Stenhousemuir FC - The Warriors - The 2023/24 Thread

[Vimto90]

The top half of L1 is considerably better than L2.
Nat has always been a decent player, well liked in his time at Cowden. 

Shhh Al or I may have to tell you to enjoy bottom

[big al]

1 hour ago, Vimto90 said:

1 hour ago, big al said:

The top half of L1 is considerably better than L2.
Nat has always been a decent player, well liked in his time at Cowden. 

Shhh Al or I may have to tell you to enjoy bottom

You booked your open top bus yet?

Well on course for 1 of your best ever seasons, top 4!

[Am Featha Taigh Nan Clach]

[++Ammo - Airdrie++]

16 hours ago, Vimto90 said:

Been holding onto them for a while? strange.

He has strolled this league. So two things either he is just having a great season at the right club or the level between league 2 & 1 is bigger than people think as I can't see him doing anything different last cpl years but not had great reviews.

No, not at all. I, like the quoted posts, didn't think big Nat would have the season he's had and I'm absolutely delighted for him.

I spoke to Nat when he was with us, and hes a cracking guy so he's one of the few who have left us that I still keep tabs on (see Sean Crighton, Allan Russell, Gary Mackay-Steven etc) so nothing strange about it.

Every second post on here (rightly) should be treated sceptically but my initial post was purely congratulations to the big man for a good season

[Vimto90]

You booked your open top bus yet?
Well on course for 1 of your best ever seasons, top 4!

Least your league trophies will give some solace when you are rocking up at Gala Fairyden & Hearts B

[Am Featha Taigh Nan Clach]

Whatever happens in the next few games, I've really quite enjoyed this season. Perhaps some of that is just the joy of getting back to football post Covid and seeing the usual suspects again.

However, since the opening 6-8 games or whatever it was we've played relatively attacking football and seeing O'Reilly take players on has got me out of my seat more than I can remember any player doing in recent memory. I've also thoroughly enjoyed seeing Wedderburn calmly hold players off and work his way out of trouble with a turn or excellent pass. It seems effortless and does often look like watching a player from several divisions above.

I hope we can keep hold of a fair few of them as I don't think we're too far off being a very good team at this level 

Edited April 19, 2022 by Am Featha Taigh Nan Clach

[Burnsythebinman]

ive booked my flights and hotel from Stenny to Dumbarton already. we go up into the playoffs on saturday 

[Jan Vojáček]

On 18/04/2022 at 15:23, Vimto90 said:

Been holding onto them for a while? strange.

He has strolled this league. So two things either he is just having a great season at the right club or the level between league 2 & 1 is bigger than people think as I can't see him doing anything different last cpl years but not had great reviews.

I actually thought Nat would've been in with a fair shout for being our POTY last year, up until the final month or so of the season when we were in that daft routine of playing Sat/Tue/Thu/Sat and his body evidently couldn't keep up with it.

He was a player I wasn't really convinced about at all when we signed him. But I changed my opinion very quickly. He's absolutely superb on the ball, his touch is gorgeous and I'd have been quite happy if we'd kept him on this year. If he had any form of mobility at all then he really could've played at a cracking level for a long time imo.

Anyway, I've felt for a good few months that we're destined to play you guys in the playoffs. Stephen Swift was, by all accounts, a name thrown around for our job when we weren't sure if Duffy was staying. You've got a good wee band of our former players. And you have Tam Orr - who missed an open goal from two yards out against us for Faz's Stranraer last year in the playoffs.

For ease of travel on a Tuesday I'd far rather play Stenny. But I'll be honest, I fear you guys a lot more than Edinburgh City. Looking at your highlights and squad, I reckon you'd dispatch us fairly routinely if you start the game well.

[Francesc Fabregas]

15 hours ago, Am Featha *****h Nan Clach said:

Whatever happens in the next few games, I've really quite enjoyed this season. Perhaps some of that is just the joy of getting back to football post Covid and seeing the usual suspects again.

However, since the opening 6-8 games or whatever it was we've played relatively attacking football and seeing O'Reilly take players on has got me out of my seat more than I can remember any player doing in recent memory. I've also thoroughly enjoyed seeing Wedderburn calmly hold players off and work his way out of trouble with a turn or excellent pass. It seems effortless and does often look like watching a player from several divisions above.

I hope we can keep hold of a fair few of them as I don't think we're too far off being a very good team at this level 

Aye, it's actually been a decent laugh, all things considered. I've gone through a range of emotions over the course of the season, downright despising the team and the management at the lowest ebb, to the point where I'm really looking forward to Saturday afternoons and watching Stenhousemuir play. I can't wait for the weekend's game against Stranraer! They're a likeable group of players, especially guys like Peter Urminsky, Adam Corbett, Callum Yeats, Nat Wedderburn and Euan O'Reilly, and I'm hopeful that we'll finish this campaign successfully. 

