Scottish Football

Back-to-back wins for East Stirlingshire As Stirling also won, the contest has gone from a 2-way fight not to finish last into a 5-way one

Well first piece of Headline news today. Dundee have sacked their manager Barry Smith. Dundee are currently 15 points adrift at the foot of the table so the board have obviously lost patience as their fate has looked doomed for some time now.



I personally have my sympathy's with regard's to this one. Dundee were invited to join the SPL with only 2 weeks until the new season began last July. Barry had a squad that was clearly out of it's depth. A squad that he had built looking for promotion. Instead he and his squad was now tasked with SPL survival instead. As a Dundee United fan I sincerely hope that whoever replaces him manages to save the Dee from the inevitable but if I'm being brutally honest with you I think the damage has already been done and it's only a matter of time now before their relegation is confirmed. Shame because it's been great for the city to have both clubs in the SPL.

Elsewhere last night's results went as follow's.

Motherwell 0 - Dundee United 1
St Johnstone 1 - Celtic 1

On a personal note I'm absolutely delighted to see my team gain 3 very important points in our quest to hopefully finishing at least in the top 4. The least said about Saturday's mauling at Celtic Park the better I think

Also very good point for St Johnstone there, however with Celtic being that many points clear at the top it's hardly going to worry them that much I'd imagine.

Looks like an 8-way fight to finish as runners-up to Celtic.

Shame about Dundee - why sack the poor bloke now, ok they're doomed, what difference do they think getting someone else in will do?

Doddle as often has been the case. Sometimes the arrival of a new manager can add a vital spark into a team's performance. My smart money on who will replace Barry Smith is on Billy Dodd's. He's a club legend and having just missed out on the Dundee United job I'd imagine he'd be desperate for a crack at this opportunity. Also I'd imagine he would be cheaper to hire than than the likes of Derek Mcinnes would be.

Former Dunfermline and Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood has went on record that he would be happy to discuss the vacancy.

Oh, I know managers can generate a short-term fillip, but February is a bit too late in the day IMO, especially with a gap that wide to make up.

Given the way they came into the league, it seems a weird decision to sack him now

Now I can recall a very similar sacking back in season 2004/2005 when Dunfermline were in more or less the same position as Dundee currently find themselves in. Davie Hay got sacked and in stepped club legend Jim Leishman and he pulled off a major recovery job and successfuly guided Dunfermline to safety after securing victory at Tannadice against my Dundee United team on the second last game of the season and completing the great escape as to say against all the odd's.

The following week it was down to 3 teams for the drop. It was either going to be Dundee United, Dundee or Livingston for the drop which really set up a tense finale. I remember that day well as I travelled all the way up Inverness for the last game of the season. Before kick off the permutations were as follows.

Safety for Dundee United meant having to at least gain a point up at Inverness CT. Dundee had to win away at Livingston in order to stay up and Livingston also only needed a point in order for them to be safe from the drop. The results that day went as follows.

Inverness CT 0 - Dundee United 1
Livingston 1 - Dundee 1

Dundee were relegated. My abiding memory of that day was the pitch invasion at the end of the game up at Inverness. It was pure relief allround. Who knows a similar event could just happen at the end of this season but it doesn't look very likely at the moment.

My Dundee United team these days are a vastly improved outfit from the ones that used to have to regularly scrap for SPL survival in the early days of the naughties. These days our focus ofcourse is always on qualifiying for Europe.

3 wins in a row for East Stirlingshire Play-offs, here we come! (OK, okay, Rangers, here we come )

Stirling Albion 9 (NINE) East Stirlingshire 1

But luckily, we're still 1 point ahead of Clyde.

I gather Craig Brown is retiring at the end of the season. Always struck me as a good bloke, seemed like one of the better attempts at Scotland manager, too, back in the day