Stenhousemuir FC - The League 2 Champions - The 2024/25 Thread

[Francesc Fabregas]

According to the Stenhousemuir FC Twitter account, Danny Jardine has left the club and is taking an indefinite break from football following the reoccurrence of a serious knee injury.

I feel terribly sorry for Jardine - I can't imagine what it's like to suffer a long-term injury and work hard to regain your fitness, only for the same thing to happen again almost immediately. I wish him well in his recovery and hope he's back playing in some capacity in the future.

[WattersIsGod]

1 hour ago, Francesc Fabregas said:

According to the Stenhousemuir FC Twitter account, Danny Jardine has left the club and is taking an indefinite break from football following the reoccurrence of a serious knee injury.

I feel terribly sorry for Jardine - I can't imagine what it's like to suffer a long-term injury and work hard to regain your fitness, only for the same thing to happen again almost immediately. I wish him well in his recovery and hope he's back playing in some capacity in the future.

That's a real shame. I always liked him as a player and he seems a genuinely nice guy.

Been through knee reconstruction myself and subsequently re injured it and its a horrible experience.

Hope he can recover and stay involved with football at some level

[Replays]

That’s a real shame for Jardine. Must be psychologically absolutely brutal. I always think about Lewis Vaughn’s injury troubles and am pleased that he now seems to be kicking on and staying injury free. Hopefully Jardine can do the same in the future.

[Francesc Fabregas]

I was delighted to see the club pay tribute to the great Donald Smilie by naming the Tryst Road terracing after him yesterday. The Donald Smilie Enclosure is a brilliant way to commemorate his 90th birthday and mark all the great things he's done for Stenhousemuir over the past few decades. What a man, and what a gesture!

[Burnsythebinman]

credit to everyone who helped get the game on on saturday. put the so called bigger clubs to shame

[EaglesandSpiders]

Hi guys! I'm really sorry if this has been addressed or discussed before but something has been on my mind for a while. Do you have any idea why the avatar/profile picture for Ochilview Park in Google maps is the Israeli flag (and has been for a long time)? 

[Ianiesta8]

34 minutes ago, EaglesandSpiders said:

Hi guys! I'm really sorry if this has been addressed or discussed before but something has been on my mind for a while. Do you have any idea why the avatar/profile picture for Ochilview Park in Google maps is the Israeli flag (and has been for a long time)? 

Thanks for pointing this out, we’re looking to update now. 

[Francesc Fabregas]

Congratulations to Gary Naysmith for winning the League 2 Manager of the Month for November. Naysmith, and his team, deserve enormous credit for how they've bounced back from the Scottish Cup defeat to Brora Rangers and climbed to the top of division.

And congratulations once more to Matty Aitken for winning the League 2 Player of the Month for the same period. A snootier person might say Mikey Anderson's perhaps more deserving of the accolade but Aitken's goals - five in four games, lest we forget! - have been vital to our excellent form. Aitken really seems to be coming into a game just now, and long may it continue.

Fair play to everyone associated with the club at the moment!

[squeezebox-son]

1 hour ago, Francesc Fabregas said:

Congratulations to Gary Naysmith for winning the League 2 Manager of the Month for November. Naysmith, and his team, deserve enormous credit for how they've bounced back from the Scottish Cup defeat to Brora Rangers and climbed to the top of division.

And congratulations once more to Matty Aitken for winning the League 2 Player of the Month for the same period. A snootier person might say Mikey Anderson's perhaps more deserving of the accolade but Aitken's goals - five in four games, lest we forget! - have been vital to our excellent form. Aitken really seems to be coming into a game just now, and long may it continue.

Fair play to everyone associated with the club at the moment!

Now hopefully the curse hits on Saturday for both 

[Am Featha Taigh Nan Clach]

Below is an image of the stand during our 4-3 comeback win v Peterhead in League 1 in 2015. There must be 200 there.

It's nice to see a relatively full stand now at every home game. Who knows if our good form will continue but it's great to feel a real positivity around the place at the moment. 

