The Fifers just scraped a win against Cowdenbeath in the CECIL Cup on Wednesday. When the lineups were revealed, it looked as if it should be a comfortable victory for us.  Alan Bishop had fielded a weak team (no player above SL19) and decided to stall.  This yielded us a shot advantage of 8.5% to 1.9%.  Not decisive in itself but the Mad Cows had their apprentice keeper (SL5) between the sticks and surely he wouldn't stop much.  Sadly our shooting was woeful, and we didn;t manage a shot on target until the 81st minute - and that effort was a comfortable save.  But with two minutes left we finally broke through when a brilliant solo effort by Kallum Higginbotham (pictured) snatched us a 1-0 victory, our first win of the seson.

Phew!

So 4 games into the season and we are out of the CECIL Cup 1-3 on agg v Dunfermline. A draw 1-1 at home with a 2-0 reverse at EEP. We followed that up with a 1-0 league win v Berwick and a 0-0 draw v Aberdeen. So we are unbeaten at home in 3 matches and a 100% loss away from home (1 game) :)

We welcome into the squad some new blood. 

MF - Lars Holmgren joins from EDI so that we can train him up and have finally have some rotation in that area. 
GK - Max Thompson also joins as an apprentice. A check on the Transfers and players available and there were no GK's so we have to take the hit with a 0/5 GK and pray upon pray we don't get a team on form when he plays in his first 8 ish games. 

Upcoming games away to Clyde (2 wins from 2 in the league so far) and at Home to FOR (1 draw and 1 loss) this coming weekend. 

The league table shows us as 4th. Played 2 - 1 win and 1 draw and the only team in all the leagues after 2 games still not concede a goal :) But we are 1 goal for an 0 against. That will change quickly with this team.

1st leg Cecil Cup saw Falkirk come to call.

We tried EC followed by L and it was going so well with a 2 goal lead going into the last few minutes. At that point Bosman lad Jordan Smith went off with a bad injury (enough for at least 3 Physio Boosts) and with no subs left we gave up a goal to FAL's only shot on target.

So a difficult game to come next Wednesday but reserve SW Marinello, getting ready to retire after game 10, will be brought in for the next 4 games. The rest of the lads will need to step up. We still have started the season with 5 wins from 5 games but none has been an easy ride.

So, it’s a new season and the Fifers have scraped into Division 1.  Our first match was a home tie against Elgin City and this looked like one we could win, boasting a shot chance of 10.6% against 4.6% as well as a slightly better keeper.  But Elgin struck first with a 13th minute goal and we trailed until just before half time when defender Charlie Murray popped up in the box to fire home an equaliser.  And soon after half time we took the lead we deserved, a superb finish by new boy Malachy Cash (pictured).  The 2-1 lead only lasted two minutes before Charlie Murray blotted his copy book with a dreadful clearance which led to a 2-2 scoreline.  And that was the end of the scoring.  We got the shots we deserved but our keeper Matty Rollo had a poor afternoon, conceding two goals from five on-target shots.

On to match two and a trip to Arbroath who boast a slight shot advantage, 7.7% to our 6.0%, but once again we have a better keeper so a draw would seem to be a fair result.  Sadly, that didn’t happen, we were well beaten, 4-1.  Malachy Cash again got a goal here, and it looks as if he will be a great asset for the club.

A disappointing start in the league, we’ll hope to get our first win in the CECIL Cup

In what became the longest-ever address of its kind, Manager Andrew McCumiskey provided his update on SRA as part of his State of the Blues address, offering victorious - and sometimes combative - remarks, praising the work of fellow Blues and outlining his future agenda. 

The annual address by the Manager is made to members of the team, his players, members of the board - along with the manager's family and other guests. 

The speech came at a particularly pivotal time for the manager as tensions flare over STJ appointed Refs, and just days after his opening matches of season 61. 

There are also continued worries over affordability of his big spending policy - which is considered by pundits to be an issue that could cause McCumiskey to lose full control of SRA in mid-season elections later this year. 

Here are several key moments from his evening in the spotlight, speaking to a sharply divided audience and a global audience of tens of millions of SESLers.

