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the_bully_wee

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Posts posted by the_bully_wee

  1. 13 minutes ago, Johnny Worm said:

    David Mitchell?

    If it was anything like a done deal I would name names, but it looks as though the parent club would need to sort out a back-up first before letting Mr. X go. Ordinarily I wouldn't mention it at all, but it's an encouraging indication of the level of player we seem to be targeting.

  2. I'd say that Dumbarton's squad has a slight edge in terms of quality in the first XI and pisses over Stenhousemuir's when it comes to depth, but any advantage there is more than negated when you consider who is responsible for each. Serial loser on one side, man with serious pedigree in this division on the other. If Stenny manage to flesh out their squad a bit in January then they should canter to the title fairly easily; without that they'll need some luck with injuries and such. For Dumbarton, a 2024 implosion before being owned by Annan again in the play-off semi, as I've said previously.

  3. McCall should be getting right in about the Edinburgh City fire sale to sort out the full back areas - Crane and Mercer would be very good signings. Truthfully, there are about half a dozen of their players I'd be happy for us to bring in, along with a former player of theirs who seemingly has a fondness for the devil's dandruff. Kieran MacDonald is also worth a shout if he's bored of life at Gartcairn.

  4. Nothing particularly enlightening this evening other than that there's a viable backup for Crownpoint should we not get it, albeit one that would require more work before being used. Maitland spoke really well and appears to be under absolutely no illusions about what's wrong and how to fix it; sounds like we will be as busy as we've all hoped in January.

  5. Clyde at over evens was a great price in the circumstances and I got in on the action with a handicap bet, though it was a tad fortunate to come in given the nonsense red card. Jeanfield are probably one of the better footballing sides at that level but they struggled to match Clyde's fitness after a bright start; barely had a sniff after that until they were two zip down. Don't think I've ever seen a more quintessentially pub league keeper at a semi-respectable outfit than Jeanfield's.

  6. Lyon has been reasonable for the most part in a defensive sense so far this season, but it's in possession where he really hurts us. Constantly hams simple balls out of play, and his ratio of blunders seems to increase the further he gets up the pitch. To his credit, he doesn't hide, but both he and Jon Craig are terrible options in their own unique ways.

  7. The positives:

    • That's the worst I've seen us all season; it's kind of ideal that McCall has seen the maximal dire extent of the task that lies in wait as soon as was possible
    • McCall's switch to a back 3 definitely improved us in the earlier stages of the second half before the clown car tendencies resurfaced

    The negatives:

    • Literally everything else


    Once again I walk away unable to fault the application and endeavour of the majority of the players, but the lack of quality was laid excruciatingly bare today by a very ordinary East Fife side. Long balls into their right channel reaping great rewards - McDonald must have been thanking his lucky stars within a quarter of an hour.

    As has been said, I thought Hynes was the only one to walk away with any sort of credit over the piece and he was extremely wasteful in possession himself - probably not helped by having a human tug boat ahead of him for much of the game, and occasionally a young man who appears to have been born offside (seriously, wtf?). Scullion found a few nice passes in the second half and probably gets a bit of benefit of the doubt with him just coming back from an injury, but it's impossible to look at the rest and think anyone deserves any kind of credit there. Who could've foreseen that a 'keeper from Albion Rovers (via a spell as a back-up at whatever Edinburgh are calling themselves now) would be clown shoes material? Who could've foreseen that Neil Parry (dodgy enough by the end of last season to be released, initially) would also not suddenly come back alive in League Two? Ross Lyon - no words. The drop-off in Dunachie has been frightening and leaves me wondering whether he was just overperforming in the early stages of the season, or if he's been left bereft of confidence by the state of what's around him. In the immediacy of what's around him, there's Peter Grant, inexplicably handed a two-year deal on the watch of a teammate and former manager who bombed him out of the picture last season. Grant is actually a bit of a sad case, because you can see he still possesses his defensive and organisational instincts, but that his body is completely failing him; there was an instance in the first half where he was caught wrong side of his man - the ensuing fulsome attempt to recover would've been comfortably outpaced by Bryan Cranston's speedwalking in Malcolm in the Middle. Speaking of bodies failing people, there's Ross Forbes, signed by Duffy for his underling who wanted a "high-energy" team; no beef with Forbes himself, who genuinely knocks his pan in, it's just that his pan is absolutely tiny - I find it hard to hate players like that, ones who are just completely done. Carswell, a lesser degree of the aforementioned pair. I also have no words for this "Ji Stevenson" character, while King is clearly a highlights reel of a player with little interest in being at Clyde in our current predicament. Every week, Imrie's decision to loan out such an evidently talented boy becomes easier to understand. Rennie tried as he always does, but too often had the ball hopelessly shelled at him with no real prospect of us working off of him. He's one of few I wouldn't be too hard on today. I don't even have the energy after all that to try and assess the subs, who were all hopeless in their own ways.

    The one saving grace in amongst all this is that we've got one of the best candidates we possibly could have to try and turn this around; I'm sure a few of the current crop will turn things around on his watch (remember how competent Callum Home quickly became under Danny Lennon?!), which will leave him less work to do in January, but it'll still be a hell of a lot - and if we don't start picking up results soon, it'll be a bloody hard sell. Better hope that warchest is bursting at the seams, and that a few WoSL sides fancy taking on piss poor senior cast-offs as 'names'. At the very least, it'll be an entertaining six months ahead.

  8. I'd be subbing Leighfield just to humiliate him here. If that was Parry offering that between the sticks today he'd need to be under police protection this evening.

    ETA: I would then be releasing him and many others as soon as this evening and as late as after Monday's training session, if possible. The worst ever.

  9. I doubt Millar really wanted to be there anyway, as he seemed to think McLean was a bit harshly treated. He conducted himself well though and clearly gave something of a hoot, which is better than can be said of some previous interim managers. Hope he gets a foot in the door somewhere else soon.

  10. The key distinction to be made here is obviously that failing to break through the ceiling of the top end of the Championship is literal leagues apart from where we're currently at; the only box McCall doesn't tick is experience at this level, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. There's not a single reasonably attainable option who wouldn't represent some level of risk in comparison to him. He's got a track record of immediately improving struggling teams, turning them around with smart signings/improvements to existing players, getting them promoted from considerably tougher leagues than this one and also getting them playing good football into the bargain. As others have said, I reckon the fact we've managed to get him in at all speaks to us being an attractive option in terms of the budget he'll have to play with in January and beyond. Not to look too far ahead of extricating ourselves from our current predicament, but if the club's ambition to re-establish itself in the Championship over the short-to-mid term future is a genuine one, I can't think of anyone better-suited to actioning that, given his track record. I now hope to wake up tomorrow to news that, after seeing them in one training session, he has terminated at least half a dozen players' contracts.

  11. 14 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

    Bit of a coup for this level.

    Massive upgrade on McLean and very good at making limited players look decent but absolutely has a quality eye for a player.

    That being said, Jim Duffy used to be amazing at making shite players quite decent (although his eye for a player wasn't near as good as McCall's) and he was a fucking nightmare for you lot so I suppose it depends if McCall still has the hunger or not.

    Duffy actually didn't do terribly with us last season given the utter rabble he inherited - the football was eye-bleeding though and his recruitment in the DoF role was arguably even worse than his usual.

    Couldn't have asked for better than McCall in our current position. Really pleased with that and credit must go to the board and those helping them out for pulling this one off.

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