Francesc Fabregas

Nor me, and I found the length of Curtis Lyle's contract surprising in the circumstances, but maybe it's the best we can do for the time being. Conor Brennan's injury sounds incredibly painful but it seems like he's on the road to recovery. I wish him all the best.

Pie and Bovril is my all-time favourite website. I've been using it for almost 18 years after an associate recommended it to me and it's the very best place on the internet to talk about and debate Scottish football - nothing else comes close. It's the first place I come after a Stenhousemuir match, and I feel like I've learned so much about the game courtesy of this site: a reasonable degree of knowledge I've been able to take on in my career. On top of that, I've had some brilliant real-life interactions, most notably playing for the Pie and Bovril Select side between 2006 and 2009 (who could forget David Wilson's lob from inside his own half against Bairnfica!) and winning the Pie and Bovril Fives tournament in 2007 with a squad largely pooled from people who used the site (and judging by the photos from this period, my vibe was simply appalling). Here's to another 20 years! Finally, the greatest post in the history of Pie and Bovril is: Ronkers

Hello! Stenhousemuir have signed Curtis Lyle from Kilmarnock on an 18-month contract. How did he perform during his time at Stranraer?

Stenhousemuir have signed Curtis Lyle on an 18-month contract. Is he any good?

As expected, we have signed a goalkeeper: Curtis Lyle has joined from Kilmarnock on an 18-month contract, following a loan spell at East Kilbride. I'm hoping he bucks the trend of goalkeepers we've signed from the Lowland League by being "good".

Fair play to Liam Brown - he could have been a superstar at the Warriors but he is, without a doubt, the most disappointed I've ever felt towards a signing. Good riddance. I hope we can use Brown's/Craig Bryson's allocated wage to bring in a quality midfielder who actually wants to play for Stenhousemuir. What a concept!

Every game in League 2 is a big game and it doesn't get much bigger than East Fife versus Stenhousemuir. It's the fourth meeting between the sides this season and, frankly, I can't wait. I wouldn't say that the Warriors are revitalised just yet but there does seem to be "a good buzz about the place" since Gary Naysmith took charge and recorded our first win in three months over Stranraer last weekend. I'd like to think we can build on that victory and maintain our good record against the Fifers - two wins and a draw - and maybe even sneak into the play-offs, something that seemed unthinkable a couple of weeks ago (although that's more down to the topsy-turvy nature of every team outside of Dumbarton and Stirling Albion than anything else). I'd be loathe to make too many changes from the side that defeated Stranraer. I'd expect us to recruit a new goalkeeper in time for the match, and I reckon they'd come straight into the starting XI. I'd also like to see Will Sewell fielded ahead of Tam Orr - Orr has his uses but his poor hold-up play and his ineffectiveness in challenging for aerial balls really put us under pressure against the Blues and although it's not Sewell's natural game, he's probably better at it. A new centre-forward is another position we need to look at. - Will Sewell - - Euan O'Reilly - Adam Brown - Matty Yates - - Mick Miller - Nat Wedderburn - - Callum Yeats - Nicky Jamieson - Dan Higgins - Adam Corbett - - [New goalkeeper] - We've done well enough against East Fife so far this season and I hope we can keep it going. See you in Methil!

It's great that Conor Brennan seems to be recovering after his injury on Saturday: On a completely different note, it was good to see the new management team in the Wee Bar before and after Saturday's match. Supporter engagement is important at any level and having Gary Naysmith and Brown Ferguson popping in to say hello to fans was a nice touch and went a long way. They've been in the door one week and they've done far more to interact with supporters than the previous mob ever did!

Sounds like Conor Brennan's injury is really serious. Hopefully he makes a full and speedy recovery.

