1. Ross Callachan (Raith Rovers)
‘Mair like Boss Callachan, am a right?’ said your Raith Rovers supporting auld boy as the Kirkcaldy club came from behind not once, but twice, in a rip-roaring yarn which featured the greatest ending to a football match since Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine and John Wark were all smuggled to safety at the end of Escape To Victory. Callachan didn’t trouble the score-sheet in the 3-3 draw, but he had a hand in Raith’s second goal and was generally at the hub of most of Rovers good work. Helping out in his own box, breaking up Rangers attacks as well as starting his own team’s forward plays, Callachan was in so many different places you started to wonder if he’d somehow discovered the secrets to cloning. Raith aren’t quite in the play-offs, but that would be confirmed with a point against Queen of the South this weekend.
2. Harry Forrester (Rangers)
While there were more than a few “who he?” type questions when Harry Forrester signed on at Ibrox from Doncaster Rovers in January, the attacking midfielder has impressed in the Championship after a relatively quiet bedding in period. Not only has the player provided a fine goal return, they tend to be important ones, either opening the scoring, or in Saturday’s case, the equaliser after Rangers went a goal down in Kirkcaldy. Forrester was also instrumental in Rangers second, and if the management team haven’t already arranged an appointment with the player to discuss terms for a contract extension over tea and biscuits, you sense it must be getting made soon.
3. Craig Sives (Cowdenbeath)
League One has experienced something of a concertina effect in recent weeks. So-much-so, in fact, that fifth placed Albion Rovers are now as many points off the automatic relegation place as they are from the promotion play-off spot. Partly responsible for this bunching up is the current form of Cowdenbeath, who have not only won their last two games against the second and third place teams in the league, they’ve also kept clean sheets in the process. It certainly isn’t a coincidence that both those wins featured new loan signing Craig Sives, who once more stuck out like a cobblers thumb in the 1-0 win over Ayr United. The centre-half has found appearances hard to come by at Livingston, and while he isn’t the tallest of central-defenders, decent awareness, allied with a fine turn of pace, means he’s a rare commodity at the Blue Brazil – a defender who knows what he’s doing. With the division’s bottom-three all in fine fettle, who goes down is anyone’s guess.
4. Robert Thomson (Brechin City)
Sensational. Not a word that’s been regularly applied towards Brechin City this season, but it certainly is a term which is applicable to forward Robert Thomson’s form in recent weeks. He was at his powerhouse best again on Saturday, with his goal helping the Glebe Park side to a 1-0 win over an erratic Stenhousemuir, their fifth victory in just six matches. It’s a sequence that in normal circumstances would see a team lifted out of the mire, but with Cowdenbeath and Forfar also picking up points, Darren Dods team are still stuck down in tenth. This Saturday’s match up with Cowdenbeath, who are just two points clear of the Glebe Park side, won’t be one for the faint hearted.
5. Josh Todd (Annan Athletic)
You may only know Danny Dyer as hard-man-with-a-heart Mick Carter from the gritty, true-to-life depiction of Cockney life in soap-opera Eastenders, but Danny hasn’t always been pigeon-holed as just an excellent actor. The thespian has also produced some hard-hitting documentaries, such as Danny Dyer – I Believe In UFO’s which can be seen here or The Real Football Factories, where he visited some of the roughest games the world over. If he ever decides to do a follow up, he could do worse than catch the next Elgin v Annan encounter after Saturday’s witnessed four goals, two red cards, a smashed window, a blatant dive to win a penalty, a dismissed manager who went on to have a post-game meltdown and a 20 man Royal Rumble at full-time. Show me a man who suggests they don’t want to see scenes like that in football, and I’ll show you a God-damn liar. In amongst all that, Annan’s Josh Todd was man-of-the-match after a wonderful solo goal. But who cares? FIGHT!
