Motherwell made it through in the SESL Cup this midweek with a 4-3 win over Brechin City that felt fairly comfortable - until it wasn't. Motherwell went ahead early through recent signing Al Bondigas, the 5th minute goal giving the Well faithful hope that this one would be one long celebration in the stands. However, Brechin City had something to say about that, equalizing in the 20th minute through Scott McTominay. Motherwell would take a commanding lead into half, however, with striker pair Ray Wylie Hubbard and Guy Clark each scoring one before the whistle: 3-1 at the break. Midfielder Van Zandt would make it 4-1 after the restart, and from there Motherwell began to get a bit too comfortable. Lewis Raeside raised some alarm bells with BRE's 2nd at the 76th minute mark, and it would become a real tight finish with Bosman bringing it to within 1 goal with 2 minutes left. However, Motherwell would hold on in the dying seconds. The final on this one 4-3, with Motherwell advancing to face Fraserburgh after nearly throwing away a very comfortable advantage.

The league on the weekend was a bit of a bore for neutral fans, though I'm sure the Motherwell support didn't mind. Away to Stenhousemuir, STE put out a real dud of a lineup and Motherwell were able to very comfortably run out 5-0 winners. STE should thank their GK for making two big saves that saved them 120k in blowout fines, but otherwise not much intrigue in this one. The biggest effect of this match came from the two bookings Motherwell received: one each for John Lee Hooker and Al Bondigas. Each were one yellow away from suspension, and each will miss Motherwell's cup quarterfinal against Fraserburgh.

Next up was a visit from Livingston, and LIV came out with a much better lineup than Motherwell had seen lately in the league. Motherwell were able to take a 2-0 lead into halftime courtesy of another Al Bondigas goal and another league goal for youngster Billy Bland. However, right after the break LIV were able to make it 2-1, which forced MOT to take things a bit more seriously. Reinforcements were brought on, and an onslaught of attacks led to 3 goals in 5 minutes. Guy Clark, Billy Bland, and Steve Earle each got one between the 62nd and 67th minutes, putting this match out of sight. 5-1 the final, as MOT keep their 12 point lead at the top with just 6 matches to go.

All goes to plan for MOT this week, but next week might be another thing altogether. The two suspensions to 2 of MOT's top 10 players will make the cup tie that much harder. Fraserburgh will certainly score some goals - can Motherwell do them at least one better? Will Motherwell be able to finish off the league with a trip to Elgin City and a visit from Clyde, or will they let FRA or DEE back into the title race with another late collapse? Let's hope things go Motherwell's way for a little while longer.

Just back from our holiday - boy was it stressful at times. Beekse Bergen was great but the first evening we had nothing planned food-wise so we decided to go into Tilburg and a McDonalds for the kids. The satnav sent us to one but that was at a pedestrianised area. There was a multi-storey carpark next to it, "you better go in there then!" was Elaine's annoyed comment (she had already said we should have odered pizza after I'd accidentally turned left into the middle lane of three - the middle lane was for oncoming traffic - luckily there was none at the time and no central reservation so I could skip over to the right lane). As I slowly drove in Jacob said we hit the [height] barrier. I didn't hear or feel anything so carried on slowly catching the low concrete beams with our roofbox. Luckily slow enough to be able to back out, the roofbox is quite flexible so just very minor scrapes. Problem was we'd already gone through the entrance so couldn't get out - and we couldn't drive round to the exit. It looked like having to empty the roofbox to get it off to drive round.

I pressed the button to ask for help but got no answer. Looked around for some kind of office and found some Dutch people paying to exit the car park. Luckily one of them spoke excellent English and I explained our predicament. She tried the button then said you have to ring "that number". Then she suggested she do it herself. Lovely lady managed to get the barrier opened so I could reverse out, almost backing into a bollard as I was quite flustered at this time.

Coming home we hit traffic at the Dartford Crossing and it was a hot day. After a stop for food and another because I was struggling to concentrate (lots of late nights) my nephew had said he was going to be sick. I was only told he felt sick so ignored the suggestion for going off motorway (not that we could for a while anyway) as it would add ages onto the time. "We need to pull over he's feeling sick". "I can't just pull over on the motorway unless an emergency"."RALF" an then some. For some reason Elaine had decided a paper carrier bag would be ok. Sick everywhere and I had to pull over to the hard shoulder so we could clean the back of the car as best we could.

