Macca's Review of 2011 Part One

The First Division championship is achieved

For Jim McIntyre the year 2011 was sweet and sour. He reflects on 2011 and his pick of the turning point is not everybody's view:-

"The pivotal moment for me was the defeat at home to Morton on 5th March. We knew then that it was now or never.  We had a meeting after that game and we sat down on the Monday to show the lads exactly what our form had been in the previous eight games. It had been very poor as we had only taken nine points and we put the results in sequence - lose, draw, lose win whatever. We wanted to demonstrate that even though we were still up at the top end of the table, if you continued to have these results then we wouldn't win the league. It was time for everybody to stand up and be counted.

"Sometimes as a player it is easy to wake up and look at the newspaper on a Sunday morning and you are still there. You actually forget about your run of results and how many points you have been taking.  That particular weekend I went home and felt that it was important that we showed them just exactly what they had taken from the previous eight games. It was really poor."

On 2nd January Jim McIntyre took his side to Kirkcaldy. They had a four point advantage at the top but returned just one ahead of their local rivals. Campbell had put the Rovers ahead but a superb strike from Nick Phinn had evened things up. Then disaster, weakness in defence let the home side through and Gregory Tade scored the winner.

In January a draw at Dens against second placed Dundee and then a postponement against Stirling saw the Pars knocked off the top. Worse still a 2-0 defeat at Partick began to threaten those promotion ambitions.

The cup intervened and the reward for knocking out Montrose after a replay was an away day at Pittodrie. That looked like heading for a second meeting until an injury time own goal off Neil McGregor. At least that was to be the team's last away defeat until August.

February saw the Pars draw at home to Falkirk, the team just below them in third. The result courtesy of a late Andy Kirk equaliser. That was the first of two drawn games and points were slipping away. An away win against Queen of the South looked to have put promotion back on the agenda but then the only home defeat of the season at the hands of Morton led to the Manager's meeting.

The response was just a draw against ten men at Stirling but that did not concern the Manager quite so much because he thought it had been a much better performance.  Full points were taken from the return against the Binos but further draws in March at Dundee after Alex Burke had spectacularly fired the Pars into a first half lead, and then at home to Partick Thistle had the most optimistic of fans feeling that First Division football would be the scene for the following season.

Promotion is not won in one game but over a season, but Martin Hardie's 93rd minute goal at Dingwall on 29th March secured a 1-0 win and three points that would put the team back at the top of the league, a position they were to hold until the end. Jim pointed out that the win against Ross County that wet Tuesday night is viewed by most fans as the "catalyst":-

"Probably rightly so because of the late goal but for me it was definitely after the Morton game that gave me the glare in the headlights - if this continues lads, it is good night and we are not going to do it.

"Ross County was the first of six wins and we were to be undefeated in twelve.  The performances were good  in the draws, Partick had been a very even game but we went on from there.

"It was fantastic that we picked our form up at the right time; there were some excellent performances within those six wins. The Queen of the South game where we won 6-1 was a huge game for me.  They didn't bring a big support and we'd been expected to beat them but they had proved to be a team with an improved record at East End Park. That was a crucial game because we had won at Cowdenbeath the week before but it was great going on to win against Queens in the manner we did.

"We lost Kevin Rutkiewicz and went down to ten men just before half time but coming out and scoring the next goal showed that we were brave.  We decided to keep two strikers up, we didn't sit back and because we scored three quick goals and they had a man sent off, we went on to score another two to make it six.  It was a fabulous performance that day."

That demolition of Queen of the South and then the remarkable 2-1 win over Raith, in front of a crowd of 11,052, with yet another Hardie special was Championship winning form.

"That game against Raith is one of the highlights of the year, there is no doubt about that because in the previous home game against Raith we definitely gave it back to them.  We should have made it 3-0 but they came back to get a 2-2 draw. It was nice to get our revenge. In the first half we were excellent but came in one nil down but obviously the rest is history. Big Hardie gets the plaudits for that day but it was a real battling team performance."

The gap between Raith Rovers, our biggest rivals, was extended to four points but celebrations were on ice as there were still two matches to go.

"That period was a particularly difficult one personally because I lost my father that same week, so it was great that we went to Cappielow in that strong position. It is one of the toughest away grounds in the First Division but you could see the boys were up for it; it was a matter of calming them down.  We got off to a great start with an early McDougall goal and we never looked in danger.  David Graham scored a cracking second and it was just a day to remember for the rest of their lives.

"It was just a proud, proud day. The manner in which we won the game under the pressure of what was expected.  The weather, the amount of fans we took - we filled the place.  The fans were magnificent, the pitch was perfect and we played to our potential so it really was a special day."

So with promotion sealed in Greenock, the party continued the next week when the final home game of the season against Falkirk was a real celebration with a 3-0 win.

"It was the perfect games for us to have because we didn't want the season ending damply. Having won the league it is easy for a team to come out and get beat.  Concentration might have lapsed with the celebrations over the previous weekend but the fact that it was a derby we wanted to make sure that we went out on a high.  We played exceptionally well that day again in front of a great crowd, an absolutely fantastic support and we sent them away happy."

2011 - in the SPL
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