I’m keeping this short, as I have been for the last few weeks. My will is sapping away. This performance was gutless. The players looked like the were training. Jogging around with no fight or dedication. It was an embarrassment to the 60+ travelling fans. I went with my dad, my brother and his wife. I always try to be positive but there was nothing positive about that performance. I deludedly though we would get a point (I had my bet on a win/draw too). The keeper getting sent off in the tunnel at half time is an utter disgrace. He’s not particularly good I’m my opinion so I would give him his marching orders. He let the team down and the fans down. There is absolutely no excuses for a red card in the tunnel. Yes tempers can flare but that’s no excuse. I don’t know what happened but even if he was being attacked you turn the other cheek and show some dignity and class. It’s embarrassing enough hearing him cursing away at the top of his voice anyway, it’s been commented on by a few fans sitting next to me at games who have turned up with their kids.
The highlights of the day for me was getting stomach cramps from dinner at a restaurant we stopped off at in Motherwell on the way home and then arriving Back home with one of my glove and one of my sister in laws..... I’m now hoping next weeks game at home is frozen off to give us a bit of distance from the horror show we had today. It should be a privilege to play for Berwick but there was nothing on show on Saturday. Again we are thankful for Albion Rovers, but they have a game in hand over us and we have still to play them twice in the league. I have no confidence at the moment in getting any results against them. Believe it or not I was looking at hotels and B&B’s in Elgin for the last game of the season. I was thinking of taking my wife and my parents for a couple of days, a weekend break. I’ve put that on the back burner for now. I don’t know if I can face it a the moment. i won’t be making the trip to Peterhead for the game. My leg is quite sore and bothersome at the minute and it’s a fair drive up. It’s also going to be chuffing freezing and I really don’t expect a particularly good game. It may even be postponed due to the weather but the forecast seems ok. I have placed my money on aberwick win though, a whole £2. Berwick are 22-1 at Ladbrokes to win this game. I don’t think I’ve ever seen odds so long for s football match. I’ve also stuck £2 on a draw.......Anyway here’s hoping for a result but the odds are very much against us. Safe travels to all the fans heading to the game.
Edit, I’ve just notice East Fife are at home in the Scottish cup to Greenock Morton so I’ll take my dad to that. Better dig out the long johns though...... Keeping it short as I can’t quite find the motivation.....
well the highlight of the day was the sausage supper from the van! We were outclassed and the gulf in the teams was quite stark. When the first goal went in off the keepers face I pretty much resigned myself to a thumping. Beaten 3-0 wasn’t actually as bad as it could have been. Poor short passing from the keeper, defence, midfield. Slow to every ball. It was like the team switched off. Even when we had a break and a decent cross the ball was met by nobody. The strikers didn’t seem to expect the cross into the box? Did they think the player on the wing was going to lose the ball so no point pushing forward? We did have a 15 minute spell where we seemed competent but overall it was a poor show. I still can’t believe some of the passing. It’s tough times and tough to watch, the basics seem to have been forgotten. We were now back to punting the ball up the park to lose it straight away (if the ball hasn't gone out of play that is) Clyde had 26 shots to our 4 and of our 4 none were on target. Let’s hope we can get it together and move on. It’s Peterhead next week so I’m under no illusions for that game. I’m still looking at Albion Rovers and they seem to be improving every week so we need to get our act together. I’m not travelling to Peterhead, I’ve other things on but I will go to the Queens Park game. As soon as the 3rd goal went in we left, a very rare thing for my Dad and I to do but the final whistle was imminent. We narrowly avoided an accident on the A1 that had the road blocked for over an hour. 3 cars had crashed and it must have been minutes in front of us as we had to weave betweeen them across the carriage way. Police, ambulance and fire crews flying past us a few minutes later. Let’s hope everybody was ok. A few weeks ago we caught up with Sean Brennan and Shea Dowie (reserve team keeper). We had a list of shoot magazine style questions for them and now the answers are in. As part of the catch up we handed over £100 to Shea to help with his expenses as a keeper, specifically gloves. Gloves can be expensive and are an extra cost that a keeper has over an outfield player and are often overlooked but are a crucial item of matchday kit. Questions Answered -Shea.What do you do when you are not playing football? When I’m not playing football I’m either working or watching football on the tv What's your favourite song? That’s a hard one as there are many to choose from but I’d probably go for MIKA not any specific one I used to listen to him all the time when I was younger What’s your favourite car? (or What type of car would you like to own?) I’ve always wanted a Volkswagen scirocco for my first car and love the shape of them but I also like the merc G-wagon What is your favourite meal? Has to be a medium cooked steak What is your favourite holiday? Florida was up there but I have a feeling that Magaluf with my mates will maybe top it Right-handed or left-handed?(Right footed or left-footed?) Right handed, tried writing with my left once when I hurt my arm but didn’t go so well. Preferably right footed but I am comfortable with both boot size and glove size? Size 8 gloves and size 9/10 depending what boots I buy Are there any other footballers in your family? Not really Who told you that you should be a goalkeeper? My best mate Jake at the AstroTurf one day and I decided that after 5 years of playing as a striker I would give it a chance Who is your footballing hero? In goals I would say buffon I love watching him play I think he’s one of the best if not the best keeper in the world, Outfield would have to be Ramos I think he’s a quality player What is the best moment in your career so far? Going to penalties in a cup final after a 0-0 draw and saving all 4 pens to win my team it What’s the worst? Getting to the Scottish cup final after all the hard work and passing the ball to there striker after 40 seconds of the match and conceding What is your match day routine for a home game? Get up get a bite to eat for the long trip down to Shielfield park What’s in your kit bag for a match? My boots, gloves, towel, deodorant/shower gel and socks Do you have any pre match superstitions? Lucky socks for example. I always wear the same gloves I have worn all week at training for a game How do you wind down after a game? Just get a shower and something to eat then relax on the way back home And finally When do the Christmas decorations go up in your house? As soon as December comes Questions Answered - Sean.What do you do when you are not playing football?