1. Longest ever, clocking in at a record one hour and 47 minutes

2. McCumiskey comes face-to-face with Chairman who struck down his trades

3. Dissenting SRA Fans ejected from the room....again

4. Victorious curling stars introduced to chants of 'U-S-A, U-S-A'. (Shouldn't they be singing for Scotland? -Ed)

5. More honours given to record goal scorer Mondo Polestar (FW 4/32). Medal of Honour, Purple Heart and a McDonalds voucher.

More ranting and raving next week.......bet you cannot wait?!

We tried in the 1st auction but have a problem working out whethjer we actually wanted a player or better to save up the cash to have a shot at a more meaningful lad. So we sipped in the middle and came up with no-one. The team is okay for now - at least till the next auction.

This midweek we face Falkirk at home in the 1st leg 2nd round of the Cecil Cup - lads are looking forward to it, but the weekend league games are just as important. It has always been a juggling act.

Motherwell are happy to announce the signing of Tawanda Maswanhise as a veteran reinforcement on our wings. Not having a 3rd winger was a concern for MOT, and this move serves as a big boost to our attack. "This is the type of signing we need to challenge on all fronts this season," said manager Foss-Grant. "Tawanda will play a vital role from day one, and he will ease the strain on our midfield to cover minutes for our wingers. We expect he will serve a vital role on the wing over the next two seasons as we continue also refreshing several positions with youth talent."

Tawanda also marks a big shift in naming convention for MOT - given how well Motherwell are doing in the premiership, MOT will start trying to name signings of note after real Motherwell players as a point of honor. Let's hope they can continue their run of form and reel in a team or two above them in the final months of the season!

Motherwell open the season full of hope after a season of cup runs and excitement from SESL's 60th birthday. Second in T-11 and T-17, Motherwell would hope to make a real challenge at more silverware this year.

First up came a tricky opening fixture away at Livingston again. This fixture has not been a happy hunting grounds for Motherwell in recent memory. Last season saw MOT lose here on opening day, 7-4, and the reverse fixture was a disappointing 2-2 draw for the Well. This year, MOT entered the match with a slight advantage - better shot # and a higher average ShSL. Both sides fielded a SL26 goalkeeper, so it was game on with as close of a 50/50 odds as you typically get in this game. However, it was not to be a good day for the visitors - LIV were gifted a huge flurry of opportunities through some weak MOT defending, and they certainly made them count with both 11th and 12th minute goals. They made it 3 before the half, and there was no way back for the visitors. Motherwell put an embarrassing 2 shots on frame the whole match, and are outshot 8-5 in this one. Bad luck for the visitors, but also some bad play from the GK (1 save from 4) and bad shot distribution (no shots to any of our forwards, 2 shots of 5 on frame). Not the way you want to start your season! Fair play to John - the home side were set up well and were certainly good for their win.

No time to sulk over the result, Motherwell were now in a position where they absolutely needed a win from the home opener against Saint Mirren - the club where manager Foss-Grant got his introduction to SESL. Here, Motherwell were more of favorites for sure. A good gulf in stats and a better GK meant that MOT should likely come away with 3 points here. Again this match saw an early goal, but this time it was winger Jerry Jeff Walker who scored Motherwell's opening goal of the campaign. Motherwell would put many more shots in as the half went on, but the SM GK was playing well today and made a couple big saves. But, his resistance was finally broken again with a 31st minute goal from Townes Van Zandt, not the most likely of goalscorers. Some halftime subs reduced MOT's dominance, but they still seemed well in control of this one. The victory would be sealed in the 60th minute, as substitute Ray Wylie Hubbard would score his 106th goal of his career. This put him now on his own as the 2nd most goals scored for Motherwell, passing up Kris Kristofferson and closing in on Sean OHannigain. He will need 13 more on the season to tie OHannigain's record. His goal also sealed the captain's bonus for himself, as MOT win this one 3-0.

Not the ideal opening weekend, but not a huge disaster either. LIV are always a tough opponent, and if we are going to have a disappointing league run again this season it certainly won't be due to that result. 3 points in the bag, and now it's time to shift our focus to the cup

As reported in the most recent edition of the 'Edinburgh Evening Argus', EDI did indeed make their first significent signing of the season on Sunday evening. The signing saw DF Martin Buchan sign his first professional contract with EDI after joining via the 'Auction' where EDI managed to outbid all others and acquire a much sought after DF who the team consider to have a very bright future. We wish Martin every success in the seasons to come.

