Francesc Fabregas

Fair play, cheers. I imagine Swift will be there as a spectator again tonight. If he's not actually taking the team, it's good to know he'll be there to get a look at them.

Is tonight Stephen Swift's first game as manager?

This is all very positive stuff and it's good to read a supporter talking about their manager in such glowing terms. I'm excited about the club's direction under Stephen Swift (the last time I was enthusiastic about a managerial appointment was Scott Booth!) but my concerns above still remain and so I'm in the "cautiously optimistic" zone for the time being.

Donald Findlay was the chairman of Cowdenbeath when they won back-to-back League 2 play-offs against East Kilbride and Cove Rangers. His club "took their medicine", as it were, but won on both occasions.

More changes at Ochilview today as long-serving goalkeeping coach David Binnie moves on. Big Dave's been at the club for five years and has always been thoroughly agreeable whenever I've met him - I wish him well. Does anyone have any ideas about who Stephen Swift will bring in as his backroom team? We've also recruited someone called Ian Fitzpatrick to lead our media team, which sounds intriguing. He used to work for Clyde FC.

Ah well, nevertheless. At least we didn't lose!

Did anyone take in this game? Did Davie Irons say anything worthwhile on commentary?

Not sure what to make of this news. On one hand, we've appointed one of the best managers from non-league football, someone who, from the outside looking in, has had BSC Glasgow punching above their weight for the past couple of years, and someone who has no connection with club, something that a lot of fans wanted given the failures of Colin McMenamin and Davie Irons. On the other, we've given the job to someone who was last seen in the SPFL in 2008, someone who's never really worked under any real pressure before and someone who signed Ross Smith and Jamie McCormack. I do hope Stephen Swift is a huge success at Stenhousemuir and can arrest the decline we've seen since winning promotion in 2018. Maybe it's my in-built cynicism from following the club over the past 15 years, but I'm quite cautious about it all. I seem to be the only one so it's probably just me!

Stephen Swift confirmed:

Callum Yeats has signed a one-year contract extension with Hibernian: Very pleased to hear this news. Yeats has really looked the part at left-back and his performances have been one of the few good things about our campaign. Good luck to him going forward!

Not sure if Adam Corbett is available after going off injured on Saturday, so Creag Little might come in for him, but other than that - why the heck not!

To be fair to Graeme Smith, he did drop Ryan Blair and Creag Little for Saturday's match against Cowdenbeath (although both would appear as substitutes). I'm not sure who'd come in at this stage - Thomas Halleran is an obvious shout, maybe Josh Grigor - but, for the size of our squad, there probably isn't a lot of quality in there beyond the regular starting XI and we'll go with what we've already seen.

I suppose it might be worth tuning in to hear Davie Irons talk about his time with the club and his departure but I have no desire to watch this team again between now and the end of the season. We appear to have chucked it and I cannot see us winning any of our remaining games. Cove Rangers -vs- Partick Thistle tomorrow night for me!

I remember asking Jamie Swinney this when the strategic partnership was first agreed, whether or not we were obliged to play Hibernian's loanees regardless of their form, and was told the Stenhousemuir FC manager will pick the team as they see fit; there is no pressure from Hibs. I think the only time we've been under duress not to pick a player was the recent game against Queen's Park when Callum Yeats was rested after recently returning from a long-term injury. The partnership's worked well for us so far. The three players you mentioned all have something about them and will go on to play further up the pyramid in the future. Paddy Martin has probably been our Player of the Year and it's hard to believe Jack Brydon is only 17. If there was an opportunity to bring them back for next term, I'd like to see us explore it. I agree with this 100 per cent and would go so far as saying this could be the most important appointment in the club's history. A couple of years ago we had a little leeway with who we could employ and could perhaps take a risk - Martyn Corrigan, Scott Booth, Brown Ferguson, Colin McMenamin were all first-time managers - but with the overall quality at the club being chipped away every year and the possibility of relegation from the SPFL on the horizon, this is one we have to get right. One person who's contacted the club excites me, and I'd like to see them given the opportunity, but the other names, some of whom have been mentioned in this thread, don't inspire confidence. I think we'll have our new manager in place by the end of next week.

Fair play to Neilly, he really has you on strings! As for today's match, full credit to Cowdenbeath, they deserved their win, they were the better team throughout and they dealt with Stenhousemuir's meagre threat with ease. Barring an astonishing series of events, they'll be fine and can look forward to pushing on next term. Other than a Mark McGuigan shot straight at the goalkeeper and David Hopkirk's effort that went narrowly over the bar, the Warriors did very little. We've now conceded 11 goals in our last three matches and seem to have chucked it. I can see us finishing as low as eighth unless we start showing some pride in our final three games. The sooner this godforsaken season finishes, the better.

