10 best Scottish lower league players this week

10. Steven Doris (Stirling Albion)

These are bleak times for Barry Ferguson. Saturday’s home defeat to a struggling Stirling side may not quite place him in the last chance saloon, but his decision making skills haven’t been questioned this much since he decided to swagger around town wearing a Rangers shell-suit after that 6-2 loss to Celtic. Playing three central defenders seems a reasonable choice for any manager, but picking a trio with a combined age of 106 meant that speed and pace was never going to be their strong-suit. As such, Stirling front-man Steven Doris had a rare old time, so much so that Marvin Andrews was replaced at the interval. Doris didn’t score the only goal of the match, but his back-heel in the build-up to Sandy Cunningham’s strike, which flummoxed Andrews in the process was a real thing of beauty. The Binos are still second-bottom, but with this their finest performance of the campaign, hope once again hovers over Forthbank.

9. Ian Campbell (Forfar Athletic)

Ian Campbell was on the receiving end of a barrel-load of stick for his, how can we put this, under-whelming performances for the Blue Brazil last season, but goodness gracious he may have avoided that if he’d been pinging them in like this at the Cowdenbeath Racewall. His humdinger put Forfar 2-0 up against Ayr United on Saturday, and they’d likely have seen the match out if it hadn’t been for some absolute capers from goalkeeper Rab Douglas in the second-half. Dick Campbell described Douglas as world class last season, but based on Saturday’s form you wouldn’t expect him to be named in too many World XI’s come the end of this term. The 2-2 draw didn’t do either participant much good, with Ayr dislodged from the summit of League One, while Forfar’s recent slump sees them slipping and sliding straight out the play-off places.

8. Ross Stewart (Albion Rovers)

It was anticipated before the season’s opening that out of Albion Rovers and Peterhead, one would struggle manfully to stay in the division, while the other would be a dark-horse in terms of qualifying for the promotion play-offs. After 10 league games, that’s exactly how it’s panning out, but not exactly in the order anyone expected. Jim McInally’s under-performing bunch of jobbers now sit eighth, while Darren Young’s ‘Vers are up to fourth after a thrilling, last-gasp 1-0 win. John “The Beast” Gemmell snatched the 89th minute goal, but it was Rovers goalkeeper Ross Stewart who ensured the Lanarkshire side were still in the fixture up until that point with a number of fine stops, combined with some confident cross-clutching. The presumption is that Darren Young’s side’s bubble will eventually burst, but with almost a third of the season gone they continue to defy the odds.

7. Jamie Langfield (St Mirren)

It’s difficult to keep regurgitating clichés to describe St. Mirren’s opening to this campaign. They’ve all been used, from ‘starting to gel,’ to ‘turning a corner,’ and ‘clicking into place.’ If the Paisley Buddies can’t build on their 1-0 win over Livingston however, perhaps we should just admit that they’re ‘not very good.’ Aside from Steve Mallan’s redonkulous wonder strike, they certainly did little to impress against bottom dwellers Livi on Saturday. In-fact, but for another solid performance from Jamie Langfield they wouldn’t have secured what was just their second win of the season, a victory which moved them level on points with the division’s other big-guns, Dumbarton and Morton. Ian Murray’s men have yet to win a home match in the Championship this season. Next up is Rangers at St. Mirren Park.

6. Smart Osadolor (Annan Athletic)

There was very little surprise at Terrace Towers when our favourite Nigerian-born Annan Athletic forward won the latest Ladbrokes League Two Player of the Month award. After all, we’ve championed and triumphed the 24-year old since the early weeks of the season, and his performances continue to justify our gushing praise, which occasionally borders on sycophancy. He opened the scoring for Annan Athletic in their 3-1 win over Queen’s Park on Saturday, demonstrating once again both his fleet-of-foot and composure, splitting the Queen’s back-four with a fine run before coolly sliding the ball beyond goalkeeper Willie Muir. Whilst that moment was grand, it was top-trumped by the sight of an elderly Spiders fan in the background, taking a mournful bite of his roll, while our man Smartacus performed a lovely pirouetting celebration in-front of him. Osadolor’s seventh goal of the campaign helped Jim Chapman’s side go three points clear at the top after East Fife toiled to a share of the spoils against Berwick Rangers.