Elsewhere, the first Division 1 league session saw EDI lose by the odd goal in three at powerful DEE but gained the first point of the season with a 2-2 draw at home to a good FRA team. 

Quickly on to the 2nd round tie in the Cecil Cup on Wednesday and an away match versus DUM which promises to be a well contested first cup game of the season for EDI.

Not the start to the league we were looking for. 

We started with a home game against Roy's Stirling, a side we always seem to struggle against, we opted for a 5-3-2 normal as they went for a 4-5-1 ball control, both sides started well and enjoyed lots of possession but defences on top for the 1st half,2nd half subs on and we opened the scoring on 68 minutes when Grieves smashed home a loose ball 1-0,but on 76 minutes Stirling hit back as Doyle slotted home 1-1,and just when it looked like a draw was on the cards  Tango slipped through on 85 minutes and slotted home 1-2,we edged the shot count 4 to 3 but come away pointless, well played Roy.

Next we travelled to Tapani's Greenock Morton, a place we have never enjoyed travelling to, as we never get a result. 

They opted for a 4-3-3 normal as we went for a 5-3-2 normal, both sides started well and enjoyed lots of possession but they opened the scoring on 28 minutes when Brophy fired home 1-0,half time came and subs on ,56 minutes and Brophy headed home his 2nd 2-0 and on 59 minutes Marten rose highest and headed home 3-0 and Moffatt sealed the game on 77 minutes 4-0 as they outplayed us for periods and outshot us 6 to 4,well played Tapani. 

So a pointless weekend to our league start.

Falkirk went into the second leg Cecil cup match away at Celtic with a four one advantage from the first leg. After 59 minutes we found ourselves two nil behind and the game wasn't over. Seven minutes later Speedie scored for the Bairns and the tie was won five three on aggregate. We now face Hibernian in the next round. So yesterday the league campaign got underway with an away game at Dundee United. We lost one nil conceding on 29 minutes and couldn't find an equaliser. The second match at home against Inverness was much better. Two second half goals from Gilmour and Ferguson secured a two nil victory for our first three points. Just like this week I think the season will be up and down.

Game Week 1 for league play and we are off to an acceptable start. 

1 Win, 1 Draw. 6th in the table. But the concern is DEE got off to the perfect start and will be difficult for any team to keep up with. Our new players have settled well and hopefully we can build from here. I thought we ahd done a great job of tidying the squad up and getting it set for a strong season, but we have dropped down the T11 charts, so will need to rely on our coaching staff to get stuck in quick and we are still on the look out for a young keeper to build up for next season. Other than that we will have to settle for what we have as we have no available funds. Looking forward to the cup kick off mid week before 2 more tough league games. 

Auction bids are in, but not expecting to pick anything up this time round. We will be slow to build funds as we are using extra coaching slots. 

First league weekend and the team is doing fine - riding a bit good fortune in the opening 2 matches, but a 6 pointer nevertheless.

Away at Hamilton for the opener we were up a goal in the 1st minutre via winger Watson, but the Accies came back through Robinson 14 minutes later. It looked like that might end the scoring but firstly Kennedy with 17 minutes to go put us ahead and Bowie made it 3-1 with 5 minutes left to play.

They possessed a good attack - and will score goals, plenty of them.

Then Nairn came to visit us and on the 14th minute their sweeper Morrison crossed for defender Docherty to put them ahead. It took till a minute from the interval before we got level with Watson's 2nd goal in the league campaign. The winner came halfway through the 2nd half when Bowie connected with a Boyle cross.

Now it is back to Cup action with Falkirk visiting us on Wednesday - should be 2 good games - we are in the same division. 

We are pleased to welcome three new Fifers at the start of the season, one transfer, one Bosman and one apprentice.

Malachy Cash joins on a part-exchange deal with Peterhead, replacing aging superstar Kieran Millar in midfield.  Malachy Is a surfer.  In his VW camper he travels the East coast of Scotland chasing waves in all seasons.  A seaside lover who never got over the feel of sand and the taste of salt, he loves life in a wetsuit with no obligations to anyone else.   He takes his cream tea with the jam first and is mortally offended if it’s raspberry not strawberry.  He is a collector of shells and unusual stones and can always be caught on the beach with his arse in the air happily minding his own business.