Anyway on to the football. 

With Donnelly suspended I decided to stall versus Cove and change to early cross when going behind. We went 2-0 down after 35 minutes but pulled one back after 78. It was a close game but we were slightly the weaker side. The plus was our goal was scored by Fuller and the fact that Partick could only manage a draw. The minus was an injury to Slater.

The problem with the injury is that we were driving when the first game ran so I couldn't do anyting about it for the game versus Airdrieonians - to be fair I forgot it was match day until we were in Belgium. Luckily Slater didn't get another injury despite playing 45 minutes below 0 EL. It was a weird game with 6 of our 7 shots going to defenders or SL 12 MF Max Headroom (that's ironic considering what happened in Tilburg) but Donnelly did get another. I was hoping he could go off for a rest but we never got a three goal lead. 

The weekend puts us 2 points ahead of Partick Thistle but more importantly 13 points ahead of 5th place Aberdeen with only 6 games to go. As we are 20 points ahead of 7th placed Ross County we are sure of at least a play-off place.

Talking of Aberdeen, Ross has done an amazing job this season with a team that is bottom in both T11 and T17, although they have struggled since mid-season. Remember they started the season without enough cash to buy pre-season CP.

Another remarkable team is Berwick. Up to the end of the SESL Cup group campaign they only had 1 win (Cecil Cup) and 6 draws. In the league they were 0-3-13 at MSA. Since then they have won 7 (including their last 5) and lost just 1, and are now only 2 points behind Inverness.

Division 3 is incedibly close, especially for the play-offs: Forfar are 4th on 41 points, Aberdeen 5th on 39. Then teams have 33,32, 4 on 29, 3 on 28 and then 15th place Inverness on 26.

Falkirk had a poor weekend picking up just the one point from their two matches. The Bairns started with a trip to play Partick Thistle, who sat in second place. We played stall and by 37 minutes found ourselves two nil behind. We pulled a goal back a minute later though Ferguson. We went to normal on 60 minutes and then press on 80 minutes. We got lucky by equalising in the last minute by a second goal by Ferguson. The second game was at home against our rivals Stirling. A close match finished in an one nil defeat. We remain sixth going into the last eight matches. 

3 matches - 3 wins, but still not quite content with this week.
The whys and the hows ...

Match #38 at Stenhousemuir turned out a relaxed 4-0 win for Dundee.
Both teams fielded sub-standard squads. 
But Stenny trying to stall out a point - combined with Dundee's slightly less junkiness - lead to an early match decider with Konrad's 1-0 in minute 4.
2 more Konrad goals followed and 3 easy points by 4-0 went to the Dark Blues.

Match #39 vs Livingston was definitely more eventful.
In match 38 the Lions played a relegation 6 pointer vs Annan - and sent their puppies, deservedly losing 0-2.
The apparent idea was to surprise the league's highest T11 and grab some surprise points with their 70% top team.
It even did kinda work: Livingston had a 2-1 lead up till min 52 - until two late Dundee goals turned this into an expected and expectable home win.
I'm still not quite convinced that this is the way to go to avoid Div2.

The mid week cup match was Annan again, for the 5th time this season.
A straight T11 clash - and Dundee's bigger numbers prevailed, 3-0. 
Dundee was even slightly lucky that Annan failed to get their expectable shots, but otherwise the only surprise was Reilly failing to score even from the penalty spot.
Stirling next in QF.

The annoying part was elsewhere.
Last week Fraserburgh showed up vs Dundee T11, claiming a slightly lucky 1-0 win.
This week Fraserburgh visited Motherwell junk stalling, losing 0-2.
While both lineups are perfectly understandable, the net result is a 12 pt gap to MOT, instead of 6 - probably time to congratulate Andrew.
 

