It’s back to league action this week, and back to the Highlands as we make the long trip north to take on Elgin City.
The sides have already met twice this season, with Elgin having the edge with one win and one draw. There’s been no lack of entertainment though, with ten goals served up in the previous two meetings.
With teams come into this off the back of Scottish Cup wins, and we caught up with Swifty to ask how the team’s preparations have been in anticipation of their return to league action.
“Its been good. Obviously we know exactly how they’re going to set up. They’ve got a really good striker and we want to set up accordingly to try and stop that. But also, we’ve got tools of our own that we believe we can use to hurt them. We’ve got plenty of pace in the team and we feel as if we can go and hurt them with our fire power. We just need to make sure that we’re tight and we’re organised and I feel that if we can do that, we’ll come away with the win.”
Kane Hester has caused the club issues all season, and it’s important that the defence have better control over the striker this time around.
“Absolutely, I think every team in the league will be the same in terms of looking out for Kane Hester but they’ve also got other good players and you can’t just concentrate on the one person otherwise they’ll punish you in other areas. So it’s important that we’re set up all over the pitch and we want to make sure that, that I said, we’re going to go and punish them as well going forward. It’s not just about nullifying their threats, we’ve got to make sure that we’ve got our threats. I think all season, we’ve proven that we’re one of the top goalscorers in the league, so that’s never been a problem, we just need to make sure that we’re compact and tight.”
Stenhousemuir picked up their first win since the second round of the Scottish Cup, with three draws and a loss in the league in between. Saturday’s win was very welcome, but it’s now time to get our league run back on form.
“Aye, it was great to get a win on Saturday and it gave a real boost to the boys. We have changed things slightly. When you do go on a bad run, I think every team is the same, you need to find solutions to the problems. We’ve brought in a bit more energy to the team, feel as if that’s given us a wee bit of a lift and, fingers crossed, we can go and replicate what we’ve been doing over the last couple of games into the Elgin game. But, it’s 13 games and we’ve lost 2 games, although there’s been far too many draws in there, we’re aware of that, but there’s been a lot of positives throughout this run and we just need to make sure that we get a big three points on Saturday.”
Nat and Nicky missed out on the Scottish Cup victory on Saturday, and they’ll also miss out this weekend.
“Nat will miss out the weekend and Nicky is still out long term. Other than that, we’ve got a full squad available. Hopefully we start to get a better look at the squad in terms of being able to pick from a bigger number, but those two will be out on Saturday.”
If you’re looking for omens, 3rd December has been a relatively lucky day for The Warriors’ results. Although we last played on 3rd December in 2019, which ended up a 2-2 with Saturday’s hosts! All in all, we’ve played on 3rd December 13 times with only two losses, the last coming in 1949 and nine wins!
MATCHDAY INFORMATION
Kick-off: 3pm
Match Entry: Elgin have a pay at the gate policy with cash only accepted at the turnstiles. Tickets can be bought online using FanBase here.
- Stand Adult – £15 (Tickets will only be available via Fanbase)
- Ground Adult – £13
- Stand Concession – £10 (Tickets will ONLY be available via Fanbase)
- Ground Concession – £8
Getting There: Click here for details of how to get to Elgin by car or train. Contact Andy McPhate on Twitter for the Supporter’s Bus info [leaves Ochilview at 9.30am]
Referee: Gavin Duncan
Assistants: Calum Doyle & Steven Wilson
OPPOSITION INFORMATION
Last 10 Matches
| Date | Venue | Competition | Opponent | Result | Score |
| 26 Nov | Away | Scottish Cup R3 | Hill of Beath Hawthorn | W | 1-2 |
| 19 Nov | Away | League Two | Annan Athletic | W | 1-3 |
| 12 Nov | Home | League Two | Dumbarton | L | 0-4 |
| 5 Nov | Away | League Two | Bonnyrigg Rose | W | 2-3 |
