Bainsfordbairn

It's safe to go in, as per the announcement from the stadium company earlier today. If it weren't the team wouldn't have been allowed to train there this morning Facebook

I would say it's the best plan, if it can be made to work. Surely as fans we want to be the only people in control of the club? The alternative is inviting in folk like Mark Campbell, George Fulton or Hamish Deans. If you're old enough to remember the last two names you'll know how well they worked out for us. I would be great if we could have well-off local people investing in the club as part of the third leg of the stool. But if none of them are coming forward to chuck in a few hundred thousand, then it's up to the fans. Which means FSS.

I don't pay much attention to the midweek training sessions because I'm usually sitting inside waiting for the players to finish up so they can do commercial things, school visits or pick up awards. I'm sure I've seen him recently doing Saturday warmups though. I'll ask the question next time I'm in if no-one else answers first.

The clause was inserted by the CEO. The manager he appointed two months later decided not to enforce it the following summer. Nothing to do with the club IMO, unless we're reopening the debate about whether a board should interfere in a managers football decisions.

Most managers won't keep a player who'ld rather be elsewhere. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any Falkirk player post-Bosman who was forced to see out their contract against their wishes. Maybe in the last six months of their contract if they're considered useful injury cover, such as Liam Craig when Martin Rennie was allegedly interested. But not for a first team player with a year still to go.

I can probably clear that one up, given that it’s old news now. The story is false. Sibbalds contract was up in the summer of 2017. He was 22, had just won player of the year and had seen the likes of McGrandles, Fulton, Wallace & Kingsley move on to better things. Not unreasonably, he wanted to do the same. But there was no interest in him from anywhere that he wanted to go. I think there was an offer from Sweden which didn't appeal and he went on trial at Luton, but no offer was made. Any buying club would have had to pay us compensation. In the end his best option was to sign another contract at Falkirk. It was a one year deal with a one year option. That option lay with the club. He struggled at first in 17/18, as many of our players did, but he kicked on after Hartley arrived and finished the season as one of our better players. In the summer of 2018 the club could have compelled him to stay another year, but he preferred to leave and Hartley didn’t want anyone at FFC who wasn't fully committed. There were stories being made online at the time that the club had screwed up the paperwork and our option had lapsed. That wasn't true. The football admin person at the time was a close friend of mine and he vehemently denied it, and he was backed up by several directors and staff whom I spoke to afterwards. He simply got an offer which gave him a chance to showcase his talents on a bigger stage. And undoubtedly for more money. He would have been a fool to refuse, even though he’s a genuine Falkirk fan. Eventually the day comes when you have to put your own interests first, just as Crunchie did when he signed for Chelsea.

I'll ignore the Goldie stuff because I have no way of knowing, other than contacting some of the directors who were there at the time. And it's not important enough to waste enough any time on. It may have been covered in Martin Ritchie's book if anyone bought it. I didn't. As for the car park though..... The club not the council sell the car parking permits. For drive-ups on matchday, the security staff charge entry. Those staff are working for the club not the council. So the club see every single coin. I assume we don't hand over any of it. If you believe otherwise, feel free to back up your claims by providing evidence from a podcast, an AGM question or some other reputable source.

He's very open in responding to questions which the fans fire at him on social media. Should he step away from it and become an online recluse? Delete all his accounts and never be contactable unless someone speaks to him in person? I don't agree. He answers questions and gives details in response to queries which official club channels probably wont. Because they must get hundreds of questions fired at them on days like this. The club told us the game was off and explained the (very obvious) reasons why. I'm not sure how you can criticise JS for elaborating on that.

Most of us are. Some have agendas when it comes to boards, either past or present, but if there's way for things to be better it's not unreasonable to raise it. If the lack of covers WAS a mistake, then I'd rather have a CEO and BOD that engages with the fans and admits them. As a former employee once said to me, "everyone makes mistakes but when you work at a football club the whole world notices them". Personally I'm happy as long as we have people that are reasonably competent, doing their best and are in it for the right reasons: ie to improve the club rather than being on an ego trip.

I'm purely guessing here, but things tend to stick to one another when frozen. Is is possible that any sort of cover would run the risk of not only picking up pellets but also ripping up the artificial grass blades if it was removed when temps were around zero? If so, that would explain why nothing was purchased and why only grass surfaces seem to use these.

I've no idea. I've never seen any, nor can I recall any requests for volunteers to help put them out or take them off. So' I'd guess not but I'm only guessing. I think these are normally associated with grass pictures rather than artificial ones.

The club announced the cancellation and the reasons why. Normally that would be the end of it, but because JS was asked the question and he tends to respond very well to supporter queries he gave additional information. I'm not sure that's something that should be used to beat the club with.

