The hard truths about our beloved football squad (since 2024)

Breaking News: DEE's going down!

We've said it before, but last week's result removed almost any doubts about it!
We had next to no hope getting anything from LIV's visit - remembering all too well our recent 1-6 disaster.
Thankfully they showed much more mercy than DEE showed quality, so they ONLY won by 3-1.

Speaking of quality, Stenhousemuir has plenty of. The result was as one-sided as the match, 3-0 and another hopeless Dundee performance.
We have to admit that our (still current) coach had ONE good idea: giving keeper legend Carson much play time - instead of Euro trash Yadzalov.
Alas, Carson showed that he is well past his prime, so even his best efforts were just not enough. We still fondly remember his better days - under much better management.
With just 12 points ahead of #13 - and still 4 matches to play - Dundee isn't even safe from going down directly.
Playing the lower playoffs seems all but assured. Surely any Div2 squad will be very happy getting drawn against Dundee.

If only we could just sack this guy!

Motherwell entered the weekend 3 points behind 1st placed ARB, with a head to head match to come. This was MOT's weekend to have both matches in front of the home support, so Fir Park would be rocking. A match against STJ would be the opener to the big match against ARB.

The match against St Johnstone started off well enough for the home side. A 5th minute goal for Joss Naylor was just the tone Motherwell were looking for, and Naylor then missed a chance to double the lead 4 minutes later. A painful random injury for midfielder Van Zandt left the midfielder getting subbed off just 10 minutes in. Despite the injury, MOT really should have taken more advantage of their dominance over the first 30 minutes, but they did at least get a second through youngster Billy Bland in the 36th minute. The odds were heavily weighed in Motherwell's direction as halftime came at 2-0. But, for the second time this season, the lead would not hold against STJ. Motherwell were left to rue their lack of finishing as the away side put in two second half goals and ended this one 2-2. Really should have done better, but the consolation was seeing that SRA had blown away ARB in a flurry of first half goals, winning that one an impressive 4-0 away to the league leaders.

This left the big match of the weekend as the big match. A win for either side would be huge - an away win would nearly seal the title for ARB, while a home win would put MOT top for the first time in weeks. And folks, the first half was not one to miss. And opening goal from Guy Clark just four minutes in would be canceled out mere seconds later by ARB's striker Norey. But, Clark was a man on a mission in this one. A headed goal to retake the lead in the 19th minute was followed by his 22 minute perfect hat-trick just minutes later. Take a bow, Mr. Clark! Not to be outdone, Ray Wylie Hubbard found some goals of his own, scoring a double in the 27th and 33rd minutes. And makeshift midfielder Joss Naylor capped off his big weekend with the final goal of this one just 36 minutes in. 6-1 to the home side after a dominant, 14-shot half. And a dull second half would follow, meaning this one would end at 6-1, and Motherwell move to one point clear at the top, right where they found themselves at the mid-season break.

Falkirk continued their difficult season last weekend but did manage to pick up an important three points. We started with a trip to play Partick Thistle who sat one place behind us. We managed to lose three nil after conceding from all three shots that were on target. The second game was at home against third bottom East Stirling. A very tight match was decided by a Ferguson goal, ten minutes into the second half. The Bairns moved up one position to ninth.

It's a good theory, Dave, but I don't think it has held up in practice for MOT and ARB. I don't have time to fully explore it now, however, so I will get back to you later on it.

But, MOT have been top of the table for a large portion of this season. And below are the average SL %s that wr have faced while top:

68, 63, 61, 65, 75, 63, 67, 64

So, in the 8 matches where MOT have been top of the table, the worst lineup put out by the opposition was 61% of SL used. I can dig into ARB's numbers later, but that's not going to be close.

Well we were looking for wins to boost our play off hope's,

We started the weekend with an away game at Paul's high flying Ayr United,always a tough side to play against and even harder at their home, they opted for a 5-3-2 normal as we went for a 4-3-3 normal, a really close exciting encounter with both sides enjoying lots of possession but defences on top, we were just edged out in the shot count 3 to 2 but our stubborn defence stood firm as it ended goalless 0-0,points shared, well played Paul.

Next we were at home to Willy's Forfar Athletic, a side we always struggled against, both sides opting for normal 4-2-4 tactics, another really close exciting encounter with both sides enjoying lots of possession and having 6 shots each but the stars of the show were Paris in the Forfar goal and Ross in the county goal with 6 saves each as it ended goalless 0-0 ,points shared,well played Willy,so after a 2 point weekend we slip down to 9th and well out of the play offs.

