SFL Daily Update - Monday, November 9

SFL IRN-BRU First Division

The results in three of the five First Division games emphasised that there is a large spilt developing between a hefty sized promotion chasing pack and a trio of clubs, who are being isolated at the foot of the table. Queen of the South and Dundee, who are leading the way on twenty six points and meet next Saturday at Dens Park, enjoyed victories over Ayr United and Airdrie United sides that are bringing up the rear with seven points apiece. Fourth place Partick Thistle defeated third bottom Morton to see the top seven sides separated by only eight points, with Dunfermline sitting on eighteen points before a finds the Greenock men in third bottom place with half that total.

The remaining two games saw nearly 12,000 fans packed in at Kirkcaldy and Dingwall, with Dunfermline taking all points in the Fife Derby with Ross County taking the honours in the Highland match-up.

The league leading Dumfries side travelled to Somerset Park and came back with a 1-0 win courtesy of Derek Holmes’ header in 20 minutes and it was the first time in three attempts that Gordon Chisholm’s men have held on to top spot this season.

The Palmerston Park boss said “This was a hard fought for victory where sleeves had to be rolled up. It sets things up really nicely for a top of the table clash with Dundee next week at their place and I am really looking forward to it.”

Chisholm had a special word for his match-winner Holmes saying, “I reckon he is the best in what he does in the First Division. He leads the line fantastically well,”

Ayr, on a poor run of four straight defeats, are not far away from recovering with manager Brian Reid saying, “All we are missing just now is an end product. Once we get that we will be fine.”

Dundee, who will go into next week’s match without Leigh Griffiths who is on under-21 duty with Scotland, are lucky to have another striker in goalscoring form with Sean Higgins knocking in both goals as Airdrie United were defeated 2-1 at Dens Park.

All the goals came in the first half with Kenny Black’s visitors stunning their hosts when John Baird drilled home a cut back to put them ahead with Higgins levelling with a header shortly afterwards. The winner came when the former Ross County man netted with a well struck shot from the edge of the box.

The Dark Blues, with Rab Douglas in goal for flu-hit Tony Bullock, should have scored more and in the end were grateful that the Diamonds could not force in an equaliser as they tried to snatch something near the death.

Dundee boss Jocky Scott said, “We should have had this game put to bed long before we did. We got away with things towards the end but we may not in the future so we have to kill teams off when we are on top.”

Black said, “We gave them too much space after our goal and perhaps our concentration had slipped.”

Partick Thistle got back to winning ways with a 2-0 triumph at Greenock, with goals in the second half from Liam Buchanan and Simon Donnelly, who have now netted eighteen times between them this term.

Jags manager Ian McCall, who gave debuts to Jamie Adams and Steve Lovell as substitutes said afterwards, “Jamie made a difference when he came on and I ended up disappointed that we did not go on and score more after going two up.”

Morton had enjoyed the better of the first half and manager James Grady was far from pleased, “We gave away very cheap goals and that annoys me. We dominated early on and did not take our chances.”

Dunfermline won in front of over 6,000 fans at Stark’s Park for the first time on league duty this Millennium, thanks to a last gasp goal in a 2-1 win over Raith Rovers. The scorer of the injury time winning goal has been the subject of much debate with the home side’s Craig Wilson and visiting David Graham both involved in forcing the ball over the line from a Willie Gibson cross. It would be probably be fair to say that the Kirkcaldy man will not want to claim such a landmark winner.

Raith had led at half time through Mark Campbell’s looping header with the Pars levelling with a trademark thumping Graeme Bayne header 10 minutes into the second period.

Visiting boss Jim McIntyre beamed, “It was a fantastic game and full credit to the players for getting back into things after going behind. I was confident that we had the quality to hurt them.”

Raith manager John McGlynn said, “You have to take late defeats like that on the chin. I think that the best team on the day won the game.”

Ross County defeated Inverness for a second time in the league this season with Michael Gardyne providing the inspiration in a 2-1 win at Victoria Park. The opening goal came in 18 minutes when Scott Morrison struck the Inverness bar with a free kick and in amongst the home appeals that the ball had crossed the line, defender Scott Boyd nodded the ball in to make sure a goal was awarded.

