Jump to content

Stenhousemuir V Elgin


Recommended Posts

Really big game for us on Saturday and I would suggest an even bigger one for Swift. Does he know what team to put out?  Really doubt it as he has chopped and changed all season.  After Marshall, perhaps his biggest mistake has been to play Crighton, Corbett and Jamieson in a back four. Corbett and Jamieson have looked a good pairing but he has decided he wants to include Crighton as well.  It was obvious on Saturday that as a back four this did not work. Will he persevere with it or consider going to a back three?  He showed incredible loyalty and poor judgement to Marshall before eventually doing the right thing, is he trying to show loyalty to Crighton as he is the captain?

Orr has not hit the heights for us so far and midfield looks as issue as well.  We all had high hopes for the season but these are quickly fading and at the moment I would take survival in the division. For every step forward we take we seem to take two back.

I really hope we take maximum points in our next two games but failing to do so leaves the board with a serious decision to make. Perhaps time for the board, manager and fans to have a meeting so that we can better understand where we are and where we are going (or not).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hopefully Hester is out for this. I note he went off after coming on on Saturday. A proper player him.

This is a big big match for us. Elgin seem to not be up to much (like us) & we desperately need to find a win & hopefully a performance. You won't get runs together without playing better than we did v Annan even though we ran out fairly lucky winners that day.

Things could get fairly toxic if we get beat on Saturday as is the fickle nature of being a football fan when things are going so bad when there was a lot of promise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It'll be interesting to see how we set up for this match. I've seen this side six or seven times so far this season and I still don't know what our best XI is or what's the most suitable formation, so I don't see any point in trying to guess. So many players are out of form or not pulling their weight, but the alternatives don't really inspire much confidence; at the moment, we look like "Robert Thomson and 10 other cunts". I don't think I'm at the stage where I'd "take ninth place if you offered it to me right now!" but another poor showing and I won't be far off.

Like Hard Graft above me, I'd like to think we'll see Adam Corbett and Nicky Jamieson partnered in defence - the pair complement each other quite well and I've not seen anything from Sean Crighton to suggest he merits returning to the team. I do wonder, however, if Corbett's substitution at the weekend will play into Stephen Swift's thinking and we'll see the return of Crighton and Jamieson at centre-back with Ross Lyon restored to right-back.

Elgin City are in spotty form at the moment and it's encouraging to read that Kane Hester might not be available for the match - he's a good player and is likely to cause us problems - but there is still quality in there from the likes of Brian Cameron, Russell Dingwall and Tom Grivosti. I'd love to see a quality performance coupled with a win but I'd be delighted with the latter at the moment. I think this will be the first time in a long time the manager will be under pressure (I can't imagine he was under any pressure during his four years at BSC Glasgow - without wishing to be cruel to their supporters, they do seem like a bit of a pointless club) and I'm keen to see how he responds to last weekend's display at Stranraer. He certainly said all the right things in his post-match interview but it has to translate to something tangible on the park because I think we're getting a bit fed up with what we're seeing from his team.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wilson

Lyon Corbett Jamieson Coll

Nat Miller

Christie Lyon Brown

Thomson 

That's how I would go for Saturday. You could play O'Reilly or Graham for either of the two wingers really as they are all about the same level I would say and all good options.

I thought Orr would tear it up here but he's been abysmal and Ryan Tierney is not for this level so we can't really go two up top.

Edited by Neilly
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seriously think he will sacrifice Corbett for Crichton unless he goes three at the back - has he tried that formation so far?  As Neilly says Orr has been a major disappointment so far. I thought with Orr and Thomson we would have had a lethal front two but Orr has still to produce the goods and we have no decent replacement.

Time has to be running out for Swift to get it right, we cannot afford to finish this quarter with only 1 win and retain the manager.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Moonglum25 said:

Seriously think he will sacrifice Corbett for Crichton unless he goes three at the back - has he tried that formation so far?  As Neilly says Orr has been a major disappointment so far. I thought with Orr and Thomson we would have had a lethal front two but Orr has still to produce the goods and we have no decent replacement.

Time has to be running out for Swift to get it right, we cannot afford to finish this quarter with only 1 win and retain the manager.

I think we might tried it against Partick Thistle in the League Cup group stages, with Bernard Coll as the left-sided centre-back and Jamie Mills at wingback. It wouldn't surprise me to see us go with again on Saturday - it's something I suspected might happen when Adam Corbett played well in Sean Crighton's absence - but changing it up would seem like the manager overthinking things and second guessing himself (much like the back four that started against Stranraer last weekend). 

I broadly agree with the starting XI and formation Neilly suggested above.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is becoming ridiculous now.  

We have no devine right to up the top of the table but we certainly should be challenging if nothing else.  

To rip apart a squad albeit an underperforming one and replace it with inferior players is criminal.

We operate in a trap door league and should have heeded the warnings of the past two seasons but it appears not.

We are sleepwalking our way toward a Brechin type scenario and looking at the teams willing and able to replace us coming up who would give us hope.

We cannot week on week wait for the turn around to come.

Funnily enough listened to Willie Miller describing Dundee on the radio.  They are getting plaudits for playing well but not winning which is all very well but there comes a time when you don’t play and don’t even look like winning.

Stephen Swift sounds a nice guy and I have no doubt he desperately wants to do well but sometimes things just don’t work out even early on it becomes clear.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well that was an absolute mugging but a very welcome 3 points. The performances so far have been pretty poor so winning ugly a few times may be the difference between a really uncomfortable end to the season and mid table. Think we saw McHale cement himself as first choice keeper today - we’d have lost that game with Hoban in goals IMO. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well that was an absolute mugging but a very welcome 3 points. The performances so far have been pretty poor so winning ugly a few times may be the difference between a really uncomfortable end to the season and mid table. Think we saw McHale cement himself as first choice keeper today - we’d have lost that game with Hoban in goals IMO. 
I think a mugging is harsh on your team tbh. Don't think we done enough at all especially second half. First half was "ok" but still created very little clear cut chances. It maybe appeared like we were putting pressure on but blocked shots outside the box is no much use.

We had a spell right after the equaliser (which looked offside) where we looked on it but this spell wasn't even 5 minutes.

#swiftera
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another Saturday, an another attempt at a different team selection and another defeat.  If he cannot get a settled team it shows either how much shite he has brought to the club or that he is totally incompetent at this level.    This really cannot go on much longer. With the exception of Kelty I do not think there is much to pick and choose between the rest of the league but we are doing our best to be in the lowland league next year.

Surely at home we should be going with 2 upfront and having a real go at teams. 

I really hope that Thomson was carrying an injury today or else there is no excuse for him not starting. Tapping and Jamieson looked a reasonable pairing, O'Reilly had their defence on toast and that was about it.  We have brought a boy in on loan from Kilmarnock - what on earth for if he is not going to play him.

If he is not shown the door this week then anything other than a win against Forfar and that should be it. Pity because he seems a decent chap but decency is not going to keep us in the league.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only thing that will keep us up at this stage is a garbage Cowdenbeath and that's not a good place to be in with the first quarter approaching.

We were the better team today but the team selection is just absolutely bonkers. We have no idea what we are getting week to week and Swifts identity from day one of pressing football with advanced full backs is absolutely nowhere.

Dropping Thomson is a criminal act. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...