HopeStreetWalker
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Posts posted by HopeStreetWalker
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If it's no better come the end of November then it's over for PH and his staff, that is being fair and giving what we have a chance to turn things round. That will give the new manager time to do a Jack Ross at St Mirren in have a clear out bringing in a fresh squad in during the transfer window. The youth programme used to produce 2-3 players a year is not producing the goods. It is now a cost liability and requires a complete rethink. If the like's of Finlayson , Shepherd and Blues cannot make the first 11 we have at present what's the point of having them on the books.
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Great player for the club and has done his best as the manager. To be fair he has produced some great teams that played with spirit and passion, but this is a squad that has had it's day. The guy must be so disappointed on how it has gone so far and will be hurting as much as the support. Suspect he will resign as it's in the best interests of the club. The team needs gutted and rebuilt just like Jack Ross did at Paisley. The youth system is not working and it's where the club spends the money, requires a complete rethink on how the club is run. The whole structure has to go and start from scratch. Harsh maybe but doing nothing is not an option.
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18 hours ago, MrDust said:
When our goals lost come mainly from the left hand side or central, I think he is looking at the wrong side.
Houston has failed, there's where the problem lies, he has obviously lost the dressing room, fails to promote youth and has left us with a hugely imbalanced squad
Spot on with the youth comment. The much vaunted policy of bringing on our own players just has not worked over the last 2 years and it showed. That is where the money is spent so 2 players a year coming through is reasonable to expect.. Finlayson . Blues , Shepherd either get a run or move them on. Can't be any worse ! and getting even 1 that makes the grade will improve things.
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4 hours ago, MrDust said:
That stat tells you everything....
We are too nice, a midfield consisting of Taiwo, Sibbs, Rankin, Craigen, Harris, Kerr and Hippo and no one out of that would foul cynically.
No one has fire in their belly for the fight
Putting in a good , hard , fair tackle. Is a footballing skill now sadly being legislated out the game. It takes timing and a foot ball brain, to judge when, where and how to sort out a opposition player. Nothing better to watch than someone if full flight being brought to a shuddering halt as someone comes in gets the ball first and the opponent from top speed to stop in a fraction of a second as he runs into the opponent who has set himself up to be a solid as possible. Wind, slavers and snot flying out of him as he collapses in a heap, while the ref waves play on.
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4 hours ago, Shadwell Dog said:
No and that's one of the many reasons why we've been stuck in this league for the past 7 or 8 years.
Exactly ! Maybe look at a new way of doing pre-season. Smith , Totton and Housty must have contacts a plenty. So time for some telephone calls. 2 or 3 quality loan players is just what we need.
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17 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:
You've got to get physical with wingers. No point standing off them like Gallacher and letting them put in cross after cross. Look at big Grant against McMullan on the same ground. One crunching tackle and he couldn't wait to get off having given us a few problems to start with.
You don't have to get physical to get the better of a winger. Take it from a winger, namely the late great Davie Cooper. Was at a football night many years ago in Aberdeen and Davie was one of the guests and by the way what a topper of a guy. Was asked by a Dons fan what it was like to play against Stewart Kennedy. Davie said this. Beating Stewart was the easy bit, he would jocky you , hold you up and when you got past him it was where he wanted you to go. You would not go 2 to 3 strides and his pace in recovery meant you were back to square one. By that time Simpson , Cooper Miller etc would be all over you. What Gallacher has is pace, so he needs good coaching on how to defend to his strengths. Could do a lot worse than getting the finest fullback Falkirk have produced in the last 50 years to show him how its done.
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Bad day at the office or a sign of problems with quality , quantity and attitude ? Time will tell ! But get behind the team when they are on the park. Can anybody remember the last time we started a season flying out the blocks ? I can't
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22 hours ago, deano25ffc said:
saltire ones are the ones we should have . That's all I think about is " the " rangers whenever I see a butchers apron . Only club in Scotland Iv seen Union jacks is sevco . don't want us to be anything to do with it .SNP and all that
We should not bring politics or religion into why you support FFC. Leave that sort of thing to the bigot brothers.
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19 hours ago, ShaggerG said:
Agree with all of that mate, although I was far too young for a pint in those days, other than I think you mean Jim Fowler rather than Colin who appeared a few years later.
Thank you for the Fowler correction, must have got mixed up with his son the ex QOS manager
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Just now, deano25ffc said:
Never seen one , hope I don't need to again . Fuk the Union JackIt goes back to before the 1960's when Falkirk were known as the little Rangers
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23 hours ago, Harry Kinnear said:
My first game was 1971.
My grandparents were Jambos and my first strip was a Hearts strip. My Grandad who lived in Grangemouth and was a docker was originally from Gorgie and for my first 4 years on gods earth I was a Hearts fan. My Grandad died and my Dad who was Falkirk daft took me to Brockville and I've never looked back.
I've got a daughter who has no interest at all in football but if I had a son he would be a Bairn. I suppose in those days though my Dad worked shifts in the ISR and was very rarely off to take me to football so my Grandad stepped in and bought me Hearts strips etc.