Two minutes later Morrison crossed for Gardyne and he bulleted home a header to put Derek Adams’ side two ahead. Inverness came roaring back into things in the second half and after a couple of close shaves Adam Rooney pulled a goal back.

Rooney netted a rebound after his own penalty, awarded when he had been fouled by a combination of Alex Keddie and Richard Brittain, had been saved by Michael McGovern.

Adams said afterwards, “Michael Gardyne was excellent and he has a lot more ability than he gets credit for. In saying that there was not a failure in my team, they were all outstanding.”

Caledonian Thistle boss Terry Butcher was far from pleased, “We have let everybody down and we were embarrassing. If the truth hurts some people then fine, as it was a bitterly disappointing performance.”

Butcher is promising changes saying, “One or two people are going to find themselves out of the team after that.”

SFL IRN-BRU Second Division

Cowdenbeath’s solitary goal win at Clyde took Danny Lennon’s side to the top of the Second Division, with the 1-0 victory the latest result in a tremendous run that has seen the Blue Brazil take sixteen points out of the last available eighteen.

The Central Park men had been preparing for life in the Third Division throughout the summer and Lennon deserves great credit for what has been achieved so far this term.

The manager however, puts the rise up the table down to the latest scientific training methods as opposed to a more traditional approach saying, “We have sports scientists at every training session and game. Everything we do is filmed and analysed and the boys can be coached through any issues and it really is a superb approach. Nothing has been achieved yet and you will not hear me boasting about this or that, I will just concentrate on things one game at a time.”

The new leaders left it late to see off the bottom placed side, with substitute Scott McBride firing home a last gasp penalty at Broadwood after Alan Lithgow was penalised for hand ball.

Bully Wee boss John Brown was upset with the spot kick award saying, “We deserved a point and I think the referee was influenced at their penalty as he turned one down for them just a few minutes before.”

Alloa Athletic completed a 1-0 league double over Stirling Albion to help knock Allan Moore’s men off the top of the table and also bring themselves back into contention for the Second Division title as they now they sit only three points behind the new leaders.

Forthbank youngster Kenny Feaks gave away a spot kick when he brought down Stuart Noble, without any real danger threatening, midway through the first half and Andy Scott blasted home from 12 yards.

Recreation Park boss Allan Maitland enjoyed his first win on his neighbour’s ground saying, “That was a big win for us. We are in much better shape than we were a few weeks ago and that win confirms that. It was a great finish from Andy, from what was our first spot kick of the season. Stirling had the better of the second half but there was always an Alloa defender getting in the way.”

The Forthbank side have now only once in five games and manager Allan Moore lamented afterwards saying, “I have told the players that we were always just two games away from losing top spot and that is what has now happened and I can only hope that will be the wake up call to the players.. We gave away a naïve penalty, when their striker was going nowhere, and then never won a header in their box despite having over a dozen corners.”

Albion had the better of the second half, however they could not force a leveller to leave Moore saying, “Our finishing was deplorable.”

Peterhead hit East Fife with two late goals to win 2-1 at New Bayview to make it four wins and a draw in the last five games for Neale Cooper’s side. Paul McManus had given the hosts an early lead, however it was all change in the last 10 minutes as Bobby Mann was judged to have forced the ball over the line despite home protests and John Stewart converted a penalty after being brought down by Jonathan Smart.

Smart was dismissed to add to the Fifers sense of injustice with assistant manager Scott Crabbe saying, “Our goalkeeper is adamant that it was not a goal and John Stewart had put the ball out before the penalty. You have to live with decisions but to lose this game was sore.”

Balmoor boss Neale Cooper played things fairly straight saying, “My players said the ball did not go miles over the line but it did go over. I also felt it was a penalty.”

Dumbarton boss Jim Chapman let rip at his players at half time at Ochilview and his rant certainly did the trick as the Sons struck three times to see off Stenhousemuir with Roddy Hunter, Scott Chaplain and Ross O’Donoghue all netting.

