Lowland Team of the Season

[Brian Carrigan]

Extending from this topic - are there any players you'd expect to be making the step up to the SPFL after this season? Would you expect them to be a success?

It's obviously a huge jump and difficult for players to navigate (the Swift lot, Andy Rodden and literally everyone else Clyde brought from the LL etc). Tiwi Daramola made the leap from below the LL and people expected big things but after a bright start dropped off exponentially once the real business began. He now finds himself in that huge EK pool, and if they go up will he cut it in L2?

Edited March 27 by Brian Carrigan

[bigwullieac]

5 hours ago, Highland ITFC said:

Have been impressed with Digaba on the couple of occasions that I've seen him, but from an objective perspective there are six sides with less GA than Bo'ness, so would think that one of those 'keepers would take precedence. Fully appreciate that clean sheets aren't just down to 'keepers, but it's certainly high in the key criteria.

Even if we didnt manage a top 4 finish as a first time management team coming in after the farcial exit of Ian Little leaving us totally in the lurch, the work Hunts and Michael have done to build a trong team unit really is remarkable. They have totally rejuvenated the team to a level not seen since Max Christies first season with us in the EOS. By the nature of their budget Gary Jardine is always stiff competition for best manager with how well he does with CSS but this season Hunts and Michael have been the absolute stand outs 

[Highland ITFC]

20 hours ago, Brian Carrigan said:

Extending from this topic - are there any players you'd expect to be making the step up to the SPFL after this season? Would you expect them to be a success?

It's obviously a huge jump and difficult for players to navigate (the Swift lot, Andy Rodden and literally everyone else Clyde brought from the LL etc). Tiwi Daramola made the leap from below the LL and people expected big things but after a bright start dropped off exponentially once the real business began. He now finds himself in that huge EK pool, and if they go up will he cut it in L2?

I wouldn't agree that it's a huge jump, as from watching SPFL2, HL & LL over the last few years, I'd reckon that there's a fair degree of overlap between the two tiers in terms of the quality of both teams & individual players. I certainly couldn't see that if all these teams played in one big division, that the SPFL2 teams would all end up above all the HL & LL teams. The way that HL / LL sides that have been promoted into SPFL2 have performed, & not just come straight back down would also seem to support this.

A lot of players seem to move between the two tiers aswell, stepping up aswell as stepping down. A couple of recent examples are Lyall Booth & Michael Dangana following manager Allan Hale from HL Huntly to SPFL2 Elgin, & both doing well at their new club / level. There's of course a number of factors that affect whether a player does well when stepping up, with individual talent of course being one, but also importantly needing to have a manager that gives them confidence & support & plays them, & playing in a team / formation / style that suits them & enables them to perform at their best.

Maybe in the example of Daramola, something was missing from the mix at Kelty? As a talented young goalscorer, if he's genuinely good enough & has the attitude & desire to play higher, then further opportunities will come, be this with EK or a.n.other side.

[Chris_the_rover]

On 26/03/2024 at 23:09, Cowden Cowboy said:

4 Albion Rovers players v 3 in total from East Kilbride, Tranent and Bo’ness.  Don’t think so 

I know

Shocking to think someone would pick 3 defensive players from a team with the vest defensive record in the league by a mile, along with a striker who is regularly scoring

[Cowden Cowboy]

On 29/03/2024 at 23:09, Chris_the_rover said:

I know

Shocking to think someone would pick 3 defensive players from a team with the vest defensive record in the league by a mile, along with a striker who is regularly scoring

But you can have best defensive record in a league by setting up defensively and putting lots of players behind the ball.  That doesn’t necessarily mean you have the best individual defenders

[Redcar]

On 26/03/2024 at 11:52, BonessBWAH_ said:

Michael Travis is a must

He was shite for the first few months ...

[BonessBWAH_]

14 hours ago, Redcar said:

He was shite for the first few months ...

lol, I didn’t think about his start at Berwick. 

Was that because he knew he was likely away with whole firesale or was he just genuinely ‘shite’?

We were crying out for another centre half and a besides a bit of a slow start he’s now had our most MOTM awards 

[Redcar]

2 hours ago, BonessBWAH_ said:

lol, I didn’t think about his start at Berwick. 

Was that because he knew he was likely away with whole firesale or was he just genuinely ‘shite’?

We were crying out for another centre half and a besides a bit of a slow start he’s now had our most MOTM awards 

Naw. He's a good player. Had some great performances for us last season. 

Whole team got slowly worse under Stu Malcolm amidst rumours that he (Malcolm) had 'lost the dressing room'. Culminated in an absolute drubbing in the cup at Brora, which itself precipitated the fire sale. 

[boheesian]

32 minutes ago, Redcar said:

Naw. He's a good player. Had some great performances for us last season. 

Whole team got slowly worse under Stu Malcolm amidst rumours that he (Malcolm) had 'lost the dressing room'. Culminated in an absolute drubbing in the cup at Brora, which itself precipitated the fire sale. 

Played in 23 league games was cup tied so missed 3 has scored 3 so far and has a decent long throw, don’t think we’ll miss McArthur.

[cowden67]

On 27/03/2024 at 15:13, Brian Carrigan said:

Extending from this topic - are there any players you'd expect to be making the step up to the SPFL after this season? Would you expect them to be a success?

It's obviously a huge jump and difficult for players to navigate (the Swift lot, Andy Rodden and literally everyone else Clyde brought from the LL etc). Tiwi Daramola made the leap from below the LL and people expected big things but after a bright start dropped off exponentially once the real business began. He now finds himself in that huge EK pool, and if they go up will he cut it in L2?

i’d have to say Zac Butterworth, and Robbie McNabb 100%. the boys have been the backbone of cowden this season. Hoping they stay but definitely both capable of moving up leagues 

[Brian Carrigan]

11 minutes ago, cowden67 said:

i’d have to say Zac Butterworth, and Robbie McNabb 100%. the boys have been the backbone of cowden this season. Hoping they stay but definitely both capable of moving up leagues 

That’s interesting. We had Butterworth on loan at Clyde a few seasons ago and he was just too slight and inexperienced at the time compared to what we needed, and he barely played. I like McNab, a specimen and seems a great boy but he did have a couple of seasons in the leagues with Kelty and he was “fine”. Seems like he’s maybe found his level? I think maybe he was a victim of the fact that he’s decent across a few positions.

[Chris_the_rover]

On 01/04/2024 at 13:50, Cowden Cowboy said:

But you can have best defensive record in a league by setting up defensively and putting lots of players behind the ball.  That doesn’t necessarily mean you have the best individual defenders

Eh????????

Luckily it's a team game where you should set up to your strengths 

Edited May 8 by Chris_the_rover

[Cowden Cowboy]

1 hour ago, Chris_the_rover said:

Eh????????

Luckily it's a team game where you should set up to your strengths 

Why eh???  I’m making an obvious point and didn’t say anyone shouldn’t play to their strengths.  The point is you can have a good defensive record if you set your team up to stop opposition scoring and sacrifice any attacking threat to bolster your defensive shape.  Thus you become hard to score against due to system, shape and defensive numbers not necessarily because many of the players involved are the best in the league in their positions