Highs and lows for Bluebells and Fed

It’s been a stop-start period for junior clubs since the turn of the year with saturday’s fixtures totally wiped out for the whole of the East Region.

However, the enforced break may have given Super League managers a chance to reflect on where they are at the moment and what the remainder of the season has in store for them.

Lochee United are the best placed local club and manager George Shields has every reason to be pleased with the progress they have made this season.

They are sitting well in the league and are through to the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup with another trip to Ayrshire beckoning to face Beith.

The Thomson Park outfit couldn’t have made a better start to the season, drawing with Hill of Beath and this was followed by thumping wins over Carnoustie and Sauchie.

They were then brought back to earth when they were hammered 5-1 at home to Linlithgow but bounced back with an incredible 4-4 draw at Bonnyrigg after being 3-0 down.

Since then, there have been mainly highs but a couple of lows also. They suffered a bad defeat away to bottom club Forfar WE and the defeat by Sauchie in their last game was hard to take.

To say it has been a topsy-turvy season at Broughty Athletic would be an understatement. They have just appointed Jamie McCunnie on a permanent basis as their manager and he will be the fourth man at the helm since the start of the season.

Keith Gibson was in charge at the beginning but resigned after an incident at their pre-season training camp down south and McCunnie agreed to take over until a new man was found.

That man was the vastly-experienced Jim Finlayson but he only lasted fourmonths before he handed in his resignation and that has now led to McCunnie’s appointment.

Despite the managerial merry-go-round, the Fed have actually done pretty well in the league and currently sit in seventh position on 25 points.

Midfielder George Hughes has been something of a football nomad before arriving at Kinnoull.