SuperHans

So you'll honestly not buy a season ticket next season if Smiths still there? You're going to hold back your money as some kind of protest against the manager? You're entitled to do what you want with your hard earned chase but just think about how proactive that's actually being? Maybe the money your season ticket brings into the club could be the difference between a midfielder or an extra defender?

What about the players? Felt a bit sorry for him getting booed off the pitch like that and the players get a round of applause? So many of them have let us down one way or another this season. Smith has worked with what he had, he made some mistakes but ultimately would have done enough for any other team to win that league had Ayr not gone full time. It's all circumstantial at the end of the day but clapping some of those guys off and booing the manager is a bit of a contradiction is it not?

I can't see him going in all reality. Last night I would have said that he'd most certainly be away (may even have said it), but 1, I don't think we can afford to sack him. 2, I don't think it would be a good idea to sack him and 3, who would sack him if we don't have a chairman?

What about Jimmy Nic? He'll be out of a job soon, unless of course Stevie G keeps him on as assistant[emoji28][emoji28][emoji28]

I'd imagine that the mission statement in his signing was promotion at all costs. If he fails then there's hopefully something in his contract that would be triggered. The club can't be held ransom to him either. The confidence in his ability with the support is lower than it's ever been. I don't know if Young and the rest of them know their own futures at the club but I can't imagine they'd be getting any support by keeping Smith on. It's impossible to know just how bad things are with finances. If we did manage to stay full time then it really would be last chance saloon and the person in charge of the team would have to be someone that is certain to do the job.

In other news it's great to see Gary Locke has got himself a promotion internally at the Jambos!

Lennons achievements at St Mirren haven't been matched (yet). You can almost pinpoint St Mirrens plummet to the moment they didn't renew Lennons contract. His achievements at Clyde this season have been fairly notable as well. I'm not canvassing for Duffy here but his achievements at Morton haven't been terrible at all. You're spot on though, the position we're in at the moment, we've got to be realistic over who we can attract to us. Of course this could be completely irrelevant if Smith manages to guide us to a famous playoff comeback and promotion... Then he's the man to lead us into the championship! Yay!!!

Baird off to Forfar as player/assistant manager!

Not even going to read it but does it say at any point "the lads have been working hard at training"?

We picked a manager with all the credentials we were looking for at the time. I've no doubts that Hughes was a good appointment at the time. Maybe if he had his own players to bring in and the dressing room wasn't already a complete shambles then he may have done a different job at us but there's no way of proving that. I've still never claimed to be in support of an older manager or a younger manager. What's evidently clear is the lack of consistency at the club in managerial appointments. Jim Duffys obviously got his critics and so did Campbell when he was in the running last year. It's very easy to look at the successes of Hartley, Ross and to an extent Goodwin. But you also have to consider that while the idea of having a young manager in place is great, there's plenty of 'dinosaurs' in the game who have equally done well. Duffy did win Morton the league, has kept them consistently safe in the Championship and managed to get Morton to the playoffs and a League Cup Semi Final last season. Already he's done more than any manager we've had since McGlynn. I really hope I don't get under your skin as much as it comes across on here. I'd hate to think that you sit in your bedroom planning on how to disagree with me all the time.

Another classic example of someone frothing at the mouth to get one over me without reading my post correctly. Never once said "shouldn't" in that post. Just offered another option to think about. Consistency has been one of our biggest problems of the last 5 or 6 seasons. Since McGlynn left we've had 5 managers in 6 seasons. Stability is what we need and using unproven younger managers can be a serious hit or miss and if it is a hit (McKinnon season), we don't have the resources to keep a manager on the up.

Duffys an interesting one. He was being hailed a hero in the media last season for his work at Morton and then they've had a little bit of a poor spell towards the end of the season this year and he's out the door. In all honesty, someone like McCall had the knowledge, contacts and experience to get Ayr out of this league in a rollercoaster season. If we took a punt on another young manager then a couple of good seasons and he'd be away to another club leaving us with the same situation as we were in before we appointed Locke. As much as a young, hungry manager on his way up is tempting, we don't have enough to keep him at Raith like St Mirren have done with Ross. Maybe an old head with the ability to put foundations in place is exactly what we need. Many scoffed at the thought of Dick Campbell when his name was being thrown about. I just wonder if he'd have had it in his locker to get us up. His achievements at Arbroath this season and last are impressive enough to suggest so.