Firstly, we spent a lot of time on the pitch yesterday preparing it for the low overnight temperatures. The forecasts did not suggest such a large amount of snow. Staff were at the ground at 8am to assess the situation, with the knowledge that our opponents were due to leave at 10.30am. Clearing the pitch fully would take approximately 4 hours, with a lot of work also required on the surroundings areas to make them safe. We already have concerns regarding the path network for supporters walking to and from the ground due to the path closures and on-going work. We could not say with a high degree of certainty before 10am that the pitch and infrastructure would be safe.We felt it was only fair to give our opponents and their travelling fans as much notice as possible.Regarding the pitch, while it is possible to clear a pitch of snow, it would be in direct violation of the pitch manufactures guidance. Given we are within our initial 12 month defects/warranty period, this would represent a significant risk.Finally, removing snow from a pitch has some negative consequences, most notably taking large quantities of rubber pellets off the main pitch to the sidelines. Having spent 6 months working on bedding the pitch in, to maximise its quality, which has helped to deliver an excellent and true playing surface, this would have set us back several months. It is difficult to return the pellets to the pitch whilst ensuing an even spread. We are of course disappointed todays game is off, however we had to take the travel of our opponents and their supporters, the safety of our supporters walking to and from the stadium and the potentially consequences on our new pitch into consideration. hope this helps answer some questions. Enjoy your day Bairns, see you next Saturday.

If you just click on it you should be taken to the series of tweets from JS. It's basically an explanation.

Bear in mind Cove have to travel so I imagine the inspection has to be done before they leave. We arrive at an away ground 1h 45 before kick off so they'll probably be arriving 1315. Two and a half hours travel means they'll likely be leaving 1045, so a 1000 inspection time is probably about right.

Yes, 1400 at Towhead Park, Cumnock. I'll probably be at it. Tony Begg is kind enough to copy me into the games schedule email every week. The club will likely put out a "games this weekend" graphic in the next day or so. 16s and 18s are at home to Elgin on Sunday and I'll be with the girls in Dumfries when they play QOTS.

They were never announced as PCAs, though Williamson was heavily rumoured to have signed while the previous season was still ongoing. Rumours of McKay, Nesbitt & McCann surfaced on here from fans of their previous clubs a week or two before they were announced. However the season had long since ended by that point.

That might be true, but given that it happened in 2007 it probably confirms that Morrison is more likely to decide his future in the summer rather than January. He's still young so has plenty of time to make big money from the game. And the possibility of leaving Falkirk with a league winners medal will likely increase his agents bargaining power with any possible future employer. Never mind being (again) a standout player in our league and (again) ending the season with a raft of awards. For those reasons I'd assume he'll still be with us until the end of the season.

Players generally seem to wait until the summer before deciding who to sign for. Off the top of my head, I can only think of Gow and Williamson who've signed PCAs with other clubs in January. At least that we know of. For incoming players, I can think of Agyeman and Tidser. That's a pretty small number compared with the hundreds and hundreds of players who've left or arrived after the season ended.

Someone interrupted the interview. That part was meant to be edited out, appeared to have been edited out but when the "upload video" button was pressed it suddenly reappeared. Some sort of tech issue. The person who does the editing pulled the video once they realised what had happened. I presume a clean version will go up at some point tomorrow. Frustrating for the editor out but amusing for the rest of us, particularly those who know him as we'll rip the piss out of him for weeks to come because of it. And not a big deal overall. Shit happens sometimes and he's a good guy who stays up late on a Friday night to work on interviews when everyone else is in bed or the pub.

The Society Of John De Graeme who supplied the knights for the promo video tweeted that they'll be joining us for the Fortmartine game. Pretty much confirms it.

I think you also have to take into account the likelihood of that happening. Even if the Rawlins shares somehow found their way into unscrupulous hands, and the option was there for them to purchase more, that still wouldn't be enough to outvote the supporters groups unless the likes of Sandy Alexander / Martin Ritchie also sold their shares to them. I can't imagine they would suddenly walk away and possibly screw over the club that they've protected all these years. Particularly as the fan ownership model we now likely wouldn't have happened without their support.

It depends on how many players you have and what analytics you want it to provide. I think the camera is about a thousand and then you pay monthly fees to access the app. Last I heard the ideal setup for us would have cost around £1800 for the remainder of the season, which will obviously decrease the further on you go. Any sponsorship would help, because if you have enough cash to buy the camera then all you need is to raise the funds for the monthly fees. Possibly you could start off with a basic analytics service and then build it up once you increase your funds.

I think the issue is that if the club did that for one Foundation team then they'd get asked why they weren't doing it for others such as amateurs, FFIT teams, seniors, etc, etc. They publicise the womens games but that's probably as much they can do. Long term I'd like to see the womens team brought "in house" as part of FFC rather than the Foundation, as has happened at other professional clubs. However, there are other things which will be far higher priority such as rebuilding the academy. Maybe if we ever reach the Premier League again....