10. Graeme Smith (Peterhead)
Loud cheers and hearty acclaim. That’s how Dunfermline games used to end. But not so much recently, certainly judging by Saturday’s match highlight reel, which ended with lots and lots and lots of booing, while one boy screamed, “THAT’S SHITE.” To be fair, if you’re not a Dunfermline fan, that’s much funnier, but it would have been so different had Graeme Smith not somehow clawed away a Ryan Wallace free-kick in the closing stages. It wasn’t just Smith that was keeping the scoreline blank, that was also down to the downright rank rotten finishing of Mikael Antoine Curier, who at one point, with just Smith to beat, screwed his chance hopelessly wide, fell over, and started slapping himself all over. It was that kind of day.
9. Darryl McHardy (Elgin City)
Not all of Darryl McHardy’s match went to plan against Annan Athletic on Saturday. While his sixth minute goal put Jim’s Weir’s Juggernauts into the lead against the league-leaders, his own-goal after half an hour tied everything up again neatly. However, with Dylan Easton prompting matters further up the park, McHardy was able to restrict Annan’s chances for the remainder of the match, which the Black and Whites eventually won 3-2. The win moved Elgin up from fourth to second in League Two, whilst simultaneously cutting Annan’s lead at the top to just three points.
8. Scott Ferguson (Clyde)
It was difficult to know what to make of Clyde’s 3-1 win over Montrose at the weekend. Not because it was a strange kind of game with an unjust scoreline, but because the highlights were filmed from a vantage point that would make a Sportscene producer blush. That aside, after praising the ‘Mo last week, we may have placed something of a hex on them. Not only were they huckled out the Scottish Cup in midweek by club of many names, Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale, but on Saturday they suffered an utter bleaching by Barry Ferguson’s team. His side put in the type of performance that’s been expected from them all term, with Scott Ferguson probably pulling up his socks the farthest, as he bent proceedings to his whim. Both teams are now just two points off second, and five points off the relegation play-off place.
7. John Baird (Falkirk)
John Baird almost missed Falkirk’s 2-1 win over Raith Rovers after requiring acupuncture to cure a painful neck, however he proved to be an utter pain in the arse to Raith, as he scored the winner which put clear water between the sides in third and fourth. With Raith on top, a woefully short pass-back from Iain ‘Davo’ Davidson undid all Rovers hard work. While Rovers passed up opportunity after opportunity, Baird showed them exactly how it should be done, with a fantastic finish past Kevin Cuthbert after Davidson’s misdemeanour. While Rangers and Hibs go mano-e-mano at the top of the table, Falkirk look a sure fire bet to be best of the rest.
6. Gedion Zelalem (Rangers)
By his own high standards, Gedion Zelalem hasn’t been in the best of form of late, plodding along ineffectively against St. Mirren and Hibernian in successive weeks. However, he looked more like his old self on Saturday against the jobbers of Alloa, who failed to muster up too much resistance as Rangers sauntered and swaggered to a comfortable 4-0 win. Although he didn’t get on the scoresheet, he was involved in the opener, haranguing notorious flapper-merchant Andy McNeil into a poor clearance, which Martyn Waghorn blootered straight into the net from distance. Zelalem may struggle against the bigger sides in the league, but there’s little doubt he’s an effective weapon against the jetsam and flotsam.
5. Luca Gasparotto (Morton)
It might not have been the prettiest of spectacles, but Morton’s 1-0 win over Livingston made it three wins on the spin for Duffy’s Destroyers. Denny Johnstone’s sixth minute penalty was the only difference in a fairly drab affair, but Livingston could feel aggrieved at not managing to take something from the match. That they didn’t was at least partially down to the repelling abilities of Morton’s back-four, none more so than the seemingly perpetual lone-Ranger Luca Gasparotto who once again is impressing in a spell away from Ibrox. Wherever the Canadian has pitched up, he’s tended to be a stand-out, and is presumably one of the few players to have ever been called into a Canadian training camp whilst at Stirling Albion. With Morton finding goals reasonably hard to come by this season, they’d be wise to seek to extend Luca’s stay in Greenock beyond January.
4. Isaac Layne (Brechin City)
Isaac Layne is some boy. Fresh from his on-point debut performance last weekend against Forfar, he grabbed a goal on his home bow this time around, as bottom-of-the-table Brechin snatched a point from league leaders Ayr. His excellent outside-of-the-foot finish was enough to reel in Ian McCall’s Marauders who had taken a lead through Jamie Adams. Layne’s mention isn’t just down to his goal however, as he put in the type of performance which opposing defenders hate to play against. Direct, pacy and skilful, he can look ungainly and clumsy in possession, never quite looking in-control of the football, but still comfortable enough to beat a man with a wonderful insouciance. The Honest Men may have been deprived of the opportunity to go further clear of the Dunfermline, but it wasn’t all bad for the travelling Ayr fans. At least they got to berate Jonathon Tiffoney for the 66 minutes he was on the pitch.
3. Jason Scotland (Stenhousemuir)
New Stranraer forward Luciano Nesquecaur may have played a handful of matches in the Argentinian top-flight, but he was comprehensively bossed by Stenny defender Stuart Malcolm on Saturday. Perhaps Malcolm should be asking his agent to look into a potential deal with River Plate or Roasario Central come the end of this term. No, even though this match was set up as the introduction to the Blues Batistuta, it was Jason Scotland who once again took centre stage, with a goal and an assist, as the Warriors saw out a reasonably comfortable 2-1 win. His thumping finish on 56 minutes ensured there was no-way back for Brian Reid’s under-performing team, who are unfortunately starting to resemble a relegation afflicted side. Stenny though, inspired by Scotland, are very much on the up.
2. Scott Martin (Forfar Athletic)
Things are looking fairly bleak for Dick’s limp Loons. After negotiating the opening month of the season unbeaten, ending August proudly top of the League One pile, they’ve only won once since, with Saturday’s latest 3-2 reverse to Airdrieonians making it just one win in ten. If there can be any positives to take from a result which now sees them just four points ahead of tenth placed Brechin, then it was the form of Scott Martin, who recently signed on the dotted line on loan from Hibernian. His two goals threatened to drag Forfar back into the game after they went 3-0 down, but as good as he is, he’s no Jason Scotland, and there would be no repeat of a back-from-the-dead type comeback a la Stenhousemuir against Peterhead the previous week. However, if the 18-year-old can retain his goal-scoring form, he may be able to help arrest Forfar’s funk.
1. James Keatings (Hibernian)
Judging by St. Mirren’s latest pummelling, we can probably safely deduce that the recent removal of assistant manager Mark Spalding may not have fixed all the Paisley club’s ailments. That’s a surprise. Admittedly they did have the excuse of being scudded by a damned fine side in Hibernian, and whilst many within Hibs’ neon purple-hued ranks staked a claim at being the man-of-the-match, James Keatings hat-trick ensures he took the honour. His second was certainly the sweetest, letting rip from just outside the area after he took advantage of a bad mistake from Jim Goodwin, who promptly slumped to his knees in despair, like a particularly nasty heel finally getting his comeuppance at the end of some tin-pot action movie. It’s now 13 games unbeaten for Stubbs’ Slicksters, and with a reasonably decent looking fixture list coming up there’s every chance the sequence will continue.
Written by Shaughan McGuigan (@ShaughanM)