Chapman said, “I am delighted with how the players responded but it is probably best I don’t tell you what I said. Our defence was keeping us in it and our forwards needing to help out and they did.”

Warriors boss John Coughlin was disappointed saying, “We were on top in the first half but never got our noses in front.”

Jim Weir’s return to management saw his Arbroath side earn a goalless draw at Brechin to move away from bottom spot and the former Montrose boss was pleased with what he saw commenting, “We looked solid today and when you consider that I have not had a lot of time to work with the players I am pleased with the effort put in.”

For Brechin it was their third goalless draw in a row and their first dropped points at home this season to leave manager Jim Duffy saying, “Keeping three clean sheets in a row is great from a defensive point of view but we need to improve from midfield to up-front as we lacked creativity again.”

SFL IRN-BRU Third Division

Livingston are beginning to show the benefit of being the only full time team in the Third Division as they romped to their seventh league victory in nine games. A long trip to Elgin on a grey November day is usually dreaded by part-time players, however the Almondvale men travelled north and won 6-1 to keep a two point lead at the top of the First Division.

Keaghan Jacobs fired Livi ahead with little over a minute played with David Winters and Jacobs again, putting Gary Bollan’s men three ahead by half time. A Mark Nicholson own goal and an Andrew Halliday goal made it five within 7 minutes of the second half before Jason Talbot made it half a dozen.

Craig Gunn fired in a late consolation for Elgin with Borough Briggs boss Ross Jack fuming, “That was simply not acceptable. We lost a bad goal in the first minute and it spread from there.”

Bollan beamed, “I was delighted to score six goals, our full time fitness is beginning to kick in now and it showed in what was a great performance.”

Berwick won their game at Stranraer twice, where they raced into a two goal lead only to be pegged back before scoring again to take all the points over the border in a 4-2 win. Stranraer contributed to their own downfall with goalkeeper David Mitchell and defender Murray Henderson combining to put through their own goal after only five minutes with former Hibs player Damon Gray making it two midway through the first half.

Stair Park boss Keith Knox’s half time team talk seemed to work with Darren McGeough and Stuart McColm levelling only for Jamie Ewart and Gray to win the game for Berwick. Henderson’s miserable day was complete when he was sent off just before the end.

Knox said afterwards, “Our first half display left us with a mountain to climb, we were really poor.”

Berwick manager Jimmy Crease summed things up perfectly saying, “You saw the best and worst of us.”

Albion Rovers were held 0-0 at home by bottom side Montrose, who have still to win a league game, although the Coatbridge side will take heart from sitting in third place with a third of the season gone after a turbulent week, when winger Bobby Barr was told he would not be playing for the club again.

Midfielder Steven McKeown went close for the home side with the Links Park side having the ball in the net through former Rover John Gemmell, only for an offside call to cut short their celebrations.

Manager Steven Tweed said, “I am happy to pick up a point but it could have been three, as I am not convinced John was offside.”

Queen’s Park finally won at home with a Frankie Carroll goal giving them a 1-0 win over East Stirling, who missed an early penalty when Andy Rodgers’ effort was saved. It was the Spiders first home victory in nearly seven months.

Hampden Head Coach Gardner Speirs said, “It is a massive relief to finally get that win here. It was a great goal and everyone at the club is delighted with the win.”

Visiting manager Jim McInally, who has been extremely critical of match officials recently, said, “I thought the referee was excellent and I congratulated him on his performance.”

Forfar’s poor run of only one win in seven games ended with a 2-1 win over Annan at Station Park. Ross Campbell headed in before Ian Harty put the Loons two up with 27 minutes gone. Visiting striker David Cox pulled a goal back in the second half, however Harry Cairney’s men could not force an equaliser.

The home side’s Dick Campbell said, “We had this game won and then gave away a daft goal. It turned into a nervous finish when it did not need to be.”

Cairney added, “We switched off for five minutes and were punished by losing two silly goals.”