League 2 Review | Season 2013/14

1

Peterhead

The Blue Toon were worthy champions as they secured their first ever senior title and made up for losing in the Play-off Final last season.

Jim McInally’s side had a sluggish start to the season and sat in seventh place after a defeat from Annan back in November.

However a run of only one defeat in 19 games saw the Balmoor men stride comfortably into a commanding lead.

The crown was theirs after a 2-0 win over Clyde with three games to go.

The only disappointment for Peterhead was a lack of success in cup competitions with early road defeats experienced at the hands of Berwick Rangers, Alloa and Stenhousemuir.

Hit

2

Annan Athletic

Annan improved enormously in Jim Chapman’s first full season in charge and they emerged from the pack of clubs chasing Peterhead to grab second spot.

A January 4 win over Albion Rovers took the Galabank men into the runners up position and they remained there until game 36.

The play-offs were however a disappointment as they lost to Stirling home and away to exit at a comprehensive 8-4 aggregate.

Annan also enjoyed a run all the way to the live TV Ramsdens Cup semi-final against Raith Rovers and they performed well before going down 3-0.

Kenny MacKay emerged from the juniors as a real goal threat for the Black and Gold’s and Chapman has his work cut out to keep him.

Hit

3

Stirling Albion

Stirling came to the boil at the right time and secured promotion via the play-offs with a comeback win over East Fife. The Forthbank men won 5 of their last 6 games to charge into third place before blowing Annan away in the semi-final and coming from behind to beat East Fife in the Final.

Greig McDonald’s side had a sticky opening quarter of games and finished that spell in seventh however had progressed to fourth by the half way mark.

Apart from a one week blip they were a top half side for the rest of the season and warmed to the boil at the right time.

Hit

4

Clyde

The Bully Wee enjoyed their best season in many a year and came close to getting to the play-off Final both in normal time against East Fife and in penalties.

The Broadwood side had a good mix of youth and experience with the talent of the emerging Scott Ferguson shining brightly alongside the more experienced Stuart McColm.

Jamie Barclay, Brian McQueen, David Marsh, John Sweeney and Michael Daly provide a solid core to Clyde and thankfully for them Jim Duffy had them signed up before heading for Greenock and the manager’s job at Morton.

Could the final day defeat from Stirling and swapping of play-off opponents as a result been a definitive moment in Clyde’s season as they went up against East Fife and not an Annan side they had beaten 3 times.

Hit

5

Berwick Rangers

The Borderers were left to regret a controversial sending off of Paul Currie at Stirling with 4 games to go.

Colin Cameron’s side had just gone one up in the first half when Currie was dismissed with Albion scoring twice right at the end of the game to win.

If Berwick had held on for the win at Forthbank they may well be celebrating promotion now.

The appointment of Cameron saw Berwick stop heading down the table and head up and he is also one of the best players in League 2.

Somewhere in-between

6

Montrose

Montrose stayed tight to the sides that were chasing a play-off place however they never looked like convincing promotion chasers.

Manager Stuart Garden paid with his job after a 4-0 defeat from Peterhead and George Shields was appointed as manager after an interim period at the end of the month.

The Scottish Cup was another disappointment for Montrose as they lost 2-1 to Fraserburgh however it would be fair to say that the Highland League side had the tide behind them in the second half.

Somewhere in-between

7

Albion
Rovers

Great in the Scottish Cup however disappointing in the league is probably the most succinct way of describing Rovers’ season.

Rovers began the season at Livingston in a Ramsdens Cup tie against Rangers and would also face the Light Blues at Ibrox and in Hamilton in other Cup ties.

The Coatbridge side almost made national headlines as they led in Glasgow however an equaliser with 11 minutes left and a 2-0 replay defeat saw Rangers go through to the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup.

Rovers started the season well with two wins in a row however that was only achieved once more in the campaign with no momentum gained as a result.

They will regroup under James Ward and look to be stronger next season.

Somewhere in-between

8

East Stirlingshire

The Shire began like a house on fire with three wins in a row and led the table for the first third of the games however they petered out. They finished in a disappointing eighth place as a familiar habit of failing to score goals struck again.

Despite their struggles in front of goal a play-off place was in sight until the last 10 games where only one win was secured.

Remarkably if 3 of those 10 games were won head coach John Coughlin’s side would have finished in fifth place.

Coughlin opted to leave at the end of the season and former player Craig Tully is at the helm for next season.

Somewhere in-between

9

Elgin City

Elgin scored plenty of goals however they conceded even more to make it a season of struggle at Borough Briggs. The Moray men made ninth place their own this season although they did have a couple of weeks in second place back in October.

A 2-0 defeat from Queen’s Park in mid-January saw the club part company with manager Ross Jack and Barry Wilson took over.

In the remaining 15 games Elgin picked up only 3 wins however Wilson did chalk up his first home success with a 5-0 win over East Stirling and  at least Wilson and what will be a new look squad can start next season without that monkey on their back.

Miss

10

Queen’s Park

Everyone connected with the Spiders knew that they were in for a tough season after losing virtually an entire team last summer. However no-one anticipated it being this tough as Queen’s finished bottom of Scottish football for only the second time since they were formed in 1867.

It took 10 games for Queen’s to chalk up a win in the league and that turned out to be the only one secured under the control of Gardner Speirs before he left in December.

Caretaker boss Richard Sinclair won two games in charge with new permanent head coach Gus MacPherson also racking up two wins however Queen’s were bottom on day one and stayed bottom all the way through the season.

Miss