Total shambles which has summed this season up perfectly tonight. Gutless, no leadership, no intent and no idea. Players standing waiting on someone doing something rather than taking the game by the scruff of the neck. How can anyone look at that (and many other performances this season)and claim it justifies full time wages? How many times did we actually make it into the Alloa box tonight? The shots that we had were mostly weak efforts from edge of the box and anytime an Alloa player got near us all we wanted to do was get rid of the ball as quickly as possible. There has to be sweeping changes made at the end of this season. The backward steps that we have taken have almost wiped out everything that's been done in the last 10 years! We have a BoD with no idea how to run a club, a failing team, a half arsed attempt at youth development funding, a forgotten community organisation and an owner who's only really interested in protecting his investment. If we survive full time next season which is doubtful then I'd be very surprised considering what the cost of fixing this problem could be. The wall paper has all but peeled off and the cracks it once covered are there for everyone to see.

The BoD are at fault for many of the things that have happened to the club and the sale of Callachan was a decision that they will have made. I think a lot of the decisions seem to be 'justifiable' from the BoD point of view when you look into their occupational history. Young, Sim and Sinton are from accounting backgrounds and Tom Morgan formally worked in 'financial services'. Interestingly Bill Clark (newest member) has a background in education and leadership, management and improvement planning for governments. It would seem that maybe his presence on the BoD is to try and get some kind of consistency in the running of the club. We've learned from so many other clubs the dangers of overspending and to ensure the cloth is always cut accordingly. It looks to me like too many bean counters and not enough people with any actual business savvy and, judging by the last 2 seasons, any football savvy either.

Can Stirling hold a capacity crowd for the crowds that a team like Raith could bring? Partick and Motherwell are potential playoff contenders and the Premier League is still in fixtures. Livi are in the playoffs and it all comes down to what's available and how much it is likely to cost the SPFL and the clubs to use an independent stadium.

Can Stirling hold a capacity crowd for the crowds that a team like Raith could bring? Partick and Motherwell are potential playoff contenders and the Premier League is still in fixtures. Livi are in the playoffs and it all comes down to what's available and how much it is likely to cost the SPFL and the clubs to use an independent stadium.

I'd agree that a one off final game is a good idea. I'd imagine that the issue is then where is the game played i.e. a neutral venue? Problems with that is at what point will the SPFL be able to designate a stadium suitable when it's still unclear over what teams may or may not be involved in playoffs?

Prices have been reduced and season tickets were sold with the knowledge of their validity for cup games and playoffs. Season ticket holders should be applauded for their support but the club have a chance of making money so they'll be wanting to cash in. If we do go up or even stay down, would the season ticket holders not want the club having as much funding available for the season ahead? Or do we just not care about the finances of the club and would rather carry season ticket holders into the game for free as club heroes?

I think we underrated him whilst he was at us and were surprised he got a move to a level like Hearts. The fact we got something for him was maybe a good bit of business at the time. This argument is completely invalid though as is most of the 'what if' scenarios of this season. If that ball had gone into the back of the net instead of off the post we'd have had one of the most exciting league championship wins in the clubs history and some us us still sobering up. Would we have looked back at the sale of one player in August as the defining point of the season? I'd imagine there would be some people in here still not happy with winning it on the last day because if we'd kept Callachan we'd have won the league by February.

I think we underrated him whilst he was at us and were surprised he got a move to a level like Hearts. The fact we got something for him was maybe a good bit of business at the time. This argument is completely invalid though as is most of the 'what if' scenarios of this season. If that ball had gone into the back of the net instead of off the post we'd have had one of the most exciting league championship wins in the clubs history and some us us still sobering up. Would we have looked back at the sale of one player in August as the defining point of the season? I'd imagine there would be some people in here still not happy with winning it on the last day because if we'd kept Callachan we'd have won the league by February.

I'm not denying that Callachan couldn't have contributed to that. I've never denied that. If people take a bit of time and actually read the posts I write instead of frothing at the mouth and jumping straight on to their keyboards to try and get one over me, they'll actually see the points I'm trying to make. Callachan was a great player for us and we did well when we had him. Arguably with the gap at the end of the season, he may or may not have made the difference but to point blankly say that the ONLY reason we didn't get promoted was the sale of Callachan in August is slightly far fetched. Just like back in July and August pinning all of our hopes on Louis Vaughan to win us the league was delusional. Why on earth are we so obsessed with individual players. There was a whole team that have played this season.

Seething

[emoji23][emoji23] How dare you!! Ross Callachan was going to be the saviour of our club... As well as Louis Vaughan! If we hadn't sold Callachan for a Hearts scarf and a box of Johnny's Onion Rings then we'd have easily taken 12 points from Ayr and had this league won by Christmas!

Absolutely! There were countless of people on here who were extremely critical of him. He wasn't a player that had flare or attracted much attention on or off the ball but there was an extremely large Callachan shaped hole in our team midfield this season. You Ayr fans should count yourselves lucky we sold him or we'd have pissed this league... [emoji23]

But we kept Louis Vaughan the saviour! There's almost no point in arguing with you about this but you're responses and deluudedness are keeping me sane. Callachan would have 100% been a valuable player for us this season but to pin everything that's gone wrong this season on him leaving is hilarious.