What a weird and overly critical post. I don't think you can accuse anyone in maroon of lacking in attitude or effort today, I don't think you can really blame Conor Brennan for Stranraer's goal, and I don't think you can begrudge Jay Cantley's time wasting when we spent long periods of the second half under extreme pressure. Anyway! I'm absolutely delighted we won today's game - that's our first three points in over three months (against a team we're notoriously flakey against, no less); a vital victory. Had results gone against us today, we could have dropped to the foot of the table. The match itself was entertaining, a real "game of two halves", and while Stranraer might feel unfortunate not to have taken something the contest, we probably should have put it beyond doubt at the death. After a tentative opening spell, Stenhousemuir grew into the game and were the better team in throughout the first half, scoring two superb goals through Matty Yates. The first was a wonderful free-kick from around 20 yards and the second was a supremely taken, his shot thumped into the ground, like 2016 Mesut Ozil, and bounced over George O'Connor. Yates' goals bookended Stranraer's consolation and a terrible injury to Brennan. Josh Walker found space inside the box to send a powerful low header towards goal, which Brennan did well to paw away but Nicky Jamieson slid in, whacking Brennan, and gave Walker the opportunity to finish. (Walker actually flicked the ball up before hitting it, which indicates he thought the referee would stop the match, but the goal stood.) Brennan law prone for nine minutes and left the pitch in a stretcher, blood streaming from his head. It looked like a serious injury and he could be out for a while. He was replaced by Cantley. Gary Naysmith needed to recruit a new goalkeeper during the transfer window anyway but Brennan's absence makes it an absolute necessity because it's very clear Cantley cannot be trusted. Following on from his terrible performance at Stirling Albion last weekend, he looked frightened any time the ball came in his general direction. On two occasions, he wiped out his team-mates after some poor decision-making, and he dropped a straightforward catch from a looping ball. Any time Stranraer won a set-piece, they crowded the goalkeeper and lumped balls on top of him, much like the Binos did, and it was only through some dominant defending from Jamieson that prevented any of them from counting. Cantley didn't have a serious save to make all match and somehow looked hopeless. The second half, for the first 15 or 20 minutes, was exclusively one-way traffic and it's fair to say it was a sterile pumping. Stranraer had us pegged back to the extent the ball must have been in their half of the pitch a handful of times. We just could not get out. Tam Orr, who turned in a typically frustrating display, could not make the ball stick up front and it came back on us, ceaselessly, endlessly. We were fortunate that Stanraer's tactic involved working the ball down the flanks and chucking in crosses, all of which were easily dealt with, albeit with some degree of anxiety. They did have an excellent opportunity to score when Cantely fluffed a goal-kick and Jamieson misread the bounce of the ball, but their forward curled it high over the bar. He really should have done better. Naysmith's substitutions made a difference, with Will Sewell doing his best to stretch Stranraer's defence and Mikey Anderson probably turning in his best display of the season with some vital interceptions in the middle of the park. We had two excellent chances to score late on - Yates headed Euan O'Reilly's teasing centre straight at O'Connor and Ross Forbes, introduced at the death, somehow failed to connect with Yates' low cross. It was either a terrible miss or a world-class tackle from his marker, but I couldn't believer he didn't score. Are Stenhousemuir better under Gary Naysmith? It's too early to tell but there were some positive signs. The combination between Adam Corbett and Yates down the right flank looks promising (Corbett's backheeled through-ball in the first half was sublime), Mikey Miller was a dog in the middle of the park and put in some smashing tackles, and the substitutions were well-timed and made a positive impact. Some players looked subdued - Callum Yeats, Euan O'Reilly, Orr - and it was a classic Stephen Swift-esque play-well-in-one-half-but-crap-in-the-other performance but on the whole it's churlish to focus too much on the negatives. The most important thing is we won the match. We're still very much in the mire but if we can get something from our next two fixtures, both of which are presentable, we could maybe, just maybe, adjust our expectations. Third and fourth (and every other position beneath) are still up for grabs. It's great to have Naysmith at the club, and it's even better to have Bomber Ferguson back in business. Two very agreeable guys and I hope they can lead us to success.

Ross Philp's loan spell with Stenhousemuir has concluded and the player has returned to Kelty Hearts. Philp certainly isn't the worst player I've seen at Ochilview, and he did score a nice goal against East Fife in a 2-2 draw but he wasn't fantastic either. I expected better given his pedigree. I think his versatility counted against him - he must have featured in four different positions across his 12 games. Hopefully more of the deadwood follows shortly.

