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East Fife -vs- Stenhousemuir (Tuesday 20 September 2022)


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An interesting clash between East Fife and Stenhousemuir lies in wait on Tuesday night. The Fifers had made a decent fist of it so far this season and appear to be performing above their modest pre-season predictions, while the Warriors have yet to really get going, despite collecting seven points from their last three fixtures, and seem to be losing daft goals every week. Both sides will have their eyes on three points and will probably be disappointed with anything other than a win, especially given how the division is beginning to pan out.

I'm not quite sure what to expect from East Fife but they seem to have faltered a little in recent weeks with two draws and a loss. On one hand, their last-gasp equaliser at Stranraer shows they're a side who'll fight till the final whistle; on the other, the weekend's stalemate with Annan Athletic, where they tossed away a two-goal lead, shows a carelessness and a brittleness that can be exploited. Nevertheless, players like Kieran Millar and Alan Trouten are two of my all-time lower-league favourites, and guys like Scott Shepherd have the ability to cause us bother.

I think Stenhousemuir will continue with their 3-5-2 system but there are a couple of players who need to buck up their ideas. Callum Yeats isn't offering us much down the left, Nicky Jamieson was poor at the weekend, and Will Sewell has a tendency to drop completely out of games, but I wouldn't necessarily make wholesale changes just yet. The only player I'd remove from the starting XI is Ross Forbes and replace him with Mikey Anderson or Mikey Miller (if it's the latter, Adam Corbett should move to right-wingback). Is there anything we can do to make sure Sean Crighton sees as little as the ball as possible, please? You just know when the big man takes a touch and looks up, it's getting punted as far forward as possible, baby!

- Matty Yates - Will Sewell -

- Callum Yeats - Adam Brown - Nat Wedderburn - Mikey Anderson - Mikey Miller -

- Daniel Higgins - Nicky Jamieson - Sean Crighton -

- Conor Brennan -

I won't make the game due to prior commitments, unfortunately. Is there any way to watch the match online, or has that been ceased altogether this season? Either way, I fancy our chances but wouldn't be surprised if we come a cropper here.

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Is Thomas Orr not fit? Last time i saw him he scored 2 against us for BSC. Crighton, was someone I felt was a bit of coup for you guys when he left Airdrie, whould've taken him at Bayview, at the time we were crying out for his type & someone useful at set-pieces. Probably not the player he was now though & in all the different shirts I've seen Wedderburn line up in against us, I don't think I've ever seen him venture out of the centre circle!

Never saw much ofDaniel Higgins in an East Fife shirt, was speaking to a Cove fan in the lounge before the last game of the season & he couldn't believe he couldnt get in our team (Higgins, not the Cove fan!), mind you he appeared to have been to every bar on the way down from Aberdeen & was carrying a life-sized cut out of Danny Devito, saw maybe not one of the most reliable.

Been a few years since I've seen Stenny & looking forward to an evening game for the first time in a while, no idea what to expect, but it's games like this will determine what kind of season we'lll have.

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He does not have Yeats defensive qualities but would consider replacing him with O'Reilly.  Jamieson looks out of sorts at the moment and maybe a night on the bench with Corbett replacing him.

Post match can Swift be asked what exactly he sees in Forbes and what does he bring to the team!

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6 hours ago, Life on Marrs? said:

Is Thomas Orr not fit? Last time i saw him he scored 2 against us for BSC. Crighton, was someone I felt was a bit of coup for you guys when he left Airdrie, whould've taken him at Bayview, at the time we were crying out for his type & someone useful at set-pieces. Probably not the player he was now though & in all the different shirts I've seen Wedderburn line up in against us, I don't think I've ever seen him venture out of the centre circle!

Never saw much ofDaniel Higgins in an East Fife shirt, was speaking to a Cove fan in the lounge before the last game of the season & he couldn't believe he couldnt get in our team (Higgins, not the Cove fan!), mind you he appeared to have been to every bar on the way down from Aberdeen & was carrying a life-sized cut out of Danny Devito, saw maybe not one of the most reliable.

Tam Orr has been miles off it this season so far and has lost his place to Will Sewell recently. Has a goal or two in him and will track back but doesn't give much when he's on the ball in a deeper position, other than winning the odd free-kick. 

I'm still unsure about Higgins. Moving forward he's alright and has a decent pass on him, however he started off with us terribly with a red card and since hasn't done much to recover form. 

 On Saturday, Yeats seemed to drift over to cover centre back, when Jamieson and Crighton were only ten or so yards in front of him. Not sure if it was a tactic to prevent the long ball over the top but at times it looked like he was doing some kind of occasional sweeper role.

