rgreig
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Posts posted by rgreig
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57 minutes ago, Blue Brazil Forever said:
Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil
It's a great book. I'd recommend you buy it if you haven't read it. Even if you have absolutely no interest in Cowdenbeath football club, still read it and you will enjoy it.
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1 hour ago, Jazzar said:
Never, ever, ever a red - ref needs huntin for that. No wonder we're appealing it. Thanks, ref - back to lower leagues you go.
It's rare to have such an obviously incorrect decision where I don't think a single person - opposition players, coaching staff, fans included - thought it was right. I would love to know if the linesman said anything to the ref or if it was so quick that he had already taken out the card before he could even say anything.
For the ref, clearly people can make mistakes and we all do that in our jobs from time to time, but the other 8 or 9 red cards he has dished out this season - how many of those were debatable? Where is the feedback from the observers to help these officials improve?
For the other incident - the challenge that saw Mullin go off - I didn't see it very clearly but was it just unlucky or was it a potential red card?
Finally, although I don't think we have any chance of finishing top I do think we have enough to make the play-offs particularly with Musonda and Murdoch back. I think we were a lot better in the Raith game and continued that into yesterday's game - and hopefully we can continue that progression.
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1 hour ago, rb123! said:
Depends whether you're talking about signings of mass panic setting in at 9:45 tonight if Partick beat Dundee which will put us joint 5th....
I'm watching the match and neither side is great to be honest but Dundee haven't created much - maybe some half chances. So unless there is a big change at half time I wouldn't assume Dundee will turn it around.
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3 hours ago, ayrunitedfw said:
Just seen a tweet to say we won 2-1. Sam Ashford got a double. The redemption story is underway baby.
Anyone know what the team was? Did Musonda play again?
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10 hours ago, Iain said:
Didn't think that was so bad. Especially compared to the three preceding games.
It was definitely a big improvement and as everyone else has said we were unlucky to have a penalty saved and then miss an absolute sitter. Raith are an odd team, they move the ball much better than we do in midfield but up front their decision making and finishing are both dire.
McGinty did really well again defensively - the number of headers he wins is remarkable - but it is also so frustrating that he chooses to go long so often. It will be interesting to see if Musonda comes back in place of McGinty or Reading.
The team with Musonda, Murdoch and Maguire in it will be good to see. Let's hope results go our way today and we don't fall out of the race before they are all playing.
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1 hour ago, super_carson said:
Anyone else see the video the club put on social media of Akinyemi's goals? I'm absolutely all for celebrating a player who is doing well and trying to cultivate a feel-good sentiment to encourage supporters to the game but surely we're not encouraging this tinpot song....
I just tried watching it and had to close the browser tab. It's beyond awful.
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1 hour ago, rb123! said:
Ambitious considering we never even got that at home in the last round...
Well, I remember we had over 8000 (including a very healthy away support of course) in the QF against Partick in 2000. I think if we do well in the league in the next couple of weeks we can build momentum and we should be aiming to get close to filling that stand. Plus I am sure we can fit a few extra into the tree.
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Just now, THEHonestman1910 said:
Still got a tremendous amount of respect for McCall, Bringing in Shankland re-signing moffat and playing entertaining football, it was enjoyable to watch.
I wouldn't take him back as some form of coaching role but he would be beneficial as some form of scout as he's still got an eye for a good signing...no chance of it happening right enough.
Yes, I definitely wouldn't take him back because I don't think there is an opening for him but I don't really understand the negativity towards him. He undoubtedly did a tremendous job for us, getting us promoted and some hugely memorable performances such as the 5-0 demolition of Dundee Utd at Tannadice. I can still remember standing in the baking sun at Alloa just before he left watching us play the most entertaining football I had seen for a very long time.
He obviously felt that he wasn't going to get us promoted with the resources he had available to him and Partick offered him an opportunity. The fact that his ability didn't match his ambition doesn't lessen him in my eyes at least, but does show that he wouldn't have been the manager to take us much further even had more money been available to him.
What did people expect him to say - "It was an easy decision, I couldn't wait to leave"?
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34 minutes ago, Shibuya said:
McAdams pulled off three very good saves in the second half to keep us in it - you can criticise almost every outfield player before you have a go at McAdams today.
This '4-3-3' if we're calling that is not going to work with the personnel we have at the moment. JML and Mullin were essentially not in the game today and it was the same last Friday. If your wingers aren't getting in to space then you have no way to get forward but lump it at Dipo, who is always outnumbered in this system. Thank Christ we got Bryden and Daire on when we did, they were both driving us forward and, what a shocker, created space for Dipo. I don't think I've seen a 66th minute sub win man of the match before but you couldn't argue with it. Hopefully that's the last of the JML experience for a few weeks.Agree with all this but I also thought that McKenzie made a difference too, had real tenacity that we had been missing. McAlear looks extremely defensive, rarely made forward passes although I did think he tried to get involved. Needs to spend time in the reserves before troubling the first team.
As you say, I hope Bullen actually learns from this and the QP game and doesn't continue with this formation or we're going to have a poor spell. No idea if the McInroy rumours are nonsense but would definitely have him back based on what we saw today.
