Stenhousemuir FC - The Warriors - The 2023/24 Thread

[Francesc Fabregas]

3 hours ago, Hard Graft said:

Correct but why would you make yourself out to be a complete arse. Surely he did not think the shite he blethered was going to impress anyone?

Vaguely recall the incident that Elric was talking about.

Judging by the giggling throughout that short clip, someone was impressed!

The incident at Shielfield Park marked Colin Cramb's final appearance for the club. Although our form had been on the wane in recent weeks and we'd been beaten 2-1 by Cowdenbeath at Ochilview on 1 April 2006, we still remained top of the table going into the clash with Berwick Rangers. Cowden had the opportunity to overtake us a couple of days later but unexpectedly drew with East Stirlingshire in a midweek game, so that elusive league title was still very much within our grasp with just four matches remaining.

It's perhaps worth pointing out the game with Berwick took place on the same day as the 2006 Grand National: at Shielfield, Cramb was substituted after 38 minutes (I remember during the second half of the season he would routinely go down holding his calf or his hamstring - his fitness probably had something to do with his spotty form since Christmas) and instead of sitting in the stand to watch the rest of the game, he nipped into the social club across the road to watch the Grand National instead. A director saw him and told the manager, Des McKeown, who promptly suspended him for the remainder of the season. Cramb protested that he went to the social club for chocolate but no-one bought it.

Cramb didn't play for Stenhousemuir again and the team, wouldn't return to the top of the table. We lost the following week to Queen's Park, conceding in injury time, and fell further behind Cowden. A couple of days after the game, the Daily Record ran an article where captain Greig Denham accused his team-mates of an overall lack of professionalism and the whole thing fell apart. We finished the season with our highest ever points total - 73 - but had nothing to show for it, with Berwick beating us in the play-offs.

Despite the fact it all went to shit, there is no doubt in my mind that it's the greatest season of football I've ever experienced. What a ride.

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

5 hours ago, Dougie Mills said:

How’s Gavin Reilly looked for you so far then?

In my opinion, he does plenty of running, presses the ball and gets into space but hasn't found much confidence in front of goal yet. Would like to see him taking more shots at goal but an improvement on Tam Orr overall. 

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

Heard that Connor Brennan is back in training. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing for the club but glad he's recovered.

[popo72]

Any Stennie fan know where I can buy a scarf seems like the club shop never has.

[Francesc Fabregas]

Nat Wedderburn has signed a one-year contract extension with the club, keeping him at Ochilview until the summer of 2024.

I like Wedderburn and he's so important to how we play, but he's slow and immobile and we lack dynamism and energy in the middle of the park whenever he features. This has been a problem over the past two seasons and I wondered if we might benefit from a change.

Nevertheless, watching the big man pushing people about before opening up the left foot of his is great fun.

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

On 02/04/2023 at 12:46, popo72 said:

Any Stennie fan know where I can buy a scarf seems like the club shop never has.

They were waiting on a delivery, new scarfs are in stock now. 

Delighted that Nat has re-signed. Can boss the centre midfield, has good feet and is a decent passer of the ball but agree with FF, he needs someone more mobile than him to play beside. 

[tamthebam]

Apropos of nothing you've reminded me that I saw Colin Cramb get red carded in the second ever English football match I was at; Reading v Bury in April 2001. He was on loan at Bury.

He took a kick at Phil Parkinson.

I wonder what racing was on that day, the Grand National had been the week before!

[StewartyMac]

Public service announcement. Due to Dumbarton being absolute shitebags once again, we will now NOT be officially winning the league at Ochilview on Saturday. You can rest easy. 

[Francesc Fabregas]

You might not officially win the title on Saturday but if we perform at the weekend as we did tonight, we'll be in for a bit of a bleaching. That was wretched stuff against an Elgin City side who'd lost their previous six matches, a brutal, ugly affair where the ball was just kicked into the air as soon as it fell to one of our players. Ross Forbes' glorious strike at the death was the only good thing about the encounter. I don't necessarily think Elgin were much better but nevertheless, to take two points from two of the poorest sides in the division isn't really good enough, especially at this late stage.

This season is effectively a re-run of last year. We were hamstrung by a poor start, bounced back to put ourselves in contention for promotion, but never could take advantage of the opportunities presented to us and ended up finishing in fifth. The same thing is going to happen again this time around. We've got a testing series of fixtures ahead of us and unless there's an upturn in the level of performance, the whole season is going to play out as one huge disappointment.

I hope to be proved wrong!

[Nigel Blackwell]

Are we safe from relegation yet? Another turgid, unsuccessful season is drawing to a close.

[Tonystenny]

I had the relative fortune due to geography of being one of the few Warriors fans able to make this game in last night in person.

To be honest I feared we would get nothing from it.  Elgin despite their recent troubles always seem to perform well against us at Borough Briggs and with them having a caretaker management team in place who picked an attacking line up for once, my lack of confidence didn’t improve.

If our headed chance in the first five mins had gone in, I think we would have gone on to win easily but it didn’t and we allowed Elgin to scrap and fight resulting in us playing route one football all night.  Why we did this when they have Ross Draper mopping everything up at the back is baffling yet run at him and he is clueless.

