 (-10) – Edinburgh (H), Stirling (A), Cove (H), Montrose (A) 8. Stirling – 34 (-20) – Kelty (A), QoS (H), Edinburgh (A), Annan (H) 9. Annan – 31 (-16) – Cove (H), Edinburgh (A), Falkirk (H), Stirling (A) Got to feel that today's result has pretty much taken Kelty out of the race. Ironically, after the 3-0 game at the Recs I feared Kelty could be in a lot of trouble but they were like a completely different team when they deservedly beat us at New Central Park just 10 days later. For the remaining 3, its still going to be a tough ask for Annan doing the chasing (and with Falkirk still to play) but Stirling just seem to have drifted slowly in to trouble since Darren Young extended his contract. The Binos have the 'better' fixtures on paper with having to play the lowest ranked teams but that could be an issue as it makes them all '6 pointers' - conversely, any wins will mark a significant step towards avoiding the playoffs. That final day fixture at Forthbank is looking a potential blockbuster. Fancy QoS to be fine despite today's result, but not really sure why to be honest, seeing they have been dreadful this season. I think a win next week would be a big step towards safety. For what it's worth, i'll go for it finishing: 6. Kelty – 44 7. QoS – 40 8. Annan – 38 9. Stirling – 37 (Think we will only see one up from league 2 this year though)

The ideal way to shake off the malaise of the last few weeks with 3 points and a boost to the goal difference as well. Big call from Andy in terms of starting Sammon and dropping Bobby Wales a little deeper but paid off immediately and I thought it was one of Sammon’s better games this season. Said on the podcast this week that I felt Stirling’s main weakness is either full back and felt we exploited the wide areas really well. Didn’t expect the addition of a couple of gifts from Blair Currie though. First 20 minutes of the second half were very pedestrian and in truth we sort of needed Spency’s goal to shake us back in to life. Pick of the goals was Sutherland’s but I really liked Taylor Steven’s - the save from PJ that resulted in the corner was a cracker, a great block on the line by Dave MacKay, an excellent cross field ball from Sutherland, and a good run and finish from Steven. There was a few good saves from PJ and I thought Roberts looked more like what we’ve seen all season but Miko was the pick of the bunch for me - strolled the midfield and controlled the whole game pretty unassumingly, and then threw himself in to tackles when it was needed. On the Bino’s, I actually didn’t think they played too badly (thought they were actually worse in the 2-0 game at Forthbank)- passed the ball around pretty well, maybe just could have been quicker and more direct at times. Think I heard McPake getting MotM but I thought he was a big cause of slowing things down too much. They should have had at least 1 in the first half from a corner but other than that I thought they really struggled with such a strong wind behind them, looked unsure of how to play with it, and were just a bit toothless overall up top.

New episode of the podcast is up talking through the Annan game, analysing our goals for and against this season and looking ahead to the fifth derby of the season. https://waspsnest.buzzsprout.com

Woeful stuff for the 3rd game in a row means we are making a bit of a mess of the good work done in February, rather than sitting in what could have been a comfortable 3rd position. We probably had the better chances to win the game but that’s more down to Annan creating very little as opposed to us having a barrage of opportunities, as Annan were good for at least a point today on the balance of play. Similar to the last couple of games, far too many below par, particularly in the middle of the park. Another goal conceded from a set piece/cross - think that will be the topic of my Sunday stats if I can be bothered to suffer through watching them all again. Andy will need to get them fired up for next week in the battle of the two (excluding Edinburgh) formless teams in the division as a solitary point from Kelty, QoS and Annan means we will have to take points from the final four fixtures now.

New episode of the podcast going up just now discussing Saturday's selection, previewing Annan and a debate on our strongest centre half pairing. https://waspsnest.buzzsprout.com

hopefully he’s back on Saturday!

