Blue Moon

Gotta confess I am so looking forward to seeing Stranraer at Meadowbank again. Tempered slightly by the demise of the Golden Gates but I’m sure I’ll find a few alternatives

The manager comment was “Joao should have scored”. Something the player agreed with as did several around me who saw the chance at the time. It was an observation, an opinion, even a criticism if you prefer. To say it was throwing him under the bus is outright nonsense. Beefybake, You state earlier in the thread that the manager has done this a number of times this season. Could you furnish us with these examples?

Stranraer have featured in playoffs on 8 occasions and been unsuccessful every time. Although twice benefitting as final losers due to demise of Gretna and Rangers.

3 subs in playoff games. A 4th if it goes to extra time. Then you’ve potentially got 2 concussion subs as well. Plus potentially 2 more subs that get allocated if the opposition make their concussion subs. So potentially 8 subs but the SPFL rules only allow 7 so that’s therefore the maximum. The rule of 5 from 9 in the leagues this season (except championship) was a one season amendment to the rules and will revert back for next season unless the clubs push to amend again. Confused yet? [emoji4]

Your club being a fine example of that [emoji106]

Stranraer definitely don’t want this postponed. Hopefully the A9 will be passable and ECFC can keep the pitch playable. Big game for both clubs. Aye we’ve been to Brora and now Elgin in the space of a few days but that’s just the way the fixtures roll. You won’t ever hear Stranraer complaining about travel we’re well used to it.

This is an excellent idea. The model has already been written in the shape of the FA Trophy and the FA Vase in England. Both competitions are hugely popular with clubs and supporters and to replicate either would, in my view, be the way to go. It would work well.

If you can get it at a reasonable price GB I’d say go for it. It’s a nice piece of of memorabilia for a Stranraer FC fan. Written by John Boyd the editor of the Free Press at the time. It’s not a thrilling read to be fair. Really quite dry but it gives you a peep back into an era few of us know much about. It’s a factual account rather than an entertaining read. Flicking through it you’ll probably pick up little snippets of into that you never previously knew and it’s a handy reference.

We’ve had 8. Billy McLaren 99-03 Neil Watt 03-06 Gerry Britton 06-08 Derek Ferguson 08-09 Keith Knox 09-12 Stephen Aitken 12-15 Brian Reid 15-17 Stephen Farrell 17-Present If we’d added another decade only another 2 would appear, Campbell Money and Sanny McAnespie. In 30 years only 3 managers have actually been dismissed by the club.

The broad point I was trying to make was that SFC have to embrace change however that is presented. At the recent game with AR where we could sell tickets, after season tickets we sold less than 40. Typically it’s less the three figures after season tickets. The club won’t survive on that level of income and we have to be open to the possibility of other streams. If 2 new clubs were to be admitted right now we have gone on record as stating that should be Kelty Hearts and Brora Rangers on merit as champions of their particular division. There may be a time where more than 2 are proposed to be admitted. Who knows? SFC are now in the bottom tier and are the poorest supported club in the SPFL. Not a great combination and change might someday be the best option for us. The long term survival and success of the club will always take precedence over my or anyone else’s personal view. Ultimately for SFC to support any change and particularly this one we need firstly a club committee majority which isn’t a given and then for huge majority of the clubs to support it thereafter. My point about crowd numbers was anecdotal but does relate to income. In my opinion there may come a time when the offer on the table will be too tempting for some clubs to refuse. I don’t know whether that will be due to smaller clubs struggling or an increased sized bid from the bigger clubs. I don’t know any timescale. I don’t know how it will affect SFC until it is presented to us and I don’t know how the club committee will vote. I can see it coming though and I believe it is wrong to dismiss any proposal or offer before considering it fully. As I said, open minded but considered enough to make the right decision without prejudice for the overall benefit of our club.

I did not say that. Those are your words not mine and not representative of my comments or my opinion.

I said a lot more than that but as usually happens a lot of the conversation context gets cut out. At no point did I say we would support it. We would want to see how that proposal benefitted SFC and Scottish football in general for us to consider supporting. That’s as far as I went

Not sure it is.I accept we were poor in second half yesterday and allowed Stenhousemuir to dictate the game and do well to claim a point. However in the previous game we were an early goal ahead before going in at half time a goal down. Our second half performance was good and we were unlucky not to win that game. Your comparison of the two and suggestion there’s a pattern forming doesn’t make sense to me. The two games were quite different

You might want to check the factual basis of that comment

No one at Stranraer would disagree about the Coo Shed except perhaps to go back even further to the good old standing days in there. Sadly D&G Council and their intrepid Health and Safety guys condemned the benches. It was change them for individual seats or close it. A sad day indeed.

What was it about today’s performance that prompted your ire?

Statistics don’t take account of any context. It is not competent to rely on them solely to make a case whatever the debate. For example, we went 28 games without a win under Sanny McAnespie and were truly terrible for that period (except a heroic defeat at a Celtic Park). That’s statistically worse but I doubt you’d be saying that Sanny was a poorer appointment or that the club should have made a change in 1988.

Without having the time to check it out I’d be fairly confident that the records of Neil Hood, Gordon Hamilton and Nobby Clark and possibly Davie Sneddon and John Clark are worse than anything we’ve seen in recent years. Even if their records aren’t worse there can be no doubt that the “football” that was served up was more often than not... much worse. Or at least it felt like it. The danger of comparing stats from different eras is that the assume that all the conditions, economics, finances of the club relative to others, league level, etc etc are the same. Which is quite clearly not the case.

League rules. Next available date

Just ten days ago at Station Park, Scott Robertson came as a last minute sub for Forfar against Stranraer for whom Scott Robertson started the match.

Top class. The pedantry is impressive [emoji106]

According to National Rail app There is a 1903 departure on Saturday. Change at Ayr for Glasgow Central.

I’m not sure the adjective “refereed” is the one I would use to describe his contribution to that game

I thoroughly enjoyed the game. Two evenly matched teams having a right go at each other and both trying to win the game. I like Montrose and think you guys have an excellent manager. Thought you were physical yesterday but not overly dirty unlike some other opinions. Physical strength and tough tackling is part of the game as are injuries and we were a bit unfortunate yesterday. Only the tackle on Mark Stewart was perhaps a bit rough but I though the booking was correct as were the other three dished out by the ref. Some good stuff from Stranraer particularly in the first half and if we could have managed a second goal it could have been different. When Montrose had their best spell and cashed in with their goals we showed great character to fight back and make sure we got something from the game which we deserved. I see the ref getting pelters. I disagree as I thought he had a very good game. Got all 4 bookings correct. Kept the game flowing and tried to play advantage where possible including a great advantage in the move leading to our first goal. Got the big decisions correct and nothing contentious for me and he didn’t get conned by any of the handball and penalty claiming going on either from both sides. I hate it when they get over fussy and throw cards around and I liked his common sense approach yesterday.

I’d be very surprised if we’re trying at all