Three wins in a row in the last couple of weekend games see St Mirren close in on promotion. With 4 games left they sit 8 points clear of the team in 5th place and another couple of points will see them there. The club who have come under some bad press for there activities in the transfer market this season have continued to stick by there manager as he has built a good squad and put them in the good position they find themselves.

Manager White said he hopes the players have prove the doubts wrong and that they will now keep there opinions to themselves. He know the challenge ahead next season will be a hard one but with some younger players in the squad they are positive that they can put up a good fight.

This weeks league session saw EDI travel to BER against a determined side and EDI were fortunate to come away with all 3 points considering that the home team played a large part of the game with only 10-men. It was a very relieved manager at the end of the match.

In the second game EDI hosted  DFA and it was much plainer sailing for the home team as we romped to a 6-1 victory with the EDI midfield finally showing that they can boss a game and they did it in style.

The 6 point haul was enough to close the gap at the top with DEV and the two teams are now level on points AND on goal difference. DEV remain on top though on countback.

Only four games left in this league season and its still very much all to play for in the hunt for the Division 3 league title.

Andrew makes a fair point few journals below.  The reality is whatever team is top of table then the  opposition may more than likely think they can gain points in the other match of the session and play stronger in other match.  It's not playing favourites - but opposition managers focusing on which match of a 2 game session is more winnable.

Should MOT ever top the league table then Andrew may benefit from this scenario from opposition.

A better weekend for us, depending upon how you look at it. We stay in 4th place but with a healthy lead before dropping down to the playoff places but there are still 4 games to go.

We entertained Q.O.S. and hit the ground running, only to be succker punched with the only 2 shots they put to keeper Bursik. Half time came 0-2, not what the doctor ordered. We changed a couple of things on the hour mark, and lo and behold, all came good. 3 goals in the 64, 65, 66 minutes turned the game around and we kept 3 points.

Away at Peterhead was always meant to be the more difficult game, as they are knocking at the playoff door. We went into a goal lead in the 5th minute, and looked good for it till the leveller came towards the latter part of the match. The 2 teams only created 3 shots on target so a draw was about right. Next weekend we go to Aberdeen and then entertain Brechin City.

Looking at the current state of the Division 3 league table with only six matches remaining and it now appears that the below teams are those 'most' likely to contest the promotion and play-off positions at the end of the season.....

Three teams sit a further 5 points back ahead of two more teams another point behind. Its still mathematically possible for those teams to catch the pack but now becoming increasingly unlikely so late on in the season.

DEV look most likely to win the title but will need to keep their current good form going as they still face a stiff challenge from the three teams just below.

Hopefully after the next round of league games the promotion picture will become somewhat clearer.

The hard truths about our beloved football squad (since 2024)

If you can't win against the last placed team - away AND at home! - you MIGHT be in the wrong division.

This week's visitor was Celtics, dead last - and trailing the last playoff spot by 16(!) points.
If there's any chance to win for poor Dundee, this should be it.

BUT the match was pure CEL domination: minute per minute, shot by shot. 8-3 shots in the end, only a strange MOM performance by keeper wannabe Ghadzhalov saved us.
Finally, a lucky and undeserved 1-1 draw.
Seriously, how can Dundee have any hope of winning anything, if not even this match.

We had just begun to have minor hopes of avoiding relegation, but given this performance we expect to play CEL again next season - in Div 2!

If only we could just sack this guy!

Surpringly after the SESL group rounds Stirling have gone unbeaten in 8 games. No-one is more surprised than me after our defence took a battering in MSA and we have the 4th lowest T-11 in the league.

I was also surprised to see players in the transfer marke that usually go to the apprentice buying trade so have been ableto add some squad fillers for the remaining 6 games of the season. Stirling are only 6pts off a playoff place which would be a stretch but one worth aiming for. 

Colin asked recently if anyone is playing ball control these days and Stirling have played it 54% of the time this season. We have an OTF of 10 and too many seasons in Division 3 allowing us to pick up MA Bosmans so I can field up to five of them in midfield. But it does allow us to switch the MAs to play up front going from 451 to 433 with the big MAs up front which can be more effective.