The latest round of Division 2 games saw EDI travel to SM in the first match and come away with a hard fought point after a 2-2 draw. In the second match, EDI hosted RR and managed a comfortable 4-1 home victory. Those two results meant that EDI remain in 6th position in the table and are still in the running for the promotion spots although the feeling inside the club is that a play-off place is the more likely outcome.

DF Paolo Maldini picked up a booking in the second match last week and therefore misses the first match of this weeks session due to a suspension. Otherwise the manager has a full squad at his disposal as EDI look to push on with an away game at KIL which is followed by a home match with DUU.

Still very much all to play for and EDI will be hoping to apply some pressure on the clubs around them in the league if possible. 

Hello from the Netherlands where I am currently at Beekse Bergen safari park near the end of our third day. It's been amazing. In a short while we will be driving the Efteling, a theme park with a fairy tale theme where we'll spend four nights before driving home via a Saturday night stop in France.

The SESL report will be brief as we continue what seems to be inevitable promotion. I think 3 more wins pretty much guarantees promotion as Forfar would have to win all 8 remaining league games. Connelly and Fuller still dominate the Boot awards which would put is in touching distance of 4000k. However Connelly is suspended for the game against Cove but a loss here would still keep us in first place.

I'd still like to know the starting places for over achievers to see roughly where we need to finish to have a chance.

We started the weekend with a home game against Daniel's Dunfermline, a quality side who always made it hard to play against them,we opted for a 4-3-3 normal as they went for a 3-3-4 normal, they started quickly and opened the scoring on 14 minutes when Oakley fired home 0-1 ,then defences stood firm till half time, 2nd half subs on and we slowly played ourselves back into the game and levelled things up on 51 minutes when Grieves stuck a leg out and deflected home a shot 1-1,we pushed on and Grieves fired home his 2nd on 68 minutes 2-1 ,then defences stood firm till the final whistle, we were outplayed for periods and outshot 5 to 2 ,but took our 2 chances well,well played Daniel.

Next we travelled to Josh's Inverness, another top side who again make it hard to play against them,they opted for a 4-3-3 stall as we went for a 4-3-3 normal, game on and we had the majority of the game and outplayed and outshot them 3 to 0 but could not break down a stubborn defence as it ended goalless 0-0 ,points shared,well played Josh.

So a 4 point weekend sees us sit 10th.

Let's start with Falkirk's good news, four league points from a possible six. Last weekend we started with a home game against Brechin City. A deserved two nil victory with two first half goals from Brophy and Hickey. Then it was fourth placed Aberdeen at home. We took an early lead 3 minutes in though Durie but couldn't find the all important second goal and the Dons deservingly equalised on 67 minutes and that's the way the game ended. In midweek it was a last 32 SESL cup match with Peterhead. We again started well and scored on 15 minutes though Ferguson. We let the lead slip four minutes before halftime. We started the second half just like the first taking the lead again on 60 minutes though Speedie but again let it slip 2 minutes later. That's the way the game finished and onto penalties. With Peterhead playing a skill level 9 keeper this looked a formality. Olmec had other ideas and all the penalties were scored until Speedie missed number 4 for the Bairns and then Weston scored for Peterhead to win five three. A disaster. 

St Mirren have had a mixed season so far this campaign they sit 11th in the table with 8 wins 3 draws and 11 losses. Given them a total of 27 points but a poor goal difference of -18. They are only 3 points away from safety but with important matches to come they need to maintain there push. The main problem is the squad which lacks the depots they would like. When they can put out there top team they are a match for moist teams , but once they have to bring in there lesser players to give the first choice players a rest they struggle to match other teams.

The fans must hope that they can avoid the drop back to the third division at the first ask. If they can they have got some good younger players and if they can get some older higher rated players in they could improve for next season.

Our current situation, wherev ELs are so tight and low, has forced us to play even more defensive lately. And with no win in the last 10 games the supporters were getting restless. 2 draws last week (0-0 and 1-1) appeased them a little and yesterday they were slightly more appeased. We travelled to Albion Rovers and unashamedly played S for the first half, to allow 3 substitutions to help ease out ELs, and despite moving forward 2nd half we created nothing, but at least we didn';t lose anything. 

