Stenhousemuir -vs- Cowdenbeath

[CowdenPhil]

Some of these Stenny fans are delusional. Your manager has taken you to fourth after shipping in 18 new players. A few games ago, Stenny beat a very good Forfar team away. 

I know you will be hurting after getting beat off us but you need to cut Swift some slack.

[Guest mr_malcolm]

Some of these Stenny fans are delusional. Your manager has taken you to fourth after shipping in 18 new players. A few games ago, Stenny beat a very good Forfar team away. 
I know you will be hurting after getting beat off us but you need to cut Swift some slack.

Stephen swift account found

[Francesc Fabregas]

First of all: you have to give credit to Cowdenbeath for their victory. They were the better team over the course of the match - the first half was probably even, with Cowden maybe having the better of the chances, but the second saw them take their opportunities, then shut up shop and leave a very limited opponent to play in front of them. Did Cammy Gill have a save of note to make? I don't think he did, and a lot of that comes down to how Cowden marshalled their hosts. Maybe Mo Ross was right and Cowdenbeath will be okay come the end of the season. One thing's for sure - they're unlikely to come up against as dire a side as Stenhousemuir again. Good luck to them for the remainder of the campaign, I hope they can pull away from bother and remain in League 2.

I've just watched Stephen Swift's post-match interview and he's admitted he got his tactics and his team wrong for today's game. He's absolutely correct - the decision making before and during this fixture was abysmal. First of all, Euan O'Reilly, one of our best players and a key attacking threat, was somehow not registered for today's game. There was, apparently, an oversight with the paperwork prior to the match, and his name was not listed on the team sheet. It was an astonishing turn of events that robbed us of a genuine game changer and someone who could provide us with width, pace and trickery, three elements that were sorely absent from our performance. Even before a ball was kicked, this was genuine amateur-hour stuff from our managerial team.

The three-at-the-back formation did us absolutely no favours either. I mentioned in my opening post that I didn't feel it would suit us going forward and, unfortunately, this was the case today. The system left us light in the forward areas and gave us virtually no width (the decision to field Adam Brown as a left wing-back was bizarre) and with almost all of our play going through Sean Crighton, for some reason, we looked so limited and lacked any creativity. The system worked against Albion Rovers last week on a garbage pitch but it did not suit us here at all and Cowdenbeath in a 4-3-3 formation were able to get the better of us in the middle of the park and cause our back three problems. It reminded me of earlier in the season when we fielded a daft back four against Stranraer, with Adam Corbett at right-back, because it briefly worked against Annan Athletic the previous week. It might have been appropriate for the circumstances at Galabank but it didn't work at all at Stair Park and we were humiliated. The same thing happened here.

The biggest mistake, however, was the failure to change the system at the interval. It was obvious after watching 45 minutes of toil that it wasn't working and, with Nicky Jamieson injured after keeling over towards the end of the half, it gave us the chance to change things up by bringing on Bernard Coll and going to a back four. Instead, we conceded a terrible goal from another set-piece three minutes after the restart and then decided to make the change. We conceded another crap goal shortly afterwards, with Bobby Barr firing it right through Ryan Marshall from about 12 yards. Could the goalkeeper have done better? Probably, yeah. From that point on, Cowden seemed content to drop off, sit a little deeper, play for time and look to exploit us on the counter. And it worked perfectly, because we simply had no answer. No-one was getting wide, no-one was looking to try something different in the final third and no-one looked remotely close to scoring. It was an embarrassing showing against the worst side in the country.

And therein lies the problem - going into this match, I was not confident at all and felt that, for some intangible reason, Cowden would go on and win this encounter. Stenny do not react well when they're the overwhelming favourites going into a match. It just feels like one step forward, one step back under Stephen Swift. Before the match, a couple of people mentioned that beating Albion Rovers last weekend counts for nothing unless you can win against Cowden. And we didn't so we're back to square one - a manager, apparently out of his depth, with crap goalkeepers letting him down, second guessing himself and his tactics, and leaving his side floundering.

It's not good enough, frankly.

[Left Back]

23 minutes ago, Francesc Fabregas said:

First of all: you have to give credit to Cowdenbeath for their victory. They were the better team over the course of the match - the first half was probably even, with Cowden maybe having the better of the chances, but the second saw them take their opportunities, then shut up shop and leave a very limited opponent to play in front of them. Did Cammy Gill have a save of note to make? I don't think he did, and a lot of that comes down to how Cowden marshalled their hosts. Maybe Mo Ross was right and Cowdenbeath will be okay come the end of the season. One thing's for sure - they're unlikely to come up against as dire a side as Stenhousemuir again. Good luck to them for the remainder of the campaign, I hope they can pull away from bother and remain in League 2.

I've just watched Stephen Swift's post-match interview and he's admitted he got his tactics and his team wrong for today's game. He's absolutely correct - the decision making before and during this fixture was abysmal. First of all, Euan O'Reilly, one of our best players and a key attacking threat, was somehow not registered for today's game. There was, apparently, an oversight with the paperwork prior to the match, and his name was not listed on the team sheet. It was an astonishing turn of events that robbed us of a genuine game changer and someone who could provide us with width, pace and trickery, three elements that were sorely absent from our performance. Even before a ball was kicked, this was genuine amateur-hour stuff from our managerial team.

