RedLichtie86

Simply we need to win. Form has been pish with our defence crumbling after 1 goal. But there have been flashes of good play. Just need to stay switched on for the whole game and not just part of it. A win tonight will give the players a huge lift. Otherwise thats it.

Gold took and knock at the weekend alongside ToB pulling up yet again. A slight change to the lineup on the cards. Can see us going with. Gaston Walker Little Teale Delaney Stewart Slater MacKinnon Dow McKenna McIntosh But I would prefer us to go with McIntosh on the left and Bird up front. Though limits our attacking options from the bench to change the game with likely subs being Dow, Murray, Stowe and Robinson to seek a goal. Players such as Lyon and Jacobs to provide options for the middle. Steele may come on later on to get some minutes if things are going well...... or if we suffer more injuries to the defence.

Be the various stages they are doing as its right through the town. Waste of money.

Guessing that director is at the capers too stealing money from the club to fund his property empire. Heard he comes down for Thursday training but not sure about staying doen but assume he does at some point

McIntyre did try to address this issue by signing MacKinnon. But the options for bringing players in are always more limited in the January transfer window than in summer. You have to remember that his main issue at the start of the window was getting bodies in as we were down to scraps. Brought in Walker (For the loss of Steele) and Murray (mainly for an extra man) at first. Followed by MacKinnon (DM issue) Robinson (Extra option up top with Hylton away and lack of bodies) and Delaney (No LB with Hammy at CB) Squad at 24 players now with 2 more loans to come in Teale (due to more defensive injuries) and Reilly (better replacement for Hylton) Squad at 26 now...... and no players willing to leave and club reluctant to sign more players due to rising costs. What is the manager ment to do?

Bumped into Gaston after the game. Said he yet to start contract talks but is wanting to stay. Not ready to hang up the gloves yet as he has a few years left in him.

One of the main reasons we have been so poor at the back is down to this. Players either injured, playing with an injury, returning from an injury and not 100% fit or just not match fit. Fans need to understand that sort of disruption to the back leads to poor performances and it probably wont be fixed until the summer. Our best times in this league were with a solid back 4 that barely ever changed. No injuries or suspensions made for perfect cohesion and consistency at the back. This season has been the complete opposite.

Agreed a half step to his right and he would have got it but he is probably standing there to be able to see the ball with being obstructed by the wall. Free kick is perfect. A lot of players would hit the wall or get nowhere on target.

Not a chance in hell of a cash gate.

If we lose or draw on Tuesday thats it, 10th is ours. If we win, the game away to ICT next weekend will be a huge 6 pointer. I live in hope.

Watched the highlights this morning. 1st goal was a great hit. Stewart inches away from getting the ball but misses. Defending just not good enough with players quite static. 2nd goal. Great freekick. Gaston unlucky. Its just one of those shots that was hit with enough power and curl that it squeezes in. 3rd goal. Dunfermline player doesnt waste much time whipping the ball back into the box, Gold just not quick enough to close him down and caught out by the quick hit. Dunfermline had done something similar on the 30 min mark which we were lucky to clear. Ball whipped in with pace and dip that is very hard to judge as its behind the defence and dipping too quick for keeper to come and rush for. Those 3 goals killed the game for us. We did threaten in the first half and the game was closer than the scoreline suggested. Tactically we were setup 4-4-1-1 which was probably right. We could have went with Bird up top, McIntosh on the wing (R or L) and put Stewart to RB in place of Walker. But would have left practically nothing on the bench to come on to change things. To me McKenna was a mixed bag. Not as much drive and touch was poor at times and corners were good and bad in the first half. A lot better in the 2nd half with the corners leading to the 2 goals. Now to him coming off....... and fans not happy. At that moment Gold had to come off injured with Slater set come on. Its 3-2 and fans have been moaning to get 2 up top. Now McIntyre could just make the 1 sub or bring on the extra attacker aswell. Will have to change the formation to accomodate going 2 up top so someone has to go off. Fans saying it should have been MacKinnon off but Jim would have been reluctant to replace both CM players with Slater on and McKenna dropping back. MacKinnon would have been training and instructed to know what to do in that role. So going from 4-4-1-1 to 4-4-2 was much simpler by replacing McKenna and Gold with Bird and Slater. Keeps better continuity in the midfield but adding more firepower up top and Slater could take the set pieces (I know, not as good). Leaving Jim 1 more time to make 2 more subs if needed (Later Dow for Stowe). Purely a tactical change. If Gold had not come off injured MacKinnon for Bird and McKenna dropping back to CM might have happened. In the end we left too much to do in the 2nd half. Dont think for the most part the tactics or subs were wrong either.

Highlights f**k all. League places are determind on merit. If a "big" team does shite and tumbles down the leagues then so be it. If a "small" works its way up then good for them. I dont care if a club turns up at games with 20 away fans and manages to win a league. Its what happens on the pitch that counts.

No Full Time team does. Part Time teams love it.

FFS. For a couple of seasons now the club has looked to sign players from outwith this country. We have had numerous players sign (Most have been duds) that for the most part would probably never venture up here to play due to the low wage on offer as a PT team and the short term contracts. So the club have a deal in place to rent some properties from some local landlords for players to stay in whilst they are here. Which other clubs all over the world have similar deals in place. Its how clubs offers a more lucrative contract by offering a wage, playing time and a place to stay (free or at a vastly reduced rate) rather than the player having to search for somewhere for a short term lease (where do we think Teale is staying?) Hell even players that live quite a bit away may have stayed over after a midweek or friday night game and travelled home in the morning. Its a sensible idea. But to suggest that the club is willingly allowing people to syphon money from the club through rental of properties is Infowars levels of conspiracy shite.