I do like the idea of ball control, not many teams play with many in midfield which does seem strange as that's what you see in real life every weekend.

Back after a short break in a hotel where putting in SESL was blocked by the hotel server.. Only this afternoon did I discover where we had stumbled/blundered.

We faced East Fife at home and in the 1st half keeper Slater kept out 4 of the 5 shots he faced, but we still went in 1-0 down and no on target shots. We changed things a little and 2nd half was mainly ours, creating 6 chances. In the 85th minute we sneaked into the lead 2-1 only for Paul's lot to grab a deserved (overall) point. We played 36 minutes with 10 men after winger Bagan got sent off - he will miss a couple of games at least but we did purchase a winger, Stevenson, in the final ballot so we are covered there.

2nd match sent us the long trip north (M9) to Inverness where we were fortunate to play a side looking to boost ELs on a few lads possibly with their SESL Cup Quarter Final coming up this Wednesday. (Whatever the reason we could have faced an even tougher team, and we were grateful for that.) We huffed and puffed with a decent lineup to break down the home defence and we did get the ball past their keeper for a needed 1-0 win.

Seems we will likely limp into the 1st division, but we are certainly making it hard for ourselves.

Motherwell find themselves in a title race in division one for the second or third time (depending if you could the less successful 2nd place finish in season 50 a true title race). How could the schedules affect the title race?

Motherwell should have the easier road by three metrics:

1. 4 matches at home vs 3 for ARB, including the big match between the two
2. No distraction of cup matches to eat up EL
3. An easier schedule, from a T-11 perspective (more below)

Motherwell finish up against STJ, ARB, fra, CLY, cel, and DUM (upper case are home matches) while Arbroath finish with SRA, mot, HEA, fra, DEE, cly. Only Clyde and Fraserburgh are in common between those schedules, so if we look at the other four matchups, Motherwell face 3rd, 9th, 11th, and 15th in T-11 in the division, while ARB face 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 8th. In theory that should provide an advantage.

However, we know that team selection will play more of a role than anything. In the past 7 matches, ARB have faced SL Used % of 46, 45, 44, 31, 38, 57, and 36% while MOT have faced 64, 70, 69, 56, 69, 48, and 66%. That's almost competely non-overlapping, and no difference in schedule is going to overcome that. If every team continues to play non-matches against ARB while playing their T-11 against MOT, then the title will be decided no matter what we do.

We started with a home game against David's high flying Kilmarnock, a classy looking outfit who were going well this season,we opted for a 3-3-4 longball as they went for a 4-3-3 early ball, both sides started well and enjoyed lots of possession but they opened the scoring on 35 minutes when Spain fired home 0-1 and on 39 minutes Watson slotted home 0-2,half time came and subs on ,they seemed to up their tempo and we were finding it hard to retain any possession for any length of time and on 58 minutes JR Smith headed home 0-3 and he drilled home his 2nd on 86 minutes to seal the game 0-4 as they outplayed us and outshot us 10 to 3,well played David.

Next we travelled to Matthew's St Mirren, another side who are always hard to play against, they opted for a 4-4-2 normal as we went for a 4-3-3 normal, game on and nothing to choose between the sides in the 1st half and both defences on top, 2nd half subs on and both sides pushing on but on 68 minutes they broke through and Archer fired home 1-0,we had no answer as we could not find a way through the stubborn defence and were outshot 6 to 2 ,well played Matthew. 

So we now sit 7th.

Motherwell started the weekend 6 points back of first placed ARB, still yet to play against each other in the second league phase. So, Motherwell knew that they needed to at least close that gap to 3 points to give themselves a chance of going top with a win over ARB the following weekend.

First up was a visit from middle of the table Hamilton for a South Lanarkshire derby. This one looked like it might be comfortable for the home side, as Hamilton had lined up with a very defensive lineup that would not likely resist a strong Motherwell attack. This seemed to be playing out as MOT went up 1-0 just 14 minutes in through winger Jimmie Dale Gilmore. However, from there, MOT inexplicably could not find many more shots. By the 60th minute they still had just 2 shots, just like last weekend, despite a >10% shot chance. But, this time, it would not affect the result. Despite stalling themselves, MOT were able to find a second and then a third late on to have this one finish 3-0. The failure to produce early shots mainly just caused MOT to have to spend more EL from top players than they would have liked to, but another 3 points secured and the captain's bonus were both more important than that.

