A Breath of Belief - James McKenzie

[CantGetEnoughOfJelavic]

A League Focus

With the unfortunate exit to Motherwell in the Scottish Cup we had to move on. We had no domestic cups to fight for at this point, and it meant the league was the focus. In reality, this is a good thing. We can fight for the play-offs and focus on simply that. However, we were all down about the Cup result.

I wasn't an experienced boss, neither was Kevin Kyle and it ended up coming down to our physio to try and keep us up, but we all knew what could have been. Motherwell went on to Pittodrie and Aberdeen - imagine that.

Anyway, East Fife. Away.

Things remained fairly similar, a bit more attacking again and Coultress and Riordan missed out again. We were slow and East Fife were 2-0 up with 20 minutes to go. I called in the bulk of players and told them what they were, what they wanted to be and exactly how they should have done it. Make David Morris, David f^cking Morris.

And they did that. He stopped sulking, and smashed a hat trick in. 89th and 91st minute for his final 2. What spirit from the squad, and the man that has transformed over the course of the season.

We couldn't keep it up however, we would draw against Abroath and then a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the strong, Elgin City had us stumbling into a 2-1 defeat as we welcomed Queens Park. With this also came a devastating broken foot for Derek Riordan that had him out for 5 months and with this his contract came to a sudden end and his Berwick Rangers chapter was up and his boots were laced and hung up. 1 goal in 16 for us while under contract. Might have been 1 in 3 as a trialist.

Derek Riordan - 105 goals in 292 League Games.

​

 

[Yeti01]

Tough result against Motherwell mate. Stick with it though. Personally I've found with this year's FM it takes ages longer for a tactic to really 'bed in' irrespective of how fluid the game tells me it is.

 

[AndySams10]

Unlucky against Motherwell mate. Shows maybe that the squad can perform against higher opposition. Hopefully can replicate that in the league.

 

[CantGetEnoughOfJelavic]

Turning Things Our Way

Play-offs were still the goal, promotion would look huge for me as a manager in my first job and first season in the job. Things changed tactically, I was a sterner boss and made it clear to these boys that if they were wanting to make it they had to listen to me, and a few contracts were terminated in the process but things changed on the park.

In February we showed people who we were.

Almost.

Two huge wins away at Stirling and Clyde was met with a late defeat to Montrose, Dwayne Coultress and Darren Lavery continued to show their expertise in the final third and we were back in the top 4 and contending.

March was a bigger month but it was much the same.

I grabbed the League Manager of the Month and the Facebook SPFL Manager of Note award for March and we were consistent and strong. Including a huge win over runaway leaders Elgin and actual Champions at this point. The Annan game was a big 2v3 game and we were just poor. But we were good throughout the month.

Only a few games to go..

We take on Arbroath, away. In the first of the 3 huge games, however a win would confirm our top 4 finish. A loss there would mean we had to do the deed against East Fife, having failed that there was then Montrose. We are without captain Fairbairn for the remainder of the season though, huge loss.

Time to make things count.



Appreciation of David Morris

 

[Sam91]

Play-Offs would be a great achievement mate. Keep it up man loving it

 

[Disclaimer89]

YES!! We are back.

 

[PatrickLFC]

Great stuff Jela, keep it up!