1. David McGurn (Cowdenbeath)
In 1986, Liz Lynch gave Scotland it’s only gold medal of its very own Commenwealth Games by finishing a whopping 12 seconds ahead of her closest challenger in the 10000 metres. Now, we’re not a group of gentlemen who are prone to knee-jerk hyperbole, but on Saturday, David McGurn produced the finest performance Meadowbank Stadium has seen since oor Liz ran really, really quickly. In just the first few minutes, the experienced custodian produced two excellent saves as his defence bumbled and blundered in front of him, and his greatness continued throughout, although he was eventually beaten with ten minutes remaining as Cowden and Edinburgh City played out a 1-1 draw. Without him, though, the result would almost certainly have been a resounding win for the rapidly improving capital club.
2. James Craigen (Falkirk)
After four games without a win, Falkirk were badly in need of redress against Ayr United, and they managed it with a touch more ease than the 1-0 win suggests. James Craigen has endured a mixed start to his career at Westfield, with the midfielder performing in fits and starts. He’s been shuttled from pillar to post out wide, when his favourite position is bang in the centre. He was at last given the opportunity to shine in there on Saturday, and he grabbed it with all ten fingers, conjuring up the match winner and the game’s best performance. With a run of four winnable games coming up, expect Falkirk to be back amongst the top four by Hogmanay.
3. John McGinn (Hibernian)
If, as has been reported, John McGinn is requiring to go under the knife in the not-too-distant future, then goodness knows how good he’ll be when he’s fully fit. He’s certainly been more no-bad than super this season, but a lovely goal against Ayr a couple of weeks back has been followed up with a fine performance and another goal against a suddenly woeful Queens team, suggesting he may be rekindling some kind of form. It certainly hasn’t helped that Neil Lennon has taken a shine to playing him out wide at times this season, but his move inwards has thankfully coincided with a clear upturn in his performances. The yawning chasm between the two teams wasn’t done justice by the 4-0 score-line, and it seems clear that the Doonhamers need a new management team installed quickly so that this blip doesn’t become something far more serious.
4. Sean Dickson (Stirling Albion)
Unless you’re a member of the Red Lichties fan-base, there’s no doubting the best ending to an SPFL game on Saturday was to be found at Forthbank Stadium. Stirling Albion headed into injury time against Arbroath 2-0 down, but still managed to emerge with a point thanks to an outstanding brace from Sean Dickson. Arbroath have made something of a habit of throwing away leads this season, but even by their standards that really is something. Dickson’s first was good, but his second was a thing of wonder, meeting a plummeting ball with exquisite technique on the volley, to thwack a ripsnorter past Arbroath goalie Ricky Gomes. Despite the missed opportunity to gain ground on Forfar, Arbroath have still only lost one league game this term, while Dave McKay appears to have added a little something to a previously forlorn Bino side.
5. Darren Barr (Dumbarton)
Nada. Zilch. Zero. Nought. That’s how many goals and talking points were on offer at the Cheaper Insurance Direct Stadium on Saturday, as Dumbarton and Raith Rovers played out an insipid 0-0 draw. Well, that was until Chick Young decided to award the man-of-the-match award to Ryan Stevenson, a player who was arguably about the ninth best on show. The cynic in us would have us believe that he dispensed it to the bold Ryan because he was one of the few players on the park he recognised, or maybe he just has a tattoo fetish. In reality, Darren Barr was far more worthy of the accolade as he and Gregor Buchanan gobbled up all the wasteful long, high balls that Rovers decided to play to their diminutive strike force. The sole highlight? The scream from the away end to “get him fuckin’ aff” after Scott Robertson had given the ball away, which seemed harsh but possibly fair, considering he’d only just come on as a substitute 45 seconds earlier.
6. Lewis Martin (Dunfermline Athletic)
You’ve got to hand it to Jack Ross. If your football team is getting absolutely skelped each week, he’s just the man to bring in to ensure they still lose, but by much finer margins. After pulling off that trick at Alloa, he’s repeating the same feat along the road in Paisley, and after two must win games against Dumbarton and now Dunfermline have yielded no goals or points, you do wonder where the first win is going to come from. This 1-0 victory for the Pars was far from a classic, but it did the job, lifting them above the Sons now occupy the relegation play-off spot. Twenty-year-old defender Lewis Martin has been pretty much everywhere in Dunfermline’s back-line during his short career, and he slotted into the problem right-back position with aplomb on Saturday, as Allan Johnston’s jobbers gained just their third league win of the season.
7. Derek Gaston (Greenock Morton)
Morton versus Dundee United was billed as the lower league match of the day on Saturday, but it failed to quicken the pulse, with neither side replicating the form which has propelled them up the table. Both teams had spells where they were on top, but in truth, it was United who came closest to capitalising, denied only by a couple of great saves by the redoubtable Derek Gaston. In fairness, the point did neither side much harm, extending their respective unbeaten runs and allowing Morton to linger in a playoff spot, while United stayed within touching distance of Hibernian. The two bash heads a week on Friday, possibly giving us a clearer picture if a title ding-dong is feasible, or pie-in-the-sky.
8. Darren Miller (Clyde)
We recently pointed out how good the loan acquisition of Darren Miller may be for the Bully Wee, and we were pleased to see we were right (for once) as he played a starring role in Clyde’s 3-2 win over Berwick Rangers. The victory was like Clyde’s season in microcosm. Flashes of inspiration, long spells of dominance, classy goals and fine forward play, coupled together with disastrously slipshod defending. A thoroughly deserved two goal lead was whittled back to parity, and Clyde could conceivably have lost, if Berwick hadn’t indulged in their weekly habit of getting someone sent off. It was Darren Lavery on this occasion, their eighth red card already this season (insert monkey covering eyes emoji here). That allowed Clyde to regroup, with Miller capping a fine midfield display with his cross supplying the winner for Chris Smith. With umpteen teams jostling and jockeying for position behind Forfar, Clyde now assume the mantle of best of the rest.
9. Joe Gorman (Airdrieonians)
There were a handful of good performers for Mark Wilson’s/Gordon Dalziel’s (delete as applicable) Airdrieonians team during their 2-1 win over Alloa Athletic. So much so that it made choosing a stand-out reasonably difficult. Centre-half Joe Gorman just pipped the others, with his sterling work helping to ensure that Airdrie jumped above Alloa and Brechin into second place in the League One table. One man who did rule himself out of the running for man-of-the-match was Jim Goodwin, whose afternoon summed up his managerial career to date. He followed up his own-goal, with a red card for firstly forearm smashing Andy Ryan, then trying to chop Mark Fitzpatrick into small pieces, as his Alloa side slipped down the table.
10. Trialist (Annan Athletic)
You can never be too careful these days. You just don’t know when some hawkish club is going to pilfer away your trialist, due to the fact you’ve foolishly gone and named him. It’s understandable then that Annan chose not to announce who theirs was on Saturday. However, just for the sake of argument (and the fact it was quite clearly him) we’re going to call this trialist “Christian Nade”. The former Sheffield United, Hearts, Samut Songkhram and PTT Rayong legend tweeted upon his recent release from Stranraer that he just wanted to be happy to play again, and he certainly looked it on Saturday, linking and (almost) finishing the bulk of Annan’s attacks, as they registered an impressive 1-0 win over Elgin City. A more permanent arrangement between Nade and Annan might prove to be mutually beneficial to both parties.
Written by Shaughan McGuigan