Nigel Blackwell

After Christie came on the game turned on its head. Should have been out of sight before the 90th minute arrived. And what the feck were we doing in the lead up to that goal. Defending is a real problem for this team. Would probably have taken a point before the game so not a disaster. And good to see Thomson and Orr get off the mark. Great cameo from Christie. Wish we had signed the Albion Rovers keeper.

Bit apprehensive after last week and because it’s Albion rovers.

Thought that we looked dangerous in the first half with Lyon and Christie linking really well down the right. We should have been ahead in the first half with the other Lyon passing up a great chance when clean through. Second half we just stopped playing any football. I can’t actually remember either keeper having a shot to save of note, so I suppose a draw would have been a fair result, but we defended the goal so badly, so in some respects got what we deserved. Mills and Wedderburn had both been booked and looked scared to go anywhere near Flanagan and then Jamieson just waved him by as he slalomed into the box. Terrible defending. Felt it was two decent sides who should be challenging at the top end this season.

Really looking forward to getting back to Ochilview and for once we seem to have a decent team/squad with lots of options, although I wish some of those options in defence were a little better than they are. Not overly impressed with Jamieson or Coll who both played Saturday. And as for the goalkeepers. Well, no idea who Swift is going to play. Neither are impressive, but given Marshall looks like an outfield player with a keepers jersey, I'd go for Wilson, and pray Smith is back soon with no ill effects.

thomas o'ware...

The point I was making was that as things stand they could make it into the SPFL which surely is not the intention of the pyramid. It may be an accident of history that those two clubs are one step away from the SPFL but I really hope that clubs like that never make it.

And this is what is fundamentally wrong with the pyramid as it stands at the moment. Kelty do appear to have some sort of long term plan, in the way that Cove did, and Edinburgh do to an extent, but imagine if in two years time the SPFL contained Broomhill and Caledonian Braves? No community, no fans, in the case of Broomhill, no ground. And am I right in saying Caledonian Braves play on a caged in pitch?

Really impressed with this Stenhousemuir team. Miles better than anything we've seen for at least two years, and probably more. Really looking forward to seeing them against our peers in the league. Quite encouraging. There is one obvious problem position. Any word on when Graeme Smith will be back?

Suspect we will see the guy we signed from Spartans go out on loan once fit?

Jordan Armstrong played half a season for Stenhousemuir in League 2. He wasn't very good. I presume he will be a squad filler at Alloa.

So, the Hibs thing isn’t happening then?

I would never read anything into pre season games, but I am worried that our default is continually to be, in general, ex Lowland League, or more specifically, ex BSC players. The new manager will need to make a swift (hee hee) start otherwise I can imagine quite a bit of discontent/concern/worry/panic etc. On the positive side, we've scored two goals direct from free kicks in consecutive games which after a season of Ryan Blair ballooning the ball out of the ground is to be celebrated. Just need to ensure Forbes stays fit.