It's probably worth discussing who you'd want to keep for next season and who you'd want to release. Someone might need to correct me but I think the only players signed up for next season are Callum Tapping, David Hopkirk, Graeme Smith and Adam Corbett, while Alan Docherty will join on a permanent basis from Camelon Juniors.

No.

Since there's no match thread, I can't imagine many people were tuning into tonight's match against Annan Athletic but what a fucking miserable way for Davie Irons to finish up his time with the club. An embarrassing result and a dreadful performance, judging by the stuff I've read on social media.

This sums up my feelings on the matter. I really like Brechin City - for a long time they were the byword for modest, part-time success, an upward-looking Second Division/League 1 club with good players, good managers and one of the best grounds in the country - and I really do not want to see them drop out of the SPFL but I've lost all sympathy for them after this news. At one point, I thought the club were an unfair lightening rod for the SPFL's indecision, but they've done themselves no favours here. No wonder their supporters are exasperated with the board. Four years of awful decision-making, and now this. I can, to some degree, see some questions about Kelty Hearts' and especially Brora Rangers' legitimacy as champions but come on, where's the self-respect? Trying something, anything to avoid competing in the play-offs, including proposing league reconstruction and the inclusion of colt teams is pathetic. I'm very sorry to see it's come to this. I hope the proposals are rejected and the play-offs take place.

Davie Irons' departure has been confirmed: https://www.stenhousemuirfc.com/2021/04/20/our-thanks-to-departing-davie-irons/ This is the right decision, on the whole. I don't think he's taken the club any further forward than we were when he took over and the failure to finish in the top half of the table this season has been a big black mark against him. I believe we have a group of players who are capable of challenging for the play-off places but that hasn't been the case. If you want to go back a bit further, he was also in charge of the worst result in my time as a supporter, the Scottish Cup defeat to Penicuik Athletic. I like him a lot, he's a smashing guy, and he was very good in his first spell at Ochilview but it hasn't worked out this time around.

With absolutely nothing better to do today, I took this game in. I thought Cove Rangers seemed purposeful, used the ball well and looked good at doing it. It's only one game, but they've clearly come on from last season's League 2 champions. Fraser Fyvie and Connor Smith worked well together in the middle of the park and Rory McAllister and Mitch Megginson were a real menace in attack. Megginson took his two goals very well, the first especially. Barring a 10-minute spell towards the end of the first half, Falkirk were desperately poor. The magnitude of the game didn't really seem to occur to them and they looked slow, ponderous and lacking in ideas. Other than Morgaro Gomis, who seemed to want to put his foot on the ball and actually do something with it, and Callumn Morrison, no-one played well, although whether or not that's down to the wacky formation, I don't know. The back three didn't work, the substitutes didn't work and you really feel the end is coming for Lee Miller and David McCracken. With Cove looking strong and Partick Thistle in resurgence, there's a real danger they could drop away in a couple of days. Credit to the lead commentator - enthusiastic, well-informed and with a pleasant voice. Very nice to listen to, albeit it half-a-second ahead of the action.

No.

With Stenhousemuir consigned to a bottom-half finish following this evening's thrashing at Stranraer, serious questions must be asked about the future of Davie Irons. Even allowing for the pandemic and the challenges it has created, the failure to even come close to challenging for the top four is unacceptable. Our squad is expensively assembled and he has failed to get the best out of them. I'm sorry to say I have little faith in his ability to take the team forward for next term.

You simply have to say "fair play" to Stenhousemuir FC. The biggest game of the season, the match which would define whether or not we compete for promotion, and we turn in one of the most wretched performances in recent memory. I don't think I've seethed as much watching a Warriors match as much as I've done this evening. I could attempt to write a long-winded analysis of how and why we lost at Stranraer but what's the point? This was a must-win game and we well and truly fucked it up. Huge credit to Stranraer - they were light years ahead of us in every department - but our system, our levels of application, the effort from our "big name" players was completely unacceptable. Other than Paddy Martin, who kept the score respectable with some good saves, everyone in maroon should be ashamed with that. I'm embarrassed I allowed myself to get my hopes up and believe we could compete for a top-half finish. Dreadful.

Twenty minutes in and I think I've had just about enough lower-league Scottish football for the time being, thank you.