Albion Rovers -vs-Stenhousemuir (Saturday 29 October)

[Francesc Fabregas]

An interesting encounter awaits on Saturday when Albion Rovers host Stenhousemuir at Cliftonhill. The Warriors won the first meeting between the sides on the opening day of the season but there was very little between the two teams and the Rovers should have taken a point. Despite being bottom of the table, Brian Reid's team are a competitive bunch and I'm expecting a difficult game - if you're not prepared to match their application and enthusiasm, especially on their home turf, they're going to run over the top of you.

Stenny come into this game with a bit of a defensive crisis. Nicky Jamieson hurt himself at the end of the weekend's Scottish Cup win over East Fife and is expected to be absent for at least a month, while Sean Crighton is also likely to miss out with injury. This means Adam Corbett and Dan Higgins are our only available centre-backs - two defenders who have their qualities but not necessarily your first picks for a rough-and-tumble scrap at the Rovers. I can't see us abandoning the three-at-the-back system and I worry we'll see someone like Scott Walker, a player who has yet to impress, drafted in to play as a right-sided centre-back. Callum Yeats broke down in training last week too so Ross Philp is probably going to keep his place at left wingback.

I'm not too sure how we'll set up for this one. Maybe something like:

- Matty Yates -

- Euan O'Reilly - Adam Brown -

- Ross Philp - Nat Wedderburn - Ross Forbes - Mikey Miller -

- Adam Corbett - Dan Higgins - Scott Walker -

- Conor Brennan -

There might be scope for Mikey Anderson or Tam Orr to start but I don't think Stephen Swift will deviate too much from a winning team. I'm always nervous about a trip to Coatbridge, more so given our absentees, but if you're serious about challenging for the title, you have to beat the team at the bottom of the league.

[Hard Graft]

Scary thought about Walker being in the team and Higgans I still have doubts about. 

Still no word about Liam Brown?

Will he maybe bring in another loan signing to cover Crighton and Jamieson?

[Nigel Blackwell]

FWIW, my Airdrie supporting pal told me when we signed Walker that he was better as a right sided centre half in a back three than as a right back. We might get to decide for ourselves on Saturday. 

No idea what is going on with Liam Brown - have a bad feeling about this one. 

[Chris_the_rover]

I'm always wary of stenny we seem to go through patches of being unable to lose to them followed by unable to beat them

If we can nick the first goal we will be OK but we totally lack depth this year

Only 5pm on Saturday will tell

This game however is a present surprise for me, I thought it was league leaders stirling at home this weekend

[Vimto90]

The only certainty is we will concede at least 1, probably 2. After that who knows.

[Hard Graft]

Now getting thin at the back and that is a worry.

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

Typical scrappy game that you could expect to be played on the Cliftonhill pitch.

Both teams had limited offerings up front with the ball enjoying frequent spells in the air. Stenny did try to play the ball on the deck out from the back but found a rigid Albion defensive shape. This frustrated the Warriors and led to long ambitious balls being played in and Sonkur just ate them all game. He was solid today, I thought. Stenny showed little creative play. Albion had some good chances and hit the wood work twice.

For Albion's first goal, Brennan seemed to lose track of the balls slow progress towards the bottom corner, after being flicked on by the Albion player. I thought he should've saved it but will need to see it again in the highlights. 

Sewell's goal was well worked, with a nice through pass that caught the Albion defence out and a tidy finish. Have to give Swift some credit here, we were playing some terrible football and he had the baws to go for a triple sub and changed the shape. However, Forbes stayed on the park despite being dire and playing like, well, Ross Forbes. Forbes did have some energy left in the tank for the last ten minutes though and was involved in the drama towards the end.

Albion's second goal, we lost Wilson who had made a decent cut back run to the centre of the box and got there before our CB's, turning just outside the 6 yarder, to fire it home with a nice finish, leaving Brennan no chance. Thought we should've closed that down quicker but it came around due to allowing far too many crosses into our box and most of them were caused by Ross Forbes not tracking back, pressing the ball or taking away the space. He just simply stood off and allowed opportunities to occur. 

Near the end, Stenny apply some pressure, an Albion player blocks a shot with his arm on the goal line, see's red and Forbes converts the resulting penalty.

Always enjoy a trip to Cliftonhill, great wee 'traditional' ground and good set of fans. There was that one passionate guy giving it the big man to the ref at the end, to the enjoyment of the Stenny fans. 

 

[Nigel Blackwell]

I always like listening to Swift. He is honest and his assessments of the game always seem spot on. The problem is that it is his team that didn’t seem up to it, that were over run by Albion, that attacked the way they did etc etc. Every week he writes his own report card and quite often it is “must do better”.

