Stirling v Annan

[WattersIsGod]

We welcome Annan to Forthbank on Saturday. Hopefully the recent good run of home form can continue.

Presume Thomson will be suspended after the red card last week so will be interesting to see how we cope in his absence.

Prediction Stirling 3 Annan 0

[TheVoiceofReason]

Suspect this will be tough.  We're not firing on all cylinders at the moment - although we're getting results - and Annan look to be improving so this will likely be a stern test.  Thomson will be a big miss as he's been excellent so far this season.  Annan usually run at us with skill and pace so it will be a different game from the last two battles of attrition against Albion Rovers and Bonnyrigg.  Tracking the runners will be crucial. 

There have been some wee signs of messing about at the back recently so we need to make sure that's stopped.  It cost us points early in the season and DY managed to knock it out of the players when we had our run of wins so let's hope they heed the message again tomorrow. 

Tough one to call so I'll go more in hope than expectation of a narrow Stirling win. 

[WC Boggs]

Hope Leitch and McLean are fit for this one. I think we  are stronger with both.  Tommy Goss can be a handful and I don't expect an easy win here either.

[WattersIsGod]

Agreed, getting either back would be a bonus.

[BinoBalls]

That was pretty grim. Annan are clearly getting back to something like their old selves. They are a physical, stuffy side who are hard to create against. 

We struggled without big Thomson up front and neither side threatened much even at 11 v 11. The red card further deflated us and Annan imposed themselves on us without creating much until a proper clanger from Currie gifted them a tap in. 

We struggled to get many bodies up the park to chase an equaliser — playing with 10 men and without Thomson’s physical presence really took its toll. We huffed and puffed until they broke away and sealed it very late on. 

Fair play to Annan — it’s not pretty but when they’re on song they’re effective and I think they’ll climb the table now. 

For us, I thought Dunsmore was really poor. I’ve never been convinced by him but he was especially wasteful today. Good to have McLean and Leitch back at least. Hoping for a better result next weekend. 

[TheVoiceofReason]

Thought both sides were pretty poor today with the game really turning on the red card.  Daft challenge from Clark that looked a definite red from where I was so assume the ref got that one right - although he was shocking in most other respects.  How he and the lino missed the elbow on McLean is incomprehensible.  

After the red we huffed and puffed as did Annan and it all looked to be petering out until Currie made an uncharacteristic mistake, dropping a simple ball from a corner.  

So we'll done to Annan edging out a very close game.  We just put that one to bed and go again next week.   

[BB_Bino]

Absolutely hate losing games like that.  The Ref’s incompetence was fully exploited by an Annan team that niggled, dived, stole yards, elbowed and were simply full of “gamesmanship” that it’s just embarrassing and quite frankly disrespectful and classless.

The game was a bit of a shocker, 2 teams that huffed and puffed and a Ref that was so far out of his depth it was scary. The Clark Red, I suppose it’s one of those ones that it will depend on what angle you have of it, it wasn’t for me, it was actually a well timed tackle, however when you go in like that, you give the Ref a decision to make and inevitably risk a red being shown. However if that was a Red, fair enough but how Reds weren’t flashed to the elbow on McLean and Carrick being taken out off the ball, then only the Ref knows. It was just incompetent. The incompetence was summed up nicely when Annan won a Free Kick, the player, quite blatantly, steals about 10 yards. The Ref blows the whistle to order him back…..so what does he do, leaves the ball in the same spot, doesn’t touch it but spins around it, asks the Ref if that’s ok and the Ref allows the game to go on…..wow!!

Anyway, Annan’s antics and the Ref may have contributed to the defeat but as always, it was our own inabilities that cost us the points. We’ve stuttered for a number of weeks now and 2 individual errors by Currie cost us. Normally a reliable Goalkeeper that I like, but he’ll not want to watch either goals back on the Highlights.

I thought throughout, the team were poor, but they certainly didn’t lack effort and on another day, had Leitch, Fotheringham and (may have been) Clark, taken their chances then we would have bagged the point.

Frustrating afternoon, and a little bit of respect lost for Murphy and Annan, but ultimately we’ll all drop points along the line in what should be a tight league.

[BB_Bino]

Oh forgot to say, what a fantastic sized Home support again today, really hope these new/returning supporters stick with us and don’t disappear because ones again it was great to see the numbers.

[WC Boggs]

Ouch!

[WattersIsGod]

Agree with most of what's been said.

We struggled to hold the ball up even before the red card.

Scrappy game but apart from getting the red card correct, the ref had a bit of a shocker. some utterly incomprehensible decisions today.

Question the decision to leave the subs so late.  there were a lot of heavy legs out there for a long time second half.

[TheWestStand]

On 12/11/2022 at 18:37, WC Boggs said:

Ouch!

Andy Kennedy's fault? 

[WC Boggs]

55 minutes ago, TheWestStand said:

Andy Kennedy's fault? 

Clark getting himself sent off  in the first half of a match again the most obvious contributor.

WTF would Andy Kennedy have to do with an on field result?  Did somebody slip on a memo that blew out the office window?  Or are you all smoking out of the same hookah these days?

[TheWestStand]