[Burnsythebinman]

so much has improved since then. dont want to get carried away but i hope the good form continues

[O'Kelly Isley III]

On 06/12/2023 at 19:02, squeezebox-son said:

Now hopefully the curse hits on Saturday for both 

Obviously not.  The curse stayed put at Old Trafford with Erik Ten Hag and Harry McGuire.

[Broxi Bears]

Talking of curses, just reading Dumbartons GK Brett Long broke his ankle in training last night. That’s a huge blow for them as he looked excellent on Saturday against us. 

[++Ammo - Airdrie++]

Great Results happening at the moment for you warriors. What's been the catalyst? New signings or the manager getting more out of what was there previously? Mixture of both? Best a luck anyway, good to see

[Am Featha Taigh Nan Clach]

7 hours ago, ++Ammo - Airdrie++ said:

Great Results happening at the moment for you warriors. What's been the catalyst? New signings or the manager getting more out of what was there previously? Mixture of both? Best a luck anyway, good to see

A combination of factors. Some of them are as follows

1. An excellent goalkeeper. The dross we've had for the last two years were costing us 10+ goals a season

2. Buchanan has been a real upgrade on Crichton and has formed a great partnership with Nicky Jamieson

3. Being 'fortunate' in signing the fullbacks Kinlay Bilham and Eden Lynch. Both were brought in as squadfillers and have massively outperformed expectations.

4. More dynamism in central midfield. Nat Wedderburn looks more trim and we don't have Ross Forbes plodding about.

5. Matty Aitken's work ethic and ability to hold things up, although isn't as good as it could be, is streets ahead of what Tam Orr was offering

6. Having pacey/tricky wingers on both sides means we're less predictable when moving the ball out wide. Previously it was more obvious it was going left to Euan O'Reilly and teams could double up on him more easily.

7. General team spirit. We had a pre season friendly in Jersey and the players had a night out together afterwards. I doubt there's usually a boozy weekend allowed during pre season and I think the players got to know and like each other very early on.

8. We've been very, very lucky with injuries. We've got a small squad with litte depth but apart from Ross Taylor being out for about 6 weeks, I don't think anyone in the current best 13 has missed more than a game or two

9. Naysmith seems like a sensible and well respected manager. He was able to immediately identify the flaws of the  team last year, initaially shore things up defensively and then bring in a decent calibre of player.

[Burnsythebinman]

17 hours ago, ++Ammo - Airdrie++ said:

Great Results happening at the moment for you warriors. What's been the catalyst? New signings or the manager getting more out of what was there previously? Mixture of both? Best a luck anyway, good to see

we turned over quite a few players this season. the team spirit is great and the early pre season friendly trip away helped with that. we did our signings early as we have apparently got a database and new system in place for recruitment. we have the best manager we have had in a long time too,

[AUcal]

Good to hear that Kinlay Bilham has been doing well at Steni. I know a few folk that rated him quite highly in the youth ranks at Ayr for a number of years. I think he had been around the periphery of the squad on a couple of occasions but clearly just wasn't going to get the opportunities needed so the club let him go. 

Some run you lot are on. Good stuff.

[Francesc Fabregas]

My learned associate above me has summed it up very well (and this is probably just a rewrite of his points). We've recruited to a good standard, our manager has improved the players left by his predecessor, and we've had a good deal of luck go our way.

Our three most important signings have been Darren Jamieson, Gregor Buchanan and Matty Aitken. Under Stephen Swift, we were dogged by some terrible goalkeepers - Ryan Marshall, David Wilson, Conor Brennan - and Gary Naysmith rectified this in the summer by bringing in Jamieson from Kelty Hearts. Jamieson has probably been our most important recruit and an enormous upgrade on everyone that came before him. He brings a cast-iron assurance that spreads throughout the team and into the stands - whenever we're under pressure, I'm always confident he'll come for a cross or make a punch and just relieve the tension. On top of that, he's saved us, off the top of my head, about four points with crucial stops; his block to stop Conor McManus in injury time against East Fife on Saturday won us the game.

