FullTimePint

Pretty much over? We have only played a couple of games! 'Bring them in now to prepare for next qualifiers/playoffs etc etc..' has been the story of the scotland team for too long, and probably an excuse we give ourselves to write off what is happening at the moment, on the expectation it will get better. No foreign or big name coach worth their salt would touch this job a) because the SFA clearly dont know what they are looking for b) they wont pay the cash for a big name. Bringing in a Scot at least leans on the patriotic element that may actually help us snag someone decent. We actually dont need to be world beaters to get qualification for tournaments, enough teams are proving this. We just need to establish and concentrate on a style of play that suits the team, and a manager with a little bit of tactical ability should provide this.

I think we are in a relatively similar position (squad wise) to when the Berti Vogts experiment went wrong. McLeish came in, when a lot of the stalwarts from the Strachan reign were fading away, and the younger guys coming through had not really been tested or bled into the international picture. Mcleish had a tough job to find a way to gel and integrate a squad quickly with new players and a system that worked. Not an excuse for him, these things are the job of the manager - but i think anyone and everyone but the SFA could see that he would make a james hunt of this. The problem we have now tho, is that we are mid qualifying campaign. If you bring in someone who is unfamiliar with the players, then we go back to square one, of trying and testing systems and players in competitive games. Which is why i think we need to go 'local'. Similar to when the Vogts campaign ended, we turned to the Smith/Burns/McCoist to get the best out of players they were already familiar with. The candidates for me For me from the 'damaged goods' pile: Paul Lambert, Craig Levein, From the 'Holy shit the SFA are listening' pile: Davie Moyes, Steve Clarke From the 'Am i awake' pile: Wenger, Mourinho, And the 'Dont even joke about it' pile: Malky McKay, John Hughes,

Season over? Probably we hit our purple patch mid season, and had a good run. Other teams have been hitting their purple patch now, and we seem to be out of steam. The problem for me has been when we are good, we were a match for anyone in the league (and even in the championship) but when we have been poor we can’t grind a point or a 1-0 win out of the bag, we get skelped. Today was tough to watch, but fair play to Montrose. They will probably hold onto that playoff place now.

that shows the value in a good cup run for me, sure i read somewhere that hitting the quarter final of the league cup netted about £50-£60k, which given a decent draw and some tv money would net you not far off a seasons worth of slogging it out in league 1

I prefer us to be in control and pushing for a goal whether that means hoofing it into the box, or slow build up play doesn't worry me I wasnt there last week unfortunately, but I think the issue in recent week has been that after 35minutes were have usually gifted the opposition a couple of goals lead over us. The appetite for slow and controlled build up play is significantly reduced when we need 2-3 goals just to get a draw

£15k profit for the year to May 18, brought the total creditors down and kept cash in the bank. No reason to break out he fireworks, but certainly a very good set of financial results in the main. I remember at the start of the season reading a lot of criticism of the board for not being vocal about the club aims/ strategies etc. We must be one of the few clubs in the country that had just posted a profit. Our neighbours made plenty noise about roaring back, and ended up £400k in the hole.

That £400k loss is staggering, and in all honesty would probably have put many of us in the lower leagues out of the game. Making a small loss for teams in our leagues is normal - £400k is obscene. Makes me wonder why you guys shut down the hospitality side of things last year, when surely all income would have been welcome. Even if by some sort of financial wizardry the board have halved the loss for 2018/19, that would still be £600k loss in 2 years - genuinely think this is the slippery slope toward starks park being sold off, how else can this be sustainable?

If you guys haven't made a decent cumulative loss for the last 2 years staying full time, then absolutely the hybrid model will allow you guys to throw the cash at P/t players. 1-1.5k home support is decent for any team outwith the prem, but it seems like it is definitely a crossroads season next year if you cant get up through the playoffs this year. If you go hybrid, its a tough one to get right. Spreading the cash over p/t players might offer a fuller squad to avoid you playing the 17-18 year olds, but I think you miss my point re Airdire. The size of their home gate doesnt determine the success of the part-time players. They signed a good group, on good money, based on performances last year, most of their players wouldnt have been short on offers this year, but for whatever reason they couldnt make it work. Arbroath are part-time but they have had a fairly settled team for 2-3 years now. They finished fourth last year and built on that. Having cash to throw at part-time players doesnt guarantee they will be good, and if you get it wrong again this year with a hybrid model - what next? If you want a title winning team, then you need the squad balance to be right, the key players to consistently showing up, and the rub of the green injury wise. You guys havent got that right for the last two years. If your team cant get the mix of Full time pros balanced, why would they magically be able to do it with part-time players?

