Season Review 2012/13
The season began with a new man at the helm facing the unenviable task of following on from the record breaking season that saw seven trophies on the Islecroft boardroom. When John MacBeth was named as the player manager a few eyebrows would have been raised as his name had never been mentioned as a potential boss.
However John, assisted by midfielder Gary Kerr, got off to a flying start winning the first 13 league matches which all but sealed the title and it wasn’t until March when the first points of the season were dropped. Included in this run were outstanding wins against Threave Rovers and St Cuthbert Wanderers – the Threave win came in the second match of the season at Meadow Park and Star played over 80 minutes with ten men when Craig Fergusson was red carded, but Curtiss Wilson was the unlikely goalscoring hero when he popped up to head home the winner. The Saints match in November saw Star win 3-0 with two memorable goals from Scott Milligan and Lewis Sloan and talking of memorable goals Sloany’s strike in the 1-1 draw with Threave in March was without question the goal of the season, when he smashed the ball home from at least 30 yards. The title was eventually clinched with two matches remaining as Star hammered Fleet Star 12-0 for their first back to back titles for nearly 30 years.
In the cups Star retained the main competitions in the South – the Challenge Cup and the League Cup, and the Tweedie Cup was also lifted for good measure. The Tweedie Cup was won at Galabank with a 2-1 extra time win over Threave Rovers and the League Cup was also won with a victory over our Castle Douglas rivals, this time at Palmerston Park by three goals to one. The Challenge Cup was won on the last match of the season, again at Galabank, when Star eventually over-ran Nithsdale Wanderers 6-2 in the final but in the quarter final the Star showed real character with an impressive win at St Mary’s. The team approached the match having lost their two previous outings and questions were being asked if the season was beginning to unravel but the players answered them all in emphatic style with a 3-1 win that could easily have been a few more.
The team also made a bit of history by becoming the first South team to reach the SFA Regional Cup final , a run that saw them eliminate East of Scotland champions Stirling University 1-0 in the quarter final with Graeme Bell heading the winner 5 minutes from time. In the semis they travelled to Edinburgh to face Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale and on a heavy pitch that just passed a pitch inspection, Scott Milligan scored twice in the second half to take the Star through. Whitehill Welfare stood between Star and ultimate glory but the Rosewell side ran out deserved 3-1 winners but if a Grant Parker effort hadn’t been wrongly disallowed for offside when the score was just 1-0, then who knows.Postponements were a major factor yet again this season, and this coupled with good runs in all the cup competitions resulted in an almost farcical end to the season where Star had to play a ridiculous amount of games in a short space of time. It got so bad they had to play Nithsdale at Sanquhar on a Friday night at 7.30pm and the following afternoon they had a crucial league match at home to Wigtown. Thankfully the league points were won against Wigtown but the Nithsdale tie was lost on penalties.In the end it was another great season for the Star but like last year ended with the manager leaving for personal reasons. A new job and a new baby meant John MacBeth was unable to give the amount of time needed to run a football team and he announced his decision to step down at the end of the season and the club wasted no time whatsoever in appointing Paul McGinley as the new boss in the hope he can repeat the success he had here in his first spell in charge. Hopefully John can return in a playing capacity but there are a number of players leaving who have served the club so well over the years and particular mention and thanks must go to Rab Harkness, Gary Kerr, Grant Parker and Jak Dingwall who between them have spent a fair number of years at the ‘Croft.

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