Stenhousemuir -vs- Elgin City

[Francesc Fabregas]

After two weeks off, Stenhousemuir return to action with an important match against Elgin City on Saturday. The Warriors come into this game in spotty form, having embarrassed themselves against Cowdenbeath last time out, while City will no doubt be buoyed by their excellent victory over Kelty Hearts last night. Chuck into the mix Stenny's rubbish home form (two league wins at Ochilview so far this season) and the fact they've only taken a point from their previous two encounters with Elgin, and this encounter suddenly becomes a concern. My expectations are fairly low.

I'm not sure what to expect from Stenhousemuir here. I can't imagine we'll continue with the hopeless three-at-the-back system, and I don't think we'll forget to write our best player's name on the team sheet this time out, but other than that? It's hard to say. Stephen Swift, once again, threatened to change things about after the Cowden loss but what that looks like is anyone's guess. If we return to a back four, Jordan Tapping will probably be the man to miss out (something I don't think anyone will really mind) but, and I've said this many times, I'd drop Sean Crighton, move Adam Corbett into the middle alongside Nicky Jamieson and restore Mikey Miller to full-back. Maybe stick this Spencer Moreland character into midfield alongside big Nat Wedderburn while we're at it, see what he's all about. Further forward, I imagine we'll have Tam Orr leading the line with Euan O'Reilly, Ross Forbes and Darren Christie in behind him.

We're all still hopeful we'll have two or three new faces in in time for this match but, for time being, we're working with what's already there. I'm hoping we've put the break to good use and the players and the management come back refreshed, motivated and ready to make a go for the top four. I do worry what a negative result will mean.

[Nigel Blackwell]

There was talk of Robert Thomson returning to training last week. Presume he wouldn't start the game but presume he will be on the bench. 

[Hard Graft]

5 hours ago, Francesc Fabregas said:

Stephen Swift, once again, threatened to change things about after the Cowden loss but what that looks like is anyone's guess. If we return to a back four, Jordan Tapping will probably be the man to miss out (something I don't think anyone will really mind) but, and I've said this many times, I'd drop Sean Crighton, move Adam Corbett into the middle alongside Nicky Jamieson and restore Mikey Miller to full-back.

If Swift had any sense and was seeing what we have seen it is imperative that both Crichton and Topping are dropped. The two of them are liabilities and are costing us goals.  Chances of that happening however are very, very slim and no doubt Crichton will start.

Had hoped we would have had a new keeper in by now but probably Swift does not see that as a necessity either.  Another home performance like we had against Cowdenbeath and he should walk out the door.

	P   W  D  L   GF GA   DIF  PT
	9 S/muir         11  2 3 6 13 20 -7 9
	Above is our home record so far this season, beating only Albion Rovers and Annan and scoring 5 of our 13 goals.

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by Hard Graft

[Neilly]

Players must hate playing in front of our greeting faced, entitled crowd to be fair. Corners can sometimes barely muster half a dozen claps and any misplaced pass is met with groans and inane shouts from mental auld men who nothing about football.

 

[negros y blancos]

What’s the story with the streaming not having commentary . Was it the crowd noise drowning him/ her out. Anyways it wasn’t a sending off & wasn’t a penalty & we should’ve had a share of the points . But that’s the way it hangs in league 2

[CEMSFC]

38 minutes ago, negros y blancos said:

What’s the story with the streaming not having commentary . Was it the crowd noise drowning him/ her out. Anyways it wasn’t a sending off & wasn’t a penalty & we should’ve had a share of the points . But that’s the way it hangs in league 2

Unsure at the moment as to why there was no commentary. I done my usual set up outside so I believe something inside may have come loose. Will be up at the ground tomorrow for the ladies game so we'll try and sort it out.

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

Felt fairly comfortable during that match. Yeats,  Corbett and Anderson had solid games, with Anderson tidying up possession and winning a good number of 50/50's. 

Orr took his goals well and kept up his work rate, superb. Didn't think it was a penalty but Orr won't want to see that effort from the spot again. Sensational save from McHale in the second half to deny Orr as well. 

Elgin played quite well, move the ball around nicely and took their goal nicely, wrong footing Urminsky. 

Missed what Tapping got sent off for? Just saw their 8 rolling around on the ground. 

Decent game and delighted to see Stenny pick up another win at home and move back into the top 4. 

I've been critical of Swift but thought he got the tactics and formation right today and the boys played well. 

Mon the Warriors. 

[Am Featha Taigh Nan Clach]

Anderson was very good and my MOTM. 

O'Reilly is our most dangerous player but that system doesn't really suit him. Only really came into the game when he drifted more to the left in the 2nd half.