Here we go! A very happy new year to everyone associated with Stenhousemuir FC! We look forward to our very first match of 2023: a do-or-die encounter with Stranraer at Ochilview on Saturday. The game will mark Gary Naysmith's debut as manager and I think I speak for us all when I say I hope he can inspire us to victory. For a long time, Stranraer have been our bogey side and we always seem to save our worst for them. Although we beat them unconvincingly at the beginning of September, we were humiliated at Stair Park in November, a fixture that convinced many onlookers that Stephen Swift wasn't up to it. Since then, we've picked up a single point and are circling the drain, like a large clump of pubic hair. The Blues, meanwhile, have beaten a good Stirling Albion side but lost to Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic recently, so I don't know what to expect from them. I don't know how Naysmith will line us up (or who's available). Both of our goalkeepers are a bad in different ways; our backline is being held together with tape and string; and last season's Player of the Year is toiling badly and might benefit from a spell out of the team. I just hope the new manager can reinvigorate this group of players - who, on the whole, are good, just badly underperforming - and get us going again.

I'm pleased we've brought Gary Naysmith into the club - he seems, to me, to be a safe pair of hands who's enjoyed a reasonable degree of success at this level with East Fife and Edinburgh City, and someone who can pull us out of this dreadful tailspin. Survival is, unfortunately, our aim for the remainder of the season and I believe he can reinvigorate this group of players and consolidate our SPFL status. His first order of business is bringing in a new goalkeeper and central midfielder and I hope he can use his book of contacts to secure us some high-calibre loans. More so, it's brilliant to have Brown Ferguson back at Ochilview. He's one of my all-time favourite Stenny players and someone who "knows the club", given his long association with the Warriors. I'm really looking forward to the weekend's game against Stranraer now and I hope to see you all there!

We are well and truly in the mud. We're the worst side in the division, we last won a match three months ago and we've taken four points in the second quarter. No-one is playing well, everyone seems short of confidence and an air of resignation is lurking around. A new manager cannot start soon enough to correct our current trajectory and move us away from the foot of the table. I thought we actually competed well enough against a good Stirling Albion side yesterday but we badly let ourselves down with the concession of two poor first-half goals. A new goalkeeper must be recruited as a priority because both Conor Brennan and Jay Cantley are dreadful. Cantley somehow let Ross Davidson's daisy-cutter squirm through his fingers and then keeled over, looking for some phantom foul, when Robert Thomson tapped home from close range. Every set-piece was fraught with danger because he didn't come off his line once - against a team replete with big bruisers like the Binos, it was always asking for bother. Stephen Swift signed four permanent goalies for Stenhousemuir and all four of them have been terrible. As well as a new goalkeeper, we need a central midfielder - Nat Weddernburn looks off the pace and could do with a spell on the sidelines. What a dire season! Let's hope 2023 brings us more fortune.

The Warriors Weekly newsletter confirms that we've received "a strong standard of applications" for the vacant manager's role and interviews will start next week. I hope that update keeps some of our more excitable supporters placated for the time being!

No. A kiddie-on footballer who's offered next to nothing whenever he's featured. I also realise this is a "yer da" thing to say but the way he carries himself, from his lilac hair to his short-sleeve-shirt-and-gloves combo, annoys me.

