We've let go our previous press officer on account of not showing up for work for the entire season so now we're back with this week's edition of what's the latest at QP.

In personnel news we are happy to welcome experienced sweeper Wout Poels to join the Spiders. More depth at the back has been a serious need and while he will sadly hit MSA almost immediately he will definitely be a starter for us for the rest of the season. Also, veteran forward Taylor Phinney has returned from an intense midseason training camp and looks to be a whole new player on the front line. Our newly reinforced lineup has a couple of important games this session before MSA to try and take maximum advantage of the new SL in our squad.

On the pitch it's been a regular roller coaster ride. We are maintaining our position above the relegation zone but only by the skin of our teeth. A big difference from last year is that our GD is not abysmal and is actually the only thing keeping us above the playoff line. That's thanks to the development of backup goalkeeper Elise Chabbey giving us a good option no matter who's between the sticks. Looking up in the table we have 4 points between us and Stirling in 6th so we've got work to do but it's not out of reach yet to slip into the playoffs for promotion.

Results wise 3 of the last 4 sessions have been 3 points at home and no points away and we finally broke that pattern with a bit of luck against Cove Rangers last week when we got a point away. That looked like it could be a solid point that would get us up the table but we dropped a 1-0 result to Celtic at home that halted our progress.

This weekends league session sees EDI host QP in the first match and that is followed by an away trip to ELG. Both games look sure to be competitive and EDI will need to be on their best form if we are to get anything out of the session.

MSA follows those games and is certain to have a significent impact on the second half of the season for all teams certainly that includes EDI as much as any club.

The SESL Cup group stages quickly follow and after a good look at the make-up of Group E it would appear that chances of EDI progressing to the knock out stages of the competition are slim to say the least. Having said that, the manager has stated that EDI will give it our best shot to qualify but as will be the case with many other other clubs, the league will have to take priority at this stage.

It’s not every session that you have two away games but that was the case for the Jags on Saturday.

First up was a trip to FAL. It’s a tricky place to go but the home were low on EL and PT chose to play a decent team rather than rest up which is their normal modus operandi.

It didn’t quite payoff as FAL ignored the EL levels and they too fielded a decent team.

Strangely, PT tried to bring in their young GK and SW for some training in the first half and FAL took full advantage. Miraculously for PT it was only 1-0 at halftime and Thistle changed their lineup for the second half.

Although the lineup improved PT were not quite on the same level as FAL but they did get a late equaliser against the run of play.

Absolute robbery but PT remain above relegation threatened FAL.

Next up was the short trip down the A739 to Govan. Another team low on EL but also another team willing to go well into negative figures to get the points.

Unfortunately for RAN, PT were fully prepared for this match and the home goal was absolutely battered by an away team that was looking to steamroller their opponents.

Rangers held out for the first 45 minutes and Thistle then upped their game slightly which helped to produce the first goal after just one minute of the restart.

Totally against the run of play RAN managed two goals to take the lead with just 12 minutes remaining but PT were not done yet.

A late equaliser for a second game in a row for PT foiled the gers from gaining all three points.

Probably fair as the RAN GK had a total of 14 saves so a home win would have been harsh on the visitors.

Well the season has been a bit of a mixed bag of results and at present we sit in 14 th place six points from saftey. The positives for the squad is that we have recruited several younger players which could put us in a better place after mid session ageing. Alongside the age 0/1 players the age 2/3 players are progressing well and could still play an a important part in the remainder of the season. The team need to improve there results going into the second half of the season to try and avoid dropping straight back down into the Third division.

Lets see what the rest of the first half of the season and whole of the second half will bring for the club.

Motherwell have continued their best ever league form, winning 14 of 14 for a maximum 42 points. Strikers Billy Bland and Guy Clark have a healthy 12 and 11 goals already, with plenty of goals spread around the team beyond that. We are on pace for a club record number of goals in a season (58 down, pacing for 124), so all in all the season is going quite well for us.