As an added bonus, fans at Fir Park were treated to another celebration after the whistle as news filtered in of leaders ARB losing 0-1 at home to STE. This appeared to be some of the bad luck that MOT knows too well. While STE put out a decent side, it was nowhere near as good of a side as ARB's, as the 6-1 shot count showed. However, STE scored the only shot that mattered in this one as the lead at the top shrinks to 3 points.

Could Motherwell keep that momentum going? An away trip to Raith Rovers would be next, and RR put out their strongest side for the match. A tense first half was level and fairly even throughout, but just before the halftime whistle it was the visitors who took the lead, as Townes Van Zandt scored the opener after some nice pressing forced a turnover in a good position. Motherwell would look to defend that lead partway through the second half, but their resistance finally failed as RR leveled in the 71st minute. Would that be it, two more dropped points and an opportunity for ARB to regain a commanding lead at the top? No, young striker Guy Clark would be the hero on the day, scoring on a one-on-one chance with the keeper to take all three points back to Motherwell.

Big weekend for MOT, as they now find themselves going into next weekend needing 6 points home to STJ and home to ARB for a spot on top of the table on goal difference

Falkirk went into their SESL last sixteen cup match against Stranraer in awful form after two large league defeats. We started last weekend with a trip to play Queens Park who were three places below us. With young goalkeeper Brown starting we started with stall but this backfired and by halftime we were two nil down. Three changes made but it made no difference as we conceded two further goals to lose four nil. The second match was at home against Stirling. Again youth keeper Brown started the game and this time conceded four first half goals. We then conceded another before scoring our consolation goal, losing five one. Then onto our cup match with Stranraer. We played a strong lineup and held out until 78 minutes. We went to press with ten minutes left and equalised with six minutes remaining to draw one apiece. Penalties went badly missing three from four and losing three one. Not the dream result this time.

EDI needed a good session to consolidate our current 2nd place in the Division 3 league table and we started with an away trip to FOR which EDI won 1-3. That good start to the session needed to be backed up in our second match which was a home game versus DEE. The visitors fielded a weakish starting line-up and EDI took full advantage to run out the 3-0 victors. The two wins gave EDI a full 6 point haul which was badly needed and left the manager completely satisfied this weekend.

The next game will see the completion of coaching and training points on the squad and the manager hopes that it will be enough to get EDI promoted this season but the spectre of injuries and suspensions is always a worry especially when EDI have such a small squad to work with.

Next weeks two games see EDI first travel to BER and then return home to face DFA. With only six league games remaining this season it is paramount that EDI continue to collect as many points as possible in upcomi games that are left if the club are to achieve their aims of promotion.

On the financial side of things....EDI are now in a position to look forward to the next pre-season and will be able to purchase enough CPs to satisfy the needs that the manager requires to hopefully continue to take the squad forward.

Still much to do and more improvements are needed within the clud but the signs continue to look promising atm.

It's been a long time since our last update so lots to recap here. We finished the first half of the league season way down in 13th and limped into the SESL Cup after a 1 point session where we drew at home and then lost 4-0 to SM. The SESL Cup campaign did not get off to a good start with a 3-0 loss to St. Johnstone but things took a positive turn after that with a 1-0 win vs Falkirk that could have gone either way and a 0-0 draw where we parked the bus against Alloa. We then took advantage of what looked like a Peterhead NMR with a 1-0 win and then used up the rest of our luck with a silly 1-0 win over Hearts where both teams were stalling with their backup GK and the only shot of the game made it past Hearts' SL 8 keeper. That was enough to get through on top of our group but we ran into a QOS team in the next round that while the shot chance started out pretty even they got a quick early goal and we couldn't get a shot on target the whole game so that when we went to press at the end they scored another and closed it out. Definitely had used up our luck against Hearts...

Anyway our league form since the resumption of the league has carried over that form from the SESL cup and we've been able to lift our points per game to 1.83 in the last six versus 1.1 for the first half of the season. It's gotten us up to 9th but we're still six points out from a playoff spot with only 8 games to go so it's looking unlikely but we'll give it a strong push the next couple weeks and see where we are in a couple weeks. We went in for a new veteran striker in 5/27 FW Primoz Roglic which should really help our struggling attack and might be the spark we need. First we'll have to overcome a weekend where we start with 8 players at EL 2 or below, so we'll see how it goes.