Disappointing end to the season for Albion Rovers

Apr 29 2009 Terrace Talk with Sam Tennent, Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser

IT is proving to be an extremely disappointing end to a season that promised so much, writes Sam Tennent.

With our winless streak now extended to 11 games during which we have scored only four goals, it’s looking like we might not even break the 40-point barrier that looked within our reach.

Perhaps most frustrating of all is that we are now destined to finish either eighth or ninth in the table, a position which doesn’t really reflect the good performances we have had over the season, and a step down from the seventh-placed finish last term.

Rovers’ main problem this season has been well documented and would have been obvious to anyone who has watched the last three games.

The lack of a genuine goalscoring threat, and a little bit of quality in the final third, has cost us dear and the manager will not need me or anyone else to point that out.

Paul Martin accepts the blame and feels that he could have done more in the January window to bolster the squad, but I think he’s being a bit hard on himself.

Players were brought in to address the situation and, for one reason or another, didn’t prove to be the answer.

Another puzzling aspect of Rovers’ play this season was also starkly illustrated in the course of the last three games.

A splendid performance against then top-of-the-table Cowdenbeath was followed by a truly awful display against basement boys Elgin City.

In the first of these games, a casual observer would surely have surmised that Rovers were the team pushing for automatic promotion while Cowden were playing out the fag end of a disappointing season.

However, in the second game, it was Rovers who looked like the team at the bottom who had packed their tools away and were dreaming of holidays.

It was easily the worst performance of the season, eclipsing the 4-0 reverse at Forfar where the weather was a distorting factor on the final result.

The manger called for, and the fans hoped, for a reaction at Ochilview on Saturday and certainly there was a vast improvement in both effort and commitment.

However, quality cannot be so easily conjured up on demand and it was unfortunately our hosts who supplied that with two good finishes in what was otherwise a fairly even game.

Iain Diack grabbed one of the goals and he is somewhat of a pariah to many at Cliftonhill due to the manner of his departure.

But there is no doubt he is a quality finisher and scored many memorable goals in his time with Rovers. It’s tempting to wonder how our season would have turned out had he returned to Rovers rather than Stenny in January.

With the third division title race reaching a climax, next week is likely to be our last chance to affect the outcome as the Rovers take on East Stirling at Cliftonhill.

Homeless ‘Shire still have an outside chance of securing the top spot and are already assured of a play-off place - a terrific achievement given their perilous state over the last few years.

As Rovers fans’ thoughts now turn from this season to the future, the promise of a new stadium and hopefully new sources of revenue will be uppermost in their minds.

The ‘Shire’s rise from laughing stock to serious contenders show just how important it is to get these things in place if success on the park is to be achieved.