However, some supporters have started to notice that the team is getting old without many new faces coming into the side. Usually by this point, we are used to seeing two or three youth players bedding in. However, the only new signing on the year so far has been FW Regan Charles-Cook. With an ageing GK rotation and a defense that also looks past their prime, What will the management do to fill the gaps? Looking forward to next season, MOT will be fine in two positions. The FW line will be fine for at least the first half of the season until Guy Clark eventually needs to be replaced with youth. MF should be similarly fine, but the 6/21 and then 6/15 MF Al Bondigas should be able to cover as 3rd MF all season. However, WG, DF, and GK are another story. Tawanda Maswanhise won't be playable beyond this season. Emmanuel Longelo and Jimmie Vaghan are both over the hill. Gary Clark Jr will only be a player for us all season if he gets a full training as second captain. Merle Haggard needs replacing yesterday. 4 - 5 players needing replacing is no small effort, and it's an effort that may require a combination of auctions, trades, and even the rare apprentice signing should the players we need not show up or be won at auction.

What does it all mean? Probably that we have more rebuilding to do than we've had in more than a few seasons. Our T-17 is currently great, but if left alone it will fall off very rapidly. Our rotation currently has 2x age 7, 2x age 6, 3x age 5, and 3x age 4. Let's get to work sorting out the future of Motherwell FC!

14 games in and it's been a mixed bag currently sitting in the relegation playoffs spots in Division 2 after 3 losses in a row.   6 games ago we were in the automatic promotion spots, as Mr David Blair always says Division 2 is where the action is.   Hopefully we can climb the table.   My mission to rebuild the defence is going well.  Two age 1,s and an age 0 all with a lot of tp on them already.   Cp wise waiting know to mid season aging to get Forward Mason Crosby fully cped 

Could be the kiss of death this, but here goes... We appear to be over the worst of this season - last weeks green shoots have been converted into some solid momentum now. That difficult start to the season, which turned into some stronger results, could more recently be taken as a really strong run. These fans have got used to competing in recent years, so this feels much better. 

It's now 8 league games without defeat. And this weekend we broke the W-D cycle which lasted 3 weeks, with back to back victories. More over the nature of the results was brilliant. 2-0 and 5-0, proving that we can not only put together a strong run and maintain it, but we can keep clean sheets - crucial to our sponsors - there's hope yet. 

This coming weekend sees the start of the return fixtures - i hate it when you face a team that are bottom of the league, they should be a bad team - but theyre not - a very strong squad, which means 2 mor etough games this week before we assess SESL cup plans. 

We have also had some good fortune in the Stats, as Render had a blinder this week and has shot to (joint) top of the scorers table. Can he keep this going? Im not sure. We havent had a prolific scorer for as long as i can remember, but lets be honest this guy has the raw talent and the potential.

Squads in good shape so expect some strong lineups this weekend - we want the points and we are going to go for it! 

We started with an away game at Matt's Albion Rovers, a quality side with quality players and some serious firepower, they opted for a 4-2-4 early ball as we went for a 5-3-2 stall hoping for a cheeky point, game on and we were strong in defence as we stopped the majority of attacks and our keeper did the rest till half time,2nd half subs on and on 48 minutes we took the lead on one of our frequent forays past the half way line as Phillip's fired home his 1st goal for the club with a 20 yard piledriver 0-1,then it was back to defending as they outplayed us and outshot us 10 to 2,but Foster in our goal was in outstanding form with 5 saves,well played Matt.

Next we were at home to Leon's Devonerale, another quality side with quality players and plenty of firepower, we opted for a 4-3-3 normal as they went for a 4-2-4 early ball, game on and we spent the majority of the 1st half defending just in front of the 18yd box stopping all attacks,half time came and subs on ,a quick attack on 52 minutes saw Chilvers past defenders with ease and fire home a low shot 1-0,from then on defences ruled and closed down all attacks before they could develop, they outplayed us for periods and outshot us 8 to 6,but Foster in our goal was in outstanding form with 7 saves,well played Leon

So a 6 point weekend sees us climb to 5th place in the division and our run of 3 games sees us seal our sponsorship, what a weekend.