Probably find me at the gym, playing Xbox or spending time with friends and/or girlfriend. What's your favourite song? Don't really have one specifically if I'm honest, I'd prefer something like house music or RnB. What's your favourite car? (or What type of car would you like to own?) Nissan GTR What is your favourite meal? Chicken fried rice and salt and pepper chips from the local Chinese. What is your favourite holiday? Got to be Florida! Amazing place. Right-handed or left-handed?(Right footed or left-footed?) Right handed and right footed. boot size and glove size? 8.5 and 8 or 9 depending on the type of glove. Are there any other footballers in your family? Just me but my dad did play a wee bit back in the day as a full back. Who told you that you should be a goalkeeper? To be honest it was always me that wanted to be a goalie, from a young age I'd prefer to wait for the ball to come to me than me going running about after it (mainly because I don't have the best of stamina) Who is your footballing hero? Got to be Messi! the guy is a joke some of the things he can do with the ball! From a goalkeeping point of view however it's now got to be Ederson or Allison as they prove how important it is to have a solid goalkeeper within the team with amazing distribution. What is the best moment in your career so far? Got to be saving a last minute pen up at Forfar, was very important to us getting the 3 points and contributing to us staying clear of the relegation play offs. What's the worst? Probably up at Arbroath when I had a shocking second half and we got beat 4-1 having been winning 1-0 at half time (was a big learning curve for me). What is your match day routine for a home game? Only one routine I have really is making sure the car school (Aiden, Gaz, John and Paul) are at the game on time, nothing worse than being late for a game and getting fined. What's in your kit bag for a match? The essentials: shinnys, 2 pair of gloves, 2 pair of boots and my own match socks. Do you have any pre match superstitions? Lucky socks for example. Only one superstition I have really is I have a thing about touch both posts and the bar before kick-off (don't know why just have done since a young age). How do you wind down after a game? Usually don't do much I would normally just go to the girlfriend house and chill out And finally When do the Christmas decorations go up in your house? First few days in January ( I'm hoping Sean's misread the question here!) well it’s a short away trip today, Cowdenbeath is about a 30 minute drive. I’ll pick up my dad and my friends Gordon and Ewan then head off to Central park. I’m optimistic for this game, God knows why. We have been put to the sword by Cowdenbeath this season a 4-0 defeat at Central Park followed by a 3-0 defeat at Shielfield. Cowdenbeath are close to us in the table and are a team we could take points from, we need to keep the points gap from Albion Rovers to stay away from the relegation spot. The result last week against Edinburgh City gave us a valuable and in my opinion an unexpected point, let’s hope we can build on the performance we had in the last 30 minutes or so of that game and get a result today. Arrival at Central parkwe arrived in plenty of time as usual and got parked. Then into the ground and a pie and a cup of tea (bovril for my dad). We had a good old chit chat with some Cowdenbeath fans and the stewards about the upcoming cup game against Rangers. There will be 4000+ at Central Park for that game, a far cry from the 300-400 that attend a league game. All hands on deck then but a massive payday for Cowdenbeath. £20 a ticket and half the gate from the cup games. So £40k if all tickets are full price, there will be concessions of course but with program sales and 50/50 draw tickets they should net at least £30k. Chit chat finished we headed for a seat in the stand for the main event. The Game.Well it was another defeat and another sending off, we’ve now played Cowdenbeath 3 times this season. In those 3 games we have conceded 9 goals, scored 0 and picked up 5 red cards. Today’s red card was another stupid red for mouthing off at the referee. A complete lack of control and discipline to get a card like that, it a way to let down your team, manager and the fans. Yes tempers can rise but it’s easy enough to keep a lid on it and walk away, there is no way a mouthful towards the ref is going to result in anything but a booking. It was a tough game to watch, we did have spells where we had a go but overall not great. I have written a few things here and deleted them, I don’t want to grumble and single out players who were below par. I will say that Jordan Orru had a good game, full of running and effort and one of our best players. We need a solid leader in defence though (bring back Pat Scullion, all is forgiven... although he was subject to a load of abuse from a section of the Berwick fans) The first goal we conceded was a real lack of concentration though. We had a free kick that nobody was switched on for, the ball swung into the Cowdenbeath box to static Berwick players. Nobody was prepared. Cowdenbeath took the ball and drove forward and scored, it was deflating to see and really shouldn’t have happened. Overall possession was pretty even but Cowdenbeath had 15 shots to our 5. No point in having possession and doing nothing with it. Then we gave away a penalty for what looked like clipping the heels of the Cowdenbeath player. Albion Rovers managed a draw with Queenspark too, they were leading at one point so they are slowly reducing the gap. Next week home to Clyde. I don’t see us winning that one, my faith has gone for now. I will of course still go to the games, you have to don’t you. I think other than the Peterhead game away in a couple of weeks I’ll be at all the home and away fixtures for the rest of the season (weather permitting). As I’ve said before, league survival is the aim this season, as rubbish as that is it’s the reality for this season. We have 2 games still to play against Albion Rovers and they are looking pretty crucial for league survival now.
|
AuthorDavid Letham Archives
January 2022
navigate
All
|