John Gray looks back at "The Season That Was"

In our short life span so far, the Mighty Bridge have seen players come, and seen players go, like water through a sieve. By my reckoning there is only two active players still here that played in our first match against Leith Persevere down at Silverknowes - and those players are Mark Smith and Jonny Mackenzie.

Our pre-season friendlies were a mixed bag before the season started, with us losing against Gorgie Hearts at Wardie, losing to both Alba and Castlebrae at the Jack Kane Centre and losing out to Dickens Waterfront in a game refereed by their manager!

The very first Fountainbridge team before their game against Leith Persevere at Silverknowes, of this side only Mark Smith and Jonny Mackenzie now remain at the club in a playing capacity.

We were starting to play better after those defeats and we were rewarded with a win against Alba in the return match soon after. Players were still going through the revolving door, with outstanding players such as Aaron Tilley, Scott Cherrie, Dean Clark and the one we didn’t want to lose - Koya Bejay - all leaving the club. Those joining the Bridge were of a higher standard than those leaving however and players such as Ian Fleming, Keith Alexander, captain Barry Fearn, Chris Blyth, Matty Osborne and Sean Manson all came on board prior to the season kicking off.

After going down to a few heavy losses against far more experienced teams such as Athletico Star and Lothian Star(in which Keith Alexander offered his top to an opposing player) we then played Longstone at our home pitch at Saughton in an evening kick off which was delayed due to the referee being late. We had lost to them pre-season but played well and won the game 4-2, when it should really have been 6 or 7. The goals came from Keith and Cameron Foley, and everyone played their part that night in getting the first points on the board for the club.

At roughly the same time of the season we went down fighting against Persevere once again on a mole hill infested pitch out in the sticks near Dalkeith. We were 4-1 down at half-time through poor defending and a penalty, with captain Baz smashing a rising drive past the keeper from 25 yards for our goal, before roaring back with arguably our best performance in the second half. And although an eventual hat-trick from Barry was not enough to get us a point, it did show me however that the team could get the ball down and play football to a good level.

It had been a difficult first few months in the league, and with christmas approaching the team got badly treated by our favourite referee Willie Punton in a game against Whispers in Tranent - with the ref giving them every decision possible for a 5-4 win. Then we lost out with a seriously weakened team to The Stand down at Musselburgh even though Keith scored a peach of a free kick from 30 yards, before being thrashed by Lothian Star once more - a result which dented the morale of everyone at the club.

The weather then took effect and our planned Scottish Cup game against Glensburgh got cancelled three or four times before eventually being played. Glensburgh had won the league in the Falkirk district the previous season, yet we stuck to the task with Matty scoring a great volley, only for us to go down 4-3 in extra time. This was the game that proved we were moving forward as a club, and the morale was on the up. We lost a couple of players during christmas with both Cameron Foley and Dave Robertson choosing to move on to pastures new. However one of their friends who had come along to try out - Lee Davidson - was settling into the team and playing well.

We had a great win in the other League Cup against The Stand, with Keith scoring twice for a comfortable 2-0 win. However in the other two cups we were drawn against the number one and number two clubs in our affiliation - Cramond Star and LBC. Both games were a rout as expected but to our credit we didn’t roll over in them, and kept going until the end, as noted in the Evening News report on the LBC match.

Throughout the season our squad has had many different nationalities in it such as Scottish, English, Irish, Nigerian, Ghanian, and French. And our French midfielder Anthony Serrand was beginning to show glimpses of his potential, with a great goal in the defeat to Whispers at christmas. Of the other foreign players, both Isaac Ayiku and Kofi Nyadu left the club by mutual consent over their attitude.

As Easter neared we went down narrowly in a couple of games, and second half collapses against Sighthill, Athletico Star and Dickens cost us a chance of points. We picked up our second 2-0 win against Roseburn after they called off the match, before we had to do the same against Gorgie Hearts.


Several new players came into the squad such as Anthony Powch, Stuart McCrindle, Luigi Pia, Stephen Brown, Stephen Balloch, Sergio Gonzales and Brian Veitch. They all brought something to the table, with Brian looking solid at the back and Sergio bringing some steel to the midfield. The new players came to the forefront in the now infamous screw-job towards the end of the season against Mrs Foremans, a team of knuckle draggers from Musselburgh whos strips only went from numbers 1- 10 as they could only use their fingers to count. Our friend Willie was once more the man in the middle, and he didn’t disappoint with his performance. Knee-high tackles, pushes, punches, elbows, offsides, penalties, you name it - it happened during the game. But the best was saved to last. With the game at 3-3 with only seconds to go, Keith ghosted down the wing on his comeback from injury and the resulting ball into the box was knocked up in the air, Mark Smith strode onto it and crashed a great volley past the dive of their keeper high into the corner of the net for what we thought would be the deserved winning goal. Ehm no, The ref blew for full time AS the ball entered the net and left the pitch smirking and chatting to the Foremans players, ignoring our pleas and accusations of being a con-man - bent ref, twat, sub-human etc etc etc. We got a boost of 3 points when Sighthill couldn’t get a side together before going down in our final game of the season against the League Championss elect United Edinburgh with another second half collapse.

Our aim at the start of the season was not to finish bottom , and we finished no further down the table than 9th or 10th, 3 places off the bottom. We have a great strong bunch of players in the team, the morale and bond between the players is good and we can only go forward looking ahead to next season. We will have a few new faces in the squad, and there will be a couple of regulars no longer around, but these things happen in football. I am also pleased to announce the creation of an Assistant Manager role for Ian Fleming, who will continue to play as a vital member of the squad. Ian gave me constant backing last season and will make a great right hand man for our second season as the mighty Fountainbridge. Please give Ian your support in his new role and respect him as a member of the Management team.

So that was the season that was, and what a season indeed!

Da Gaffer.