First we start with the positive. A home match against Partick Thistle. We started great, scoring early on 3 minutes through Ferguson. We then had the better of the game but couldn't find the second and ended up conceding with 5 minutes left to draw one all. Now the negative. An away game at third placed Saint Mirren. We played stall but still managed to concede 3 times from just 5 shots. We dropped back to second bottom, just one point above bottom club Deveronvale. Two matches to play before we start the second half of the season after mid season ageing. Hopefully we can improve. 

EDI started the latest weekend with a good 2-0 home win over RAN and followed that with a 3-3 draw at STI highlighted by a FW Lee Wood hat-trick. The four points meant that EDI remained in 4th position in the Division 2 league table and challenging for promotion still.

MSA follows next weekends league session and all at EDI hope that it will give a small boost to the squad in comparison to most other teams in Division 2, albeit only a small boost.

The search continues for a suitable DF, DM or MF to reinforce the defensive area which is much needed as EDI continue to leak goals badly. No such problems at the attacking end of the field currently as the WGs and FWs continue to get the job done but some help from the defence would surely help. 

Financially, EDI are in reasonable shape and also have a few CPs to spare if required to get a suitable trade over the line should the option arise.

An unhappy weekend for us as we continue to slip towards division 2.

We have now managed one win in the last 7 matches and 4 losses on the bounce.

It wasn't the unlucky 1-0 home loss to Livingston that hurt - that is bad enough but Winger Jim Watson was carried off and missed game 2 and at least the opener next Saturday, but then to get ace MA Pat Quinn injured in game 2 @ Stenhousemuir, ensuring he misses at least game 1 next saturday too.

The fact both were on "n" and both are SL29 is the pain - couldn't happen to an SL12, oh no.

The 5-0 drubbing at Stenhousemuir wasn't a surprise with Watson gone, and now all we have really is the SESL Cup to try to make the last 32 and keep the training going. Fast losing interest in the season, at least we wouldn't have suffered a blowout if Stennie had scored a 6th.

Stirling are now 5th in Division 2 after a win and loss at the weekend.

We lost the prediction league match away to Elgin, where I really should have played defensively and predicted a loss, especially with the team I fielded, but I went with heart over head. So decent score in the PL but our lead is down to one point. I had thought Elgin would have rested more players as they finished with over half their team in negative EL and one minor injured player because of it.

In the next home match we finally beat Cove Rangers. It was a little tighter than I would have hoped with just 3 shots created, 2 on target and they fell to my 2 lowest SL attacking players. Luckily one shot was converted.

I have also been trying to bring in a defender via the Auctions, but finished 2nd for both available defenders. 

The manager has been taking some time to reaccess the current state of the squad and also looking ahead to what it may look like at the start of next season.

He has pinpointed one or two weakish areas and at the same time decided on future plans to strengthen not only in those positions but the squad overall. Clearly defence and midfield need some attention and will probably need more next season. All this will depend on the clubs finances this and next season and the manager feels that EDI are in a decent position currently to move forward positively, whether that happens this season or the manager waits till next season before looking to strengthen will largely depend on whether any potentially suitable player becomes available in the coming few weeks and obviously at what cost, allowing for next seasons plans not being compromised too much.

EDI feel they have a few options open to them at the moment but nothing has been confirmed or ruled out at the time of going to press. However, the manager has stated that he is exploring a couple of possible trades but these are very much in the opening stages of simply enquiring if a certain player(s) may be available and is still very much open to other offers.

On other matters...no dicision has yet been made regarding what 'Staff purchase' the manager might make on  next Wednesday or indeed if EDI dicide to make any purchase at all.

