bridge of allan bairn

Thanks for that. Straight from the Marvin Bartley school of deluded match summation that one

Agree, think Annan could be the toughest of the remaining 3 games. Their home form is second only to ours with 4 wins from their last 5 and as you say they have a lot to play for. A lot of the teams lose their runs of form when they play us though, so here's hoping it continues for the next 3 games. In other news...there are only 369 tickets left for the North Stand for the Alloa game (sold 623).

That's nesbitt on 10 league goals now, and 9 assists.

I'm really happy that these "day trippers" are coming along. Another 2,500 on the attendance for this 1 game will generate another £40K plus for the close season war chest - probably equivalent to another really good championship level player for JM for just 1 game unbudgeted income. Great news on Spencers extension.

From memory think you are allowed at least 2 kids U12 FREE per paying adult, although someone might correct me here. Alloa ticket update - 539 tickets sold in the North Stand. Selling at a really good rate still. Thats more than 100 yesterday alone.

Talking of growing the average home support...427 tickets have now been sold for the North Stand (Alloa game). So nearly 6,500 home tickets sold with 3 weeks till the game.

Sensible post. I've seen you guys in the flesh 4 times this season and it was very much a case of being tough to beat at Forthbank, however, set up for damage limitation away from home at TFS. At home on the grass you are a different more difficult proposition, however, lately this seems to be changing and the explanation you give about running on empty this late in the season makes sense. I too, like a few of the above posters have said, have been surprised about how confident most of the Binos on here have been about avoiding 9th, especially given how poor your form has been of late. There also seems to be no appreciation or recognition of how good Annans form has been. Other clubs fans (esp QoS have been more realistically concerned). I also, at the risk of repeating myself, think everyone is underestimating Edinburgh (not saying you have here) they are better than their form suggests and with nothing to play for are playing with a freedom. I think DY has done a great job and I'm hoping that Stirling (and Queens) avoid 9th, as I like both clubs.

Great going. We've now sold c300 for the North Stand for the Alloa game, so approx 6,300 home fans with tickets and only c700 (home) tickets left. Edit - apologies just realised this is the Hamilton FFC game thread and not the FFC thread...

For the Alloa game, with the Main and South stands now both sold out and the North stand having sold approx 250 tickets already in our 3 allocated sections there, do we think they may release even more than 1,000 tickets for the North stand to Falkirk fans for this game? There is still about a month to go and those remaining 750 tickets left should sell. Maybe Alloa might only get the very end section (of the 6 sections), leave 1 section as a gap and release another section of 300+ to us? No point in having empty seats as Alloa unlikely to sell more than 1-2 sections. Every £ helps in the close season war chest.

Another brilliant performance. Other teams seem to fear us now before a ball is kicked which is playing right into our hands. The way Cove set up last night showed they weren't thinking about winning simply damage limitation after seeing what happened to Montrose who were far too open. Really excited to see how McGlynn improves this side and who he brings in close season, for once we are in a great position with the players good enough and already signed up. Really want to see Finn sign up, I think he will go far in the game and would love at least another season from him. Tait is another absolute definite if we can get him from Hibs, just wondering if his form with us will make Hibs either keep and play him, or play hard ball with us if they know we are keen to get him, given he has a year left on his contract.

Based on the form table over the last 6 and 10 games (so this one covers every team in the league) points per game (PPG) picked up is as follows:- Annan - 6 Games - 1.5 PPG, 10 Games - 1.5 PPG Stirling - 6 Games - 0.7 PPG, 10 Games - 0.8 PPG QoS - 6 Games - 0.8 PPG, 10 Games - 0.7 PPG The form is surprisingly consistent for the 3 teams over 6 and 10 games. If you gross this up for the remaining 4 games, all 3 teams would finish on 37 points. Appreciate 4 games is a small sample size and can easily now be skewed with 1 win, nonetheless makes interesting reading. Queens goal difference is by far the best at -10, Annan -16 and Stirling -20. It's so close this might well come into play, and that last game at Forthbank between Stirling and Annan looks like it could be important. As will the game between Queens and Stirling. Annan have still to play Falkirk, but they took a point off us at TFS so this is not a given on their form. How important will form be, will it be replicated in the last 4 games? Annan have lost only 3 of their last 10 (mid table form), Queens have lost 5 of their last 10, Stirling have lost 6 of their last 10 (both relegation play off form). It might depend on who has something to play for i.e. Cove and Montrose may still need points for the play offs (or conversely may be resting players if already qualified) and have still to play Queens (Cove and Montrose) and Annan (Cove). All 3 teams have 2 home games and 2 away games to play. All 3 have Edinburgh still to play, however, I still think Edinburgh will take points off one of the 3 teams, if not more.

