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Stenhousemuir FC - The Warriors - The 2023/24 Thread


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Interesting one...

Appointed as Edinburgh City manager he lost through transfer or freed about three quarters of McDonagh's team that had reached the play-offs and replaced them with crap mostly. City perhaps got lucky with an injury to the first choice keeper meaning Brian Schwake got his chance and he saved the team on many an occasion last season.

Having said that a horrendous injury list didn't help and he deserves kudos for actually getting a team on the pitch at one point. I was a bit sorry to see him get sacked tbh as it seemed things were starting to turn around and Maybury took his team and successfully steered them through the play-offs (in light of subsequent events I wonder if the Directors were desperate to get City promoted)

East Fife fans have favourable memories of him getting them out of a mess, QOS fans have negative memories of his spell and I have mixed feelings. 

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14 hours ago, tamthebam said:

East Fife fans have favourable memories of him getting them out of a mess, QOS fans have negative memories of his spell and I have mixed feelings. 

Not sure our fans would generally be that negative. Probably on balance negative, mostly due to the way it ended. There are those who certainly consider it unforgiveable that the attacking talent he had at his disposal latterly we still ended up in the relegation playoffs.

He arrived in December 2016 when we were in freefall having started the season well and managed to arrest the slump with some wise January business. We actually ended up finishing 6th although we won only 2 of the last 11. 2017/18 we flirted with a challenge for the playoffs but slumped away after January. Again finished 6th ultimately and nowhere near relegation but it was the season Brechin were masquerading as a Championship side and Dumbarton were miles adrift too so relegation was no serious threat for anyone else all season really. Winning our last 3 games made us look closer to the mix than we really were.

His last season 2018/19 was the bizarre one. An excellent first half of the season had us sitting on the cusp of 4th in January. We had made the last 16 of the League Cup and only lost to St Johnstone in extra time. We also made the last 16 of the Scottish Cup, knocking out Premier League Dundee, and Dobbie and Dykes up front were scoring freely as a pair (Dobbie got 43 goals that season and missed two months with hamstring injuries!). And then it all fell apart. After beating Dundee in the Cup on 30th January we lost 7 straight games and won just 2 of the next 8 after that.  Two wins (and 2 draws) in 15 games collapsed us from the promotion playoffs to finishing 9th, losing a "relegation decider" 3-0 at home to Partick Thistle on the last day and we only avoided automatic relegation on goal difference. At which point he was sacked and Allan Johnston won the relegation playoffs but the squad was far too good to have ended up in that position in the first place.

I very much enjoyed our time under Gary Naysmith, he's a good guy. He was better as a double act with Dougie Anderson though who he brought from East Fife as assistant but Dougie took up a coaching role at the SFA about the same time the last season slump began. Probably needs a good assistant to be the "bad cop". Can Brown Ferguson do that?

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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.

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I really didn't rate him much at all. He is most certainly not anywhere near the worst of our worries in this squad but by the same token we can't just accept mediocrity because there are worse players than him, that's not going to get us anywhere in the short to medium term.

I'm sure Naysmith will have a fair idea of who he can get in early doors and I would like to think they are going to have a far bigger impact on our season than Ross Philp. All the best to him all the same, seemed a decent bloke who always tried his best.

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53 minutes ago, Nigel Blackwell said:

I am not sure I can see him getting back into the Kelty team; wonder if they will offload him during this window. I would rather he had stayed, although I was a little underwhelmed with him, but show me a Stenhousemuir player this season where that hasn’t been the case.

Ross Philp has played for both Kelty and Stenhousemuir this season. He's not able to ho anywhere else (unless its non league of course).

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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!

Edited by Francesc Fabregas
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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!

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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".

Edited by Francesc Fabregas
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2 hours ago, Francesc Fabregas said:

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".

Anyone seen him in action? Is he likely to inspire more confidence than Big Conor or Cantley?

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