Slater in goals saved the 3 shots he faced and earned the MOM award, and we ran away with another 0-0. Then Andrew brought his Stranraer lads to Easter Road and we played the same stats. Duifference was we shut out the border lads altogether and half time sub Boyle scored 4 minutes after he came on to win the game for us. 2 shots created, both by ourselves and a good 1-0 win has put us back into 5th place.

Still have got EL problems and have main player O'Rourke, who has never played "a", on a 2 game ban and Levitt on a 1 game ban to contend with. Only plus is both will come back on EL10 with only 6 games left. And we are safe from relegation (although I still prefer playing in any of the other divisions - just me I know - but it isn't the Holy Grail I was lead to believe it was).

Motherwell started the week with a big 4-1 win over Ross County in the last 32 of the SESL Cup. It took until the 41st minute for Motherwell to take the lead, but they would not give it up from there. After a quick goal in the second half, Ross County did pull one back to make it 2-1 after MOT had switched out keepers, but that would be their only shot of the match. Motherwell put in a couple late ones, with both Guy Clark and Ray Wylie Hubbard getting braces. Motherwell will advance to take on Brechin City after they won a tight one over East Fife.

Next up was the big league showdown between #1 and #2, with Motherwell hosting Fraserburgh. The lead at the top was 9 points, so with only 10 matches to go in the season you kind of imagine this match would be an inflection point. Should Motherwell win, they would be heavy, heavy favorites to take home the title. However, a FRA win would narrow the gap to 6 and certainly leave the door open for Motherwell throwing away another title-winning position. However, as soon as FRA lined up it was clear that they did not see the title as possible any longer. A fairly weak stall meant that Motherwell only needed to score one and this would be wrapped up. Billy Bland was the hero on the day, scoring once in the 33rd minute and once right after half time to put this match to bed. The only real excitement in this one came from FRA GK McIntyre racking up 6 saves, but otherwise it was a 2-0 that only had one-way traffic. A match that will appear on the Junk tables later this week. The gap grows to 12 points with 9 matches remaining.

Finally, the visit from ALB was another that could have some spice, should ALB decide to show up. However, the visitors were rather low on EL, and again we ended up with a stall where the away side decided to recouperate some EL for the road ahead. Another match, another junk lineup of 49% SL Used. However, this time Motherwell were able to up their finishing somewhat - both Billy Bland and Guy Clark were able to find the net, with the latter scoring a brace. 3-0 the final here, as MOT maintain their 12 point lead at the top. With 8 matches remaining, Motherwell only need 13 points to guarantee the title, meaning that EL can now likely be focused on trying to aim for a league and cup double. However, that could change should league results start to go in the wrong direction.

After the loss to ANN in the Cecil Cup, EDI can now concentrate on the remaining ten games of the league campaign. EDI currently sit 6th in the Division 2 table and will need to pull up their socks if they are to remain in contention for promotion. There are some tough looking games coming up in the next few weeks including against several of the other contenders for promotion so much can change but the likely BEST scenario for EDI is a play-off game but the manager and team will push on hard.

It’s been another dismal week for the Fifers – just one point gathered from our two games on Saturday, and a SESL Cup exit on Wednesday to third division Brechin City.

Saturday started with a 4-1 thrashing by Albion Rovers.  Not for the first time, our outfield were competitive but we were let down by our keeper.  Matty Rollo (pictured) let four goals in from Albion’s nine on-target shots, while George Kittle saved seven out of our eight on-target shots.

Next came a home tie against Hibernian.  This was a rather dull affair, with only five on-target shots in the whole match.  But still, a 0-0 draw is a significant achievement for us at the moment, so the fans were relatively happy.

Brechin are 14th in Division 3, but fielded the stronger team in our SESL Cup clash.  We took the lead midway through the first half but Brechin scored twice in two minutes to hit half time 2-1 in front.  With 15 minutes left we found an equaliser and were still celebrating when Brechin retook the lead just a minute later.  Well done to Simon and his team, and good luck in the next round against Motherwell.

Relegation is staring us in the face, as we now sit 15th in the table.  But there are still ten games to go, and we are only three points away from the playoff spots, only five points from safety.  All is not (quite) lost!