And then there were three....

That's a very strong starting 11. Happy with that, obviously taking the invincible thing very seriously (that and putting Hartley to the sword)

FYI for those that haven't seen it this week's episode of a view from the terrace opens with a good review of Falkirk

Like this and thanks for sharing @Bainsfordbairn Out of interest, how do you define the assist on a penalty? Is it the player that won the penalty? Or is it no assist in that case?

In a way this is good news for QoS. Clubs like Stirling, Alloa and Hamilton (all Central belt) will lose far more away fan revenue/budget from Falkirk next season than yourselves. Montrose was a one off given the significance of the match itself, however, the other 3 teams we would always take a healthy away support.

Yes, with a paying adult

Really interesting, thanks for sharing @Bairn in Exile. With Arbroath likely to be replacing Falkirk in League 1 its going to mean a big drop in away fans/revenue for clubs in this League. Stenhousemuir coming up in place of Edinburgh will be slightly better at that end but not a significant uplift. If you assume we take an average of 1,000 fans to an away game (sometimes significantly more), twice a season, at say £20 per head that's £40,000 not allowing for add on's like hospitality, sponsorship, food and drink etc. Montrose probably banked more than £50K extra on Saturday alone, which will go a long way to helping their player budget for next season. Will also be interesting to see how much our home attendances increase next season with more home fans and more away fans. Stadium could be pretty full most weeks, especially if we are challenging at the top end. Thinking about next season, I'd really like to see us extend the already excellent free tickets for schools initiative to many more kids at games where we know it won't sell out, especially at that half of the North Stand where smaller away crowds are expected. If we gave away 18,000 free tickets a season (1K on average per home game where space permits) and just 1% of these kids became a fan then that's 180 extra fans every season, potentially for life, not counting if they convince their parents to take them. Also keeps local kids away from the old firm. Worst case scenario we have given local kids a day out and promoted the club in a positive light in the community. Given the massive success of the ultras, would be great to see the group double for next season (and sit in the middle of the south stand behind the goals). I know its early days but are there any plans for growing the ultras/flags/drums etc? Final thing, would be great to see the brilliant and much appreciated Falkirk TV move to the other east side to take highlights so they show the crowds/atmosphere rather than the vast emptiness. With viewing figures going up, the team doing well, in a bigger and better league, this would surely help promote the club to even more sponsors and fans? A semi-permanent platform with toilet and decent broadband connection etc surely should be doable for the guys if that's the issue? In the Championship we might feature on mainstream TV more too so no having to build these things ad hoc. I'm guessing there's probably a logical reason I haven't thought of why the Main Stand is always used? Either way, new signings aside, I'm looking forward to all the off field positive ideas that will come out between now and next season (that, per above, don't necessarily cost any or much money).

Mackie had another 2 assists on Saturday. Not bad for someone playing in central defence. That's 4 league assists for him this season when he's been on the bench most of it.

A mixture of joy for a brilliant season, relief to be out of this league after five years of pain and gratitude to a management team and set of players who have delivered a superb brand of football and thoroughly deserved promotion. Champions! And whisper it... possible invincibles....

No Henderson. Thought Mackie played well last week so hopefully plays as well on Saturday again.

Did they all join the Mo from an Oor Wullie annual?

Know what you mean. I think this is our toughest fixture left and I include Hamilton away in that. Montrose have only lost 1 of their last 6 at home and are fighting for a promotion play off. I really rate Petrie as an astute manager. I'm not sure if Hamilton dropping points before we kick off would help our performance next week or not, obviously delighted if we tie up the league before we kick a ball but would be brilliant to win the league and keep the invincible record. Our motivation will be higher if we need a result. Really looking forward to it either way.

I see Edinburgh have still to play all 4 sides in this thread fighting to get out of the relegation play offs. Having watched them yesterday I think they may surprise some teams between now and the end of the season and possibly take points. They were a wee bit naive at times but retained possession well, played some pretty good football and had a go (appreciate they have nothing to lose now). They had a few decent chances in the first half in particular. 6 shots on target, which is more than most at TFS. They have 2 or 3 really big guys in the side that will cause problems at set pieces. By all accounts in recent weeks they've been a bit unlucky, but they'll learn quickly. Some good loan players in that side. Wouldn't bank on this fixture meaning 3 points.

Credit to the folks that put the match programme together. Read it this morning and some really good detailed articles in it, Stephen McGinn, Morrison, FSS, The Board. Some stuff I wasn't aware of so thoroughly enjoyed it. Only thing missing for next seasons programme is more stats please! Crowds, who played in each game, yellow cards etc