Our Bosman signing this season is another midfielder, Lewis Latona.  Show off Lewis hasn’t stopped raving since he hit 16 and is never happier than when throwing shapes in the centre of a circle.  He has a cheeky grin and a fixed thousand-yard stare that is only broken in the frenzied ten minutes in which he needs to purchase next year’s Glastonbury ticket.  His wardrobe principally consists of a wide selection of neon bubble hats and flip-flops, which he supplements with various sweaty band t-shirts that he picks up on his travels.  That said, in his job as head gardener at a stately home he has won awards for his topiary maze design (and the plants don’t care what he wears).

Finally we welcome apprentice defender Joe Halsey.  Joe went on a gap year when he left school and has only recently come back after over three years.  In his travels around Europe he has become fluent in five languages and has never tired of eating dim sum for breakfast.  He still has no place to call his own but instead keeps moving around – his home is wherever he takes his trainers off.  He is a self-proclaimed artist who would maybe have something to show off , but he keeps losing track of his sketchbooks.  Perhaps one day he will finally “find himself” (and some drawings) in a bowl of soup and blow us all away with the talent he’s been assuring us he has.

Cecil cup time again and we drew Ross's Aberdeen .

Home in the 1st leg and both sides opted for a 4-3-3 normal, we started the quicker and opened the scoring on 4 minutes when Henderson powered home his header 1-0,but Aberdeen hit back and levelled things up on 10 minutes when Burke slotted home 1-1,20 minutes and we had our noses back in front when McTominay headed home 2-1 and right on the stroke of half time Chilvers raced through and slotted home 3-1,half time came and subs on we pushed on and sealed the win on 63 minutes when Grieves fired home 4-1 as we outplayed them for periods and outshot them 9 to 2,well played Ross.

Away leg and again both sides opting for normal 4-3-3 tactics, again we started the quicker and opened the scoring on 10 minutes when Chilvers fired home 0-1,17 minutes and he fired home his 2nd 0-2,23 minutes and McTominay drilled home 0-3,but on 24 minutes we were down to 10 men as McTominay saw red ,34 minutes and McLeish fired home 1-3,half time came and subs on ,we started quickly and Wright fired home 1-4 and Smith sealed the game on 89 minutes 1-5 as we outplayed them for periods and outshot them 7 to 2 ,well played Ross.

So into the 2nd round, 1st time for a few seasons. 

CECIL Cup - okay the 1st hurdle is over and now we sit in the draw along with the 1st division teams (guessing few of them would have wanted to go out to a shock result in a 1st round tie. I KNOW - it has been done to give the lower divisions 2 extra games for income and training, but when the 2nd round of the Cup comes we will hqave had 6 matches of ELs to consider, as against the 4 matches the top lot will have played.

(Nobody get excited about this Journal - I am just on for participation cash, and a bite!! :-))

2nd leg versus a Clyde side training up a couple of recruits went to plan, nearly. I put in a tactic to go S if I got 3 goals ahead (to avoid our visitiors the possibility of a blowout, BUT did not put in a tactic to up the game if we were 2 ahead - missed out on a 2nd Captains bonus in a 2-0 win. Still, we go on, and I see we are down to play Falkirk. Should be good games.    

Just a couple of days to go before the big KO for Division 1 teams to join in the action of season 61 and EDI have posted their starting line-ups for their first two games back in Division 1. The nervous excitement is building here in EDI ahead of those games but everyone here are very much looking forward to Saturday.

The manager is hopeful of making a new signing in the next few days but there is currently no news regarding at which position that signing may be at. Media and supporters alike are all playing the guessing game but the manager is certainly playing his cards close to his chest on this one and there are not even any hints or clues being leaked from the EDI hierarchy about this.....the manager has learned his lessons on this subject it would seem.

So Scott Brown went up against Neil Lennong at Somerset Park in the 1st leg of out CECIL Cup Match. The Ayr fans looking at our bench would have been praying for a miracle to get anything and hoping players remain healthy. 

Ayr started defensively with a back 5 and 2 in MF and hoping for a quick break for the 3 up top but a mistake by Sanders gifted the ball to Crimm and it was 0-1 after 19mins. 

9 mins later and we equalised when one of the 2 MF Marco Rus broke uplift and levelled. That was our only shot on target in the game with 2 off target. 

