AGPar

The subsidy is a pittance and comes nowhere close to covering the costs of travel/accommodation etc. On top of that, in the latter rounds, clubs are being forced to cancel Saturday league fixtures to accommodate it, yet more money lost as the crowd in comparison to a league match is vastly reduced.. East Fife went over to Dublin for a quarter-final against Bohemians which was called off at seven minutes notice, Bohemians ended up forfeiting the match as they could not come to any arrangement for a suitable date to get the game played.. Unbelievably this very same mob have been invited back again year this. Farce.

It makes all the difference. Used to be a decent tournament, gave smaller clubs the chance of a cup run and some of the finals attracted excellent attendances. Thanks to Cockwomble, it's now a complete nonsense of a tournament, existing purely as a stalking horse to ram colt teams (well, two colt teams) into the league set-up. On top of that, traipsing away to the arse end of Wales or wherever is actually leaving clubs who can least afford it out of pocket. Playing in it actually costs team money. Only in Scotland. Beyond belief why the likes of Falkirk, DU, Pars, Partick etc have not just pulled out of this en masse.

You're not serious?? After everything that has happened, there is zero chance of any co-operation between ownership and fans at this stage. They've had numerous opportunities to progress with the share purchase scheme. They could not have made it any clearer that they are not interested. That relationship is irreparably fractured. A thumping of Dumbarton changes absolutely nothing in that respect. The outcome of all this seems pretty obvious. Campbell won't get his hands on the club, that's the good news. The bad, make that terrible news is that we'll be stuck with the status quo. The board/MSG and their dwindling band of fluffers will immediately go into full "Look what we saved you from, better-the-devil you know, we deserve your undying gratitude for evermore" mode. The fact that several other more credible bids were eschewed and shunned in favour of this character will be ignored. They'll hope for a thumping of Montrose/Stranraer/whoever and all will be quickly forgotten. The ultra-cycnical might even venture to suggest that was pretty much the plan all along. Shambles (another one, the biggest one yet)

Nobody doubts the quality of this squad. For League 1, it's frankly ridiculous. The question mark is more around the manager and whether he can get the most from the myriad attacking threats we now have at our disposal. Today was promising, but Dumbarton are utter gash, there's much harder tests to come. The two away games at the end of this month should tell us a lot. Raith and Forfar are decent sides, they'll push us a long way.

Feel sorry for Moore if that is the case, being shoehorned into an unfamiliar position on his debut. We never, ever learn. Toshney is a complete crock and a total nonsense of a signing. If we had enough money for two players this week it should have been one of Longridge/Moore and some defensive cover.

Exactly. We've spent years and years shoehorning players into unfamiliar positions with no success whatsoever, the right-back farce being the perfect example. Dixon and Doyle will never be wingbacks in a million years, they're fine as traditional full-backs. Moore and Connolly are out-and-out wingers. So here's a really radical idea: play them there. The personnel for 3-5-2 simply is not there. Ridiculous that five minutes after signing, folk are trying to conjure up Moore as some sort of Robson replacement. He isn't.

What arrogance?? You're referring to the players and manager I assume? Because the vast majority of supporters knew we would be in for a tough game up there and certainly did not expect to just turn up and walk away with three points. What the thick-end of 900 Falkirk fans who made a 300 mile+ round trip certainly did have a right to expect was far, far, far better than a continuation of the turgid, slow, narrow, hoof-ball dross we were subjected to in the final 7 or 8 weeks of last season. That second-half in particular was an absolute disgrace, the only consolation is that Dixon's laughable performance will have finally shut-up the "Robson is crap" brigade once and for all. If Campbell does get a hold of the club and installs John Park I suspect McKinnon may not be in situ for very long. I won't shed a single tear. He's cost us a boatload of cash and hassle and never come within a million miles of justifying it. Time he started delivering or get to GTF. I thought relegation from the worst 1st div in recent memory would be where we bottomed out, at least on the pitch. With The Sainted Ray in charge, we've probably got a bit to go yet. He's on borrowed time.

And that theory only holds water if you believe that, having fully endorsed the BtB scheme last December and tasked the supporters to proceed with securing the pledges, multiple other interested parties almost immediately appeared on the scene looking to buy their shareholding by pure, unadultered coincidence, following years of seemingly little to no interest. Maybe it is coincidental. Or maybe not.

They were getting nothing from the BtB bid. The money was going directly into the club in exchange for newly issued shares which would upon issue have diluted their shareholding by approximately 50%. They could sell to Campbell tomorrow for a fiver, it's still more than they stood to gain from the BtB bid. That's the whole undercurrent of this never-ending saga, they were fully behind the BtB scheme at the end of last year and allowed months of hard work to be input, ultimately all for nothing when other bidders offering to pay them directly for the shareholding appeared on the scene. Just coincidence?? If Campbell does not get over the line, god knows where we go from there, would they have the nerve to go cap-in-hand to the supporters having already rejected them twice. It won't be pretty.

Exactly this. Alexander Alexander is quoted at the EGM on 19th July as saying "the MSG are going nowhere". Precisely seven days later and they're announcing a preferred bidder for the majority shareholding. What changed in a week? No logical explanation for this U-turn either.

I'll say this about the current board/MSG - if they'd broken the habit of a lifetime and selected a preferred bidder in the best interests of the club last Friday, we wouldn't find ourselves foursquare in the middle of yet another embarrassing omnishambles. Fortunately they have finally, finally run out of road. There is nowhere for them to hide. So if Campbell does indeed turn out to be another Whyte/Massone type character and the deal falls apart the MSG and board should be hunted from the club, in their entirety, by whatever means possible. They are finished.

