AndyDD

Nae huff from me, the club handed you the one rogue pie exactly as I planned... Enjoyed listening to the podcast, albeit raised my eyebrows a tad at the suggestion the Alloa squad is the stronger. Not convinced, but I suppose we shall see over the next 6 games. The form our forwards are in, indeed the form we're in across the whole pitch, I strongly fancy us to be a different animal than that which visited the recs the previous two times this season. Alloa have been excellent at home evidently, so this is a great test to start what looks quite a tasty run-in. Airdrie by a cupla goals.

Unless wee see a truly ungodly goal swing to Edinburgh, both teams will still be in the top four come fulltime regardless of result. Even so, a win for either side puts them that bit closer to sealing their playoff place and deal a psychological blow to a potential playoff opponent, too. Presumably going to be a harder task than the last three games, but more than capable of winning this. The team are in a much better place than the last time we visited, that's for sure.

We've had some cracking days and nights even in my time going to Scotland games (1-1 with Germany in the Vogts era kicked me off) but my word that was right up there amongst the absolute best of them all, in every respect; performance, atmosphere and result. Got back in the house shortly after 11 this morning and have done sweet f**k all else but watched and rewatched highlights, read reaction, scrolled through twitter, hell I even read Tom English's bumf. There was a real sense we could get something from this game but as gallus as I tried to play it, I did not envisage us snuffing them out so effectively. They really had that one spell within the game where they looked like they were going to overwhelm us but it seemed like getting to halftime killed that off. The second goal especially seemed to break what little spirit that incredibly unlikeable spanish side had about them. Rodri and his pals making exhibitions of themselves during and after the game was of course an added wee slice of delight on what was an already sumptuous treat. Dry yer eyes ya gonks. We absolutely merited that win and had we scored a third right at the death following Mcgregor's brilliant wee mazey, it would have been entirely deserved. Porteous would genuinely stick the but on an asteroid if it was making its way into the Scotland box. Guy is a sensation. Everyone was brilliant. Gunn had pretty much nothing to do most of the evening but f**k it, he was brilliant anawl. Tierney, Mcgregor, McTominay, Robertson, Christie, Hanley, Hickey, Dykes, even the subs, every single one of them, just outstanding. What a team we have, what a squad, and Clarke is an out and out genius. Guy behind me at the game, upon seeing just how high into the atmosphere the Spanish heeds had gone, declared him 'a genuine football terrorist'. His team fair terrorised the spanish into their meek white-hankey, piss-water display. Utterly pleasing on every level. Don't get carried away/we could still come a cropper against Georgia/Haaland could be back in June blah blah blah, we're getting out of this group, folks. With games to spare. Mass Ceilidh in Germany when we win the whole shebang. Heel toe here we go.

Alloa Athletic 0-2 Airdrieonians Clyde 1-1 Falkirk Dunfermline Athletic 2-0 Kelty Hearts FC Edinburgh 1-1 Montrose Queen of the South 2-0 Peterhead

Fair to say I enjoyed myself.

Clyde 0-10 Airdrieonians Edinburgh 1-1 Queen of the South Falkirk 1-1 Kelty Hearts Peterhead 1-1 Alloa Athletic Montrose 0-0 Dunfermline Athletic

Airdrieonians 5-0 Kelty Hearts Clyde 1-2 Queen of the South Edinburgh 1-1 Alloa Athletic Peterhead 0-3 Dunfermline

Dunfermline Athletic 2-1 Alloa Athletic Falkirk 1-0 Peterhead Kelty Hearts 1-1 Edinburgh Montrose 1-0 Clyde Queen of the South 0-3 Airdrieonians

Airdrieonians 3-1 Falkirk Alloa Athletic 1-1 Montrose Edinburgh 1-0 Clyde Peterhead 1-2 Kelty Hearts Queen of the South 0-2 Dunfermline Athletic

Clyde 2-1 Peterhead Dunfermline Athletic 1-2 Airdrieonians Falkirk 1-1 Alloa Athletic Kelty Hearts 1-1 Queen of the South Montrose 1-0 Edinburgh

I'm biased I suppose but I love the guy. Was comfortably one of our best players last season and he's making a really good go at management. Funnily enough when it was announced, we all talked about how he seemed to be coaching his teammates through games at times last season already. Crucially he seems to have real buy-in from the squad; not only did he have the confidence of a lot of guys from last year who will have had options to go elsewhere to get them to resign for this season, but they all still buy-in to what he and Dycey are trying to do now we're into February. I think it's fair to say a lot of us were happy to try something different rather than just plucking some 'experienced', out-of-work dinosaur jobber who would no doubt have needed to start from scratch and would not have been able to retain the likes of Frizzell et al. In the here and now, I don't think any of us would go back on that feeling, either.

Back in August, when we had the 1-1 draw, Dunfermline looked a level above the teams we'd faced up to that point. Having been deeply unimpressed by the sides we'd played up to that point, I thought they looked the team to beat, given we'd smashed falkirk, disposed of Peterhead and Alloa without fuss and played out the 1-1 draw at Palmerston on that ridiculously hot day before then (not to mention looked a lot better than Edinburgh in the league cup, despite the penalties defeat. How little I knew...) We dropped off into a really sticky spell immediately after that draw at EEP (thanks Edinburgh you inexplicably-effective-against-us dicks) and obviously a lot of teams have had ups and down since then, but for the pars to get to this stage in the season with only a solitary defeat speaks volumes about how easy they've found it up to now, the odd baffling draws notwithstanding. Really good going and they'll rightly be looking to keep that up over these two games. Only the aforementioned Edinburgh have managed to win at our place so far and I expect us to make a really good go of it at home; play like we did versus Alloa, or the first 20 minutes in our most recent game versus Edinburgh before it fell away from us, and we'll be incredibly difficult for Dunfermline to live with. Reproduce that and I don't think they'll be able to stop us. Got to imagine it'll be harder to do that to them than it was Alloa, though. The 1-1 was a good game I thought, both teams having spells on top, so we probably all expect the same again. A win not beyond us by any means and who knows what impact that has on them for the away game that follows the week after. Got to actually win the home game first, though, which quite clearly hasn't been easy for anyone else in the division. Was crucial we didn't blow holes in our feet in the two home games the led up to this one, so we've set ourselves up nicely for it, and we've every right to approach it bullishly given our home form and what we're capable of. We've a stronger squad than when the initial tie was due to be played as well, which could be crucial. We're more than capable and you can tell there is huge belief in the squad about what they can achieve. When it clicks, Airdrie do look devastating, so here's hoping. Fancy us to edge it and upset the odds.

Ayunga does appear to be out for some time now with a bad injury, so maybe that will play a part. I think we'd all take Jamieson back for the rest of the season, very good member of the squad for the first half of season and unplayable at times, but that said, if the front three continue to play like they did on Saturday and all stay fit, he'd do well to get in ahead of any of them.

Airdrieonians 6-0 Clyde Alloa Athletic 2-0 Peterhead Dunfermline Athletic 1-1 Montrose Kelty Hearts 1-1 Falkirk Queen of the South 2-0 Edinburgh

Neil Lennon would be sensational for the cream bun reaction alone. They might actually combust.