6. Jason Kerr (East Fife)
And now, at last, a chink of light separates the club at the top of League Two from the rest. East Fife’s 1-0 win at Arbroath, combined with Clyde literally throwing the ball into their own net, and Elgin’s players challenging Annan to an all-in Battle Royale, means that Gary Naysmith’s men now hold a four point lead in the title struggle. After the first-half, the main two names to be under consideration for the hat-tip would have been either Fife’s prodigious winger Kyle Wilkie or Arbroath’s goalkeeper Allan Fleming, without whom Dick Campbell’s men would have been pummelled into submission. Instead, as the shadows lengthened, Arbroath sensed there may actually be something in the game for them, only for East Fife’s central defenders of Jonathon Page and the excellent Jason Kerr to securely lock the door behind them. With a favourable run-in, the division looks like East Fife’s to lose.
7. Andy Stirling (Stranraer)
It wasn’t too long ago that Airdrieonians chairman Tom Wotherspoon announced that the club would be full-time next season, as he looked to propel the team forward in the not-too-distant future. You’d imagine that direction would definitely hand them an advantage as, on current form, they’d be the only full-time team in League Two come August. Saturday’s 4-0 romp for Stranrear probably confirmed two things. Firstly, that Airdrie loaning their finest player in Liam Watt to Brechin, who coincidentally have won five in seven since he joined in February, was an absolutely stinking idea. And second, that no-one will relish playing Brian Reid’s side in the play-offs should they get there, with Willie Gibson and especially Andy Stirling in this kind of form, with both scoring special efforts in a straightforward romp. For a team that was bottom in December, that’s quite the achievement.
8. Jordan Kirkpatrick (Clyde)
Raith Rovers versus Rangers may have made slighter bigger ripples in the Scottish footballing pond over the weekend, but it was arguably the country’s second-best 3-3 draw on Saturday. Admittedly, Clyde versus Montrose may not have demonstrated much technical proficiency, especially when it came to the defensive side of things, but in terms of excitement, controversy and uproarious moments of comedy, it was peerless. Arguably five of the six goals were dreadful from a defensive point of view, with one disgruntled punter claiming that the highlights should be taken down from Youtube, as it’s embarrassing that people from all over the world could watch such wretchedness. He sounds like a real stick-in-the-mud in our opinion, and we implore you to stick-it-to-the-man by watching them here. Jordan Kirkpatrick did supply one excellent finish, and hit the bar with an audacious 25-yard effort, but despite his promptings, Clyde look likely to have blown their title chances.
9. Aaron Muirhead (Falkirk)
With games fast running out, if Falkirk do end up finishing below Hibernian and playing an earlier play-off tie as a consequence, they may very well see Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Queen of the South as the one that got away. Everything seemed hunky-dory for the Bairns as they led 2-0, with Aaron Muirhead producing a performance which was far more akin to the ones Partick Thistle fans used to talk up when he wore their garish red and yellow striped apparel. Starting the game at right-back, Muirhead also demonstrated his versatility when he filled in at centre-half after an injury to Paul Watson. However, the Doonhamers two late goals means Hibs are now just three points behind with two games in hand. It would appear that Falkirk will possibly have to win next week’s head-to-head if they’re to top-trump their capital rivals to the runners-up spot.
10. Gavin Swankie (Forfar Athletic)
It says much about the massive turnaround in fortunes at certain League One clubs in recent weeks that one or two managers may have taken some umbrage at Allan Johnston being presented with a shiny manager of the month award. Gary Bollan may have been one of those with his nose out of joint, although, in fairness, we doubt anything would ever put a smile on his mirthless fizzog. Forfar’s 2-0 victory over Peterhead came courtesy of two assists from Gavin Swankie, a player whose generally flattered to deceive this season, and considering his importance to Forfar in recent years, his flatness is no-doubt linked to Athletic’s general travails this term. It’s a tired old cliche to suggest Forfar have “four cup-finals left” in the current campaign, but if the unimaginatively nicknamed ‘Swanks’ suddenly has his eye in then Forfar have a far greater chance of staying in the third tier. A fact which might even make Gary Bollan smile.
Written by Shaughan McGuigan (@ShaughanM)