Lichtielegend

I'm all in favour of Jim experimenting for next season in the remaining games, even more so after big Dunc's pish. Next two games, a front pair of Gaston and Boruc with Norey in goals.

Signing is tainted, send him back.

Will be a good signing for you. Sad to see him go.

Pretty conclusive and, with the way it manifests itself with the fouls and cards stats, suggests that a major factor might be an official subconsciously appeasing the crowd?

Brownlie's first season in the then First Division doesn't get near enough credit. I don't think a part time team survived in that division in the 5 years prior or the 10 years after we did it. I'm not sure the issue is being relegated, more the manner of it. We ended up going down with a whimper under Brownlie and the malaise continued the following season. We're going down with a whimper this year and continuity is not the way to address it. If we looked at clubs relegated from the Championship over the last 20 years with less than, say, 25 points and looked at their performance in League One the following season, I reckon more clubs would have got relegated again rather than bounce back up. One for @SimonLichtie to compile.

Of course it's with hindsight. There aren't many managers who call it quits at the right time. It's somewhat ironic that perhaps the only 2 Scottish managers who did time it right were people close to Dick Campbell (Sir Alex and Walter Smith)

Unless the money wasn't on the table unless he agreed to such a clause. However, with recent rumours regarding contracts (such as the Scott Allan wages) I wouldn't be surprised if were on the hook for the whole of his contract (£120k for a 20 month deal ffs)

I think a lot of people (myself included) at the time of DC's departure thought that Petrie had a good thing going at Links Park and therefore the incentive wasn't there. In an ideal world, Campbell would have stepped up down as manager in 2022 (he had taken us as far as anyone feasibly could) and we could have made an appointment from a position of strength and could have looked for someone with a view to long-term. Petrie would have been the ideal candidate and, at that time, I think he would have jumped at it.

I wasn't too upset when the youth setup got wound down but I think things changed in the last 5-10 years in terms that there does seem to be the finances, which might not have been present before. The change in rules for substitutes means there is an opportunity to get youngsters on the bench without taking experienced players out.

McIntosh signing will be a real insight into McIntyre and how players feel about him, imo. He's the only one that played under him at Cove.

I could believe this if I had any trust in his ability to sign decent players. Boruc - not one aspect of his game is better than Gaston's and I'm not convinced he's any better than Adams. Delaney - Has been fairly anonymous in the few games he has played, attacking and defensively. Walker - Showed decent glimpses defensively, poor distribution Teale - Could find half a dozen defenders as good or better in League 1/2, results in Ricky playing on left of back pairing which causes problems Mackinnon - No idea what he offers our midfield. Robinson - I've seen some shite Arbroath teams in my time - he wouldn't get a game for any of them. Playing him is disrespecting the SPFL. Murray - Like Mackinnon, I can't work out what he offers us. Reilly - Barely played but showed glimpses. Even if he did have any success rate signing players, would we really have any confidence in him building a team out of them? I wouldn't. Campbell's time was up and he (as well as the board) did us dirty but no one can convince me we wouldn't have had a better chance of staying up if he was still here. Good part-time managers don't tend to stay part-time managers too long which results in a dearth of 'proven' candidates and it is a completely different task to full-time football so doesn't always translate. Airdrie are a good example, actually. Their squad is fairly modest for this level yet they are extremely well drilled and try to play with a clear style. As much as you can try, you can't implement that in 4 hours of training per week. At part-time level it is really about recruitment, personality and man-management. As stated above, McIntyre's recruitment has been poor. You can see from his interviews that his personality is hardly inspiring. As for man-management, we've had the Bird/Hylton and now the McKenna/McIntosh incidents along with the shabby treatment of Ali Adams. When I think of the money wasted on full-time players over the last 2.5 years, with absolutely no on-field benefit, I wonder if we wouldn't have been better off trying to get some kind of youth system up and running again. Gold might not be the answer for first team manager but he'd have loads to offer if we did something like that.

McIntyre is merely a symptom of a deeper malaise but he absolutely has to go. The level of player he's brought to the club has generally been abysmal and he's lost the backing of players who have performed at this level for us.

It also resulted in complacency. Campbell never even bothered trying to sign people to compete for starting spots in defence (other than right back) for about 3 years, choosing to get defenders who would be happy to sit on the bench for 90% of the season. Liam Henderson might be an exception, but he was another that was lauded for his versatility and never really played in defence.

As an aside, the 4 league meetings between us this season have seen an extraordinary number of players picking up injuries.

Do it now. Give it Goldy til the end of the season.

Just thinking out loud here.... When we go to League One, this thread will transfer to that forum. If opposing fans asked us what our style of play was under McIntyre, how would you answer? I honestly struggle to answer that. Yet, I could have answered it 5 years ago under Campbell. I could have answered it (almost) 10 years ago under Moore, I could have answered it (almost) 15 years ago under Sheerin and I could have answered it near 20 years ago under JMcG. Now? I'm stumped.

The only player that would be hard done by that decision would be Steele, imo. He can at least be arsed every game, unlike Bird.

You don't need to go far to see the impact of a disastrous season can have on subsequent seasons if you don't make significant changes. 15 miles due North, to be exact. Get rid of every single player that arrived in the last 2 seasons and build from there.

Are we a better club though? The irony is that the impending relegation is going to cut our prize money by at least 50k next season. We'll probably lose approx 500 fans from our attendances, maybe more when you factor in that away attendances will be decimated. 500 fans at approx £15 per ticket average equates to approx £130k over the league season and probably more in hospo receipts (less expenses for policing, tbf) That's £180k out of the wage budget and it's going to kick off if it's the playing budget that takes the brunt of the hit over some crappy social media posts.

I don't recall one board member coming out to refute the spitting allegations (or even acknowledge them). The staff member who posted regarding death threats should be held to account too. Interesting to note that, apparently, on that trip home from Wales, the non-playing staff were more concerned about getting a day on the sauce rather than the actual football to the extent that senior players were having to tell them off! However, they seem to be quick off the mark to respond to criticism of themselves and I've certainly heard of a few people getting phone calls harassing them over comments made on social media. Let's be honest, a lot of this criticism is justified and it's hard to ignore that a lot of people who have been committed to the club for years are suddenly leaving. Graham Black is away, hearing rumours that Booner is away and there was certainly a lot of different faces working in the hospitality last time I was there. Something has definitely happened at the club in the last few years and it was likely missed at the time because we were doing so well on the pitch.

Lyon had his best performance in a maroon shirt last night. Has absolutely no left foot but managed to make it work and he was desperately unlucky at the 2nd Raith goal as he made a great effort to block the shot after Ricky's stumble. Bird frustrates me. There's been more than a few games where he hasn't looked arsed then you see what he can do when he's in the mood like last night. Robinson frustrates me for different reasons. Chuffed for Stowe - I think the jump to Championship has been too much for him but it's not for a lack of trying. Hopefully this will boost his confidence for the run-in.

Aye, nothing like showing you care by picking up a suspension when the game is already dead and buried.

Doesn't even need to be a big guy. A guy with an engine that can track a midfield runner. Still amazes me that we've scoured the UK and beyond trying to find our 'new Nouble' in the last 2 years but never bothered to get a guy in to replace Chris Hamilton.

Dick tried the old CM01/02 ultimatum and realised that he can't Ctrl+Alt+Del his way out of it.

Balde been recalled, Murray from Edinburgh now eligible and Bird back. Don't know if Hylton is away yet.