Before we get to the Stenhousemuir match we’ve got a whole ton of admin.
Our Reserves drew 2-2 with Buckie Thistle Res in a friendly, non-player Martin Allison scoring a brace, and our U18’s drew 0-0 with Inverness Athletic Res, also in a Friendly.
5th Jan 2020 – NEW SIGNING – Lloyd Kinnaird (Scout) – £30/wk
9’s for Potential & Ability, not too bad. He was a player, starting his career at Ayr, ending it at BSC Glasgow. IRL he is still a player at BSC. Already we have the best scouting (Apart from Presenting data) in the league 🙂 🙂
6th Jan 2020 – NEW SIGNING – Kyle McCabe (Head of Youth Development) – £60/wk
19 working with the kiddies – Never worked anywhere, is 47, wonder if he’s passed his CRB Check….
6th Jan 2020 – NEW SIGNING – Harry Wickenden-Beautyman (Scout) – £70/wk
Firstly what a name!!! 11 Ability, 12 Potential – English knowledge so hoping to get a pearl or two from the North East.
6th Jan 2020 – NEW SIGNING – Steph Wells (Physio) – £35/wk
16 Physiotherapy!! Highly adaptable, was head physio at Stenhousemuir for 16 months in 2016/17 and still only 29.
6th Jan 2020 – NEW SIGNING – Darren Acton (GK Coach) – £40/wk
A player with lots of lower league experience in England, he was last AFC Telford’s GK Coach in the Vanarama National League (Tier 6 England). 9/8/7 Distribution/Handling/Shot Stopping, A good addition and lets the other coaches get on with training the on-fielders.
So 5 staff members for the first team for £245/wk total, all until the end of the 2020/21 season. I’m planning for next season, when I can cull and rebuild. And this youth system has previous (Chris Barras, now playing regularly for Dunfermline in the Championship) and Tom Sutherland currently I’m on the look out for an U18 Manager as well.
We now have the best coaching team in the league for all but Man Management (4th) and Goalkeeper Handling & Distribution (3rd & 2nd).
6th Jan 2020 – NEW SIGNING – Martin Paterson (U18 Coach) – £40/wk
First Job, but with 18 working with youngsters and good coaching across the piece a really good addition to the setup.
7th Jan 2020 – NEW SIGNING – Niall Foy (Reserves Manager) – £55/wk
Another first job (All to giving chances), Niall has 15 working with youngsters and decent other coaching stats.
7th Jan 2020 – NEW SIGNING – Peter Webb (U18 Manager) – £55/wk
16 Working with youngsters (Yes, 1st job again!!) but some nice attributes.
I’ve asked for the opportunity to go for my Continental C Licence – Turned down as the board is worried I’ll go to another team once I’ve qualified 🙂 🙂 🙂 Will try again in the summer.
Lastly before the game I’ve not yet shown you the finances.
£20k in the black, though trend is into the red by the end of the season. I’m confident though that I can get the club running at least at break-even – There will be a Cull in the summer (AM & Inherited Coach total £390/wk!!, they’ll be gone).
So to Stenhousemuir ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenhousemuir_F.C. ) – they have played 3rd or 4th tier football for most of their long history. IRL and in game Stenhousemuir finished 9th in League 1 and were relegated in the relegation play-off semi-finals (v Cowdenbeath in game, v Annan IRL)
I’ve gone 4-4-2 Wingplay a la Civil Service – From a familiarity standpoint it suits the team best of all. Archie Gardner is out suspended so Sutherland moves back into Central Midfield as a DLP. Adamson starts up top as a Pressing Forward/Disrupter. Conor McLaughlin may get the last 20 minutes, most probably not though. No Registration issues in this league so A. Triallist (Lewis Allan) is on the bench.
Stenhousemuir don’t have an amazing squad as per our scouts. should be an interesting game. They play a 3-4-3 (5-2-3) Wingbacks Wide, so should be an interesting style clash. Lets go.
HT Berwick 0 Stenhousemuir 1 (Meechan OG 35)
Difficult kit clash here, they are quite similar with amber in both kits. A decent enough start, pretty much stalemated though but with Berwick having the attacks, Barr getting a few shots in. Then very cruel, another set piece, a corner met by Neil than snuck in off of Meechan for an OG. 1-0 Stenhousemuir. First anything on target….. Stenhousemuir came into the game a bit more then, with a few long shots, but it was 1-0 at the half. lots of defending Set Piece training to be done methinks.
FT Berwick 2 (Healy 71, McLaughlin 87) Stenhousemuir 1 (Meechan OG 35) Att 378 (45 Away)
Stenhousemuir started off the brighter, with Berwick not showing much. McLaughlin on for the last 25. Then success, 71st minute, a McNiff free kick finding Healy who headed home well. 1-1. Conway on for Meechan, Dawson for Adamson. It was backs to the wall for the next 15 with Allison pulling off an amazing reflex save from Hurst, but against the run of play in the 87th minute Dawson turned and crossed beautifully for McLaughlin, who, off the back of the last defender, fired home beautifully to make it 2-1 Berwick. And it was a pretty comfortable last 7 minutes or so. 2-1 it finished, the first points of my tenure 🙂
So, 6 points from the relegation places, 5 points from Stenhousemuir in 5th, and with 15 league games left I think even 4th (8 points away currently) could be attainable. next up though is a challenge – Albion Rovers (2nd) Away. I’d bite you hand off for a point out of that one. See you soon.