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18 minutes ago, North British 2 said:
£150k at stake here in prize money plus maybe a huge chunk of gate money , so let's not drop our top striker . Stick young Fraser up beside him in a 442 . I'd also g8ne Daire a run on the left .
Exactly. It's a minimum of 150k, with the right draw it could be a lot more. This game is huge for us financially so there is no way I would be dropping the best striker in the Championship.
By all means change things rapidly if we manage to go into a comfortable lead but until then we have to play our strongest 11 in my view. Elgin are going to come and try to park the bus so we are going to have to be at our best to get through a packed defence.
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1 hour ago, Frosty said:
Not sure where you’re getting your turnover figure from. You were 7th in the league last year which would have generated £1.43m of prize money and the previous year you were 6th which would have generated over £1.5m. You’ll have a lot of other income streams so your turnover would have been significantly higher than both those figures.
Yes, that number surprised me too. By way of comparison I just checked St Mirren and their last full set of accounts reported a turnover of just over £4m.
Another interesting figure from St Mirren was a total wage bill of £2.9m which covers 75 employees. Roughly half of those were classified as playing staff. It's hard to derive much from that about the likely wage of top players there but if you assume that the non-playing staff have an average annual salary of £40k then it would not leave much scope for top earners having the kind of figure quoted earlier in this thread unless the bottom earners are really low. But I have made an awful lot of assumptions there so that could be wildly out.
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38 minutes ago, North British 2 said:
We are going to have to realise that as we grow as a club these are the numbers we will have to pay to maintain our position and to push forward .
I think this is a good point. For the player himself, I cannot see why he would now sign any contract that reduces his wages for the rest of the season. So we can't sign him now and I can see why Livingston would be pushing us to pay more of his wages given how big an impact he has had for us. If they do genuinely need to save every penny then I would hope that a compromise could be reached however.
I don't think it's necessarily a huge amount of money. Let's assume we currently are paying 500 a week for him on loan (just making that figure up), and they want us to pay 1500. There are roughly 16 weeks of the season left so that would be 16k delta. I think the prize money delta between 3rd and 4th is 75k and based on his contributions so far I think he could be pivotal to that.
More generally, it is clear that creative players like Chalmers and Mullin are going to challenge our wage structure. Bringing in players and being able to sell them on will be key to changing the level of our playing budget (e.g. Akinyemi but we need to see that happening more regularly).
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3 hours ago, Richey Edwards said:
A commemorative plate would have been a better idea if we wanted to commemorate the "strategic partnership". You can at least eat biscuits off a plate.
You can also smash it, Greek style.
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3 minutes ago, CoveRangers1922 said:
Clearly Cove fans thinking the same. Tough game against Ayr albeit we have home advantage We're currently going through a mini rebuild with new managers and signings, which isn't ideal, but the winner of this tie will be strong favourites for advancing to a QF tie. Dreamland for Cove if we reach that stage. Hartley was in the paper saying a strong cup run would cement our desire to go FT (I presume hybrid), possible for next season.
Yes, it's a fantastic incentive for both clubs. It doesn't matter who either club signs now since they won't be eligible to play but how many injuries clear up will be significant. How many regular starters are out for Cove at the moment?
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25 minutes ago, Nelson said:
The referees can’t win. If they postpone the game, people howl that it’s far too late in the day to call it off. If they go ahead but have to abandon it, they’re accused of incompetence for ever starting it in the first place. If the game is played to a conclusion in farcical conditions, people say the game should never have been played.
Ultimately the clubs (through the SFA) need to decide whether games should be postponed based on forecast conditions or actual conditions at kick off. Yesterday’s wind was very accurately forecast, so the game could have been called off mid morning. But I guess the clubs are worried that they’ll get slaughtered if the forecast doesn’t materialise, so they just push the decision to the match day referee who won't even arrive at the ground until 1.30 by which time the teams have arrived and the away fans are well on the road.
Personally I think it was plainly obvious that the game should have been postponed, on general safety grounds if nothing else. It certainly didn’t do us any favours as it turned a must win game into a lottery.
Completely agree. The problem is that there is no explicit guidance about the wind speed above which a game should not be played. While some aspects of playability - e.g. waterlogged pitch - are more subjective it should be pretty straightforward to agree a rule along the lines of "if at 10am on the match day the wind speed at 3pm is forecast to be 35mph or higher then the game must be postponed". I have no idea what the actual speed threshold should be but a clear rule would remove the pressure on referees who currently cannot win as you point out.
Although I thought Arbroath dealt with the wind better than us, yesterday's game was terrible to watch and the result was basically down to luck (although I would not want to take anything away from McGinty whose header for the equaliser was excellent).
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2 hours ago, Hursty said:
Arbroath scoring 25% of their seasons goal total in one game v a Dundee team with 5 clean sheets in 6 and who we didn't even remotely look like scoring against last week just about sums this league up.
Also Queens Park the only team we have pumped go clear at the top.
I flicked between streams of both these games and I do think that if we strengthen wisely we should be able to consolidate a play-off spot. Although you would expect Dundee to be busy in the transfer window I didn't think any of the teams have built momentum. Caveat - I didn't see Dundee before the sending off so maybe I am being slightly unfair.