This is an interesting and considered post. Last season's fifth-place finish was a failure; I don't think there's any other way to look at it. Yes, Stephen Swift put together a virtually brand new squad (and an unbalanced one at that, overstocked in some departments and lacking in others), but it still should have been good enough to topple a mediocre Edinburgh City side for the final play-off place. Over the latter part of the season, the Citizens would play on a Friday night and drop points, then we'd play the following day and drop points too. We could never take advantage of the numerous opportunities they presented us and eventually we just ran out of time. A lot of that comes down to the horrendous start to the campaign when were tied with Cowdenbeath at the bottom of the division after the first quarter with just six points. Swift's frequent overthinking and faith in players who were simply not good enough for League 2 tanked us. I think the manager might have been taken aback by the step up in quality from the Lowland League to the SPFL - looking back, it's hard to believe that Ryan Marshall, Jamie Mills, Declan Hughes and Ryan Tierney were part of squad expected to challenge for promotion. The duds were phased out in the new year for a higher calibre of player and we largely used the same XI and same system over the closing stages but it still wasn't quite enough. There were times last season where Swift exhausted my patience, especially after a home defeat to Elgin City in September and the fact up we collected just five points from a terrible Cowden side, and he was coming into the current season under a fair degree of pressure. With a number of players signed on two-year deals, and the likes of Adam Corbett and Mikey Anderson agreeing new terms after impressing over the latter part of the previous campaign, I was confident that, with the right additions, we could mount a title challenge. I think most supporters felt the same. There were no full-time sides like Queen's Park and no monied upstarts like Cove Rangers or Kelty Hearts - just middling, bottom-of-the-barrel SPFL dumplings who might all fancy a shot at the championship. So why couldn't Stenny do it? A new season, a new group of players and a manager who had acclimatised and got to grips with the rough and tumble of the division - it all seemed remarkably straightforward. You don't need to go far on this forum to understand how the season unravelled - just look at the matchday threads - but it was remarkable to see Swift repeating the same mistakes that had dogged last term. We had spent pre-season utilising a lop-sided 4-4-2 formation, a system that didn't work and left us short in the middle of the park. We then reverted to a midfield diamond, but that meant no place for Euan O'Reilly, one of the division's best wingers. The move to a three-at-the-back system against Forfar Athletic in late August precipitated a six-game unbeaten streak, but it didn't necessarily stiffen us up and we still continued to ship a couple of goals every game. When that stopped working and the wins became defeats, Swift reverted to a back four that seemed to change on a weekly basis. I have some sympathy for him in this regard as we've been devastated by injuries and poor form in defence - only Sean Crighton has performed respectably throughout the season - but we've kept just one clean sheet (in a match we could have easily lost, by the way) and it was clear he had no way of addressing it, despite his hard work to find a solution. Of all our new signings, I think Matty Yates is the only one to have performed to a consistent standard. Some of have done well in fits and starts; some have been quite poor indeed. Goalkeeper, as has been acknowledged, was a position we needed to get right after last season's travails with Ryan Marshall and David Wilson, so to bring in Conor Brennan, a notoriously streaky and error-prone 'keeper from East Kilbride, was a disappointment. Yes, he's made some important saves over the course of the season but he looks uncomfortable at set-pieces, his distribution is haphazard and he doesn't seem to inspire confidence in those around him. Brennan lost his place in the side to Jay Cantley, the very definition of a "lower-league backup goalkeeper", following a miserable showing in the defeat at Stranraer, and a new number 1 is something we should look into next month. When we announced Craig Bryson had joined the club, dozens of punters told us he'd be a "brilliant signing for that level", evidently failing to check he'd spent his time at St Johnstone battling persistent fitness issues and had last played a game on Boxing Day. Bryson, our marquee summer signing, was a smashing player back in the day, someone who could dominate the middle of the park and run and run and run for 90 minutes but the version that pitched up at Ochilview was a diminished presence and struggled to influence matches before quietly retiring in September. It seemed remarkable that so much stock had been placed in a midfielder whose best days were behind him, and it necessitated another venture into the transfer market. Liam Brown, on paper at least, was an enormous upgrade on Bryson and would have been one of the best players in the division; it's just a shame he refused to play for us. This is another area I have sympathy with the manager. As I mentioned earlier, the good moments were few and far between. There was no defining match, nothing to look back on that will make you think: "Wow, we were excellent that day!" I was trying to think of games where we played well across the 90 minutes under Swift and oddly enough, the best performance might have been the 1-0 defeat to Kelty Hearts in March, where we did our very best to stifle a high-flying opponent; on another day, could have beaten them. A 2-0 win over Forfar Athletic in February and the 4-1 thrashing of Albion Rovers in April were good too. Beating Stirling Albion 3-1 at Forthbank was neat. But that's about it. Even when we were winning, we'd tend to do well in one half and poorly in the other. I'm sorry things didn't work at Stenhousemuir for Stephen Swift. He worked hard for the club and will have had our best interests at heart, but it wasn't quite good enough. I think the step up in standard and expectation, even at the least successful club in the SPFL, was too much for him. It says a lot about Stenny that our last three managers have had very different profiles - a newcomer taking his first steps in management (Colin McMenamin), and old stager who's been around (Davie Irons) and someone who's worked their up from non-league football (Swift) - and they've all ended in disappointment. What a cursed little team!

To be fair to him, Paul Hartley's career as a part-time football manager has been roundly excellent. You'd be daft to say no!

I remember Lee Mair wading in when Falkirk binned off "Cracks 'n' Big Sexy" and couldn't believe they'd been sacked so soon after winning the Manager(s) of the Month award. A fan asked Mair if he'd seen Falkirk at any point that season; Mair had not.