| 29 Oct | Away | League Two | East Fife | L | 2-1 |
| 22 Oct | Home | Scottish Cup R2 | Camelon Jrs | W | 4-0 |
| 15 Oct | Home | League Two | Forfar Athletic | L | 0-1 |
| 11 Oct | Home | League Two | Albion Rovers | W | 1-0 |
| 8 Oct | Away | League Two | Stranraer | W | 3-2 |
| 1 Oct | Home | League Two | Annan Athletic | W | 5-1 |
Top Scorers
| Rank | Name | Goals | Assists | Played | Goals per 90 | Mins per Goal | Total Shots | Goal Conversion | Shot Accuracy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Kane Hester
|
13 | 2 | 19 | 0.71 | 126 | 43 | 30% | 67% |
| 2 |
Russell Dingwall
|
8 | 6 | 17 | 0.48 | 187 | 26 | 31% | 69% |
| 3 |
Darryl McHardy
|
3 | 1 | 17 | 0.21 | 437 | 20 | 15% | 65% |
| 3 |
Brian Cameron
|
3 | 0 | 17 | 0.19 | 478 | 9 | 33% | 56% |
| 5 |
Dylan Lawrence
|
1 | 1 | 15 | 0.13 | 698 | 6 | 17% | 50% |
| 5 |
Matthew Cooper
|
1 | 1 | 12 | 0.09 | 1002 | 3 | 33% | 67% |
| 5 |
Angus Mailer
|
1 | 0 | 18 | 0.08 | 1125 | 8 | 13% | 38% |
| 5 |
Jake Dolzanski
|
1 | 0 | 17 | 0.06 | 1402 | 3 | 33% | 33% |
The statistics shown for each player include any goals they may have scored in the following competitions in the current season: Scottish League Cup, Scottish League Two
FIXTURE INFORMATION
Last 10 Meetings
| Date | Venue | Competition | Result | Score | |
| 17 Sep 22 | Home | League Two | D | 3-3 | |
| 23 Aug 22 | Away | Challenge Cup | L | 1-3 | |
| 9 Apr 22 | Away | League Two | W | 0-2 | |
| 29 Jan 22 | Home | League Two | W | 2-1 | |
| 18 Dec 21 | Away | League Two | D | 2-2 | |
| 25 Sep 21 | Home | League Two | L | 1-2 | |
| 13 Apr 21 | Home | League Two | W | 2-0 | |
| 19 Dec 20 | Away | League Two | L | 0-2 | |
| 18 Jan 20 | Away | League Two | W | 2-3 | |
| 3 Dec 19 | Home | League Two | D | 2-2 |
ON THIS DAY – 3rd December
| Year | Opponent | Competition | Venue | Result | Score |
| 2019 | Elgin City | League Two | Home | D | 2-2 |
| 2016 | Forres Mechanics | Scottish Cup R3 Replay | Home | W | 3-1 |
| 2011 | East Fife | Division Two | Away | W | 1-3 |
| 2005 | Berwick Rangers | Division Three | Away | W | 0-2 |
| 1994 | Morton | Division Two | Home | D | 0-0 |
| 1983 | Dunfermline | Division Two | Home | W | 2-1 |
| 1966 | Brechin City | Division Two | Away | W | 4-5 |
| 1960 | Albion Rovers | Division Two | Home | W | 3-0 |
| 1949 | Morton | Division Two | Away | L | 4-0 |
| 1938 | Morton | Division Two | Home | W | 2-0 |
| 1932 | Raith Rovers | Division Two | Home | W | 3-1 |
| 1927 | Leith Athletic | Division Two | Away | W | 1-2 |
| 1921 | East Fife | Division Two | Away | L | 4-0 |
LEAGUE INFORMATION
Bonnyrigg Rose vs Dumbarton
East Fife vs Annan Athletic
Elgin City vs Stenhousemuir
Forfar Athletic vs Albion Rovers
Stranraer vs Stirling Albion
2022/23 League Table
| Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Stenhousemuir WFC | 28 | 17 | 3 | 8 | 67 | 41 | 26 | 54 |
| 2 |  Dumbarton | 27 | 16 | 5 | 6 | 41 | 29 | 12 | 53 |
| 3 |  Stirling Albion | 26 | 15 | 7 | 4 | 51 | 29 | 22 | 52 |
| 4 |  Annan Athletic | 29 | 11 | 7 | 11 | 51 | 45 | 6 | 40 |
| 5 |  East Fife | 29 | 11 | 7 | 11 | 40 | 44 | -4 | 40 |
| 6 |  Stenhousemuir | 28 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 44 | 45 | -1 | 38 |
| 7 |  Forfar Athletic | 27 | 10 | 7 | 10 | 31 | 34 | -3 | 37 |
| 8 |  Elgin City | 27 | 9 | 6 | 12 | 39 | 46 | -7 | 33 |
| 9 |  Stranraer | 28 | 9 | 6 | 13 | 36 | 46 | -10 | 33 |
| 10 |  Albion Rovers | 28 | 8 | 6 | 14 | 37 | 37 | 0 | 30 |
| 11 |  Bonnyrigg Rose | 29 | 7 | 7 | 15 | 30 | 45 | -15 | 28 |
| 12 |  Westdyke | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 6 |
| 13 |  Kilmarnock | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 14 |  Rossvale | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 15 |  Formartine United | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | -2 | 0 |
| 16 |  Montrose | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 0 |
| 17 |  Giffnock | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | -3 | 0 |
| 18 |  Fraserburgh | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | -3 | 0 |
| 19 |  Grampian Ladies | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | -4 | 0 |
| 20 |  Dundee West | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 8 | -7 | 0 |
| 21 |  Airdrie Ladies | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 9 | -8 | 0 |
