Stenhousemuir FC - The Warriors - The 2023/24 Thread

[Francesc Fabregas]

1 hour ago, Jan Vojáček said:

This is something I've suspected for a while. There seems to be a really limited number of players kicking about this summer who could be gamechangers at this level, and I reckon teams sitting playing a waiting game are going to be caught with their pants down.

You guys adding Jamieson is one of very few signings I look at across the league and think 'oaft, he's going to improve them a hell of a lot'. Stevie Farrell got a lot of stick for giving a few members of our squad (Ross MacLean especially) extended deals. But there aren't many other signings in the league (so far) that I've looked at and thought they'd be a marked improvement on MacLean.

Of course I could be well off the mark. But, aside from a few gems who'll pop up on loan, I reckon the core squads we see at the moment are going to be what teams are running with. Which really doesn't look too appealing for a good few teams.

I'd agree with this. I can't think of any unattached players off the top of my head who I'd be excited about signing, and I reckon every other team in League 2 is in the same position. For most teams in the division (Elgin City excepted), the players they've recruited at this stage will form the core of their team; anyone else coming in is probably there to bulk up the numbers. And, when it comes to looking through the various squads and the credits and debits associated with each side, we're probably in a better position than most, even if there are some obvious deficiencies.

I'm not sure if the teams outside the SPFL throwing around money has distorted the market. Liam Brown's move from Queen's Park to East Kilbride is the only signing that's caught my eye. Maybe there are just no longer an abundance of good players in the lower leagues! Who knows.

[Hard Graft]

First 5 games of the season will be interesting and we will see where we are in terms of challenging.

Date	Kick-off	Opponents	Venue
05/08/2023	15:00	Forfar Athletic	H
12/08/2023	15:00	Peterhead	A
19/08/2023	15:00	East Fife	A
26/08/2023	15:00	Dumbarton	H
02/09/2023	15:00	The Spartans	A
16/09/2023	15:00	Stranraer	H
23/09/2023	15:00	Bonnyrigg Rose	A
30/09/2023	15:00	Clyde	H
07/10/2023	15:00	Elgin City	A
21/10/2023	15:00	Peterhead	H
04/11/2023	15:00	Forfar Athletic	A
11/11/2023	15:00	The Spartans	H
18/11/2023	15:00	Stranraer	A
02/12/2023	15:00	Bonnyrigg Rose	H
09/12/2023	15:00	Dumbarton	A
16/12/2023	15:00	East Fife	H
23/12/2023	15:00	Elgin City	H
30/12/2023	15:00	Clyde	A
06/01/2024	15:00	Forfar Athletic	H
13/01/2024	15:00	The Spartans	A
20/01/2024	15:00	Stranraer	H
27/01/2024	15:00	Peterhead	A
03/02/2024	15:00	Dumbarton	H
10/02/2024	15:00	East Fife	A
17/02/2024	15:00	Elgin City	A
24/02/2024	15:00	Clyde	H
02/03/2024	15:00	Bonnyrigg Rose	A
09/03/2024	15:00	The Spartans	H
16/03/2024	15:00	Forfar Athletic	A
23/03/2024	15:00	Peterhead	H
30/03/2024	15:00	Dumbarton	A
06/04/2024	15:00	East Fife	H
13/04/2024	15:00	Elgin City	H
20/04/2024	15:00	Clyde	A
27/04/2024	15:00	Bonnyrigg Rose	H
04/05/2024	15:00	Stranraer	A

 

 

Edited June 30, 2023 by Hard Graft

[Francesc Fabregas]

Forfar Athletic at home is a pretty good way to kick off the season. It should be a solid barometer to where we are for the season ahead.

[Am Featha Taigh Nan Clach]

Stenhousemuir 2 - 0 Forfar

Matty Aitken x 3

[Am Featha Taigh Nan Clach]

A 3-2 v Cowden and the signing of young left fullback Kinlay Bilham, who quite frankly, sounds made up.

Slightly worrying this confirms that Jordan Lowdon will probably be our first choice left back.

[muZZa__44]

As a Ayr fan I hope Bilham does well from the odd reserve game I’ve seen him in he seems a more defensive full back who can also cover at centre back thou not the tallest of player but hope all the best to him

[Nigel Blackwell]

For a second I thought it was Billy McKinlay we’d signed.

[C_titz]

On 30/06/2023 at 15:48, Am Featha *****h Nan Clach said:

Stenhousemuir 2 - 0 Forfar

Matty Aitken x 3

That’s an absolute stick on 

[RateofKnots]

On 30/06/2023 at 15:48, Am Featha *****h Nan Clach said:

Stenhousemuir 2 - 0 Forfar

Matty Aitken x 3

That would be an impressive feat, even for one as talented as matty

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

22 hours ago, Am Featha *****h Nan Clach said:

A 3-2 v Cowden and the signing of young left fullback Kinlay Bilham, who quite frankly, sounds made up.

