The Terrace Podcast crew each pick their favourite moment from the past weekend.
John Callan
For all that he must be an infuriating guy to pay to watch at times, there aren’t masses of players in the Premiership who can do the things David Wotherspoon can. His reverse ball down the line for Tam Scobbie in the build-up to Brian Graham’s equaliser for St Johnstone in the A9 Derby was one of those nicely simple-yet-elaborate bits of play which are so pleasing to see. It was particularly important too, given that Michael O’Halloran had clearly used the afternoon as an opportunity to showcase his panicky September form.
After a patchy season, it’s easy to see how supporters could lose patience with someone so clearly capable as Wotherspoon, while it’s characteristically frustrating that he’s finally ended an obscenely lengthy goalless spell with just a couple of weeks of the season left. Nevertheless, he’s the kind of player it’s sometimes worth cutting a little slack for.
The deft pivot and pass along the touchline is emblematic of Spoony at his best, offering the not unfamiliar hope that he might nail down a bit more consistency next season. Given that he’s a dyed-in-the-wool Saintee, it’d be nice from a patronisingly quaint point of view to see him stay for years and years and become a talented cult figure. He certainly has he ability for it.
Joel Sked
Occasionally a quick scroll through Twitter can lead you to the conclusion that it comes to Scottish football you are in one of two camps: either you are of the persuasion that Scottish football is so bad that it should be shut down for crimes against football, or those who lead some to think there is no equal, constantly trumpeting all the positive things, no matter how trivial, as a sign of Scottish football’s strength.
I am very much in the middle. I will always try to defend it in the face of those who would rather saunter down the pub, coupon in one hand, EPL wank-glove in the other and watch English football, cheering on their favourite team before partaking in some top-notch banter on Facebook with other like-minded Luddites. Yet, I also enjoy the farcical nature of the game both on and off the field. While weekend’s can throw up cum-jizzling finishes like Nir Bitton’s against Dundee it is more than evened out by defending only taught at clown college.
This week’s award goes to Motherwell’s Mark O’Brien. While St Mirren have deservedly been cut off at the bottom they can perhaps take some positives from the fact Motherwell’s defence has had more reason to feel ashamed. This week’s embarrassment came from a simple lofted ball forward by Craig Curran. Frame by frame you think ‘head it clear’. But nope, Mark clearly thinks he has mastered the art of defending and decides that an overhead kick would be more effective. The result? The ball hits Liam Boyce, Mark lands on his rear end, Boyce runs through, Stephen McManus thinks he’s on a skating rink, Boyce scores.
Tony Anderson
Franchise FC: the nickname used by fans of every club outside of West Lothian to deride Livingston due to their stadium-hopping history. Their lack of financial prudence and seemingly never ending administration cycle hardly endear them to many opposing supporters either.
All that being said, I was happy they stayed up. Nobody is perfect off the park and I can’t help but be impressed with their never-say-die attitude and how they went from being almost certainties for automatic relegation to securing survival all in the space of six weeks. Out of their last seven fixtures, including the Challenge Cup final, they won five games, drew once and only lost to a Hibs side gunning for the play-offs.
Us at the Terrace were sceptical when Mark Burchill was put in charge. It was for similar reasons that we doubted the appointment of Tommy Craig. These guys were part of a management duo that had seen the boss sacked. On top of that Burchill was young and completely inexperienced. Those in a relegation battle rarely go for a manager in that mould.
Ultimately it’s just nice to know there is no formula for success or failure in football. Even when the decision looks clearly wrong on every logical level. It’s important for folk like ourselves to remember that when we critique the people who run football clubs.
Shaughan McGuigan
There’s no question about the highlight of Scotland’s footballing weekend. It was, of course, Raith Rovers little Lewis Vaughan scoring from approximately a gazillion yards against Dumbarton. Admittedly I may be biased, plus, choosing a moment from the deadest of dead rubbers doesn’t feel quite right, so I went for a moment relating to Partick Thistle’s brutal dismantling of St. Mirren.
It was difficult not to plump for Ryan Stevenson’s new hair-do, a bizarre concoction which seems to have elements of Billy Rae Cyrus and early 90’s Maurice Johnston. If you ever walked into a barber shop and asked him or her to make it look like you were having a mid-life crisis, I’m guessing that’s how they’d send you on your way.
Fascinating follicles aside, it was another man experiencing something of a crisis, Gary Teale, along with the Sportscene production team, who gave me my favourite moment of the weekend. Teale has garnered a bit of a reputation this season for making comments that don’t always stack up, although rarely has it been so easy to pick holes in his assessments as it was on Sunday evening. Indeed, at the same instant as his words were tumbling haphazardly from his mouth, Sportscene’s statistics in the bottom right-hand-corner were debunking his opinions as he uttered them.
Complaining about a poor refereeing decision against his side in the first-half, he spoke about “small margins” and “calls like that are hard to take”, in a manner which suggested he believed that referee Craig Thomson was at least partly accountable for the 3-0 humbling.