Stirling - for the L2 title memories Annan - great social club and worth the trek if its a cracking day Kelty - New ground and Montrose - For the close away day and New Year game

I think everyone needs to take a step back, take a breath and chill out. I get people are venting but c'mon tae f**k. It's getting silly now. The thread is tinfoil hat territory these days. When everything was going good, barely any moaning about the stuff going on in the background even when it wasnt quite right. Past 2 years things have gotten worse on the pitch and folk are looking at fault in everything. Accusations here, moans there, flat out conspiracy nonsense too. Its like mass hysteria. I get we are all frustrated but sometimes its best to take a step back before going 2 footed into this forum. From "Noubles Mates" now to "Paul Reids mates" its becoming farcical with the notion that somehow we have some sort of dodgy dealings going on in the background. Or that being relegated we will be in a complete financial mess with all these new backroom members. Of course we will have less income and will have to scale things back but I have no doubt the club will budgeted for that and kept plenty of cash in reserve. The club is in its best ever position off the field in regard to revenue generation with expanded hospitality, merchandise, Season Ticket sales, sponsorship and a generation of young fans. We will take a hit from the drop in ticket sales, prizemoney, etc from being in a lower league but nowhere near to the point of mass layoffs and backroom restructuring.

McIntyres spent his first 2 months just trying to get a team on the pitch. Then the next 2 months trying to get the best out of a team thats clearly no longer cut out for the Championship. The players got a bit of a lift and looked up for the fight but once the injuries piled up, the loss of Hylton and the inabilty to make any quality signings (Other than Reilly) McIntyre was doomed to fail. The players heads have dropped too much and look 2 yards off the pace. If the club really wanted to stay up we would have went for it and made more quality signings (many didnt want anymore signings and happy to right iff this season) and freed players such as Turan and Jacobs. Take the financial hit if need be. But we relied on hoping ToB, Little, McKenna, Hamilton, etc would come back from injury fully fit, not drop out again and be back at their best. That didnt work. Too much rot in the team. Too many problems to deal with. Too little time to fix them.

Have stated before in this thread (mid December) on McIntyres record at Cove and what happened when Hartley came back in. Night and day. So can for the love of f**k can we put the "he got Cove relegated" to bed as its about as true as saying Dundee are better than Man City.

Not confirmed yet but looks like we will be seeing most of you next season. I am sure most of us are looking forward to visiting you guys again as it has been a while.

Bird is one of those players if things are going right he looks great. If things are looking bad he looks uninterested and poor. Thats a mentality trait that you just cant coach out of a player.

Did folk think that McIntyre coming in would magically solve all the on field problems? No manager could. Been clear as day for well over a year that the team was in a dire situation. A squad full of players not good enough to play at this level and others struggling to keep up due to injuries/getting older. Previous manager brought in players to address some issues (better attacking players) but neglected the defence and midfield which have basically regressed. McIntyre basically came into a house on fire with only a bucket to put it out. He seemed to get the players believing they could play better at the start but more injuries to new and old players forcing chopping and changing squads you can see the players heads going down each week. Players that you could count on to fight every week have become timid and that was before JMc came in. Big clearout in the summer. Its not going to be pretty. Might take 2/3/4 transfer windows to get the team right. But only time will tell. Changing the manager again is not going to solve the problems.

McIntyre failing to get the best out of a core that was also failing under Campbell for the 18 months prior. Very few players good enough at this level

The argument over the use of Artificial Pitches in the Scottish top flight (and in the Championship in the near future) is mired in half truths and antiquated views. At times too simplistic. Everyone knows playing on grass is best but playing on Astro is not the devil its made out to be. To have these pitches outlawed and only games can be played on grass is like a throwback to the 10000 seater rule that denied clubs promotion to protect the established others. Over the decades we have seen clubs play on "grass" pitches that resemble a tattie field. Can remember Motherwell's pitch was pretty much mud and we have seen Dundee having 3 games called off this season after some rain. Shall we ban teams with pitches that are waterlogged as soon as it rains? How is playing on a pitch with no grass, cutting up due to poor drainage or not cut to a length that the away team wants any different than an astro pitch? Surely every pitch in the league must conform to a set standard across the leagues with exceptions. How many clubs can say there pitch is 100% perfect? oh wait thats right, teams in the SPFL are not flush with cash to spend hundreds of thousands on pitch maintenance every season, fund the wage budgets to try and compete with the bigger teams and funding youth/development teams and coaching. Most teams that have Artificial Pitches installed have them for financial reasons. They generate revenue by hiring out to others (PT teams, Womens, Youth, etc), they provide a pitch for the clubs players (First team, Youths, Womens,) to train on rather than pay to hire someone else's pitch. Pitch maintenance is reduced significantly so the club can spend more money on coaches, players, equipment etc. Now if you were to ban ArtPitches from the Premiership the quality of players would drop at clubs that had to rip them up and replace with grass. Especially clubs in the Championship that have less income than Premiership teams. Budgets would be even more tighter and the quality on the pitch would be far poorer. Even by introducing a grace period in place of 2/3 years a situation could arise where the club replaces the pitch for grass, get relegated the next season and not get near the Prem for well over a decade. The drop in income from relegation with no way to offset costs of pitch maintenance, training etc other than cutting the player budget further than would happen if they still had the ArtPitch. Maybe we should go back to old financial model before the SPFL was formed where the TV money was kept in the top flight. That way clubs can afford to have grass pitches and keep the quality up. Will see FT clubs out with the Prem with the begging bowls out asking for more money in order to maintain FT football like before.