Albion Rovers -vs-Stenhousemuir

[Francesc Fabregas]

It's the game that's on everybody's lips - it's Albion Rovers versus Stenhousemuir, baby! The biggest fixture in League 2 this weekend and, probably, the planet! Albion Rovers haven't kicked a ball since Boxing Day, a thoroughly decent 3-2 win over Stranraer, but I'm not sure what state they're in at the moment and I'm hopeful the match can go ahead.

Stenhousemuir come into this encounter with just one win in their previous six league games, having capitulated on Sunday against Stirling Albion and going down 2-1. The team has big problems with its game management and dealing with set-pieces. Our inability to hold onto leads is concerning and there is no real confidence when we go ahead. We chucked away four points against Edinburgh City and Elgin City by conceding late goals and we came close to throwing it all away against Forfar Athletic - we went into the interval with a three-goal advantage and I still was worried; luckily we saw the game out. I don't know if it's a problems with our fitness or our mentality. Come to think of it, this very thing happened on our last jaunt to Coatbridge.

Speaking after the Stirling match, Stephen Swift said, once again, he was fed up with his team making the same mistakes and he'll be looking to change things. What that means, I don't know, because I don't think we'll have a lot of wriggle room to make alterations with players missing through injury and COVID-19 protocols (and, in Euan O'Reilly's case, suspension). If Nicky Jamieson is available, I'd drop Sean Crighton, move Adam Corbett into central defence and play Mikey Miller at right-back but I think we'll see a starting XI similar to the one that kicked off against the Binos. The only change is likely to be Adam Brown coming in for the suspended O'Reilly:

- Tam Orr -

- Ross Forbes - Adam Brown - Darren Christie -

- Nat Wedderburn - Mikey Miller -

- Ross Lyon - Sean Crighton - Jordan Tapping - Adam Corbett -

- David Wilson -

I wonder if we'll have any new faces in before this match. I hope so! I'm expecting the worst here and can see the Rovers simply being more "up for it" than us and putting a couple past us in either half. Let's hope not!

[Chris_the_rover]

Could go either way

We were well beat in the second half last time so hopfully an improvement there

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

Not confident at all going into this but felt the same for the games against Edinburgh and Forfar...Genuinely don't know what Stenny are going to turn up. With the table being so congested, we really do need a win here. 

I think we play better with Brown in the starting 11 and our transitional game tends to improve. Hope he does start. As per the Stenny stats graphic, Brown's stats are some of the best in the squad and he's playing less minutes on average. 

Won't happen but would like to see Forbes given some time on the bench. Give either James Lyon a chance to demonstrate what he can do or give Cammy Graham a run about, at least he'll give you 100%. Lyon has a lot to prove. 

 

[Hard Graft]

6 hours ago, Old Fashioned Stramash said:

Won't happen but would like to see Forbes given some time on the bench. Give either James Lyon a chance to demonstrate what he can do or give Cammy Graham a run about, at least he'll give you 100%. Lyon has a lot to prove. 

 

Agree with giving Forbes a rest but Lyon has been very disappointing, how often do you give him a chance to prove his worth?

Difficult game for Swift given injuries etc, but sick of listening to his excuses. He has had a week to bring in a replacement keeper, surely he was looking weeks ago and was ready to pounce when the window opened.

[Francesc Fabregas]

I've no doubt that Stephen Swift and his team are already looking at possible transfers (and I was impressed by the speed in which Spencer Moreland was brought in) but I think it's going to be tricky to add a goalkeeper and a forward with proven quality in the coming weeks. With COVID-19 still an ongoing issue, it's a depressed market and I imagine bigger clubs will be reluctant to loan out their fringe players and we'll be left scrapping around for untested youngers to come in and make up the numbers.

For instance, I'd love for us to make a move to bring in Wullie Muir from Queen's Park or Kevin Dabrowski from Hibernian in, but these are unrealistic in the current climate (or any climate, perhaps). If we do make a move for a goalkeeper, I suspect it'll be for an inexperienced academy player and we would not really be any further forward than we are with David Wilson.