We are surviving because we have scaled the club to do so, we sign players for our budget, and have made concessions (plastic pitch, fully part time etc etc) As a result of that we have our bad seasons and our good seasons. You are right that this season comparatively we are having a good year, but the shouts for Young to go haven't subsided completely as some fans are never happy (i blame the sea air at new bayview) My point is this, there was a crazy time when we didnt scale the club properly (we have been through it twice with two questionable owners) where money and financial planning went out the window and we pushed for players on unsustainable budgets in search of promotions. We paid the price of that with the terrible seasons/relegations that followed as we recovered. I dont know the financial position of Raith (does anyone?) but, that playing squad in year one in our league was very strong, and i would assume highly paid for the league. No promotion Roll the dice in year 2 with a strong squad, no promotion. If you guys stay down, then not only do you need to assemble a title winning squad, which with respect will require a clearout, but there is also the 2 years worth of unsustainable spend to account for, surely there must be budget pressures even for trying to sign the best PT players? The hybrid model may be the way forward, but its not as easy as 'just sign better part-time players'. When you are signing decent full time players for the lower leagues, you are up against probably only championship teams. When you want to sign decent part-time players, you are up against 2 leagues worth of clubs (not all of them are necessarily skint), and championship teams who can offer them FT status.,. you need the work done early. Airdrie last year spent decent cash on proven PT players at our level, they arent even in a playoff place. Im interested in whats happening at Raith, mainly from a football point of view, because its is interesting!! but you are also right i like derbies (this year has been as entertaining on and off the pitch than any i can remember)

Not on to have a gloat or a dig, but i cant help but feel McGlynn is going to struggle to rebuild a team this summer. The core of the team you have now probably would yield a few squad players at championship level, and have shown they are not a title winning team at league 1 level. He is absolutely right that a clear out is required, but its required when there is still significant uncertainty over what league you will be in, and how much cash you can realistically spend. I think more than the previous manager he is inbetween a rock and a hard place. If he goes after an Arbroath style playing team of no 'big' players but a strong overall unit, it looks as though 1 or potentially 2 of Alloa, Partick, Falkirk or QOTS might come down, and Peterhead will come up. The league next year will be arguably stronger than this year, surely not a year for experimenting with hybrid PT/FT squads?

Red Dot for managing to achieve the "What a Load of Absolute Bollocks" award for this season!!! Stevie got the job in April 2009 and resigned October 2010, he had to steady a sinking ship, which is what we were after the departure of Dave Baikie, Wullie Grey, his money and subsequently all our high profile players, who proved they were only there for the pay packet!!! We skirted with relegation for the majority of that season as Stevie Crawford had to do the job with basically both hands tied behind his back, no money to replace the superstars who had left and having to battle with a team made up of young boys and some loan signings built around the likes of Jonny Smart, Bobby Linn and Div Muir. At no time during this was Crawford subject to any vilification or abuse, we all knew what sort of pressure he was under and this pressure was obviously having an effect on the guy this and this alone was what saw him resign his position, but what endeared him to the support was his desire to keep us in the Division, he didn't desert a sinking ship he still stayed on to help bail us out and he did just that!!! He played possibly his best game for us in the final league game of his first season as manager, away to Arbroath, where his inspired performance gave us a 2-2 draw (goals from Linn and Muir putting us 2-1 up at one stage) and left the field, knackered to a standing ovation after giving his all and ensuring we left Gayfield with the point that kept us one point ahead of Arbroath who got relegated instead!!! He resigned as Manager in October of the following season when again we were rooted in the relegation zone for the same reasons as the previous season but as I've said before he didn't just say "f**k this", he stayed as a player and coach under John Robertson until January 2011 when he was pinched in the transfer window by Cowdenbeath and the desire to be reunited with his mentor Jimmy Nicholl and mate Colin Cameron to form a "Dream Team" (wonder what happened with that???) That is the reason he left and no amount of revisionism by you will change that!!! This Escalated quickly!! To be fair nothing KK said was unfair on Crawford, he was at the time a bad manager, all be it in very bad conditions surrounding the club (there were worse years than his that followed) but i always thought the same as KK, SC didnt just throw the towel in, he stayed and tried to help the team, says a lot about his commitment to the club, which as a fan i appreciated, and is why i am glad to see him get some short tem success just now with dunfermline. That being said the 'AFTN gestapo' you describe i think were probably about 30% real fans frustrated a the way the club was going at the time, and around 70% wind up merchants, the internet is a crazy place for keyboard gangsters. I do remember the old AFTN message board being criticised by players for being to harsh, but if you look at any fans message board after a bad result you would find similar.

Speaking of ex-fifers. For some reason i am actually quite chuffed to see Stevie Crawford is doing well with Dunfermline. I always thought when he was our manager, that he didn't get the rub of the green, but the team tried to play the right way. The managers job for us was maybe too early for him, but he always came across as a decent guy

Its probably been one of the surprises for me this year is how inconsistent Airdrie have been. Preseason i would been putting them up as challenging Arbroath and Raith and comfortbaly in a playoff place. Right now they are closer to the relegation playoff than the promotion one.