@Dink going to reply on here about LD so it doesn't bore the Queens fans to death on the match thread... It's difficult because Donnelly is a pretty unique type of player, I wouldn't say he is your archetypical mould for any specific position but has parts of many different positions. He's good in the air but doesn't have the strength to hold up like a typical centre forward, he has great feet but doesn't have the burst of pace of a typical winger, he can work well in tight spaces and pick a pass but lacks the work rate/ball carrying of a typical central midfielder..... Think that makes it easy to look like he maybe doesn't fit in to a particular system, yet he was absolutely vital to us in the second half of last season. For me I think he is best in behind a front man but I think he needs to have a licence to float around wherever he wants to - arriving late in the box to pop up like he did against Edinburgh for his goal or maybe he drifts wide to link up with a Taylor Steven etc or he drops deep to play a quick 1-2 with Kurtis Roberts. I think this is when LD is most effective but it comes with a massive caveat that to have a player doing that sort of role you need to kind of carry them as a bit of a passenger for periods of the game - when we are playing well across the team i think you can get away with that and LD becomes a really deadly weapon to have as he is so unique, but if we play like yesterday and Kelty (and by all accounts 1st half at Meadowbank), then its a bit of a luxury that we can't afford. Have to say I do think he could link up really well with Bobby Wales though and we haven't really seen much of them together yet. Talking of Mr Goals, was sitting running through how we have fared with and without him this season and it's stark how different we are. Played 20 games with him winning 12 (60%), drawing 4 (20%) and losing 4 (40%). When he plays we score on average just under 2 goals per game (39 goals in 20 games) and concede 1.4 per game (28 in 20). Without him we have played 17 winning only 4 (24%) drawing 1 (6%) and losing 12 (71%) and on the theme of how different we are attacking wise we are at 1.1 goals for (18 in 17) and 2.4 against (41 in 17). There are a couple of caveats around the fact that we have only had him since the end of September and the results without him include a cup game at Premiership Motherwell, but the fact that 3 of the wins without him are before he arrived means the only team we have beaten without Bobby Wales since he's been with us is Dunbar United. The 3 league games he has missed so far have resulted in a 3-0 defeat to Edinburgh, the 2-1 loss at Kelty on Tuesday and yesterday's 2-0 defeat to Queens. Tried to look on the SFA website to see if there were any other 19s fixtures after this Tuesday but its taking forever to open (things obviously going downhill there since you left @KierenAAFC) but it makes pretty grim reading if he misses any games through call up, injury or suspension. To put it in context, if you replicated our league results without him across the whole season we would be sitting 9 points adrift of Annan in 9th place.

Agree about Cammy on Tuesday and would say he hasn't been great for a few weeks - whether that has anything to do with being swapped around a bit with Sutherland I don't know, but would say he isn't playing as well as he was earlier in the season, Although I do agree that Robbo didn't lose possession much I would argue that he did miss opportunities to move the ball forward when passes were on, and my view at the time was that it usually looked as though it was because a left footed pass would be needed. Can only really recall 1 instance in the first half where he moved the ball up the line quickly (ironically with a first timed right footed pass!). That's where I get the 'negativity' from, there were opportunities for him to go forward or move the ball forward but his first instinct was to look backwards. You could actually see it in his body position when he was looking to receive the ball, more often than not he would be facing infield with his back to the touchline as opposed to looking to face forwards down the wing - makes it much more likely that he is going to look to play the ball back/sideways. Don't want this to sound like a Robbo bashing (the things i have mentioned would be things you would expect of a right footed player), as again, I don't believe he should have really been at left back in the first place. Think it's only fair that Andy gets the same stick as Rice would have with regards to that selection, despite his legendary status. Hopefully it's a one-off.