The three-at-the-back formation did us absolutely no favours either. I mentioned in my opening post that I didn't feel it would suit us going forward and, unfortunately, this was the case today. The system left us light in the forward areas and gave us virtually no width (the decision to field Adam Brown as a left wing-back was bizarre) and with almost all of our play going through Sean Crighton, for some reason, we looked so limited and lacked any creativity. The system worked against Albion Rovers last week on a garbage pitch but it did not suit us here at all and Cowdenbeath in a 4-3-3 formation were able to get the better of us in the middle of the park and cause our back three problems. It reminded me of earlier in the season when we fielded a daft back four against Stranraer, with Adam Corbett at right-back, because it briefly worked against Annan Athletic the previous week. It might have been appropriate for the circumstances at Galabank but it didn't work at all at Stair Park and we were humiliated. The same thing happened here.

The biggest mistake, however, was the failure to change the system at the interval. It was obvious after watching 45 minutes of toil that it wasn't working and, with Nicky Jamieson injured after keeling over towards the end of the half, it gave us the chance to change things up by bringing on Bernard Coll and going to a back four. Instead, we conceded a terrible goal from another set-piece three minutes after the restart and then decided to make the change. We conceded another crap goal shortly afterwards, with Bobby Barr firing it right through Ryan Marshall from about 12 yards. Could the goalkeeper have done better? Probably, yeah. From that point on, Cowden seemed content to drop off, sit a little deeper, play for time and look to exploit us on the counter. And it worked perfectly, because we simply had no answer. No-one was getting wide, no-one was looking to try something different in the final third and no-one looked remotely close to scoring. It was an embarrassing showing against the worst side in the country.

And therein lies the problem - going into this match, I was not confident at all and felt that, for some intangible reason, Cowden would go on and win this encounter. Stenny do not react well when they're the overwhelming favourites going into a match. It just feels like one step forward, one step back under Stephen Swift. Before the match, a couple of people mentioned that beating Albion Rovers last weekend counts for nothing unless you can win against Cowden. And we didn't so we're back to square one - a manager, apparently out of his depth, with crap goalkeepers letting him down, second guessing himself and his tactics, and leaving his side floundering.

It's not good enough, frankly.

You seemed pretty confident in the opening post of the thread when you stated you “don’t rate Cowdenbeath at all”.

Made yourself look a bit of a tit really.

[tamthebam]

3rd placed Annan are ten points ahead of 4th placed Edinburgh City just now but there's only 5 points between City and Albion Rovers in 2nd bottom place 

It's tight between 4th and 9th. Still plenty to play for...

[Aberdeen Cowden]

Why was Nat taken off? Glad to see him go, but he didn't put a foot wrong.

[Moonglum25]

Utter rubbish yesterday again showing that our manager is really not up to this level.  He had the chance to change it at half time but failed to do so. Playing with 1 striker at home is another issue.  Not bring the subs on when there was an outside chance, albeit slim, that we could have turned it round is unacceptable.

Plenty has been said about Marshall and Wilson but obviously he is deaf.  He must also be blind as well if he thinks Tapping and Crighton are fit for this team. Both are disasters waiting to happen as again was proved yesterday. At the first goal Tapping is out where they are taking their throw in and later almost gifts a third to them. Crighton is Mr Calamity and is shown up week after week as inept.

The news that Euan OReilly was not registered for the game is disgraceful and should never have been allowed to happen.  We really are being shown for what we are - an amateur hour outfit.

[Blue Brazil Forever]

9 hours ago, Left Back said:

You seemed pretty confident in the opening post of the thread when you stated you “don’t rate Cowdenbeath at all”.

Made yourself look a bit of a tit really.

again Francesc. I know you are a superfan from way back but please leave the forecasts to the  current Stenny supertit.

 

[cowdenbeath]

1 hour ago, Aberdeen Cowden said:

Why was Nat taken off? Glad to see him go, but he didn't put a foot wrong.

Got caught out at the first goal.

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

14 hours ago, CowdenPhil said:

Some of these Stenny fans are delusional. Your manager has taken you to fourth after shipping in 18 new players. A few games ago, Stenny beat a very good Forfar team away. 

I know you will be hurting after getting beat off us but you need to cut Swift some slack.

You're right. At the end of day, we still somehow have a great shout of the playoffs and should try to be optimistic. 

Kelty bossing the league as expected and now 2 other teams are pulling away as well. In my eyes; with the money we apparently spent on wages, I'd expect us to be in that leading group and have solidified 4th place at least. We've had our chances to do it and blown it.

We went on a good run of form but where has that form gone? Why can't we replicate/maintain it and go on another run of form? It's questions that Swift doesn't seem to be able to answer.

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

3 hours ago, cowdenbeath said:

Got caught out at the first goal.

I thought that was Christie's fault. Both goals were his mistake actually.