I could not agree with this more. If refs came out after a game to explain decisions they would be crucified even more than they are now, when would the analysis stop? would they then have to issue a statement to clarify their post game comments, when people still don't agree? The refusal to accept decisions (good and bad) this season is already putting unfair pressure on referees. No-one will be 100% correct on every decision in every game. The penalty call in the game v Ross County could have gone our way, it didnt. Did it decide the game? for me a bigger factor on the game was not clearing the front post from the corner on the first goal. I accept the team will make these errors tho, as part-time lower league players... noone is perfect, i give the same leeway to the ref.

I have never been in favour of this competition, and when the tie was delayed from November, I was all for us taking a tougher stance on our participation. However. If that game had gone ahead what would we have had? A lot of fans traveling over to Dublin for a jolly, getting to support the team in 'Europe' and seeing a different ground/league/team from the usual fodder, a complete break away from the monotony of lower league football. I actually think the outside teams are welcome (different story on colts) When the leagues are set up in the ridiculous way they are just now, we will play our league teams 4 times a year minimum, coupled with the league cup and Scottish cup where there is a good chance we will draw them again. I don't really want to be playing Forfar/Arbroath/Airdrie et al 6 times a season (no offence) For me the right thing to do here, is to let us proceed, the sponsors Irn Bru to do something for the fans to take the edge off the money spent to not see the game, and for those in charge to have a rethink about how they deal with these conflicts going forward. For me, its a Scottish competition held by a Scottish authority, that has invited guests in. Whenever there is a situation such as this where there is an unreasonable conflict of circumstances, the SPFL must back the Scottish team as a representative member of the association. If this had happened, we probably aren't having this argument today as the game would have been awarded last November.

Fair point, I was thinking if we could get 5 wins from the second round of fixtures, then we would be well on the way to the playoffs - but we are are already 2 wins up with the top 2 played. The more distance we can stick between ourselves and the pack the better, nov-feb is the time the league really starts to shake out

Good performance today, if anything I think the team are getting better! glad Dowds is now adding goals to his performances, he grafts so hard for the team and does a lot of the dirty work, good to see it’s paying off in goals in the last few weeks

not moving the game, and standing firm on the dates gives the players the best opportunity to succeed in the cup would it not?

I for one would be happy for East Fife board to withdraw out of principle if the dates are moved. I cant help but feel this debacle is taking a little bit of the shine off what has unexpectedly been a good cup run for us (albeit in the cup no-one wants) You also have to question if the tie is ultimately moved, whose interests are the SPFL working for? They are an authority of the Scottish game, organising a Scottish based cup competition, but are considering moving the tie that will cause a disadvantage to a Scottish teams progress. In the least xenophobic way possible, surely the priority has to be given to the Scottish teams best interest over guest teams. It creates good diversity in the lower leagues having the likes of Bohemians in the cup over playing the usual suspects 5-6 times a year, but where there is even a little bit of conflict/uncertainty surely they back us?

Bet 365 for East Fife v QOTS, East Fife to win, both teams to score at 7/1, too optimistic?

Another good win, big respect to any fans who travelled down to watch the game, it was a few miles too many for me this weekend. Sitting in a playoff place just now is great having been bottom a month ago, but I genuinely think that this year the league is so even in the middle pack, that it will probably go to the wire. I am glad we have options off the bench/ for rotation, the squad has good depth, and right now everyone is playing their part. As for the lack of comments from the ‘young must go’ camp, I don’t mind that (although I don’t miss it) I’m probably on the other side of the spectrum and back managers for too much time during bad results, a few moaners probably adds balance.

i keep checking into the forum to see if there is any update on your new manager, to be honest i am a little surprised it is taking so long. Having missed promotion last year, before a ball was kicked in anger you would have thought Smith would have been under heavy pressure already, and the board would maybe have had a plan b in the works for if Barry had a poor start (was Cuthbert maybe that plan?) Of the candidates mentioned, i would have thought Robson was the best appointment to make, even given his relative inexperience. He will have good contacts up here, and has played under a host of good managers. He should bring the lift that would bring raith on to a bit of consistency, and maybe cuthbert stays as the no2, to keep the wage bill down on the new coaching team I reckon if you take a lower league journeyman, in the short term it might be enough for this year, but longer term the championship will pose a tougher test. Usually these boys are available as they have proven they struggle at a higher level.

Another solid home result, overall good performance, great weekend. Things seem to be clicking into place for us just now, hopefully we can get a good run going into new year. Of the game, i don’t know why but I expected more from airdrie. Preseason they seemed to have made some astute signings, and I felt for sure they would be easily top 4 and give us a very difficult game. But the team I saw yesterday was off the pace, maybe just an poor week for them.

Probably the most inform striker in Scotland just now coming with him. Tough draw, but good to get it at home, and QOTS defence is a little suspect if we can create

I had a feeling we might sneak this today, despite the negative reviews on here, you can see the team starting to gel and look more organised. Our issue in the league thus far has been dodgy referees, and silly individual errors. But when you get a performance out of the team like today particularly in the 2nd half, where all 11 looked on it, it shows we have enough in the tank to compete. Hopefully the team kick on, 2 good results on the bounce, scoring goals, and seeing out games with 10/20 minutes to go from winning positions. Long may it continue