5. Craig Sibbald (Falkirk)

After a late 1-0 defeat to Falkirk, Jim Duffy felt that the Gods were conspiring against his side at the moment. Who knows, perhaps he’s correct, but it’s hard to believe that Greenock Morton conceding a few last-minute goals prove the existence of Allah, Hari or the G-Man himself. To be honest, even if it did, you’d imagine they’d have bigger concerns to mull over than whether-or-not Derek Gaston can keep a clean-sheet. No, this defeat had less to do with divine intervention and more to do with the awareness and craft of Craig Sibbald, and the finishing prowess of Lee Miller. Sibbald had been something of a pest to the Greenock side all day, and while Peter Houston’s safety-first approach can grate, especially when it means just one up-top, the decision to play Sibbald behind lone-man John Baird at least got the best out of a player who can occasionally look out-of-sorts on the left. Houston isn’t everyone’s cup-of-tea, but a win on Tuesday evening against Hibs, would put the Bairns second in the table. An excellent start by anyone’s standard.

4. Fraser Fyvie (Hibernian)

Alan Stubbs described himself as furious after Hibernian’s 4-2 win over Dumbarton at the weekend, a prevailing mood which presumably meant he blinked even more than normal, if such an action is possible. Once he’d settled back to analyse the game and take in his team’s four goals and, in particular, the performance of Fraser Fyvie in his three-man-midfield, he probably felt a little less anxious. Failing that, a Twitter search of “Malonga” on Monday evening would surely have relieved his tension. Perhaps taking a lead from his good friend, Mark Warburton, Stubbs started the match with an extremely attacking line-up, and it while it provided the three-points, he was rightly concerned with the number of opportunities the Sons were presented with to get themselves back into the match. With a game in midweek against Falkirk, Stubbs Stutterers have the opportunity to dislodge Raith Rovers from second place in the table before they lock horns on the Fife Riviera this Saturday.

3. Barrie McKay (Rangers)

You can just imagine the conversations amongst the Queen of the South fans as they made their way to Ibrox on Saturday. “As long as we dinny get hammered, I’ll be happy, ” or perhaps something along the lines of, “as long as we gie them a game I’ll be chuffed.” Well, the Doonhamers didn’t get hammered and they did give Rangers a game, but it’s difficult to imagine that the Queen’s fans found too much solace in their method of defeat. Taking the lead, grimly holding on to parity through the majority of the second-half, watching goalkeeper Robbie Thompson save a penalty to preserve the prospect of a point in the 88th minute and still losing? Deary me, it would probably have been easier to take if they’d just been scudded. Barrie McKay may not have been amongst the goal-scorers in Saturday’s 2-1 win, but at least he looked back to a semblance of his best. McKay is approximately 50% baller and 50% Brylcreem, but he tormented the Queen’s defence at times, with only a flunked chance in the second-half spoiling his show. It’ll be interesting to see how Jim Goodwin deals with Barrie McKay in the St. Mirren versus Rangers fixture this weekend.

2. Michael Moffat (Dunfermline Athletic)

Maybe it was a sympathy vote because it was his birthday, or perhaps it was just lonely Gaelic speaking housewives who voted for the big ruggedly handsome sexpot, but it was a genuinely curious thing that Ben Richards-Everton won Saturday’s man-of-the-match award against Stranraer. Sure, he grabbed a goal and formed part of a defence that forged a clean-sheet in a three-to-zip win which lifted the Pars back to the top-of-the-table, but Michael Moffat seemed the game’s most sure-footed performer. His pivot and finish after just four minutes got Allan Johnston’s men off to a flyer, and it was his cross which was turned in by Mickael Antoine-Curier which ultimately finished the Blues off midway through the second-period. It was hard to have too much sympathy for Stranraer though, as not only were they very-much second-best, one home fan elected to emit a loud, shrill scream every time they ventured into Dunfermline’s box. Considering Stranraer play Cowdenbeath next weekend, her vocal chords will almost certainly be in a horrific state come Sunday morning.

1. Bobby Linn (Arbroath)

Bobby Linn may be fast-approaching the age where he could be labelled a veteran, but the diminutive front-man is showing few signs that his distinguished career in the lower reaches of Scottish football is grinding to a halt. On Saturday, his brace of goals helped Arbroath to a 3-1 victory in a raucous Angus derby, their first win in the local-ding-dong in twelve months. Linn recently declared that all his goals were dedicated to the unlikely sounding Arbroath Ultras, so presumably the drum-denting, pyro-producing teenagers were delighted with his match-winning contribution. His first arrived after 23 minutes after some fine build up play from Darren Ramsay, while his second, with 25 remaining, presented the Mo’ with a challenge they never threatened to overcome. Confusingly, the celebrations featured several shirt-less revellers, who, considering Gayfield is in a perpetual temperature of around -3, can only just be thawing out now. After starting the season with no wins from their first five matches, four wins in their last five, mean the Red Licties are now just two points outside the play-offs.

Written by Shaughan McGuigan (@ShaughanM)

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