Even if it doesn't end with promotion, I've seen enough to suggest that if we can keep the core of the squad and sign smartly over the summer, we'll do well next season.

[Vimto90]

Well bar a dead rubber next week our season is over and we finish in 5th place. Whilst there have been positives and we do seem to have a base to build on for next year, it can't be buttered up as anything else than a failure of a season.

We have spent good money on a big squad and play-offs were not just the target but really the minimum expectation.

We need a decent start to next season or the manager will be under severe pressure. There is not going to be a money club in the league next year like a Cove, Kelty or QP so let's get the recruitment right & have a proper go at getting our first title.

Keep :-

Crighton
Miller
R. Lyon
Wedderburn
Orr

Some can be debated either way like Thommo, Brown etc

Interesting summer ahead. Swift needs to learn from his mistakes this window, far too many duds signed last time in the original squad overhaul.

[Neilly]

• Jamieson (signed)
• O'Reilly (signed)
• Corbett
• Crighton
• Wedderburn
• Orr
• Thomson
• R.Lyon
• Anderson
• Yeats (sign permanently)
• Miller (sign permanently)

If we can get all that business done for starters for next season it would put us in a decent place to then add from a position of strength and continuity as opposed to chasing our arse every summer. I like Brown and Christie as well, they are both good players but can go missing at times and I am on the fence about next season for both. If you add six or seven good signings on that list then surely you have a squad of say 17/18 of better quality and not 20+ carrying too many not up to it.

I suppose you would keep Wilson as back up as well and it goes without saying we need to get goalkeeping recruitment bang on from the start. If that means a high quality loan from up the leagues like Peter, but for the season, I'd be all for that. It's difficult to really sign a free agent goalkeeper at this level who is any good as the good ones aren't usually out of contract and looking for a club.

All in all a disappointing start and end to the season really but with a lot of goof stuff in between. I think the best thing about the season though was reconnecting with the club and all the punters that we all missed during the pandemic. The sun will come up in the morning and we will all be looking forward to the new season when it comes around, probably for another year of heartache, but you wouldn't have it any other way eh?

 

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by Neilly

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

I'd personally wouldn't mind seeing Crighton go. Not that he's terrible, think we can get better. Not been his best season, although he did get better half way through. You can make cases for keeping and binning most of the players, it's been that kind of season. 

[Shawheadrover]

Big spending. Still in League 2...

[Francesc Fabregas]

On the whole, the season has been a disappointment. Given the apparent size of our budget, we should have been vying to be the best of the rest with Annan Athletic and Forfar Athletic, not struggling to make the top four altogether. We had so many opportunities to catch up with an usurp Edinburgh City over the past few weeks but failed to take every single one of them. We took just five points from Cowdenbeath and were humiliated three times by Stranraer. It's not good enough.

Our recruitment over the summer, where we put together virtually a brand new squad, was uneven. A curious mix of experienced SPFL players and non-league jobbers, the team was unbalanced and lacked quality in key areas. Too many players just weren't good enough for League 2. Our two goalkeepers were terrible. The manager changed his starting XI and tactics on a week-by-week basis; over the campaign, we used four different players at right-back and five at left-back. After the first quarter, with the team bottom of the table, there were legitimate concerns about the direction we were heading. This cannot be repeated next term.

There was a lot to be frustrated about, but there are also a lot of positives. We lost one match in seven against Forfar and Annan, and generally gave a good account of ourselves against Kelty Hearts. The football could be entertaining, with players like Euan O'Reilly occasionally thrilling. Adam Corbett was recast from a half-decent central defender to a high-quality right-back, Nat Wedderburn was often a powerhouse in the middle of the park, and Tam Orr chipped in with 16 goals, a handsome return. Callum Yeats and Peter Urminksy were great signings in January and completed a strong, settled defensive unit.

As such, I'm cautiously optimistic about our chances for 2022/23. Our immediate priority is to retain our key players not already signed up - Sean Crighton, Corbett, Wedderburn, Orr - and add smartly from there. I hope Stephen Swift has also spoken with Yeats and Mikey Miller about their plans going forward. There are others I'd like to see us hold onto but I wouldn't be too downhearted if they were moved on. We've got a large squad (21, I think?) but the manager appeared to trust about 14 of them, so it might make sense to go with a smaller group with greater quality. As Neilly says, recruiting a good goalkeeper is essential; it's trite to say but if we had someone like Urminsky available from the beginning of the season, we would have finished in the play-offs. David Wilson might be worth holding onto but only as a reserve.