Falkirk secured their second victory of the season and moved off the bottom of the table. Yesterday didn't start well after the opening game away at Celtic finished in a three nil defeat. Celtic remained joint top and the Bairns bottom. We then played Edinburgh City at home who we're going well in third place. Two late first half goals and the match was tied at one apiece. We then went two one behind early in the second half before scoring three times in four minutes to win the game four two. A deserved victory which saw us move into fourteen position. 

So, last week I was wondering about the value of a 6/13 GK. Essentially a backup for the main GK. The guy you play when you are resting and you know you are trying to win the game. Well yesterday we found out the value of an SL 12 GK. The BER GK conceded 10 goals while saving just 1.
When I look at some of these Division 3 teams I have to ask why these teams have duffers in their squads when they could have made use of the cash for old duffers scheme just two weeks ago.
BER has two 5/12 players that could have been traded in for a total of 288k. Another couple of even worse duffers and two age 0 apps could have been brought in for free.
Same DFA who traded in s 6/13 GK when, perhaps, a better option would have been to trade out some duffers and bring in 0/5 GK.
Both these teams have zero age 0 players and have a spare 20 TP at their disposal.
Interestingly I noted that a more experienced manager admitted that he did know how the trade in oldies/bring in an app worked as he had never done it before.
Perhaps these less experienced guys (less than 100 matches in SESL) were unsure or unaware of the scheme.
Now, as the subject line suggests, I have a question. Should we explain to the new guys how the scheme works and how it would benefit their team? More so, should we allow them to access the scheme before MSA?

Its not a headline, that we have a new striker called Green, who has taken his first shot. 

But it is a headline that suggests performances have started to improve for Stenny after a difficult start to the season. We had 1 win from the first 6 fixtures, but we knew we were better than that. The coaching staff put in extra shifts and worked with specific players aligned with the tactics we needed to gets some results. The next few games sawe better results and we are now undefeated in the last 6 games. Although our sponsors are looking for more - we need 3 games in a row without conceeding a goal - not sure where that might come from this season, but we do have a strong defence overall.

So, we have climbed the table and out of the relegation places to a respectable 7th. But there's work to do, continuing our 5 season run of finishing in the top 5 would be success. Top 4 looks physically possible, but higher than that looks unlikely based on current points and the strneght of the teams. 

A few games left in the league, where we will be pushing for every point before the SESL cup games get under way and looming after that is a the MOT game no one wants - but we cant let them go the full season on a 100% record can we?

One of the biggest issues facing us currently is long term finances. At this stage of the season, you start to get a feeling for what next season and beyond will look like. We havea good team, a weaker squad and the average age suggests the next season should be OK, but longer term our finances are starting to look like they will start to cause an issue. We really need the sponsor payout and a couple of end of season awards to help pbolster the bank balance - but both look unlikely. Do we start to focuson getting the right results in the right way to secure some payouts or continue to focus on league position? Theres no run away leader on Top scorer yet, so Render will stay in the mix, otherwise there's not a lot we are in the hunt for!  

The latest league session turned out to be somewhat crazy with a serious goal fest in the first game and was followed by a slightly lesser affair in the second game.

First up was a 12 goal thriller at DEV which EDI were fortunate enough to come out on top by 5-7 which included a hat-trick for EDI FW Clyde Best. That was followed by a 4-2 loss at FAL but despite the loss, EDI remain in the promotion places albeit only just.

EDI seem able to score freely but clean sheets look to be a thing from the past at the moment. Defensive reinforcements may be required soon by the look of things.

We started with an away game at David's Kilmarnock, a strong side with quality all over the pitch, both sides opting for normal 4-3-3 tactics, game on and they started the quicker and opened the scoring on 12 minutes when Morrison headed home 1-0,both defences then stood firm till half time, 2nd half subs on and back to it, 61 minutes and Mitchell fired home 2-0,71 minutes and Morrison fired home his 2nd 3-0 ,73 minutes and Alston powered home his header at the back post 4-0 and on 76 minutes Morrison raced in to complete his hat trick 5-0,they outplayed us for periods and outshot us 6 to 4 ,well played David.