The red card was for an elbow/punch into the ribs of the Elgin player. There were no complaints from those around me who saw it. I didn't think it was a penalty but I suppose it's hard to see a small clip of the ankle from 50+ yards away.

[Nigel Blackwell]

Red - it looked as if Tapping hit out at Omar.
Pen - looked soft but Miller lost one of his boots so there was obviously contact

As for the game, they did get the tactics right as we won the game but why do we sit back and invite pressure? I realise Elgin barely created a chance with all their possession but I do think we could have won that game comfortably had we pressed Elgin.

Thought Mikey Anderson was excellent today, and Calum Yeats was our other stand out player. Impressive.

Orr could have had his hat trick before the pen but for a ridiculous save from the Elgin keeper. As for our new no1, he looked shaky. Hopefully first day nerves.

Thought it was a typical afternoon watching Stenhousemuir this season.

[Francesc Fabregas]

That was a funny game. There were so many things to like about Stenhousemuir's performance, but there were a number of confusing, head-scratching elements that threatened to undermine all of our good work.

We might as well start with the positives. I'm sure many people, myself included, rolled their eyes when they saw Mikey Anderson's name on the team sheet but that was by far and away his best display since he joined the club. He won the ball numerous times, put himself about the pitch ceaselessly and set up Tam Orr's second goal with a lovely pass. Anderson deserved to win the Man of the Match and I hope he can build on this and establish himself in the starting XI every week. He's not the most talented of boys but he's a grafter and that can go a long way at this level. Seems like a nice boy too, so fair play to him.

Callum Yeats slotted in seamlessly at left-back and, at the fifth time of asking, we have someone this season who is capable of offering us so much in this position (Ross Lyon did fine here but it always felt like a temporary solution to a problem area). Mikey Miller was superb in the middle of the park and Adam Corbett continues to impress at right-back. Orr's two goals were supremely well taken, the second especially, and it was good to see Robert Thomson making his first appearance in about 10 weeks. You can see he's playing at a level beneath his capabilities and once he's up to speed, I've no doubt he'll be a huge asset for us going forward.

Elgin, who came into this match in good form, were a limited bunch and didn't offer much but we did make things unnecessarily difficult for ourselves. I didn't like the formation - a 4-3-1-2, with Euan O'Reilly given a free role behind the strikers - and it didn't suit O'Reilly who didn't have much influence on the game. I don't know why we didn't stick him out on the left up against Euan Spark (and subsequently Angus Mailer, a forward, after Spark's removal through injury) because he could have caused havoc against both of them. Our management team have a tendency to overthink things and this appeared to be one of these occasions.

Jordan Tapping needs to take a good look at himself. In a game we were largely in control of, with no needle or aggression, why on earth did he have a dig at Rabin Omar when both players fell to the ground following a corner? It was idiotic - most people in the ground saw what happened - and for him to give it the "who? Me?!" act as he was red carded aggravated the situation. I don't think Tapping is a good player and he always seems to have the capacity to do something stupid in whenever he plays. With Nicky Jamieson set to return from injury, he will be relegated to fourth-choice centre-back and probably won't feature much going forward.

Sean Crighton didn't look particularly clever at Elgin City's goal. He seemed to briefly switch off, allowing Kane Hester to run off him and finish from close range. I think we all expected better from Crighton and his calibre of performance is not consummate to his reputation as a "good lower-league defender". I saw some people blaming the goalkeeper for not covering his near post but what do you expect to happen when a striker of Hester's quality shoots from six yards out? Peter Urminsky seems like a good lad, and it was great to see him high-fiving the support as they left the ground, but that was a shaky debut. His handling was poor at times and he seemed to flap at corners. I'm hoping this is the big man shaking off some of his ring rust because people around me in the stand were already joking about signing another goalie.

Finally, I don't know why Orr was allowed to take that late penalty. We know he's poor from the spot - remember his miserable effort at Edinburgh City back in August? - so why wasn't Ross Forbes brought on immediately to hit it, instead of letting Orr have it and miss it, and then swap the players? It reminded me a little of the Nicky Jamieson substitution and subsequent change of formation against Cowdenbeath, with a decision made after the fact. That penalty would have put the game beyond doubt and it was a mistake to let Orr have his hat-trick. Thankfully it didn't prove to be costly.

Those last few paragraphs might sound overly negative and I don't want them to be, because on the whole I thought we played well and merited the three points, but I think this team are capable of more. I am looking forward to visiting Annan Athletic next week. Let's hope we get another good result!

[iateallthepies]

Great bit of business for you guys getting Jamieson fixed up . Did Alloa just let him go? Surely not, but then again Barry Ferguson