Dunfermline had 1 more on target was could not score so the game ended 1-1 with a 2nd leg to device on the who progresses to the next round. 

Good to see the season under way again. Pre-season planning completed by all clubs and sights set on glory. 

STE are just compiling lineups for week 1 league matches, on the expectation that pre-season trading is complete. Happy with where we have got to, but we need the coaches to get out early and start rebuilding some skill back in to these players, some of which celearly have eaten too much over the break! 

Still looking for long term GK options, but otherwise dont think we need anyone else in until mid-season, when we will need to refresh with a numbe rof older players still in the squad. 

Good luck to everyone - there's a lot of football to be played!

Falkirk had high hopes going into the new season and played their opening Cecil cup match at home against Celtic yesterday. We started off well going ahead early on 8 minutes though Gilmour but conceded an equaliser on 41 minutes. After this we didn't look back. We took the lead again just before halftime with a Durie goal and then scored twice more in the second half though McTominay and Rougvie. It gives us a great chance to qualify going into the away leg. 

Okay, we are off and running - well, for a few days perhaps. Cecil Cup put us up against Clyde and we arrived at Shawfield to find the home lads were blooding their new recruits. Having said that we reached half time with virtually all the action and no goals and this was perhaps my most attacking side I have put out in ages.

However once Boyle had scored for us on 74 minutes the floodgates opened and Bowie and a headed cross from Kennedy made it 3-0. It gained our sub defender Lekburn, skipper for this season, a good Captain's bonus and a healthy lead to trake to next midweek's 2nd leg. We also got training in for our Bosman, Sweeper Jordan Smith. A good day, but it won't always be like this.

On the eve of our season kicking off I find myself contemplating where Stirling Albion is as a team and where it can go from here. I found Ricky's review of Stenhousemuir's success a riveting read, That and other manager comments about youth training suggests 4 youths is not the way to go,

Picking one auction youth with great potential is a great but expensive option. Selling 10 TP would help. Although I think I tried that one season but no-one was buying.

Over in SFLSL with a max SL and three free players in the draft having a younger squad seems to be a better route to success. But here Stirling usually has one of the older squads in SESL. So I was surprised to fin we have the youngest squad in SESL at the start of the season.

This will be our 8th season in division 3 which is far too long. In that moment of contemplation I realised it's been 7 seasons since I raised the OTF to 10 and started using ball control. Could it be linked? I hope not but if we fail to make it into division 2 this time round I may have to don my thinking cap once again.

Again it is thanks to Mark for turning round the season fast. I know the elite don't kick off till a week tomorrow but the majority of us get to start in around 24 hours. 

Looking forward to it - at Easter Road we felt the training went well last season and although we don't have the plethora of SL30+ players the 1st division has, I am happy we have middle of the road lads who, if push comes to shove, have replacements in the squad ready to cover, and will provide a good game for the supporters.. 

I enjoy the matches but do suffer from EL problems on occasions (on occasions? - ed!!) but that is the way we play and after 30-40 seasons of play we won't be changing any time soon.

Aspirations? I think we could/should be pushing for promotion, and we will make the effort, but I would really like to make an impact in the Cups. I have never won a Cup in SESL - been in at least 2 finals but got smacked in both.

We are rated 4th in T11 but 1st in T17 so not anticipating arelegation. We will be retiring a few lads after match 10, including sweeper Marinello, who has been a tower at the back (and gouing forward), and our Bosman this season has been a replacement sweeper, who will be trained up in 10 games.

Welcome to the 11 new clubs who will be on our map for this season - told you the 2nd division is the division with the most changes each season - variety - something the other 2 divisions don't have. Think I might stay here... !!   :-)

With Division 1 teams having a BYE in the first round of the Cecil Cup, the league campaign for Division 1 teams is now only a little over a week away and the EDI squad is probably now going to be 'as is' going into the first few games at least.

The manager currently has no trades in the pipeline and is increasingly unlikely to change that stance unless a decent opportunity should arise to improve the current squad at any position but again, thats seems not to be an option at the present time as the trade board holds no interest at this time.

The latest financial report for EDI is said to be satisfactory and that allows the manager to spend if and when required without adversely effecting future coaching and training plans. At some point during the season the manager intends bringing through two youngsters from the youth academy but at which playing positions is still undecided. The first few league games will surely pinpoint where the roster may need some further depth.