Bainsfordbairn

I rarely post nowadays and wasn’t going to say anything about the Dave Mac scenario until I saw this. It resonated strongly with me, so if you don’t mind I’ll add a couple of things. First of all I know exactly how you feel. On both points. I’ve been volunteering in an official capacity for twelve years (official as in the club know who I am and what I do) and have given up my time as part of a group who helped out for maybe five years before that. I love it. Not just the big things you mention, but the little ones such as driving up to Montrose yesterday and then spending forty minutes blethering to Ian Fergus before watching the Under 18s win 4-2. It’s the personal relationships you forge with people that make the difference and I’ve met some very, very good folk in my time. Unfortunately it’s the relationships with the arseholes that can drive you away and sour you forever. Your experience shows that. I’ve generally found most folk to be decent, or at worst tolerable. I can think of only two individuals whose behaviour towards me led me to despise them but rather than let them ruin it I stuck in and outlasted both. (And no I’m not naming them) She won’t thank me for dragging her name into this, but Sarah Scott sums up that mentality. She was treated abysmally but refused to walk away and won in the end. So will the fans. Stick in, stick around, and eventually by the law of averages we’ll surely get the board, manager and team that we want.

I saw all the signed players put their names to contracts in the boardroom. There's about 24 or 25 of them. I obviously don't know the details but I'd guess they're standard youth contracts. They're certainly not fulltime professionals. Yet. If they turn out to be good enough, presumably they'll get the same chance that the likes of Mackenzie Lemon did.

Yes, though I'm sure he's part time as match safety officer. Which is a requirement for all football clubs at our level. Sharon is part time too or at least she was the last time we spoke. In general terms, the number of non-footballing staff at the club hasn't changed much since we got relegated in 2009/10. The footballing side probably has increased a bit. Paul Hartley brought in a Sports Science guy and the role still exists. Liam Corr is doing the scouting / video analysis and obvious Gary Holt is there. Though the latter two have an involvement with the development sides where previously (I think) Academy staff would have been involved.

And just for the sake of balance, here are the two that weren't given.

This is the earliest frame I have on it which may help answer the question. Edited to add - I was told that a few second prior to that Steeves also had his arms around Williamson, but as he went down he got the decision.

The window for loan players closes before we play our next game.

Development teams as in the current U16s and U18s? Probably not. Because they didn't exist yet. FFC made the first signings for those teams a month later, on Friday 16th July. Ten players and their parents were given a welcome to the club talk by Ian Fergus, Gary Holt and Gary Deans. It was the usual induction stuff - what the future holds and what the expectations were. Then they trooped up to the boardroom, signed the contracts and were video'd / photographed. I saw training session afterwards in which signed and unsigned players were being put through their paces. It's quite possible that the selection process for the unsigned players also included bounce games against each other, or maybe boys clubs, but I don't know.

There were no Falkirk friendlies before that date. The players reported back for individual testing on the 17th, met up for the first time on the 18th and played their first friendly a week later on the 26th.

I think Sheerin's interview makes it pretty clear they don't know yet how long he'll be out for. What you were told might be a best case scenario with a lot of caveats in there.

I had a conversation with Ian Fergus last weekend and he said he watches the first team and sets up the development squad to play the same way they do. It's so that if they ever get a callup to the senior squad they're already familiar with the system and formations. He did the same when he was at Hamilton. Presumably if the first team change how they play, so will the youths.

As Geordie said, Gav brought it up as a joke, you quoted him with what I took as a dig and I responded with a different opinion. Shall we agree to let it rest before the pair of us get a hundred red dots for derailing the thread from how shite certain players are?

Good post Geordie You'll get at least 25 likes for it, or at least Hughsie did. I'll start the ball rolling with a greenie from me. The answer is that at least two people give a f**k, which is why they keep regurgitating it, and I'm sure a third one will be along shortly.

Yes, it is old news. But as long as some people continue to raise the subject then I think it's fair to respond. I don't have an interpretation. I accept what Sheerin stated on camera- that our opponents pulled out because of injuries. Because it ties up with what the football staff told me at the time. And because once Sheerin made that statement there were no contradictions from Arbroath. I think it's a reasonable conclusion to come to given the evidence available to us. I may of course be completely wrong if there is other evidence that I don't have. You're inferring that you have such evidence. Would you care to share it with us? With the names of sources so that it can be verified?

It was confirmed by the SFA and Arbroath, as was proven by the fact that Dick Campbell called Paul Sheerin the night before to say he was pulling it due to injuries. Or so I heard from several club staff at the time. If you don't believe it you can always ask him next time they do one of the fan forums or Q&As. Or an AGM. Hopefully the days of online meetings are coming to an end and you'll soon be able to question folk face to face. The whole debate arose because (I think) somebody at Arbroath forgot to include the game on their fixture list.

