Bainsfordbairn

It would be a stretch if the teams at the top were good, but all have dropped points they shouldn't have thus far. Utd may well pull away but apart from them I don't see much changing. Livi are a fair bit clear in fourth place, having won only four of their eight games. I see no reason why we can't catch at least them if we get our act together. A nine point gap isn't a lot to make up with more than 3/4 of the season still to go. I remember Airdrie being eleven points clear of us in Jefferies first season in charge. It didn't stop us winning the league. I'm not saying we'll do that this season but we can certainly finish in the top four.

It's a club tie. He was handed it when he walked in the door.

Agreed. I gave Alex a run to and from the Oriam for this afternoons game and from what he was saying about the changes he made on Saturday, it's clear that he's very much the person making the decisions. Now there's a first - me siding with and backing up BPM.

Jings, crivvens and help ma boab; an ITK post which is accurate. Who'ld have thunk it?

Partly agree with your first paragraph. The circumstances were undoubtedly favourable to McCall, but he still took advantage of them to bring in good players. He then melded those with existing players who'ld underperformed the previous year (ie Andy Laurie, Jamie McQuilken, Mark Kerr, John Henry, Lee Miller) to produce a team who were devastatingly good. He also made a few crucial signings from elsewhere such as Stuart Taylor, Steve Tosh, John Hughes and of course Collin Samuel. And he got rid of a lot of dross from the Totten era, so it wasn't all down to Airdrie. Apart from the fact that had they not gone bust we would have won the Second Division and not the First! I disagree with your second paragraph though. I don't think there's any chance that Alex Smith will ever return to having an active role in the dugout.

Leaving aside the barb, McCall took a side that (should have) been relegated, made some astute signings, and turned them into a team that absolutely steamrollered everyone else on their way to the title the following season. The football was fantastic. In 37 years of watching Falkirk, I would say that only Jim Jefferies created a team that was more enjoyable to watch than jobbies - and JJ had Simon Stainrod pulling the strings.

Because he was interviewed last time when Houston got the job and told the club a few weeks back that he was still interested?

Yup. Match finished at 2330 UK time and it was about two hours later when I got to bed. I was up at three for a taxi to the airport.

I went straight to bed after the match. I was absolutely shattered after getting about an hours sleep in Lithuania the night before.

They were staying in the same hostel as me. I didn't hear a peep all night, so either they were quiet as mice when they came back in, found an all-night pub or got nicked. Do you know which it was? Just curious.

Sounds about right. That's the last three you've done for me now. I'm surprised you're admitting to those ones though. I could have sworn it was one of the girls in the office with a camera phone....

Yep. Vilnius tonight, Sligo tomorrow. The life of an international jet-setter is truly an exciting one.

He did well for us and so got a move to Huddersfield, but ever since then he's played for teams who were at a lower level than his previous club. I think that's a fair description of nosedive.

If we accepted the first decent bid that came in then at least three current players in our squad (that I know of) would be playing in England right now. Subject to your definition of "decent", right enough. However, as the club don't publicise rejected bids then I guess they can't defend themselves against inaccurate assumptions like yours.

Sorry BPM, but both these claims are wrong. Firstly, 500 existing season ticket holders didn't renew. That was partially balanced out by a surprisingly high number of people who bought season tickets for the first time ever. We're not 500 down on overall numbers. The feedback on WHY they didn't renew was that most of them had personal reasons for doing so - family commitments, different work patterns, finances etc. I was in the office at the time and spoke to the girl who'ld just finished doing the phoning round. She didn't have any reason to lie to me.

Technically he doesn't, as he's a Forth Valley Academy player and not a professional footballer. It's not that unusual for academy kids to get a run out with the U20s before either getting a contract offer or being released.

He wasn't moved out. He told Falkirk he wouldn't sign a new contract as he had suitors down South. We can't come close to the sort of money the English can offer, so the idea that giving him a longer contract would have made a difference is just wrong. We're a stepping stone to better things for most players so getting anyone to sign for longer than two years is unlikely, unless of course they're an old pro on a downward spiral. I can't recall the last time we gave anyone a three year contract.

After literally years of making digs on here about the marketing side I notice you've changed your tune recently. May I ask why?

He's not bad at all. Can be very good going forward but is sometimes suspect defensively. I was disappointed that he didn't get a chance last night. Possibly Houston's thinking was that we already have one teenage fullback playing for the first team, who's considered a better prospect than Marko, and who's struggling a bit. Putting another one into an already-shaky defence might have been seen as too risky. I can understand that line of thinking even if I don't personally agree with it. Assuming that was indeed the reason. There's also the fact that our youth players probably aren't up to full match sharpness yet. They've had one friendly against the Shire, a closed-door match against Hearts at Heriott Watt last Monday and a tourney at Bristol in which they apparently weren't very good. They won't play their first competitive game for another two weeks yet. I was more disappointed with the striker situation. O Hara's scored twice so far in his friendly appearances and looks more clinical than Shepherd, who's had chances yet hasn't buried them. For me, as a minimum, O Hara should be getting first crack off the bench.

Moffat made a contribution to the history of FFC. We played St Mirren in February 2009 and were losing 2-1 in Paisley with five minutes to go. Then wee Kevin got a header in the box and it came off Jack Ross' arm to give us a penalty which Arfield buried. Had it not been for Moffat, Falkirk would have gone down in history as the first away team to lose a league game at Middens' new ground. So show a wee bit of respect for Kevin Moffat if you please.

He's been training with us since the players returned for pre-season. I've only seen him in a match once, against the Shire, but he looked very impressive. A young player with potential is who he is.

I wouldn't be. Sibbs hasn't signed yet and while things can always change at short notice, right now there is nothing scheduled to happen tomorrow. If and when they get a signature, I doubt there will be any delay in FFC shouting out the news from the rooftops.

I'm guessing that won't happen unless we were to bring in another striker. Fash & Loy are obviously first picks. Judging from sub appearances thus far, big Lee appears to be first choice backup, as long as he's fit and you don't need a sub striker with pace. It's unlikely that Fash & Loy will go through the season without injuries or suspensions though. And if they're out I doubt Millar could be effective playing 90 mins for maybe four or five weeks in their absence. For that reason I imagine there will be a lot of opportunities for our two young strikers this year. Hence why I think it's unlikely Shepherd will go out on loan.

Would like to see O Hara getting a start, but changes may depend on how close Houston feels the team is to being fully up to speed for the new season. Remember that most players have only had two full games since coming back from their summer break. I'm not counting the game in Hungary or against Edinburgh City as the majority only got half a match in those. The youth players are going down to Bristol this week as we're sending a team to compete in a youth tourney. I don't know which ones are travelling, but I'd imagine Stowe and Finlayson at least will be part of the group.

Given that we gave both Shepherd and Kerr new deals in the last few months there is no danger we would consider trying to move them on.