At the same time as he rustled up this accusation however, BBC Scotland’s graphics department were pointing out that St. Mirren had had no shots on target, hadn’t forced a single corner, and that Partick Thistle had enjoyed two-thirds of the possession.
Sure, St. Mirren may have felt aggrieved at the perceived injustice of Jason Naismith being brought down by Callum Booth and not receiving a decision, but blaming the ref after an insipid 3-0 loss is like castigating the washing machine when you throw a red t-shirt into a white wash and make everything pink. I’m already looking forward to Teale’s lame excuses after Saturday’s inevitable defeat at Ross County.
Craig Anderson
Much like nearly every other non-Celtic fan, the only reason I generally watch their live matches is the hope that I might get to see them lose. As a consequence, when they go two or three goals ahead, the games generally hold very little interest for me. Even Ronny Deila’s style of attacking football can’t disguise the fact that you’re basically watching the school bully repeatedly punch a small boy in the head even though he’s already lying on the ground in a pool of slowly congealing blood. I very nearly put the Dundee match off once the third goal went in, but there was nothing else on so I decided to stick with it. My commitment to Scottish football was rewarded late on, when Nir Bitton stepped on to the ball 30 yards from goal, and drilled a quite unbelievable strike into the top right-hand corner of the goal.
The thing I loved about Bitton’s goal was the sheer nonchalance of it all. He walked on to the ball and seemed to strike it somewhat dismissively, as though he was just returning a stray ball to the other end of the park during the pre-match warm-up. Yet despite his apparent lack of effort, the ball fizzed into the net, giving Scott Bain absolutely no chance. The angle from behind the opposite goal was the best one – it showed the ball defying the laws of physics by maintaining a completely straight trajectory and not even spinning on its axis as it travelled towards the net. It’s a shame Bitton won’t get the credit he deserves because the game was already over and many people might have been watching “The Man Who Drank His Own Face Through a Straw” on Channel 5 instead.
Craig Cairns
This could easily be the selection for my moment of the season, never mind the weekend. Genero Zeefuik’s brace in the last ten minutes gave Rangers a stark reminder that, for all their progress under Stuart McCall, they have been third-best to the Edinburgh sides this season.
Prior to the commencement of a second-tier campaign like no other, Hearts and Hibs sifted through their respective wreckages from the previous season. Perhaps heeding warnings emanating from Ibrox, the Edinburgh clubs promptly sorted their issues at boardroom level and appointed progressive, young managers who laid lasting foundations by recruiting well and implementing an exciting style of football.
Robbie Neilson’s side ran away with the title, changing system earlier in the season from 4-4-1 to a 4-2-3-1 and battering most teams into submission. Later on, when the pressure began to mount, Hearts responded by grinding out victories where required and bouncing back immediately after any set-backs. Even if Neilson was found wanting tactically in the bigger matches, he still emerged from most with something.
It took Alan Stubbs a little longer to see his methods take hold and convert into results. That said, he was given less of a close season within to work. He eventually stumbled across a diamond formation that aided Hibs to an incredible streak of one defeat in 27 matches in all competitions between September and March. Though this form tailed off towards the end of the season, Stubbs has also shown he is tactically astute enough to switch to a back three when needed.
By contrast, Rangers have had three times as long to get their house in order and still appear years behind. Boardroom issues are still being resolved, their thoughtless recruitment policy has left them with an aging squad and they have been tactically brutish for most of the season. They may yet still attain promotion, but that doesn’t alter the fact that over the course of a league campaign, Rangers have been outdone by both Edinburgh clubs.
Gary Cocker
John Souttar’s pass to Robbie Muirhead for the solitary goal in the Dundee United-Aberdeen game was sumptuous. The highlights somewhat unfairly characterised it as “route one”, but it wasn’t a hit and hope under pressure; Souttar’s dink was as measured as Muirhead’s run, and was followed up with a sublime finish. It epitomised the promise and ability of both players.
The result keeps United in the hunt for Europe, but more importantly for them it shows some level of life post-GMS/Armstrong. The Arabs haven’t had much to cheer about lately but the rediscovery of Souttar by Jackie Mac – and the inevitable “SOUTTAR TO CELTIC” rumours that follow any provincial player who has a good game – must give them some heart. Along with the likes of Aidan Connolly, Charlie Telfer and Blair Spittal, there’s a nucleus of youth that, with the right “experienced” (read: ancient) heads to guide and corral them to a decent season again.
United have had a few decent teams in the recent past that have, for various reasons, never lasted long, but they’ve always managed to evolve and adapt, and haven’t let being a selling club derail their progress and haunt their fans with what-could-have-beens. As they shed the old guard like parts from a NASA rocket over the summer (including, potentially, jettisoning their manager) it’ll be interesting to see if they can continue this trend.
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