I'm sure you realise that if there were I couldn't comment, but as there isn't the answer is no. I was thinking about the squad size the other day. Minus the three who're on loan we have 21, of which 3 are the young boys. None of them look out of their depth though. Lemon was good at Airdrie, Weekes is getting regular sub appearances and Williamson hasn't dropped any clangers that I can think of. They all look capable of doing a job if called upon. . I have a suspicion that the management are happy enough with the squad and will only move if the right guy becomes available. That's pure speculation on my part though and could be proven wrong with a phone call. I was a bit surprised it wasn't asked in the the FFCTV interview on Saturday. Maybe Lewis is waiting until the last weekend before the window closes, which I think is the 31st.

I might be misunderstanding your post, but I get the impression you still think Falkirk were somehow at fault. Sheerin went into a fair amount of detail about Arbroath pulling out and their reasons for it. (the relevant bit starts at five minutes) He also mentioned it in a few other interviews afterwards, which I doubt he'd do if FFC were culpable. I imagine Arbroath would have had something to say if he were making claims about them that weren't true so I'm not quite sure where you're coming from.

Can't argue with that. It was never announced anywhere but Tony Gallacher did something similar before he signed for Liverpool, as I'm sure you're aware. He signed an extension in June and was sold in January. Something like that with Nesbitt would be ideal, but as always the ball is in the players court.

Was pondering this earlier today. I think we're safe for this season. As a fulltime club we're pretty much expected to win League One regardless of the f*ckups we've made over the last two seasons. And even then the first one would probably have seen us promoted had covid not intervened. So nobody's going take any notice of our players and staff doing well in League One. If we get promoted and start well next season that will change though. And I don't think any enhancements can prevent it. You could have doubled Jobbie's salary when he took us to the top of the League in 2003 and it wouldn't have prevented him going to Dundee Utd. Ditto Jefferies / Hearts and Totten / Rangers. As for Nesbitt, I watched him play for Scotland youths in a tournament seven years ago and emerge as our best player. By an absolute mile. The boy was - and evidently still is, despite the opinion of Morton fans - a class act. If he maintains the performance level that he's put in so far there'll be nothing we can do to hold onto him once his deal expires. At least if he wants to play at a higher level. Having said all that, I still can't quite believe that Morrison signed an extension. I'm sure as hell not complaining though.

Sorry Marsh, but I think you might be waiting a while. Despite reports to the contrary no deals have been done with anyone. Not yet anyway. With Dowds leaving the question of transfer activity is an obvious one for the journos to fire at Sheerin in the weekly press conference. That took place earlier today. And if they don’t ask I’m sure Lewis will in the postmatch interview on Saturday, so one way or other there should be an update over the next few days.

Hearts made a lot of changes just before our first goal, so possibly the lesser lights were on the field at that point. Albeit I spoke to coaching staff from both sides before the game and was told they had a number of players starting who Hearts had very high hopes for. Probably no real way of knowing unless you have a knowledge of 14 and 15 years olds in Scottish football. I certainly don't.

Can't argue that, nor can you defend the decision to stop fishing in the first place. It will take years to get back to where we should have been. The only good thing now we're back at a pond is that at least we seem to have a competent angler. Ian Fergus pretty much found all these boys on his own and having seen them twice now I've no doubt he has an eye for a player. The football so far has been a revelation compared to what I was expecting. I know absolutely nothing about academy scouting or development. However, given the background of Murray Wallace and the fact that IF seems to have picked up gems that were discarded elsewhere, is it possible that concentrating on older "rejects" is the best way to go?

It's not beyond us to get someone like that, as we proved with the likes of Farid, Taylor & Loy in the league above. What might be beyond us is buying and paying someone AFTER they've proven they can score 15 a season at this level. Because they'll then have far more lucrative options elsewhere. Probably the best chance you have is bringing in a proven goalscorer whose career is winding down. It worked with Own Coyle. It failed with Conor Sammon. You could make similar arguments for all the "experienced and too good for this league" signings in recent years such as Tidser, Alston and co. It seems that we're now buying potential. Some may turn out to be dross, like Akeel Francis, but given our performances so far I'm willing to give Sheerin the chance to polish his raw recruits into something better.

I think yesterday's one was being done live, but only to overseas subscribers. Possibly the clubs have agreed that the home one will always get the broadcasting rights, though that's speculation on my part.

FFCTV were there so there will be highlights tomorrow and interviews to follow. All the things that prevented them attending games are over now.

One of the development teams starts playing games this weekend. I don't know any of the details, but I imagine there'll be some sort of announcement once the East Kilbride match is out the road.