It's a pity our strategic partnership with Hibs appears dead in the water as it proved fruitful for us last term with players like Paddy Martin, Callum Yeats and Jack Brydon doing us a good turn. I know nothing has been confirmed by either club but with Graeme Mathie having joined Ayr United and his replacement, Ian Gordon, saying he sees no benefit in strategic partnerships, I think it's been quietly dismantled.

[Vodka Vic]

When the two teams last met in November it was a case of whoever won could use it as a springboard to get into playoff position. What’s happened Warriors? Still plenty of points to play for yet.

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

14 hours ago, Hard Graft said:

Agree with giving Forbes a rest but Lyon has been very disappointing, how often do you give him a chance to prove his worth?

Difficult game for Swift given injuries etc, but sick of listening to his excuses. He has had a week to bring in a replacement keeper, surely he was looking weeks ago and was ready to pounce when the window opened.

Fair comment but as you've touched on in your second point, we're kind of out of options. Have to hope that he'll come good and he's at a Championship team for a reason. 

[Francesc Fabregas]

I wonder if this game will be in doubt - it's currently snowing in Glasgow and the surrounding area and it is cold and it is miserable!

[Vodka Vic]

28 minutes ago, Francesc Fabregas said:

I wonder if this game will be in doubt - it's currently snowing in Glasgow and the surrounding area and it is cold and it is miserable!

No problem the retractable roof at Cliftonhill comes into it’s own here 

Edited January 7, 2022 by Vodka Vic

[Chris_the_rover]

12.00 pitch inspection,

I believe the ice and snow isn't as much of a problem as the water from it melting

[Francesc Fabregas]

Game on!

See you there!

[Vimto90]

Lovely Jubley

[Neilly]

That's as good a 90 minutes we have put together this season. Apart from a disastrous goal we gave away it was a really dominant Warriors performance, particularly in the second half we should have scored 6 or 7 and that is no exaggeration. Golden chance after golden chance going a begging.

Not a failure in that team today and credit goes to the manager as the three at the back today has paid off. 

That's us in the play offs after a really indifferent season. Let's kick on now and stay there.

[Hard Graft]

Who was the third man at the back - Corbett or Jamieson?

[Neilly]

Jamieson was middle of the back three. Don't think he lost a header all day.

Corbett was right wing back and had a great game. A pure athlete and he can play as well. His attributes are better suited to this than centre back in my opinion, has so much to offer.

[Vodka Vic]

Well done Warriors- big Wedderburn the best player on the park. Rovers were pretty much out if ideas after scoring the first goal. Our only saving grace was that wasn’t 4-5 goals put past us.

[Nigel Blackwell]

We absolutely ran over the top of Albion today. They got lucky as they really should have been on the receiving end of an absolute hammering. Nat was fantastic but we didn’t really have a failure.

Biggest difference this week was we pressed the entire second half, unlike last week when we / our manager decided the only way to play when one up was to drop back and invite pressure.

Who knows what next week will bring, but I will enjoy today.

Albion were absolutely awful. Not sure Cowdenbeath can catch them but I’d be concerned. No 3 in particular looked really out of his depth.

[Francesc Fabregas]

I'll admit that I went into this game with low expectations. Our recent form had been rotten and our inability to see out matches had cost us dearly in recent weeks; we were up against Albion Rovers, a side I fear more than any other; the Cliftonhill pitch had just about passed a pitch inspection earlier in the day, leaving the surface sodden, pockmarked and uneven; the weather was rotten; and our starting XI saw an error-prone goalkeeper restored to the team and the outfield players configured into unfamiliar formation. It turns out I shouldn't have bothered worrying because that was one of our most measured and dominant performances of the season. The 2-1 scoreline flattered the Rovers and it probably should have been about four or five.