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

The Great Reunion

This weekend's matches were kind of mediocre and pointless: Another expectable zero goals and points performance at Fraserburgh followed by lucky 3 points and goals vs Motherwell.
It looks like Dundee just might stay in Div1 - probably bad news, since we might even keep this guy as manager.

This week's main event was the mid-week cup session vs Cove: the great reunion with Frankie 'The Eye' Barrett, our former rookie keeper sensation!
You probably remember Frankie from the good ole days when the Blues were strong in values, strong in tradition and maybe not always too strong in skills.
With the new management under coach Habermann came BIG ideas, BIG plans - and surprisingly BIG money.
One of the early victims of 'Dundee 2.0' was beloved rookie Barrett - replaced by some Balkan fly catcher.
Barrett fled to Cove - and waited for his revenge, up until now!

And boy, did he deliver! 
Starting under his new nom de plume 'Nick Suman' he showed four excellent saves, keeping for the ages!
Dundee's current keepers made only three - COMBINED!
Still, 'Nick' showed some real love for his youth club - allowing just enough goals for Dundee to win the tie.
We couldn't help but thanking him after the match - with a huge carrot stick for his cuuuute hamster Mr Fluffy.
How could we ever let this talent(s) go?

All the best for your future, Frankie, and 
Sack this guy!

Right, back today from a trip up the Norwegian fjords (not all of them you understand) we travelled a day in front of the bad weather which ripped across Scotland. We faced it coming back - ship had to hide from the worst up another fjord, but we still had a baaaad night.

Okay, application for the sympathy vote over ( to a thunderous silence I could hear from chez moi) and I did not seek wifi whilst on the trip. So pleasantly surprised to see we stopped the run of defeats with a 2 game set of draws.

At home to Arbroath we might well have considered ourselves unlucky not to have taken 3 points in a 1-1 draw, but away to East Fife we considered ourselves fortunate to escape with a 0-0 draw. Now down to 6th - best place if we want to stay in the top division is 7th to 10th - avoids playoff games, and downright relegation. So we have a plan.

I know where we went wrong at the start of the season - bringing in 2 x age 0/17s which meant we had no cash to bid on an elder player in the early auctions to help out the squad. Next season, if spared I will look to bring in 1 x age 0/17 lad only. My thanks to the 2 clubs involved - much appreciated - and you kept your part of the deal well. Might come back if you were still keen on doing an apprentice. 

Up first this weekend is Albion Rovers - right now every game is a nightmare for us - very glad we got points in early - we are definitely living off the fat of the land right now.

Throwing it away.

I decided not to contest our SESL Cup game against Hearts for several reasons.

1. We probably don't need the extra cash and probably wouldn't win the cup anyway - the best we could hope for is a semi-final against Motherwell, Dumbarton or Fraserburgh. Assuming only 30k participation per week I project us to finish the season with around 3400k and we are well in the lead with Bronze Boot and Rookie Hot Shot for another 600k. And there's also Golden Gloves, Man of the Match, Over Achievers and Worst Shooter which are all possible. A lot would depend on when the awards were added andf when pre-season opened.

2. My keeper, Morrison, can play 9 of the last 10 league games. If he played today and we won it would only be 7. Throwing the last two Group games gave us enough EL to win the last four league games. I admit the next four are a tougher prospect but I didn't want to be in a position of having to throw a game against Forfar or Queens Park.

3. I go on holiday on Saturday and didn't want to be having to find time to do SESL Cup orders by Wednesday and then league orders for the Saturday after. I'm doing both Saturdays anyway but will have a week to tweak anything due to injuries or suspensions.

The manager reports that the entire squad have been training really hard and well in the early part of this week and no no injury worries he has an almost full squad to choose from. The only exception being MF Ronnie Boyce who has to serve a one match suspension that he picked up in the 2nd league game of the most recent session for a booking that took him past the limit.

The upcoming SESL Cup game versus ANN promises to be a very tough game and EDI will do very well to progress to the next round, especially with the manager admitting that he must keep a serious eye on EL's for the next round of league games as EDI currently sit 6th in the Division 2 table and promotion is still possible assuming EDI do not get to carried away in the SESL Cup.