WINNERS
Taylor Morgan
For those unfamiliar with Taylor Morgan’s work, he was the big, strapping lad up front for Falkirk in the Scottish Cup semi-final when they defeated Hibs. Still can’t place him? Well I have to say I’m not surprised, he wasn’t very good. He was there to cover for the absent Rory Loy but Falkirk may have well positioned an Evander Holyfield cardboard cut-out there instead. Playing in the Scottish Championship didn’t suit his strengths, so he moved down to League One with Airdrieonians this summer.
It would seem, from what I’ve read of the first five games, Airdrie fans have not been too enamoured with him either. Queries along the lines of ‘how is this guy a footballer?’ have dominated the fans’ forum. That was until this past Saturday and the Diamonds meeting with Cowdenbeath. Morgan, with his side trailing 2-1, came off the bench and turned the game in favour of Gary Bollan’s team. For one of the goals he even played a ranging, inch perfect pass. The type that wouldn’t look out of place in a much higher league. After they’d completed the comeback he left the field to applause and supporters wondering if they’d gotten this guy all wrong.
Have they? Who knows. Scottish football is full of players who have gone from being utter guff to heroes in the eyes of dotting fans. Sometimes it just takes the right environment, right coach, set of team-mates, fans or whatever to bring the best out in someone. Let’s see if Airdrie is that place for Morgan.
Rangers fans
After the abuse I received for my glowing praise of Rangers in their 5-0 destruction of Raith Rovers, I am hesitant to write this. However, I will strive to let haterz hate, and proceed regardless.
Yeah, Rangers got really good at football. Like really, really good. I’m actually delighted about it. I’m not going to lie. When it was just The Terrace that I put my full weight behind I could ignore all those Rangers games on the TV and laugh off any potential analysis with a ‘same old, same old’ comment when it came time to recording. Now that I work for a commercial media outlet, I’m expected to know a bit more about both sides of the Old Firm. Had Ally McCoist still been the manager at Ibrox then the barrel of a gun would have started to look pretty tempting, but now I don’t grudge watching them, even if I know they’re going to win by at least four goals in every match.
In Nathan Oduwa, Barrie McKay, Martyn Waghorn, and the Arsenal boy who’s name I haven’t learned to pronounce yet, they’ve got some attacking players with real talent and that youthful exuberance which means they keep attacking right to the final whistle. Make no mistake about it, they will hammer one team at least 8-0 at Ibrox this season. You mark my words.
Jim Goodwin
“Elbows, have some elbows, from a modern stone age footballer, from the town of Paisley, he’s about to come and break yer jaw.”
Erm, aye. Sorry, got lost in song there. Jim Goodwin is back in the St Mirren team, he’s apparently been “dominating” the midfield and they got their first win of the season away to Queen of the South on Saturday. Maybe he’ll be more well behaved. It was usually Dundee United players he liked to twat in the face, wasn’t it? And they’re in separate leagues now. Oh well, he’ll probably get his chance next season.
Jim Duffy
As Shaughan McGuigan pointed out in our pre-season preview pod for the lower leagues, it takes a special kind of manager to win a league title and still be disliked immensely by the fans. That’s why, before this season began, as I was throwing £60 worth of cash on various Scottish football bets, I made sure to include ‘Jim Duffy to get sacked first’ or ‘Morton to finish bottom’ on as many of them as possible. And, just like most years, it now seems that I’m going to win absolutely sod all from the bookmakers.
Duffy may have lost Declan McManus, the only reliable attacker in the League One championship winning side, but instead of replacing him with a like-for-like or even better player, Duffy’s instead focused on building a more balanced and coherent squad. Despite having a few first-team players missing for the trip to Livingston, they still secured all three points and now sit in fourth place. They likely won’t finish the season there, but my doomsday prediction seems well wide of the mark, especially given how bad Livingston are right now.
LOSERS
The Raith Rovers away support
Oh man, did I ever feel sorry for the hardy band of Raith supporters who made the long trip through to Ibrox knowing what the result was going to be – after all, Rangers even gubbed Rovers when McCoist was manager – and still hung around to watch the full destruction.
I’ve been there before. Not Ibrox, funnily enough, we always seem to do ok whenever I attend there. But I’ve been to Celtic Park on a couple of occasions where we’ve had our arses handed to us, and you just have to sit there and take it. And the worst thing is, you don’t know whether to leave or not. After all, you’ve done a bit of travelling to get there. It’s not like a home game where the comforts of your favourite local pub are calling out to you from behind the stadium walls. There’s a long trek home after prematurely turning your back on the whole reason you went in the first place. In the end, it’s always better to stay. It becomes an ‘I was there’ moment, a life experience if you will, while arsehole fans use it as a badge of honour in dick waving ‘I’m a bigger supporter than you’ contests.
The league one title race
Is it too soon to call something dead a “loser”?
Dunfermline are your League One champions for this season. If that sounds premature it’s because you’ve not been paying close enough attention. At the weekend they went to Forfar, previously undefeated Forfar, took Hearts to extra-time Forfar, and won 4-0. This wasn’t your ‘close game until one team ran away with it late on’ kind of 4-0. Oh no. I watched the highlights. The Loons got pumped.
Of course, I am being a little facetious. Football is never as clear cut or simple as we think it’s going to be and one team, likely Forfar, will hang around for the majority of the season. Though I have no doubt Dunfermline will finish on top of the pile.
Colin Nish
So far in League One, Colin Nish (manager) has three points from five games and another defeat at the weekend, this time to Airdrie. There are games, like the utter embarrassments suffered in two fixtures at East End Park, where the whole team looks like a disorganised rabble. For struggling managers those are hard to take. It makes them look like they don’t have the faintest idea of how to manage a football team. Then there’s other games, like the Airdrie defeat, where you play reasonably well. You’re on course for a decent result. Some pride shall be restored, fans will see that you know what you’re doing. And then it falls apart. Those defeats are potentially even tougher to take.
Written by Craig Fowler (@craigfowler86)
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