For me Robbo was a bit of a hinderence to us yesterday as @Rory said, almost everything was negative in terms of always looking to play backwards. Without being left sided you could see he couldn’t really get down the left to suppport Sutherland, which probably helped contribute to Ethan having such a poor game. That’s not on Robbo though and fits in with the other comments about the subs and looking makeshift - yesterday was like seeing a Brian Rice team being put together again, and although the absence of Wales and Steven obviously make a huge difference, I don’t believe we needed to be so makeshift yesterday - that’s unfortunately on Andy. Other than his first game against Edinburgh, I’d say that’s the first time Andy has really got anything wrong but there were a few things I would have changed yesterday. Firstly, left back for me 100% needs to be a predominantly left footed player. With both Cammy and Sutherland able to play there (although admittedly neither are natural defenders) we shouldn’t have been needing to have Robbo there in the first place (bar an emergency!). If Cammy wasn’t fit then I can’t understand why you wouldn’t start Sutherland there with Coulson ahead of him. Very much a Chipper special of square pegs in round holes. Felt there was then another mistake when Morgyn Neill went off as there was the opportunity to switch Robbo on to the right hand side while bringing on Cammy or Coulson. Ironically I would have brought Miko on anyway after 15/20 minutes for LD (pushing Scougall forward) as we needed some bite in the middle of the park. No way LD should have been on as long as he was, especially off the back of his performance on Tuesday, and he looked absolutely gassed in the first half. I’m surprised with the amount of game time he’s had after such a lengthy time out. As others have said, Buchanan pretty much the only one with pass marks yesterday although he should score right at the start. He’s unlucky when Kilsby fouls him in the 2nd half as well as it’s red with no cover (seeing the arm going across Buchanan from behind the goals I can understand the ref not seeing it but disappointed the linesman hasn’t picked it up). 2 incidents that obviously change the game but in truth Queens were the better team, wanted it more and deserved the 3 points. Turned out to be a get out of jail free day with the Cove and Montrose results but that’s a very disappointing week in which I really would have been looking for a minimum of 3 or 4 points, which would have cemented our hopes for a playoff position. It’s an absolute must win next week and hopefully Bobby Goals (and Taylor Steven for that matter) is back as we look pretty toothless up front without him.

Podcast is back after a busy few weeks featuring a whistle stop tour of the last 4 games and a look ahead to Saturday. Couple of very different predictions for this weekend! https://waspsnest.buzzsprout.com

Got what we deserved out of that tonight (could argue we didn’t even deserve such a narrow margin of defeat to be honest) as, bar a 10 minute spell at the start of the second half, we were god awful throughout. Kelty should have been out of sight by halftime and after scoring (some cross from big Morgyn Neill) we struggled to get out our half for the last 30 minutes. Unfortunately it was reminiscent of our early season performances - slow laborious passes across the back before an aimless punt upfield to nobody. On the rare occasion we did put it in the vicinity of Sammon he guided pretty much every flick on to a Kelty player, it was one of ‘those’ Sammon performances. Everything was just too slow tonight, too many touches and it was only really Miko Virtanen that zipped it around a bit when he came on. Far too many off it tonight - Scouggs, LD and Sammon in particular - and probably only PJ (and some wasteful Kelty finishing in the first half) to thanks that it wasn’t worse.

Cheers, do you need to go back out to the road and walk around or is there a way to get there from the car park behind the stand?

We’ve played 1 striker since Andy took over and it’s coincided with Bobby Wales being on top form so he has found himself benched. Maybe surprisingly, Sammon more often than not is on ahead of him off the bench but I expect him to get a chance over the next few games with Wales away with the under 19s. By all accounts he still appears to be really enjoying his loan at the club but I’m sure he’d be wanting some more game time. Probably sets him up for a goal on Saturday!

Seen that the Kelty twitter has said there’s only one entrance tonight, off Bath Street, hopefully @Kelheart or @leomessi1984 can advise if that’s easy to get to from the Community Centre car park? Only ever went in the away end entrance. Expecting a much tougher outing than the game at the Recs. Both teams missing their under 19s starlets is a shame though. A win would put us in a really strong position but expecting Kelty to be scrapping for their lives as a win for them would be a pretty significant psychological boost for them against the other 3 down there. Always enjoy a midweek game at the Recs and expect it will feel similar tonight at New Central Park, still probably my favourite away ground in the league.