That was always going to be the case though. Their shareholding would remain the same, but decrease proportionately upon the issue of the new shares. The bigger contradiction is a summer apparently spent soliciting and reviewing bids, and telling supporters that a change of ownership is imminent, when the likes of Alexander clearly never had the slightest intention of letting go. Just another sign of the incredible level of dysfunction running right through the club. And hopefully any misplaced sympathy for Lang has now been well and truly nixed with her admitting to being one of the authors of the Lewis statement. Good Riddance.

This is exactly what they are banking on. A few decent early results/performances, the proles will quickly forget all about this and everything can get back to business as usual. For that reason, on and off-pitch issues should be viewed as entirely separate matters from now on. Hopefully the away support at Somerset tomorrow will make things crystal clear to them, whatever is happening on the field.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't get the Dunne situation at all. Been at the club for years, looked reasonably promising in the brief glimpse of him in the first team when Hartley first came in, then vanished just as quickly. I don't watch the reserves, so no idea if he has been featuring there or what his performances have been like, but surely McKinnon saw enough of him day-to-day last season to form some sort of judgement of his ability. If he thought he had something about him, why not offer terms at the end of the season? Seems strange that a player we had under contract for some time is now a trialist.

Conveniently ignoring the fact that, had The Gang not shafted the supporters in relation to the share purchase scheme, there would have been no requirement for any "personal funds" and a substantially bigger budget available to maybe allow us to have more than 2 substitutes available for the first competitive game of the season .

You keep parroting this nonsense, it never, ever becomes any truer. You've been provided with a long, long list of reasons why supporters have had enough of this mob. None of them have anything to do with performance on the pitch. You continually chose to stick your head in the sand and ignore them, that's up to you. You have no right whatsoever to speak for anyone as to their reasons for not attending matches or refusing to buy a season ticket. You appear to have one supporter at least - that weird little QOS sad case who hangs about here 24/7 begging for attention like an ignored puppy. It's really not a good place to be.

Would spend all his time on the treatment table. Taking the old-pals-act too far with that one.

Until someone can prove to me that it directly impacts what I see on the pitch on a Saturday, I have less than zero interest in "community projects" at Falkirk, Stranraer, Peterhead, Barcelona or anywhere else. Your "cocky shower" comments are just wild. Again, short of a few posts or a bit of bravado on a message board or twitter, the likes of which you see from supporters of practically every club, I singularly fail to see where this is coming from. Not from the dressing room or manager's office. And, anyway, I would not mind seeing a Falkirk side with a bit of swagger again, would make a very pleasant change from the low (make that no) expectations culture promoted so relentlessly by The Gang over the past decade or so.

You keep mentioning this community club stuff. It's completely meaningless, a soundbite beloved of the Craig Campbell's of this world. Every club in the world is in a community, therefore a "community club". It has absolutely zero impact on what happens on the pitch. And I haven't seen one Falkirk supporter claiming we are going to walk the league, so your argument about fan complacency feeding through to the players is equally redundant. If the team we have play to their ability, we should be looking to win this league with a bit of spare. If we cannot have some expectations this season, it really is time to shut the doors. No-one thinks it's a given, especially when we still have in charge a manager who thought he could draw his way to safety last season. He's the biggest concern.

McKinnon has already said that we will be going with a small squad and cannot afford to take any gambles. On that basis, we should not be going anywhere near Johnston. He has not played for a year. Absolutely no room for any passengers this season.

Nope. You were given a list of myriad reasons why some of us have decided enough is enough. None of them had anything to do with the performance on the park. You and 1501 others are obviously happy enough to continue to put money into a business whose owners regard you with naked, undisguised contempt. Your choice. You speak for absolutely no one who chooses not to.

Six months on and still being freely libelled as racists in the national media, all thanks to a lie perpetuated and promoted by the charlatans in the boardroom. Really, if any further motivation is required not to hand them one more penny, look no further than that headline. Despicable stuff really.

Because this close season, a general, latent unhappiness at how the club has been run for the past decade or so has crystallised into something stronger on the back of an omnishambles of a last 12 months. Myriad f**k-ups, in some sort of chronological order, Calamity threatening legal action on a bunch of kids over a trademark years out of date, the complete clusterf**k that was the appointment of McKinnon and the small fortune subsequently lost on that, the libelling of an entire support as racist and failure to issue any apology on the back of a fantasy, the leading down the garden path and then shafting of the support over the share purchase scheme, the statement placing the blame for the departure of a buffoon of a CEO squarely on the shoulders of the supporters. Add all that together and you get a tipping point. For a lot of supporters we've reached it. Again, it has nothing to do with signings, managerial appointments, managerial sackings, garbage performances, inept players, relegation to the seaside league for the first time in forty years. Could not care less. I'm fully aware that the board have regarded us as mugs for years. This summer, I've stopped being one.

And if you think that last season's disaster is the only issue with this gang, or even the main one, you are way, way beyond delusional. It barely registers. What does register is a board/majority shareholders who, for years, have treated supporters with a naked, visceral arrogance, contempt, hatred rarely, possibly never seen at any other football club. Supporters are perfectly entitled to buy season tickets, strips and whatever other tat they wish. Their choice. Just as others have the right to decide not to hand over one more penny to a business whose owners so openly loathe their own "customers".

You believe a lot of things. None of them ever turn out to be true. You just made that figure up in your head.