Jon — SFC: Season 1 Halfway Mark

Hello all, and welcome back to the Stenhousemuir story! In my last update, I gave you a rundown of our preseason activity as we geared up for a long, and hopefully prosperous year in the Scottish Second Division. This latest update will be taking us all the way through to December, and we’ve had quite the ride along the way. I’ve been pretty surprised at some of our results along the way, and this has certainly shaped itself into quite the interesting challenge. Without further adieu, let us commence the updating!

July 2010

Our very first «real» game of the year was against Raith, and was it a doozie! Raith was expected to be a contender in the First Division, and were heavily favored to see us out of the Challenge Cup. Within moments of the opening whistle, it became apparent we were playing a very good football team. Our keeper was put to the immediate test, and somehow managed to survive a brutal opening barrage. What followed was an insane tit-for-tat match, where we traded the first four goals before we inconceivably managed to pull away in the second half. The media was quite surprised at our upset, especially considering we managed only four shots on goal the entire match!

Our second big result wasn’t as big of a surprise, but it was a hard fought and gritty win. Stevie Murray scored the only goal in the 3rd minute of a match that saw two red cards (one for each of us), and a plethora of yellows. It wasn’t pretty, but a win’s a win!

August 2010

August began much the same way as July ended, and we notched our first league win over a hapless Dumbarton. What followed was another huge Challenge Cup upset, this time against our arch rivals Falkirk (playing in the First Division). Unlike our match against Raith, we never looked like loosing and dominated the match throughout. We followed up the win with another gritty match against Airdrie that unsurprisingly ended with a draw.

I was disappointed in our loss against Brechin, and we played unconvincingly throughout. I was seriously concerned with our League Cup draw against Premier side Hamilton, but was through the roof that we took them all the way to the second half of extra time before a fluke goal gave them the win (scored in the 115th no less). We managed to dominate possession and were more threatening in front of the goal; these were exciting signs!

Our final match of the month was against league leaders Livingston, and I wasn’t expecting very much from the fixture. I knew the squad was exhausted after our epic battle with Hamilton, and The Lion’s fresh legs proved too much for us. I felt we’d had a pretty decent month, but our league results saw us unfortunately sitting in 9th (the relegation playoff position).

September 2010

Another month, another disappointing league result. I was starting to become concerned with our performance, and couldn’t help but wonder where the squads mentality was sitting. We seemed to be playing to the level of our opponents, and were giving away too many cheap points for my taste. A mere three days later, Partick Thistle put an end to our Cinderella story, but needed an 86th minute own goal by Michael Synnott to seal the deal. I wasn’t terribly upset with the result, and Partick eventually went on to lose in the finals on penalties.

Without any Cup matches on the horizon, we refocused our efforts on the league. We closed the month with 2 wins and a loss, and a rather gratifying result over Ayr (which helped to restore confidence both amongst the players and myself).  The loss against Forfar was a bit disappointing, but overall we’d managed to move into 6th and out of immediate relegation danger.

October 2010

Following our intense September schedule, October was mercifully quiet. We took the opportunity to rest and heal up from a few injuries (including a scary injury to our star striker Gary O’Neill). The results against Alloa and Dumberton were what I had expected, and I can’t claim to be very surprised at our defeat against Airdrie. I’ve quickly sized The Diamonds up to be some of our toughest competition, and our two squads seem to be very evenly matched.

November 2010

Wow, what a month! We began with an unsightly loss to Brechin (who isn’t especially talented, and yet still seems to have our number), and responded with an unbelievable win over league leaders Livingston! The squad was pumped up for the match and eager to avenge our August defeat. We turned the tables on The Lion’s and secured a convincing 3-1 away win. Flying high from that result, we went on to annihilate Peterhead in our biggest win of the year. Gary O’Neill returned from injury with a hat trick, and we put on an impressive show for the home crowd.

Our very next game was easily our most disappointing of the year. We headed into our match against bottom feeders East Fife with great confidence, and left with our rosy cheeks facing the ground. We were completely outplayed, and made several critical mistakes as we handed The Fifers only their second win of the year. Thankfully we rebounded well, and only four days later put on another clinic for the home crowd as we demolished an outmatched Forfar side.

December 2010

We saved the best for last, and we closed out 2010 with our best monthly performance of the year. We continued our mastery over Dumbarton and Ayr, both of whom have found themselves drifting toward the cellar (if you can have such a thing in a 10 team league). The Alloa match was a downright boring affair where neither team seemed especially eager to win, but we eventually decided we wanted it less and gifted Alloa the winning goal in the 77th minute.

By this point we’d found ourselves sitting in the top 4, and the match against Airdrie became doubly important as they were sitting just below us. I was concerned given our track record, but for once we outplayed them and notched our first victory over The Diamond’s since July. We closed out the year with a satisfying victory over Brechin, avenging our two previous losses. More importantly, the win lifted us into second place overall!

League Table

I’m not sure there is a more tightly contested league anywhere in the footballing world. Seven of the ten teams in the competition are contesting for a playoff position, and five of us are conceivably in the title race. Despite there being fifteen league games remaining, it’s apparent that every single point is worth our weight in gold. Thankfully I believe we can easily avoid relegation, as East Fife is working hard to earn that honor with Ayr hot on their tails.

Transfer Activity/Squad Status

I managed to sign several youth prospects (none of whose stats are worthy of showing), and one first teamer. I noticed early on that we had a gaping hole in our left midfield, and brought in this fine gent to shore things up:

He’s realistically in the twilight of his career, but he’s making sure to go out in style. He’s playing exceptionally well for us, and despite missing two games from injury, has managed to secure an average rating above the 7.0 mark. Elsewhere, Gary O’Neill has proven to be worth ever cent of his salary, and has been in truly impressive form:

Finances

I owe a special thanks to all the teams in Tuvalu, New Zealand, and New Caledonia for their willingness to schedule overpriced friendlies against my hapless Reserve squad. I plan to send each and every one of your chairman a bottle of our finest champaign (P.S. — the champaign in Scotland is shit) in a show of my gratitude.

Wrap-Up

I believe it would be an understatement to call this season a roller coaster ride. We’ve had some incredible wins, and some heartbreaking losses, but through it all can proudly call ourselves promotion contenders. I’m looking to make a few changes as the January transfer window opens up, and will be looking for an established midfielder to relive some of the pressure on my overtaxed youngsters. I’m still looking for a better keeper (I did manage to secure the signature of an excellent Spanish prospect for this position) to get us through the year, but otherwise feel as though the squad is in decent shape.

As always, thank you for your continued support, and I’d love to hear your feedback on the post format, season performance, or whatever else floats your boat!