Again, surely down the sides playing against two relatively inexperienced full backs would have been a better option.  Euan O’Reilly doesn’t however feature until the last ministers of the game.

Kane Hester was a nuisance all night and ultimately he was him that laid on their goal for Reid to score.

I did say that we would get one chance however didn’t I expect Ross Forbes to score from that position and angle.

We scraped a point but on the balance Elgin deserved all three.

I am always still hopeful that we make the top four but on tonight’s showing that is doubtful and even if we did we are unlikely to progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Frank Quitely]

14 hours ago, StewartyMac said:

Public service announcement. Due to Dumbarton being absolute shitebags once again, we will now NOT be officially winning the league at Ochilview on Saturday. You can rest easy. 

I think you will.  Based on all available evidence a fired-up Bonnyrigg roared on by a noisy home support will do for us on Saturday.

[StewartyMac]

1 hour ago, Frank Quitely said:

I think you will.  Based on all available evidence a fired-up Bonnyrigg roared on by a noisy home support will do for us on Saturday.

Doesn't matter, at best we can be 12 clear with 12 to play for. Now, while the goal difference means we will have effectively won it if that happens, it wouldn't be confirmed until we get another point. 

[WC Boggs]

1 hour ago, StewartyMac said:

Doesn't matter, at best we can be 12 clear with 12 to play for. Now, while the goal difference means we will have effectively won it if that happens, it wouldn't be confirmed until we get another point. 

I get the frustration Stewarty, but you haven't really picked the ideal thread to expect sympathy on here.

[Neilly]

Bonnyrigg at home and Elgin away in a space of a few days. One point. That sums up why this squad will never get the job done.

This season is a replica of the last where we continue to miss chance after chance to get in the top four in the latter part of the season. Even the fact we are having to go this far to the wire to compete for fourth is pretty grim to be honest, just shows what another huge disappointment the campaign has been. This is a poor league and for the second season in a row we are going to come up short.

Last night was brutal to watch. Both in trying to see what was going on through the pixallot system and the game itself. Just two rotten mobs pumping it back to front on a pitch where football couldn't be played. Ross Forbes' blinder the only highlight of an absolutely awful showing from The Warriors.

[Holy Marv]

Apologies for a Raith Rovers fan popping into your thread, however thought I’d drop this here before I flog on eBay! 
 

I am selling off my shirt collection which features stennys long sleeve home kit 96-98 in an XL. In good condition, some bobbling here and there as should be expected of the age. Drop me a message if interested! 

[Elric]

17 hours ago, Neilly said:

That sums up why this squad will never get the job done.

This season is a replica of the last where we continue to miss chance after chance to get in the top four in the latter part of the season. Even the fact we are having to go this far to the wire to compete for fourth is pretty grim to be honest, just shows what another huge disappointment the campaign has been. This is a poor league and for the second season in a row we are going to come up short.

 

Sad thing is on paper our squad looks good that is until they go onto the park.  Thought we would have had a good bounce with the new management coming in but that was sadly short lived. Goalkeeper has been a joke for the last few seasons. The last few games we have just blootered the ball up in the air. Can no one play it on the ground?

Apart from that who, including those who have had their contracts extended, would you keep for next season?

[Francesc Fabregas]

Unless someone can correct me, these are the players we've signed up for next season:

GOALKEEPERS
Curtis Lyle

DEFENDERS

MIDFIELDERS
Adam Brown
Mikey Miller
Nat Wedderburn

FORWARDS
Euan O'Reilly
Matty Yates

It's not quite as many players as I first thought. Nicky Jamieson is someone I'd be very keen to keep on for next term and, if some kind of deal can be done, Gavin Reilly would be a huge asset going forward. Conor Brennan, Jay Cantley and Tam Orr should be moved on in the summer, Ross Forbes too (even if he has popped up with some supreme moments in recent weeks), as well as the rest of the loan players. There's a case to be made for signing up everyone else but, as Neilly has said above me, do we want to keep the same group of players who haven't really delivered across two years?

Are we getting value for money from Sean Crighton? Has Adam Corbett kicked on as anticipated? Would Mikey Anderson be a cheap option in reserve or can we do better?

There is still a lot of football to be played between now and the end of the season but it's something to ponder all the same.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Francesc Fabregas

[Nigel Blackwell]

As much as I like Wedderburn, I wasn't that enamoured when I heard he had re-signed. I just find him too ponderous and the game slows as soon as he gets the ball. Given what has happened the last two seasons in terms of ultimate disappointment, do we really want another season of it?

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

Why don't we ever seem to develop our youth players and push the youth team development to get them higher up their league? Would certainly help with squad depth. 

Time to bring in changes and I think Naysmith will do that in the summer.

Corbett I'd keep, I'd try to get Yeats back in and keep Jamieson. Anderson is just too ineffective with the ball and I'm not expecting him to be Toni Kroos or anything but his decision making and distribution is really poor. We can do better there.

Rest can go.