Stephen Swift's time in charge of Stenhousemuir was perhaps the most mediocre and unmemorable tenure since Campbell Money's dead zone between 2006 and 2007. The last 18 months have seen one, maybe two genuinely good performances in amongst long periods of muck; little bursts of form that tricked you into thinking the team were moving in a positive direction followed by disappointment. I think that's how I feel looking back over Swift's tenure - hoodwinked into believing he could deliver us some kind of success. The bad moments have definitely outweighed the good. I've seen some posts on social media accusing Stenny supporters of having high expectations this season, pointing out that we're only a handful of points from the play-off places. With respect, I would disagree - a lot of money has been spent on this squad and we're almost as close to the bottom as we are to the top four. There was no indication that Swift could turn around this terrible slump. Watching his interview after the defeat at Elgin City, he looked lost and distant. There's no point in writing up some long-winded summation of Swift's management because it's been covered so many times, in this thread and elsewhere - the terrible goalkeepers, the overthinking, the over-complication, the lack of connection with supporters - but I'm glad it's over. We need someone to come in and galvanise this group of players (who have seriously underperformed this season, by the way - it's not solely down to Swift) and stop the rot. Fanciful notions about league titles and promotion will have to be paused for the time being because our immediate priority is moving clear of the bottom of the table. It's a shame it didn't work out.

Stephen Swift is no longer the Stenhousemuir manager. Sean Crighton will take charge of the club on an interim basis until a new manager is found.

It's a real relegation six-pointer on Saturday as Stenhousemuir take on Forfar Athletic at Ochilview. The Warriors are currently the worst side in the division, having taken just four points from their past seven matches, while the Loons, bottom of the table, appear to be getting their act together under Mr Raymond McKinnon with two draws and a win. Just four points separate the sides and Forfar can really pull us into the muck with a victory; given how bad we've been recently, it's not outwith the realms of possibly. Stenny are a mess at the moment. The team have looked poor in recent weeks, playing without cohesion and confidence, and they're losing goals on an industrial scale, conceding around two every game - and that's even before you factor in we're going into this match with no fit central defenders. Nicky Jamieson is probably out until January, Sean Crighton took a sore one at Elgin City last weekend, Dan Higgins also went off injured and Adam Corbett complained about a strain during the warm-up (albeit he played 90 minutes). We'll have to make do and mend for the time being. That will probably have some bearing on what we do further forward - I'm expecting a patchwork XI with little on the bench to change things around. There's no point in trying to predict how we'll line up. Things could change between now and Saturday but I'm expecting Stephen Swift to take charge of the game. Supporters are fed up with the direction the team have been going in under his management and won't be shy in letting him know how they feel if we lose. Weirdly, when he was under pressure earlier in the season after a terrible start, a win at Station Park steadied the ship and brought about a six-game unbeaten run. Will the same thing happen here? Who knows anymore.

The Stenhousemuir board were always aware that Queen's Park would return to Glasgow at this stage. Lesser Hampden is still some way from completion but one of the stands is more or less ready so they're now in a position to play at home, even if the ground will have a reduced capacity for the time being. As for the Craig Bryson/Liam Brown debacle, surely the wage allocated to Bryson was put towards Brown after the former's retirement? And surely we're not paying Queen's Park for a player who's refusing to turn out for us? There's probably a small pot of money available to bring in someone in next month. But aye, if there was no announcement last weekend, it seems like we'll be heading into the Forfar Athletic game with Stephen Swift at the helm and an unhappy, frustrated support. Not brilliant.

I'd like to watch a team that doesn't concede two goals every match but maybe that's just me!

Brown Ferguson got the team promoted to League 1 in 2017/18, so it's unfair to say he "he failed to deliver", but you're right that Collin McMenamin, Davie Irons and now Stephen Swift have been poor appointments. Three different managers with three different profiles but the same outcome; it's just the way it is, I'm sorry to say. As for Swift, there's nothing really new to add - that's now seven games without a win and four points from a possible 21, and we're now much closer to the bottom of the table than the teams at the top - and there's no suggestion he can turn it around, on the pitch or with supporters. He'll surely be moved on at some point next week otherwise the atmosphere at Ochilview on Saturday when we play Forfar Athletic could be pretty toxic.