I also agree with the other comments that the addition of quality is key for us and is a differentiator in this division. We have a large squad but the difference between our best players and the bulk of the squad is considerable. I'd happily get rid of Bangala and Ashford and replace with one player at the level of Chalmers or Mullin for example.
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3 hours ago, Finlay21 said:
He was announced by the club as returning this morning
Does anyone know how he was thought of at Peterhead? Looks like he had a lot of game time which is positive.
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59 minutes ago, Nelson said:
I think we knew what was coming with Bangala. Bullen has had no faith in him at any stage since he was signed and now we can see why. Completely inept and indisciplined as well. Mathie performed a minor miracle punting Joe Chalmers last January, but he’ll deserve a knighthood if he can get rid of Bangala. Either way, I doubt we’ll see much if anything of him in an Ayr jersey again.
Who is Yogi Hughes managing these days?
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48 minutes ago, UpInTheAyr said:
we must have been watching different games because everything he did put us under pressure.
Exactly, was it not his complete lack of positional awareness coupled with no pace whatsoever that allowed McCowan to get through for the first goal?
I think Dundee would have won even if Bangala hadn't been sent off, such was their superiority even with ten men. At least it is very clear where we need to strengthen in January in order to remain in contention for a play-off place.
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2 hours ago, callum-ayr said:
Think we need to have a right go tonight, best defence is offence. I would maybe like to see Bangala in at centre back and move McAllister to right back, just to stop Ecrepont having 2 potentially bad games in a row and killing him. I wonder if he was one of the ill ones last week, that might shed some light. Smith for Dempsey if he is not fit. There is the option of Mullin at right back as well.
Albinson
McAllister Bangala McGinty Reading
Mullin Dempsey/Smith Murdoch Chalmers
Young Akinyemi
I would be very nervous about playing Bangala at CB. He has looked totally out of his depth any time I have seen him, so having him beside McGinty would be a disastrous combination. I would be temped to play Mullin at RB if Ecrepont is out.
I would be absolutely delighted with a draw tonight and I think we'll need a lot of good fortune even to get that.
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2 hours ago, motley123rock said:
I heard some of it. Shaking my head most of the way home listening to them. Leigh Ann Chriton ( don’t know if that right spelling ) spoke any sense . Most of them didn’t have a clue about the league any of the players and gave really bog standard text book answers I.e the top 4 will be thistle , caley ,dundee & Queen’s Park. I don’t know was the ex player commenting at our game was on but he wrote us off from even making the top four. Really poor stuff from BBC Sportsound. You would think they would get in for a couple of weeks guys who follow this league who would know their stuff. Reminded me of World Cup pundits poor knowledge of all other teams apart from their favourites Ingerlund .
Yes, it was actually embarrassing to listen to I thought. It showed the utter mediocrity and laziness of sports "journalism" in 2022 that none of them (with the exception of Crichton) could even be bothered to do any research whatsoever about the Championship despite knowing that the main focus of a programme lasting several hours was going to be that division. Bob Crampsey will be turning in his grave.
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8 hours ago, Mod1967 said:
True, but Bullens opinion would show that he has a lot more faith in Houston than he has in Reading, Houston has had far more good games than 3 or 4 that's incredibly harsh and in my opinion nonsense, but it's all about opinions as you say. Regarding hate victims you've been very consistent in your dislike of Houston, but we all have players that don't do it for us, I've got to put my hands up to never really rating Ashford apart from an honest runner I don't see our level of football player .......opinions
I agree on Ashford, but more generally I think the sign our squad is really a contender for the league is when we can move beyond hard workers and willing runners and have a higher technical bar. I think Bullen is improving the squad but given our resources we have to recognise it will take time.
I think our title challenge will fade which is why we will likely be in a position to accept a decent offer for Akinyemi in the summer. If our player budget is currently around 800k, if we get 300k for Akinyemi that is a significant percentage increase and could - overall - improve our squad considerably.
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4 minutes ago, AuAl said:
Happy enough with that line-up.
Early goal please Ayr
Will be interested to see how Bangala does.
I would not have changed the keeper though.
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14 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:
Pretty sure John Barnes and Raheem Sterling were both born in Jamaica.
You are right. It turns out that there is now an additional clause about 5 years of education in the country that I have to say I had never heard of until I looked now. You can read about the various agreements and criteria over the years here: FIFA eligibility rules - Wikipedia
That covers Sterling, for Barnes in interviews he has apparently said he thinks the English FA didn't actually realise he wasn't born in England (!).
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The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread
in Scottish Championship General Chatter
Posted
Yes, it was only due to some tremendous goalkeeping that we didn't go in at half-time with the game already over.
We did look pretty good going forward in the first half but we are only going to continue our slide if we continue to put in defensive performances like that. As others have said, I don't know what Reading needs to do to get dropped.
Do we know if Kirk is going to be out for a while?
For me, if Bullen does not appreciate that he needs to do significant rebuilding to raise the overall quality level in the starting eleven then he isn't going to take us any further. I can understand that you can't do too much in January but I hope we see a number of departures in the summer.