Would like to see O'Reilly come in for Sewell; who I think will have a bigger impact from the bench, and Anderson start instead of Forbes. If we have Wedderburn and Brown on, there's no need for Forbes. Not sure if we should give Cantley more minutes, Brennan is woeful. Just watched the highlights again and have no idea what he's doing for the third. Positioning, not coming out to close the angle when he started to do it and his shocking attempt to claw the ball away. He looks unfit as well. 

Edited by Old Fashioned Stramash
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Brennan is not my favourite keeper and he certainly isn’t the worst we’ve had, but unfit?

I’m not sure I’ve ever been sold on Yeats, but he has no obvious competition for left back. He seems to lack confidence as soon as he crosses the half way line. I think we would all like to see O’Reilly but in the formation we play, he doesn’t fit. It will be interesting to see what the line up is. Forbes actually did alright on Saturday so I’m not sure he will drop out. As for Jamieson, he struggled really badly on Saturday. Swift was right in what he said about Hester getting in the heads of our defence, Jamieson in particular. I don’t expect Scott Shepherd to cause the same consternation so I’d imagine a Jamieson will keep his place. 

Hopefully Brown can maintain his performance levels as he was superb on Saturday. He is one player who is suited to the formation we play.

So, therefore, no changes!

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2 hours ago, Nigel Blackwell said:

Brennan is not my favourite keeper and he certainly isn’t the worst we’ve had, but unfit?

I'm not saying he's Conrad Logan size but he looks unfit. You're right though, we've had worse goalkeepers but whether he'll be good enough to get us into the play-offs is another thing. 

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Brennan being unfit is a bizarre take. How do you determine the fitness of a goalkeeper? His fitness is certainly the least of our worries after Saturday's comedy showing in goal and at the back.

God knows how we will line up tonight but I just can't see this squad of players doing much this season unless the Bryson replacement is some sort of magician. 

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5 hours ago, Neilly said:

Brennan being unfit is a bizarre take. How do you determine the fitness of a goalkeeper? His fitness is certainly the least of our worries after Saturday's comedy showing in goal and at the back.

God knows how we will line up tonight but I just can't see this squad of players doing much this season unless the Bryson replacement is some sort of magician. 

I'm not a goalkeeping coach but I'd have thought some form of being mentally alert, agility, strength and pace would be factors in overall fitness. Now Brennan has decent agility, so I'll give him that but his strength ( distance in kicking and ability to jump and retain the ball etc ) is pretty weak, he rarely chances coming off his line and when he has, he hasn't shown the pace to beat the attacker to the ball. This leads to indecision and mistakes. He's a league 2 goalkeeper, not Mr. Motivator, so perhaps I'm being harsh. 

 

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1 hour ago, Francesc Fabregas said:

I've been using Pie and Bovril since 2004 and this is the first time I've ever seen someone accusing a goalkeeper of being unfit. Bizarre stuff!

^^^Finally wiped Jamie Barclay from his memory.

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I think his conditioning is suspect and to question it; especially in this modern era of development, is definitely not bizarre. 

I'll put it a different way and that's enough from me on this. You look at the errors that he's made, some are unfortunate, but can we just keep saying that he's prone to a howler? Why is that?

Even those that haven't lead to a goal, are dubious. Look at the Elgin game highlights. At 5.05 on the footage, a long ball is played into the edge of our box. Harder one for the goalie granted but Brennan initially commits then stops. Jamieson is after it too but again, Brennan wants to come again but holds back, why? Finally, he comes out bundling over Jamieson. They key bit being, he knew he should've been out to claim the ball like he initially wanted to do but couldn't. I think if he was fitter, he would be sharper minded, quicker off his line and more alert. He'd at least have confidence in himself in these sort of situations to get to the ball or close the angle. Far too many frequent mistakes and there's got to be a reason for it. I think he's capable of better.

Again, it's more of looking for a reason to his form, rather than just thinking he's sh*te.

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Deserved the win tonight. Similar to Saturday we were well on top but fell behind to what might have been East Fife’s only shot on target all night. It was a good goal but Callum Yeats let himself down at the goal. I am thinking left back has become a problem position.

One consolation of Yeats poor first half was that it opened the door for O’Reilly. He tormented East Fife. We actually created quite a few chances in the second half and all our attacking players showed up well. Thomas Orr had his best game, probably all season, and Adam Brown has been a revelation the last two games. He even won a tackle tonight.

Kieran Miller’s red was for, I presume, an over the ball challenge on Adam Brown. It seemed harsh but it was right under the nose of the referee who had a better view than anyone else.

As for East Fife I thought they were the worst team I’ve seen this season. Worse than Forfar. I only realised Trouten was playing when he was subbed off. 

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