2019/20 - Update Two

November 2019

One thing you learn about the lower reaches of Scotland is that there are cup competitions, and quite a few of them.

Our first match of the month was the first round of the Highland League cup, where we did well to come back from 2-0 down.  We also played the last half of extra time with 10 men after getting a red card and made it to penalties which turned out to be a step too far for us.  The plus side to this is that it's not a competition I, or the board, overly care about at this point.

Next up was Rothes and this time it was us who let a 2-0 lead slip away.  But it was a very close match and both teams had chances to win, but a combination of wasteful shooting and two goalkeepers on fine form saw it end up level.

The Strathspey Thistle match was surprisingly exciting despite there being no goals.  Pretty much end to end, but both teams put on a solid defensive display.  And it's a clean sheet, which always gives me some satisfaction with how suspect our defence is.

Next up was a match I expected us to get mullered in.  It was goalless at the break, but when Stranraer took the lead with a cheeky back-header from a corner, I expected the floodgates to open.  Instead, my team decided to turn on the style and were rewarded with a couple of late goals.  I did decide to shut up shop after our 2nd goal, moving the wing-backs to full-backs, and moving one of the strikers back into midfield, and we held on to the 2-1.

Our reward for this is a home tie in the 4th round against Hibernian.  Would have been far better to get an away tie with the money that will bring in, as the chances of us find our way past Premier League opposition is virtually nil.  That said, I'd never imagined we'd progress this far, so anything from this point is a bonus really.

Last up for the month was an overdue league win against Clachnacuddin.  We should have scored more as we were all over them, but a win is a win and our unbeaten run in the league is now 7 games.  Whilst most of these are draws, I'm happy enough with the fact we're proving a tough side to beat which is the first piece of the puzzle at a club like this.

December 2019

Another unbeaten month in the league, even more impressive given the last two games were against the top two,

Against Wick, we twice went a goal down in a mad 10 minute spell only to equalise almost immediately from the kick-off on both occasions.  We then managed a winner midway through the second half and held on to earn the three points.

We made hard work of beating struggling Lossiemouth, but we got there in the end with a clean sheet to boot.

Both the last two games were against the side who were top of the table at the start of the day.  Against Inverurie Locos, both teams had chances to win but the finishing on display was very much lacking.  On balance, we were probably quite lucky but our defence did a great job.

We actually took the lead against Brora, but they equalised with a fantastic counter attack and a great finish.  No complaints about the result.

We're solidly mid-table, which is a position I'd have happily taken.  We're also 11 games unbeaten in the league.  I have no idea how long we can keep this up, but I'm happy.

My main worry currently is the lack of goals coming from the strikers.  Sean McKenzie hasn't scored in quite a while, and Bailey White seems to have gone off the boil a bit after a red-hot start when I first drafted him into the team.

January 2020

The month began with a win against Turriff United, which was what we had expected.

Next up, our impressive unbeaten run in the league was ended by Formantine United.  Not nice to have the run ended, but given I'd not expected to see any such run in the first season I can't really have any complaints.

I had to be happy with the 2-2 draw against Buckie Thistle.   It's not a match I overly expected to get a result in, and we twice came back from a goal down to salvage a point.

We then had the big cup match against Hibs, which saw Claggan Park completely sold out.  We obviously did not expect to get any sort of result here, and we did well in all honesty to not lose by more.  We defended well overall, but ultimately the huge difference in quality was the deciding factor.

We finished up with a match where we again went behind early on, but turned things around to win 4-1, with left winger Ross Gunn scoring all of our goals for the first hat-trick I've seen as manager here,

The table is looking better than I'd have ever guessed at this point.  We're not going to trouble the title race, but we're doing well in my opinion.