Slightly worrying this confirms that Jordan Lowdon will probably be our first choice left back.

Did we have any trialists playing?

[Francesc Fabregas]

If anyone's interested - and I imagine you all are! - Stenhousemuir have been drawn at home against the Spartans or Rangers B in the second round of the SPFL Trust Trophy.

Whatever the opposite of "money-spinning tie" is, this is it!

[O'Kelly Isley III]

5 hours ago, Francesc Fabregas said:

If anyone's interested - and I imagine you all are! - Stenhousemuir have been drawn at home against the Spartans or Rangers B in the second round of the SPFL Trust Trophy.

Whatever the opposite of "money-spinning tie" is, this is it!

I feel your pain FF, but seriously whilst this is the Mickiest of Mickey Moose tournaments, the weekend I had at Oswestry in our semi-final against The New Saints was arguably the best away trip I've experienced in over sixty years of following the Sons.  And about 500 others would agree.

The B teams are an abomination, but just like sex, take your pleasures when they appear before you.

[Francesc Fabregas]

I've just returned home from the pre-season friendly between Stenhousemuir and Linlithgow Rose at Prestonfield. It finished 4-3 to the home side. They took an early two-goal lead before a Matty Yates brace levelled the score. Ross Taylor nudged the Warriors in front before half time but the Rose eventually ran out as winners. It was a decent kickabout but both teams will be dismayed by the calibre of the defending on show; all seven goals could have been avoided. Prestonfield is a terrific ground and one of the best I've visited for some time.

This was the first chance I had to see Gary Naysmith's new-look Stenhousemuir side. I don't want to draw too many conclusions from a bounce game but, from our perspective, there were more negatives than positives.

POSITIVES

• Matty Yates took his goals well, although they were both were gifted to him. He seems comfortable at centre-forward and linked up well with Jordan Kirkpatrick.
• It was good to see Ross Meechan back at the Warriors, albeit at centre-back rather than right-back. Meechan did well in a largely unfamiliar position - he was always vocal, always barking instructions and he did his best to knit together a rickety backline. I was surprised Yates was selected as captain ahead of him; Meechan would be my first pick as skipper.
• Although he was subdued in the second half, I liked what I saw from James Berry. He's a dynamic player, someone who can shift up and down the park, and he's got some neat touches. He should have scored and I can't understand why his headed goal after the break was ruled out.
• Kinlay Bilham impressed me at left-back. He got stuck in, looked to move forward often, and showed a couple of nice touches. He looked a lot better than the ponderous Jordan Lowdon, that's for sure.
• Matty Aitken looked fine following his introduction and did well to win a penalty (which Adam Brown had saved). I suspect his languid style and half-arsed pressing will annoy the life out of me at points this season.

NEGATIVES

• For the life of me, I can't understand why Naysmith mucked about with our full-backs at the start of each half. Mikey Anderson started on the right at kick off and looked miles off it, with a chaotic backpass leading to a disallowed goal. Adam Brown was introduced at the break at left-back and was badly caught out at the Rose's equaliser. Neither player will feature at full-back barring some catastrophe, so why test them out here?
• Nat Wedderburn was miles off it and barely made a meaningful contribution all match. He's always been slow but his lack of mobility has been offset by his strength and superior skills on the ball. There was none of that on show tonight and we looked better when he was withdrawn and Anderson took his place in midfield. If we were looking to make a fresh start this season, Wedderburn should have been moved on because he's become symptomatic of our failings over the past two years. I hope this was just an uncharacteristic display rather than a deeper malaise.
• Ross Taylor's finished well but he needs to spend more time in the gym. He seems a lightweight and easily shoved off the ball. There were some nice runs in the second half, granted.
• Jordan Lowdon doesn't have it and I'm worried he'll be our first-choice left-back when the season starts.
• What's the point in fielding someone as adventurous and as talented as Euan O'Reilly and then launch long diagonals for him to head towards the forwards? Get the ball into his feet, get him one on one with his marker. We all know that's what he's best at, we all know that leads to chances. This isn't Lee McCulloch and Wigan Athletic.
• Curtis Lyle still can't kick the ball properly and his attempt to "narrow the angle" at Linlithgow's third was comical. He narrowed the angle, sure, but he forgot about the rest of his goal.
• I don't understand why all of our pre-season friendlies are against Lowland League opposition (and some wildcard mob from Jersey). Wouldn't it be better to test ourselves against full-time sides like Dunfermline Athletic or Airdrieonians? Run-outs against Lowland League teams leads to a Lowland League standard of fitness.
• On the whole, that performance said "seventh-place finish" to me.