Buchanan too has been an upgrade at centre-back and looks like a better player than Sean Crighton was at Ochilview. I always liked Crighton but never felt we got value for money from him. That's not the case with Buchanan, who's dominated every match he's taken part in (the less said about that first half against Dumbarton, the better!) and can bring the ball out of defence and pick a pass. He's formed a really strong partnership with Nicky Jamieson and if you have a good goalie and two strong centre-backs, you'll go a long way at this level. Further forward, we've needed a player like Aitken since Robert Thomson moved on, someone that can occupy defenders, take the ball into his feet, hold it up, and get the team up the park. Tam Orr had his qualities but could not play with his back to goal and the whole team suffered for it. Aitken can be frustrating at times but when he's on his game, he makes it look so easy, and his goal return has been impressive.

We've recruited well in other areas too - Ross Taylor is an exciting prospect who, if he can iron out the deficiencies in his game, could go far; Kinlay Bilham has been the find of the season and has done well at left-back (and it's hard to believe he was initially brought in to supplement Jordan Lowdon); and Edin Lynch, while maligned, has generally been solid enough wherever he's featured.

Naysmith inherited some good players from Stephen Swift but it feels as though he's made them better. In his three seasons with the club, Michael Anderson has gone from "my God, this guy's rubbish!" to "hang on, he's actually quite good!" to "if he could play with consistency, he'd be great!" to "he's the best player in League 2!" I thought this could be a breakout year for Anderson and I'm glad he's performing well every week; signing him up until 2025 was a good move. I thought Nat Wedderburn should have been moved on at the end of last season, a "clearing of the decks", if you will, alongside Crighton and Ross Forbes, but he's complemented Anderson's dynamism in midfield and the pair have a nice balance. Euan O'Reilly, Matty Yates and Adam Brown have all played to a high standard this season and, like Anderson, are doing it on a consistent basis.

We've also been lucky in a number of areas. Aitken missed a couple of games in the League Cup group stages and Taylor missed a month with a shoulder injury but other than that, we've been fortunate that our key players have remained fit. If anything was to happen to, say, Darren Jamieson, Buchanan, Anderson or Aitken, I think we might look exposed. It's important that our business next month improves the squad and maintains our forward momentum. We need cover in the middle of the park and up front, and it might be worth looking for some new players on loan (I don't think there'll be any tears shed if Marley Sweenie-Rowe or Mark Ferrie return to their parent clubs in January). Our business last year wasn't too hot - Kian Speirs, Jacob Blaney, Curtis Lyle, Lowdon and Gavin Reilly didn't suddenly catapult us into the play-off places (even if Reilly was quite good at points) - but I hope our current league position might tempt a higher calibre of player to join.

Our luck has also extended to key moments such as James Berry's late winners against the Spartans and especially against Dumbarton, Martin Rennie clattering a ball over the bar from close range late on in the 2-2 draw with Clyde, and Nathan Austin's disallowed goal against East Fife at the weekend. These are all intangible and difficult to explain away but everything seems to be going in our favour at the moment.

I'm delighted with how the season's played out so far. I was anxious at the beginning of the campaign, believing our small squad would hinder us (especially when we listed a bench of trialists in the League Cup game against Alloa Athletic), but we've been fortunate so far. Naysmith, who knows what it takes to succeed in League 2, has built a close-knot squad of good, likeable players who have made a strong connection with the supporters and I really hope they can go the distance. I don't want to get carried away - we all remember the 2005/06 season! - but it's hard not to on the current run.

[Gaz]

Not really football related, but for about six months now I have been attending the Andy's Man Club that the club helped set up last year. It's a fantastic thing to do and well done to Stenny for helping get it started.

[razamanaz]

6 minutes ago, Gaz said:

Not really football related, but for about six months now I have been attending the Andy's Man Club that the club helped set up last year. It's a fantastic thing to do and well done to Stenny for helping get it started.

Where is it exactly?