Howlin' Wilf

To be fair I don't think Brabco would have had any chance of delivering anything. Had they got permission (it failed by one vote) then some scrambling around would have followed and a developer sought. At that stage the viability or otherwise would have come into play. I don't think anyone seriously thought there would be a £13.5 million stadium at the end of it.

They went challenged alright but what could anyone do but wait to see whether the various plans proceeded? I posted the following in December 2017. It pretty much outlines where we are now.

£607,000 in the black. Highly satirical.

That is apparently a separate issue whereby Neil Rankine has security over the car park in return for not taking Brabco to court for what they owe him. He may feel that this assurance allows him to support the club. BSF says naw. If it isn't Rankine who has underwritten the club's operation this season, then I can think of only one man with DFC connections who would or could contemplate such an assurance. Maybe two.

Do any of the other clubs mentioned have a note in their accounts which says that their bankers will only support them until March 2020, and that they can only continue thanks to the generosity of an unnamed third party? And that without this input, the club would be f***ed as a going concern?

Spot on.

Both the circumstantial and documentary evidence would suggest that whatever was said at the Q and A, the reality is somewhat different. If you have read the notes from the published accounts at Companies House and think that the budget and Jim Duffy are the biggest problem at DFC then maybe it's your head that's buried.

These are all assumptions and hearsay. I would be interested to know at what stage tha budget was increased and by how much. Also I'd be interested how it actually compared to last season. But hey! yeah! let's hound Duffy that'll make it all better.

I'm not sure that it says the budget has been increased from last season, it more infers that they started with a very low budget for 2019-2020 and that it has been increased as a result of the commitment from the third party. The third party has also underwritten two loans to former directors (the guts of £100k I understand). I could be wrong but it would seem likely that the negotiations with, and contribution from the third party could explain the late submission of accounts. They were two months late and it may be that without agreement from the third party, the club would have been insolvent. It is illegal for an insolvent company to continue to trade and to accumulate more debt. The problem in all this is that although the accounts give a snapshot, without a profit and loss account, we don't really know what the going concern situation is. There is however a very simple rule of thumb here and that is if a company's assets are worth more that the company is as a going concern , then that company's continuation is uncertain. None of this is the fault of either Jim Duffy or John Steele. Both would appear to be undertaking an almost impossible task in very difficult circumstances.

For anyone feeling old..........I think my first boy's season ticket at Boghead was £1.00. Valid for League, League Cup, Scottish Cup and Reserve games.

Jim Duffy gave his opinion and Tommy Wright gave his. They are both experienced managers and Duffy is a paid as a pundit too. What's the issue?

The allocation of the 100 C shares are recorded in the Articles of Association of DFC. As Chairman of DCS, I made sure this was done, two years after the C shares came into existence. It should have been done by Golds (sic), Scottish Enterprise's appointed solicitors but their work left, shall we say, a lot to be desired. Whist there may be some ambiguity in the wording of the powers conferred on the holders of the C shares, I'm confident that the initial purpose was clear and that the holders of those shares have the power to block or indeed approve, any sale of the club's heritable property. I resigned as Chairman more than 10 years ago, but recently accepted an invitation to go back on the board.

We should perhaps draw a Vale over that one.

6-2 for Bankies

Fair point well made. Corrected.

My daughter is 20 and finds it equally as annoying as me. Thanks for the suggestions but really I just wanted to sit in an ordinary seat and watch the game.

If I lived in another country but otherwise able to attend matches without affecting my health I would continue sponsorship. As for something the club can't do anything about, I was assured by their head of security that drums were banned before buying my season ticket last year. They changed their mind. So have I.

Not really Lionel. It lasts for a fraction of a second. It's more like premature ejaculation.

I haven't lashed out at my club at all. If I am not going to attend matches then my sponsorship and hospitality attendance goes with that. I'm either involved or I'm not. Surely that's obvious?

I have no problem in the band. The drumming is in time and accompanies music. I'm fortunate in fact that very few noises bring on my misaphonia . Unfortunately a randomly played, out of time drum is top of the list. Just answering by way of explanation to a question.

Misophonia. Commonly suffered by those with Fibromyaligia and Chronic Fatigue.

The drum is clearly audible in Crosslet Road on match days. The violence though wasn't tolerated or encouraged by the club. The comparison is spurious. My estrangement and that of my daughter from the club is complete and permanent. That decision has been made much easier by the comments on here. One from a guy to whom I have been quite helpful to on a couple of occasions who thinks I'm being a "dick" . The ad hominem nature of the insults is disappointing but in the end, not surprising. I shouldn't have brought the issue up again. Apologies.

Thanks for the mature answer BSF. To be fair, with some people there isn't any medical reason, they just find it annoying. That's the beginning and end of it. They're not motivated by some "spite" as one poster put it. In all honesty it doesn't bother me any more. I haven't been to a game since January 5th and the process of estrangement is now complete. What should worry the club and by association, the support, is that a 49-year-old habit can be got out of so easily. I hope Dumbarton FC survives and prospers. To do that it needs all the support it can get.

I'm 100% confident that the Sons supporter I met in the Co-op in Helensburgh the other day, a man with family connections to the club, was being truthful when he said that the group of four guys he is part of will not be renewing their season tickets nor attending games next season because of the "incessant f*****g racket" at matches. Two of them are suffering from medical conditions which reduces their tolerance levels for such things. I'm 100% confident that my daughter and I will not be renewing our STs either. Our support is not awash with anyone. It is a dwindling resource and I have simply pointed out why around 5% of our season tickets will not be renewed due to an entirely preventable reason. Your last sentence is very disappointing and completely untrue.

I hear six ST* holders are not renewing, including me with two, because of the thing that mustn’t be mentioned. In my case that means an annual hospitality group of 16-20 and £500 of sponsorship too. *only the ones I know about. There may be more.