Let's hope for something better against Tranent Juniors at the weekend.

[Old Fashioned Stramash]

From reading that, it looks like the lack of versatility could be a potential issue for us. We were fortunate to have Miller and Corbett last season that could cover multiple positions when required and we seem more restricted this season defensively. Need to get signings made. 

Edited July 5, 2023 by Old Fashioned Stramash

[Nigel Blackwell]

Berry and Kilpatrick looked good. Taylor has definite potential. We looked good going forward.

My worry is the lack of defensive cover at the moment. I know it will be addressed, but if we are looking at trialists who were released by the Shire then my fear is the market that we are shopping in - suggests that the budget has been spent. 

Loan market might be the route we are going down.

[Francesc Fabregas]

7 minutes ago, Nigel Blackwell said:

My worry is the lack of defensive cover at the moment. I know it will be addressed, but if we are looking at trialists who were released by the Shire then my fear is the market that we are shopping in - suggests that the budget has been spent. 

Loan market might be the route we are going down.

That definitely seems to be the case. When I realised we picked up Kinlay Bilham from the SPFL Exit Trials - a market exclusively used by Jim Duffy - it really hit home how difficult it's been to put together a squad. As I said in a previous post, I just don't think there are many "good players" available so teams are building squads using young, unfancied cast-offs.

Now that Premiership sides are back in training, we might see a bit of movement with players being loaned out across the country, and my goodness we'll need it because, based on last night, this squad isn't good enough just yet.

[Ocelot1877]

I will second what has been said above as Clyde find themselves in pretty similar territory. Reckon that all the signings and deals that got done for teams in our league a few weeks ago were the clubs top priority signings. Everyone else is now eating out the same bowl and there doesn’t seem to be much left to go around. 
 

The money on offer at teams further down the pyramid alongside the size of some of those squads has really shifted the status quo further up the pyramid. The future for teams at league 2 would be to somehow expand their scouting network to cover further down the pyramid but try to identify players that are good enough and also want to try themselves further up the leagues or put themselves in the market for a full time team. All this is obviously much easier said than done. 
 

This season could be one of the poorer ones in league 2 but maybe one that is more exciting due to a more even footing for some teams. As said above reckon teams will be filling out squads with loans but that’s a market that is also difficult to operate in and I could probably count with one hand the number of times Clyde ever using it to bring in first team level game changing talent. 
 

On another note I look forward to my return to Ochilview and the best soup in the country

[The Moonster]

22 minutes ago, Francesc Fabregas said:

That definitely seems to be the case. When I realised we picked up Kinlay Bilham from the SPFL Exit Trials - a market exclusively used by Jim Duffy - it really hit home how difficult it's been to put together a squad. As I said in a previous post, I just don't think there are many "good players" available so teams are building squads using young, unfancied cast-offs.

Now that Premiership sides are back in training, we might see a bit of movement with players being loaned out across the country, and my goodness we'll need it because, based on last night, this squad isn't good enough just yet.

I think there seems to be a lot of teams hoping that the loan market can give them quality but I just don't see it. In League 2 you're getting the last pick of the loans and usually anyone decent comes with a price as well (St Johnstones young players for example are a money making exercise as much as it is about getting players experience) so any team with minimal budget left aren't picking from a quality pool. I think most teams at this level will be lucky to pick up one player who will add some quality to their side and the rest will range from decent squad option to not good enough. 

Edited July 5, 2023 by The Moonster

[Kelheart]

See Tiwi Daramola started out with you guys , boys a player like been absolutely brilliant against Raith and Partick (know they are friendlies) but hopefully we can keep a hold of him , electric pace and can fair skin a player and not afraid to try to Corbett not too shabby either

[Francesc Fabregas]

1 hour ago, Kelheart said:

See Tiwi Daramola started out with you guys , boys a player like been absolutely brilliant against Raith and Partick (know they are friendlies) but hopefully we can keep a hold of him , electric pace and can fair skin a player and not afraid to try to Corbett not too shabby either

Pleased to hear they're both doing well at Kelty Hearts so far. We never really saw much of Tiwi Darmola - he made a handful of appearances for Stenhousemuir before moving elsewhere - but you won't find a bigger fan of Adam Corbett than me. He's a very capable defender and if he can stay fit, he's someone who's got the potential to kick on even further. Hope they both do your boys a good turn this season.