Bluegrass Bairn

FFS Dowds, just give the simple pass to Morrison! Again!! Could've be 3 up here

Telfer looking much better today. Some killer passing. Keep it up, lad.

Maybe you do understand football better than me. Who knows. But you're not reading what I wrote, or you're being deliberately flippant. I'm suggesting Falkirk haven't done well playing only one up top in recent years because we haven't supported the striker well enough, or quickly enough, or with enough mobility from midfield, leaving our one guy far too isolated and rendering much of our attacking threat impotent, ponderous, and therefore easy to defend against. Given the level of unhappiness on P&B in recent seasons about the overall standard of football we've served up, I'd have thought that was something you might see as a factor in our demise. And incidentally I'm not peddling myths about the highbrow tactics of Liverpool or any other top European team, or even their superstar players who can switch effortlessly from 4-2-3-1 to 4-4-2 to 3-5-1-1, just reflecting on some recent historical deficiencies in our own team. Oh, and I'm delighted to see Connolly, Morrison, and Alston supporting Dowds, or hopefully Keena before too long, because it shows signs that we're progressing this season - getting better at getting forward quicker, into better positions, and carrying more of a threat. Duh! The first part of your last sentence actually supports my point - better support for the striker - whereas the 'park the bus' comment does you no credit. Time to move on.

Sigh... where did you get that from? That's not my point at all. Its about mobility and movement, and linking the play. Over the last few years, when we've tried to play that way we don't support a lone striker well enough. Too isolated, too easily knocked off the ball, too easily dis-possessed. Its been painful to watch. Nothing at all to do with any other team, or their style of play, which may well work for them and those 'countless other top European sides' - where a lone nine or false nine isn't playing with no other teammate within 20 yards. And by the way Marsh, its not a wind-up. Far from it. Don't tell me your heart didn't sink a little when you saw us line up with a lone striker at home to Stranraer or Forfar last season, or at home to Alloa/QoS/Morton the season before. Shitty tactics, mostly resulting in an absolute borefest. And relegation.

Yeah, but God knows we're not 'Liverpool or literally countless other top European clubs'. We're not very good, remember? We can't play like them. And several shitty managers in recent seasons have subjected us to passive, unadventurous, square-ball football. Its at the root of our current abysmally poor status in the game, no? (We should be far more assertive at TFS, was my actual point).

When we're at home, we should never, ever play only one striker up front. Its a fecking nonsense. Don't care if we're playing the Bigots, Jambos, or Fifers, and certainly not anyone in League One. FFS, its no more than a lily-livered admission of passive, unadventurous, square-ball football. Discuss.

Have heard there's a covid thingamy going around again...Think we should just call the Leagues right now. Just to be safe.

Oh WOW. Welcome home, Blair!! Worth the wait.

Sorry Sammy, but Sammon? Naw. Just naw. No conviction in his play at all. Can't control a pass, can't hold up the ball - far too easy to out-muscle him - and what a pitiful effort when he should have burst the net with that chance. Still looks like a total wage thief. Get him TF.

...Also from the archives. The rest of the 1982/83 defence - Hoaggy, Big Mackin, Geordie and Bomber - congratulate Andy Nicol on his 100th appearance.

Back when it all began for Crunchie. Found this in the archives...

Am neither clapping nor wetting about the Cup draw. Its not about debating the quality of the players, potential cash boost, squad togetherness or media coverage. For me its the worst draw we could've got simply because the opposition are such despicable cnuts.

Sigh. Them. Absolutely the last draw I would've wanted.

Irrespective of Kenna being injured, and the optimistic noises that he'll make a difference up front when he's playing again, our chances would improve dramatically if we played with a bit more PACE and ENERGY!!!! Duh! This season we've been mostly the same old slow, laboured, square ball-dominant build up, its torture to watch. (The goal v Forfar excepted). We played a much better style v Raith pre-season, pity we don't, y'know, try it again...

That was really hard work... Watching it, I mean. FS.

That's been coming. Our one-paced play is utter, utter pish. We're getting what we deserve.

Decent move by Leitch....Dowds. FFS.

That was amusing. Is Stephen Hendry the co-commentator?

crikey...take that!!! wind-assisted? Leitch gave that a hell of a blooter.

Has Harry been singing for The Psychedelic Furs since he left us?

Agreed... its really frustrating, its not the spacing of 1, 2 or 3 thousand fans inside the stadium, its the logistics of reducing the densities in getting everyone there and away again. Would people comply with (eg) North stand entry = between 1:30 - 2:00, then South stand entry = 2:00 - 2:30? etc. And then the reverse leaving? Would be pretty crap at best, even worse we're now heading into wintertime, the whole exercise could last about 4 hours... Add extra costs for policing, stewards... What about late-comers? Refused entry? I remember being at Scotland away games when we were kept behind in a stadium for at least 40 minutes, eg the San Siro, while they let all the home fans out and away back into the city centre. Be really interesting to know more detail of the Man U scheme that's been knocked back - just how were they were proposing to get 23,000 in and out of OT safely?

One from the archives, folks... doesn't quite make it into Ranaldo Bairn's run-down of stalwart club servants, just a fleeting cameo. Scored a good few at East Fife, and just a few for us, but still brings back some happy memories.... not least of which, a quite remarkable Rooney-esque overhead kick he scored from a cross ball at Meadowbank. Really, he did.

Noticed that Shepherd actually outmuscled both Hall and Durnan last Saturday, one in each half - just embarrassing. The supposed spine of any decent team... spineless.

If you sit in, you'll most likely get a point. We evidently don't have any change of pace (first gear only) or any movement off the ball (pretty much all our attackers stand back to goal ball watching) or ability to stretch defences ("give the ball to Morrison" is our sole strategy, and already we've been sussed and he gets double-teamed). It won't be pretty...

...And there we go. Back to what has come to be our new normal in the past three years. Can't remember the Forfar keeper having to make a save in the game. Other than Miller smashing that shot against the post, which he made out of nothing, did we actually create a chance in the second half? Not even a good chance, any chance? Effing dire. If M&M are really serious about "not carrying passengers", we'd better get busy in the free agent market. Got to hope Phil Rawlins wasn't watching that pish, it'd put him right off. Lamentable stuff.