Howlin' Wilf

Brechin will almost certainly have more money than Dumbarton. 24,000 a pretty decent crowd at Celtic Park on Saturday.

Somebody help me. This has become my earworm....

Can someone please punctuate this and put the words in the right order? Thanks.

For as long as I've supported Dumbarton FC (47 years now) the club's future has been in doubt and that has almost always been down to one thing, the heritable asset (the stadium) would be worth more as a cleared bit of ground than as a going concern i.e. a fitba club. The fact that DFC owned this heritable property has never been a protection. Indeed several times when the ground had been used as collateral for borrowing, the future looked bleak. Even under the ownership of Robert Robertson/Hutchison Engineering in the 1970s, when the club was riding on the crest of it's biggest successes of the 20th century, Robertson had a buyer lined up to build houses on Boghead and move the club to Cumbernauld. I seem to remember the rejection of a planning application for Boghead was the catalyst for this. In the 80s as the solicitor administering the Fraser estate was closing in on the club's heritable assert, to repay a £40,000 loan made by Sir Hugh, the sale of Stevie McCahill to Celtic saved the club at the 11th hour (according to then Chief Exec Alex Wright). In the 90s, with Neil Rankine having been declared bankrupt and with Jim Innes holding proxy on his shares, he (Innes) was ready to accept an offer for Boghead from a housebuilder (Bellway I think) and wind up the club. Only an emergency response from directors Gilbert Lawrie and Alistair Paton, resulting in Douglas Dalgleish becoming chairman, saved the club then. Believe me, there were some scary moments at the building of the new stadium at the Rock. I well remember John McFall looking me in the eye and saying "At that stage we thought the (new stadium) project was doomed and with it, the club" . This was circa October 2000 on my appointment to the board of Dumbarton Community Stadium Ltd. McFall was talking of events six months previous. Brabco is nothing new. There has always been someone wanting money/prestige/glory or whatever from Dumbarton FC. I have consistently taken the view that what Brabco is providing for DFC is a lifeboat. For a fee. The good ship DFC is sinking. And whilst some argue that the captain is exaggerating the situation, or the ship is flying under a Liberian flag or there's a salvage crew in the wings waiting to scavenge the wreck, the sensible thing is to examine the lifeboat and compare it to the sinking ship. Does it offer the chance of survival? Well yes, probably as much as John Waters who opposed Robert Robertson's Cumbernauld proposal in a live debate on STV. As much as that fee from the transfer of McCahill. Maybe as much as the Lawrie/Paton bit of magic. It also offers the risk of failure as all these things did too. If Cumbernauld Development Association had been a bit more persuasive, had Celtic changed manager and he didn't fancy McCahill, Had Innes not been persuaded, Had McFall not come up with funding, there would not have been a Sons Sorrow on P&B I think it's the lifeboat lads. It might be full of holes and it might hit an iceberg. It might not. It's a chance.

There are problems with ownership too. For example the club owns the current stadium but Brabco bought the club's majority shareholding. Brabco therefore own the stadium. If there were a Stadium Company with a proper Golden Share which guaranteed DFC's occupancy on a 99 year lease or similar there might be ways round that but not any that are immediately evident to me.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/2072929/queen-of-the-south-derek-lyle-gutted/

Willie is indeed with the Sun and used to be with the Lennox. Although he’s a Dons fan, he also supports the Sons. Good guy.

Stevie has liked my tweet so hopefully he’s had a look at the page.

Now done. Is improval a word though?

Well done young man - packed with the relevant facts and figures. Forty six players. Wow! I hope Steve Aitken sees this. I think I’ll post him the link on Twitter if someone hasn’t already done so.

We've all got a semi to look forward to. Oooer!

The figures aren't to improve the current site, so much as to bring it up to standard. It may be true that they are exaggerated but I haven’t heard that being said by anyone with any inside knowledge. I understand that they are based on estimates for the work. The main thrust of my posting was that there are still posts appearing here which are along the lines of “Go away nasty Brabco!” If the Dalmoak plan doesn’t go ahead for any reason then people should reflect on what happens to companies who fail in an investment and who have considerable contingent debt, which they have no chance of trading their way out of. This contingent debt will become real after any failure of the Dalmoak plan because the authorities have been mollified by assurances that we are moving. Thus maintenance issues on the pitch, the stand, the floodlights and the boundary wall have not been enforced but they would be by the various agencies on any failure of the Dalmoak plan. Add into the mix that Brabco will then have as their only asset and recourse to recovering their investment, a heritable site adjacent to a large and popular housing development worth maybe £2m. Just saying.

I simply don’t know if the Dalmoak move will happen. There is first the not inconsiderable matter of planning consent to negotiate. It seems that I predicted correctly that we wouldn’t know about that this year. If it were granted then we would soon be faced with the wherewithal or otherwise of Brabco to deliver the project. From a business perspective, the margins seem tight but maybe not impossible. If their (Brabco’s) intention on the Facebook page was simply for PR with the intention of not allowing, or controlling discussion, they could have set the page up with comments having to be moderated or with comments disabled. With the former method, they needn’t publish the comment until they had an answer ready. That would have been better than comments appearing then disappearing. I got the impression that the Trust weren’t all that far from supporting the move at the last meeting. I think their apparent shift in position is because of the focus on the alternative to the move. It isn’t just "as you were". Should planning be denied or the project not progress for another reason, we are looking at disinterested owners who have failed in a major investment project and in the process lost a considerable sum. We are also looking at infrastructure renewal and replacement to the guts of £300,000. In short, if everything is as Brabco says, then the move will cost the club nothing and will address the infrastructure issues, but staying could involve around £1 million to be found to continue ( the infrastructure money and a Brabco buy out) Merry Christmas [emoji319]

Amen to that.

Yes I do. The £1.80 profit per day I make on it just about covers the money I pay to sponsor Sons TV.

When is the tambourine poll by the way?

I'll try to live with it. I've come to terms with Brexit after all.....

The majority of newspaper readers read The Sun over any other UK title. The majority of TV viewers love Strictly, Bake Off, I'm a Celeb etc. The majority of record buyers like Justin F*ckn Beiber. The vast majority of Scottish football fans support the Old Firm. They all disagree with me. What's your point?

Kids having fun with drums is fine if they are less than six years old.

Unless, as is the case with Dundee United, there was a complaint(s) from proximate residents.

The one I was doing that night has been re-scheduled for the 13th. Not sure whether to be pleased or not!

Brechin's visit to Celtic Park might give them (Brechin) the confidence to splash some cash during the January window.

Just to offer a slightly different perspective on drumgate. After the game, a friend of mine was having a wee celebration for her son’s 18th birthday in the bar. She had arranged for Steve Aitken and a couple of players to present him with a birthday cake and a signed top. That all went very well but Frank Meade also appeared and gave the lad a bottle of champagne from the club. I asked him about the drum and he said he had received “several” complaints about (the drum) last week from season ticket holders and he felt that he should act. If that is the case, then is he not left with the judgement of Solomon?

Surely if there's an easy way to make something difficult?

I witnessed your annoyance today and whilst I enjoy listening to random drumming at the fitba' about as much as trying to cut my own head off with a rusty blunt chisel, in principle, you're correct. The young boys weren't causing trouble and they seem pretty good humoured. I thought I saw the stewards then trying to get them to sit down which did seem heavy handed but probably some health and safety rule applies.