There are still a number of variables to be settled but next season's League 2 doesn't look as arduous as this year's. There will be no full-time teams like Queen's Park, or well-backed upstarts like Kelty Hearts and Cove Rangers; Fraserburgh and Bonnyrigg Rose look like decent sides rather than dominant ones (and I expect Cowdenbeath to survive the play-offs anyway); and there's nothing to fear from East Fife (and Dumbarton, for that matter). Every team will be looking to win promotion and Stenhousemuir should be the same; we could maybe even win it outright!

Swift will be going into the new campaign with a degree of pressure, and rightly so. Another season like this won't be tolerated. I can't wait to get going again!

[Am Featha Taigh Nan Clach]

Corbett and Anderson have re-signed.

 

Anderson became a very useful squad player and can fill in a number of positions. I don't expect he's on a fortune either. Happy to keep him.

Beyond delighted to keep Corbett. I reckon he's the most complete fullback we've had in many a year!

[Am Featha Taigh Nan Clach]

I also never realised Adam Brown and Nat Wedderburn were also contracted for next year!

[Neilly]

Some lovely Monday evening news that. Also had no idea about Wedderburn, Brown and Crighton, I thought Sean was just an option for another year. Really good business though and we are not far away from the core I mentioned further up the thread.

Corbett has been a revelation at full back and with a good pre-season behind him going into his first full season in that position I would imagine by the end of it he will be off to a higher level. Anderson looked out of his depth at this level for the first half of the season (not the only one right enough) but he really turned it around and he's well regarded amongst the support now. Works really well on the right of the diamond and just gives us a bit more flexibility for different formations, basically doing the spade work for the ball players.

 

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

Great news, two fantastic re-signings. Delighted that we've managed to get Corbett back, thought he would've been on the radar of some bigger teams. Anderson is becoming one of my favourite players, hope he can start next season like how he ended this one. 

Having Big Nat and Brown in as well, keeps that midfield set-up and balance. 

We've finished out of the play-offs, yet there's so much belief and positivity about the manager and players. It's brilliant. Great work by the team. 

 

[Hard Graft]

Some good news there - looking like a good core to build on.  Now if we can get Orr to sign as well, he had an impressive tally given that he had a bad first quarter when he looked out of sorts.  Yeats and Miller would be the icing on the cake.

[Francesc Fabregas]

That's two excellent pieces of news - the first is that Nat Wedderburn, Sean Crighton and Adam Brown were already contracted for next year, and the second is that Adam Corbett and Mikey Anderson have agreed terms for the upcoming campaign.

Wedderburn is probably the most important player in the team and everything good seems to go through him; Crighton's performances, on the whole, have been "okay" but I think his influence on the team extends beyond what we see on the park and I think he's an terrific person to have around Ochilview; and Brown has chipped in with a number of goals and assists over the course of the season. He does have the tendency to dip in and out of matches but I like watching him play, with his chest puffed out and his clever passes into the final third.

It's been tremendous to watch Corbett's development over the past 18 months. When he first joined the club in January 2021, his footballing ability was obvious but he seemed soft-centred and a little overawed with the physicality of League 2. I remember him being removed at half-time in a 1-0 home defeat to Albion Rovers where he was pushed around and dominated by Matty Aitken and Kyle Doherty and thinking he'd probably end up going out on loan at the beginning of new season. I also thought he had the skillset to become a decent full-back (I might have written it somewhere in this thread!) but he's exceeded my expectations since being recast in the role in December. He's scored five times from the position, including a lovely goal at home against Forfar Athletic, and seems to have set up Tam Orr a number of times in the past few months. If he can build on his level of performance next year, there's every chance he could kick on and play further up the food chain. That's three of last season's settled back four signed up; that's an excellent base to build on.

Anderson too deserves praise for how he's turned his career at Stenhousemuir around. He was, fairly, I think, lumped in with "the BSC lot" when he first joined the club and had shown little to suggest he could play well on a regular basis in the SPFL. He was used in a number of positions and didn't really succeed in any of them, looking off the pace each time. I remember seeing his name on the teamsheet for the game against Elgin City at the end of January and thinking: "why on earth is this jobber playing?!" I was, as you can imagine, astonished when Anderson turned in a man-of-the-match performance, smashing into everything in the middle of the park like a dodgem and setting up the second of Orr's goals. He really seems to do the simple things well and it's his workrate and willingness to get stuck in that allows Wedderburn to star - and that's even before you get onto his long throw! A couple of weeks ago, I met someone who briefly managed Anderson and they said if he could add five or six goals a season to his game, he'd be a smashing player, and they could well be right. Both Corbett and Anderson have become well liked by the support, and rightly so.

As Neilly said earlier in the thread, we have a good nucleus to build on for next season and the majority of the players most fans wanted to stay are being kept on. Up next: Tam Orr, Robert Thomson and Ross Lyon, please (and, if we're being greedy, Callum Yeats and Mikey Miller!)