I was surprised and yet not surprised to see Ryan Marshall brought back into the team. His last appearance, the 4-1 defeat at home to Kelty Hearts in late August, was truly one of the worst goalkeeping displays I'd ever seen and it was in everyone's best interests he was removed for the time being. David Wilson, his understudy, did well to begin with but his own performances began to decline to the point where he too needed to be dropped. I was apprehensive about Marshall's inclusion today; I think everyone was.

The formation, a 3-4-2-1, also left me a little confused. We started with back three made up of the meatiest of meat-and-potatoes defenders, with the underwhelming Sean Crighton on the right, while Adam Corbett started at right wing-back for probably the very first time in his career. I know we were short on numbers but this seemed like an attempt to get as many big boys onto the pitch as possible (and, as someone cynically pointed out, to make sure Crighton kept his place) to help us deal with set-pieces. Our defending at corners and free-kicks has been dreadful in recent weeks and by ostensibly having four centre-backs on the pitch, plus a big unit like Nat Wedderburn, we should, in theory, be less susceptible to conceding goals.

But this wasn't the case! A combination of bad goalkeeping and bad defending saw the Rovers take the lead after 13 minutes. A free-kick was swung into the area and the ball was allowed to pinball around the area before Max Wright and his greasy hair stabbed it over the line from close range. No-one in maroon looked particularly clever here and at this point, I feared the worst. It was, then, good to see us equalise five minutes later - a tremendous piece of play saw Ross Forbes slip in Corbett down the right wing, who drilled a low cross for Tam Orr to divert it into the net. A very well-worked goal.

From that point on, the 20-minute mark, the game was played out almost exclusively on our terms. Corbett found space down the right again and thumped in another cross which was not converted, and Crighton might have had a penalty when he went down under a challenge as he blustered into the box (I thought he made the most of it myself). Ross Lyon showed some nice touches on the left-hand side of the pitch and Wedderburn and Mikey Miller put themselves about to good effect in midfield.

The second half was one-way traffic. Orr got the winning goal about 10 minutes after the restart when Cammy Binnie inexplicably mishandled Darren Christie's low centre and allowed him to poke it over the goal-line (I know Binnie is a well thought of at Cliftonhill and Forthbank but dearie me, he's had a nightmare against Stenhousemuir this season!) It should have been more - Christie fired a shot over the bar when put through on goal, Orr could have had a hat-trick when he forced Binnie into a diving save (he should have squared for Adam Brown instead of going alone), Lyon hit the top of the crossbar with a dipping effort from 20 yards and Wedderburn provoked the goalie into a double block when he ambled into the penalty box late on. I was worried that these misses would come back to haunt us and we would capitulate as we've done so many times over the past few weeks but we were able to see it out and hold on for the win.

I'm not sure who the man of the match was. Was it Nicky Jamieson, who won everything that came his way? Was it Adam Corbett, who impressed in an unfamiliar role and set up the equaliser? What about Wedderburn in the middle of the park, who dominated the match with his big arse and his left peg? Or Tam Orr, whose recent performances have been largely excellent and capped with two well-taken goals today? We're somehow in fourth place and I'd like to think that, with a couple of additions here and there, we can stay there until the end of the season and fight for promotion. I'm not sure the 3-4-2-1 formation will work in the long term and I'm not sure I'd like to see it reprised for next week's game against Cowdenbeath but it worked well today.

It must be said that as good as Stenhousemuir were, Albion Rovers were very, very limited in their play and didn't threaten once after scoring. They didn't put us under pressure, didn't test Marshall in goal (I think the number of touches he had in the second half was a single-digit figure), and didn't approach the game with the kind of fight I had expected. Good luck to them going forward.

Edited January 8, 2022 by Francesc Fabregas

[Hard Graft]

Just watched the highlights and how it was only 2-1 is a mystery.  Looked a very impressive performance on a poor pitch.  Tam Orr has turned things round after being rightly critisised for some of his earlier performances.  Will be interesting to see if he sticks with this formation.

Hard to believe, but not surprising,  that Marshall is back in the team - Swift must get a decent keeper in the next few weeks.