Let’s be honest, Albion are not a good team but they play to their strengths. But given the money spent on the Stenhousemuir squad we should be too good for them. We should be able to play the better football and we should be able to beat them. We came away relieved to have taken a point.

Two points out of nine and the two draws were against the bottom two.

And could someone please enlighten as to what the feck has happened to the Liam Brown signing.

[Chris_the_rover]

Looking over the game, it was probably a great game to watch if you were a neutral. Rovers again showed we can match every team in the league.

First half I though we played brilliant and could have scored more but the goal was deserved,

Second half stenny were more in the game, but we kept going and a draw isn't the worst result,

Only the top 2 in the division have conceeded less goals, and if we had somone who could finish consistently we would be well up the league

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

2 hours ago, Nigel Blackwell said:

I always like listening to Swift. He is honest and his assessments of the game always seem spot on. The problem is that it is his team that didn’t seem up to it, that were over run by Albion, that attacked the way they did etc etc. Every week he writes his own report card and quite often it is “must do better”.
 

I like listening to Swift as well and he does give a decent honest assessment of most matches. However, in todays post match interview he states "if you're thinking you're guaranteed a game, you're not going to have that energy and really not have that consistency, then you're going to struggle to play every week".... Yet Ross Forbes starts every week.

[Neilly]

I probably would have taken a draw before the game yesterday due to the players we had missing so probably not the worst result in the world.

But it's another season that's passing us by where we are no real threat to winning the league and will be mulling about between 3rd and 6th which is pretty depressing considering the outlay on the squad.

[teekasule]

14 hours ago, Old Fashioned Stramash said:

Typical scrappy game that you could expect to be played on the Cliftonhill pitch.

 

zzzzzzzzz typical boring shi*te !

[Vimto90]

This is our season summed up. Concede too many goals and won't win enough games till that stops. On the surface didn't feel too bad yesterday as equaliser was late on but it's not a good result ultimately.

Looked like brennan has let us down at first goal but no seen it back.

Meh.

[Francesc Fabregas]

I thought that was a decent game of football and a "good advert for the division". It pretty much played out as I expected it to, with the game ebbing and flowing in both directions, and both sides might feel unfortunate not to have won the contest outright. The Rovers probably had the better of the play but Stenhousemuir had a flurry of chances at the death and Niyah Joseph or Ross Philp should have tucked away one of their efforts. As I said in my first post, Albion Rovers are a far better side than their league position would indicate and I was especially impressed by Blair Malcolm and James Leslie. I think they'll be fine come May.

Nevertheless, if you're serious about challenging for the title, you have to go and beat the team at the bottom of the table. A point isn't really any good, especially when the three teams above you all pick up wins. Having watched the highlights, I think both Rovers goals could have been preventable. Conor Brennan gets down late when trying to save Leslie's header (although he may have been unsighted) and we should have been far better in stopping the second - Ross Forbes and Mikey Miller were too slow in chasing back Charlie Reilly and blocking the cross and Philp didn't do enough to stop Calum Wilson from shooting. I appreciate it all happened very quickly so I don't want to be too critical. It's all just very frustrating.

The strange thing is, I didn't think we played too badly over the piece (and I have to say, Matty Yates really is a superb wee player), we just let ourselves down at key moments. Neilly sums it up well - another season appears to be passing us by. On paper, I thought we had the best collection of players in the division and could go out and really make an impact, but it's all been in fits and starts and just when you feel like you've turned a corner, you get a poor result that leaves everyone confused and bewildered once again. There's still a long way to go, of course, but days like Saturday come around too often.

[Aloysius Snuffleupagus]

I'm another who thought that was a decent game, and I reckon any neutrals attending with an open-mind would have been impressed. Champions League, it clearly isn't, but its young fit and committed guys doing their absolute best, and there was some pretty skilful players on show.

A draw was fair, to my mind, although losing a goal late on is always a sickener. I did think it was a penalty and sending off at the time, and I still think that having seen Stenny's excellent highlights, which as close to VAR as we're going to get. Our two wide players (Reilly and Wilson) were the stand-outs for me, but they all passed muster, with Scott Robers doing his absolute best as a makeshift striker. However, We really need a natural one and soon.

We're off the bottom again, but I'm not sure we'll stay there, especially is we don't get someone in up top to take more of the chances we create. I had a dream the other night that we beat Brechin in the playoff final, but I'm not sure my delicate constitution could handle that level of drama.