Next we were at home to Raymond's Dumbarton, another strong side who have quality players all over the pitch, again both sides opting for 4-3-3 normal tactics, both sides started well and enjoyed lots of possession but we opened the scoring on 21 minutes when Lopata drilled home from range 1-0,and against the run of play we went 2-0 up on 24 minutes when Fraser fired home ,we were under the kosh from constant attacks as we could not retain any possession for any length of time, half time came and subs on ,they pushed on and pulled one back on 56 minutes when Doyle fired home 2-1,we struggled to get out of our own half as they outplayed us and outshot us 14 to 5,but Foster in our goal was in outstanding form with 11 saves which kept us in the game ,well played Raymond, amazing attacking side you have there.

So a 3 point weekend sees us sit 10th,we need to address our away form and possibly change tactics to pick up some points.

Motherwell were knocked out of the CECIL Cup for their first cup elimination since the CECIL cup season 60 (2 seasons ago). We had the bad luck of drawing top T-11 squad SRA at the wrong time - had it been in the earlier rounds we might have had a T-11 advantage, and had it been the later rounds we might have caught up to their CP spending. But, as it was, it was all set up for a big showdown between the side with all of the momentum (huge win streak, a few trophies in a row) vs the side with the strongest T-11 out there. Definitely was set up to be a cracker!

The first leg was a surprise 2-2 at SRA, with the home side probably favored to win given the stats, so it was a bit of luck that MOT got a late equalizer to deny what would have been a deserved 2-1 home win. But, Motherwell paid for that luck in the second leg, seeing their best player, 3/37 FW Billy Bland, limp off the pitch just 29 minutes in.SRA would take the lead from there, but a quick MOT equalizer leveled at the half. Motherwell still had the stats advantage, but it was the visitors that took the important 2-1 lead 56 minutes in. Motherwell would simply not create enough chances to really test Klayhammer, and it was SRA that would get the late goal in this one, sealing the tie. A well-won victory for Andrew at SRA, as they will certainly be favorites to take home the trophy now. MOT will return to the league campaign and take another run at the SESL cup during the second half.

What are some of the prevantable reasons why we got knocked out? As far as I can see there were two main ones:

1. Not spending enough CP early in the season. We went the budget-friendly route while SRA spent almost all of theirs quickly. That gave them a T-11 boost, and meant that players like Memphis Slim were 2/29 MF instead of 2/33 and John Lee Hooker was a 4/25 DF instead of 4/29 or even 4/35
2. In somewhat the same management vein, we didn't take enough risks. While we did push some aggression once down and did spend to have a HB40, we could have gone further. It ends up that this would have been a good match for counterattack. However, we thought our advantage would be great enough that we could get by with a tactic that didn't allow the opposing manager to neutralize us with a favorable tactical combination. But, it turns out, counterattack would have done us wonders in the second leg. Alas.

EDI currently sit in 3rd place in the Division 2 league table but with two awkward looking away games upcoming that may well change by Saturday evening. The manager is under no illusion that there are no easy games for EDI but relishes the challenges ahead that face the team.

MSA is now clearly on the horizon and this may help EDI slightly compared to a few teams in our division but any advantage looks sure to be only minimal currently. 

Club finances are improving slowly as the season progresses and the manager is reported to be satisfied with  the current state of affairs and also with the latest end of season projections. 

On the playing side of things, the current crop of youth players progress nicely and are all looking to be quality players in the years ahead for EDI. With that in mind it has been suggested that a slight change of tack may be in the pipeline when it comes future player recruitment in an attempt to add a little more depth to the squad moving forward.

Back to the present and its the two away games at DEV and FAL that occupy the focus of the team at the moment and need for a result or two remains paramount as always.