Got hooked in the Great Willie Cunningham era. Rennie Abel McLaughlin Markie Miller Gibson Hoggan Roxburgh Ferguson Shirra and Young. You would walk down Hope Street after a few pints in the Royal Hotel Bar wondering how many goals we would score that day. Brockville was a fortress that every team including the old firm hated playing at. Fans on top of them. The folk in the stand knew where the away dressing room was and would start drumming their feet 20 minutes before kick off when the pre match talk was going on. Meanwhile the people in the enclosure would be shouting dogs abuse through the window to the dressing room. As the away team ran out they faced the gauntlet of the bairns diehards in full voice. The away teams dugout for the whole game would be fair game for derision and any comment that would annoy them from the enclosure. It was a sad day when they sacked Cunningham it was all in place and the board blew it. It put the club back 40 years. Ferguson as assistant manager ready to step in. the young talent coming through was frightening. Stuart Kennedy John Kennedy Stewart Wheatley John Young Colin Fowler Alex Beckett Ian Harley Dougie Somner Tommy McLeod. The new stadiums stands should have been a two levels getting the fans closer to the pitch. If they bring back standing at games base it on an updated Brockville grandstand and enclosure.
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1 hour ago, roman_bairn said:
I think we need Muirhead in the team just to guarantee we will score any penalties we get.
Give Finlayson a run. He is good and will only get better playing at a higher level. Sure he will make mistakes but if he takes his chance and makes the grade, the right back problem solved and a young player in contract that will give a payback when he moves on. If he is not given a chance what's the point of having him on the books.
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Falkirk should play to their strengths with what they have got and adapt the tactics to suit. So what do we have with the players on the books ? Pace ! Not a lot of teams have that,, and its hard to play against Finlayson , Gallacher , Harris , Shepherd , Austin , O'Hara and Hippolyte for example Counter attacking team ? Pressing tactics ? Not for or against but worth discussing Any thoughts anybody.
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1 hour ago, Shadwell Dog said:
I cant see us signing anyone on 3 or 4 year deals especially guys at 29-30.
Get these pros signed up to end their careers at Falkirk. Then watch them. Thought exactly that when we signed so called over the hill players.
How wrong In was ! What's the alternative ? same as last year and we ain't going up. Think about it ! The spine of a side with a style of play that bring the best out of talented younger players.
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It is uncanny how this situation is to 1969. Team with a core of old players past their prime. Core of 21-25 year olds that could do better. With a pool of youngsters wanting a chance and no money in the club. Then Willie Cunningham arrived. The clear out followed and it was not popular at the time. But in the next 3 years there was some of the best football I ever saw at Falkirk. So this is a time for boldness and faith in the players coming through. Nothing to lose for the way the posts are going, its an acceptance of nothing to get the fans going. So how about this, sign 3 players 29-30 year olds Centre Half , Centre Midfield , Forward. on a 3-4 year contracts. There are 3 - 5 players in the 22-26 year bracket to have a core of a side already signed. Feed in Finlayson , Gallagher , Blues , Shepherd , O'Hara and couple of others coming through. Cunningham signed George Miller , Alex Scott and Alex Ferguson quality players that made everybody else better players overnight and the young players improved every game they played. That is the thinking Houston should apply. All he has to do is ask Alex Totton who was there in these halcyon days.
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On 6/14/2017 at 10:55, Shadwell Dog said:
Craigen should never be played on the right side again. He was excellent at centre mid .We need to sign a decent right winger. In the middle we already have Craigen, McKee, Kerr and Taiwo. If Sibbalds signs that would mean 5 centre mids which is more than enough. In fact 4 is more than enough.
We have a player already that can play wide right. Shepherd ! worth a run
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18 hours ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:
Hamilton have been dining out on the McArthur and McCarthy deals and kidded the land on that they have a conveyor belt of talent. Who else have they sold? Hendrie, down a black hole somewhere? Crawford's decent and might make them a few bob.
The Next Level chat in summer 2008 nearly got the club relegated that season before succeeding the next. It nearly burst the club in 2011, which resulted in us having to throw in buckets of green laddies under Pressley. That so many of them thrived probably saved the club, but I wonder at the luck:judgement ratio there.
Anyway, I'm no longer quite sure what your point is. Should we continue to invest in a youth system? Of course we should! It has saved the club over the last 5 or 6 years. But don't go chucking in loads at the one time because history has shown that strategy rarely succeeds.
Don't disagree. Not all at one time but play them. If they don't get the chance we will never know. COYB
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Look what the likes of the McCarthy and McArthur transfer fee did for Hamilton Accies. It has kept them in a division above us for the last 6 years. As for recovering from the last time we ' went to the next level giving youth a chance ' we got to cup semi's and finals with home grown talent and a decent transfer fees when they moved on. It's our only option to bring on our own players and we will get that big transfer. It worked with Willie Cunningham's greats teams 1969-1972 and packed out Brockville to boot. We need a right back, so why not give Finlayson a chance, he has just signed an extension to his contract and is due his chance.
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On 6/4/2017 at 17:05, Ranaldo Bairn said:
Dear HopeStreetWalker,
with regard to your recent posting in the interwebular forum for devotees of kickball entitled "McDonald's finest and most perspicacious Meat Pastry and Beef Extract Drink".
I feel, Sir, that the evaluation by thy good self of the current prospects for the Falkirk Football and Athletic Club Ltd (Established 1876) vis-a-vis their prospects in the 2017-18 association football season might be somewhat misguided.
If I may expand thereupon, and perhaps promulgate one's own views on the matter, one would not hesitate to proffer the opinion that it is a historically unwise strategem to pursue excellence on the fields of sporting competition with one's favourites comprised, in the main, of a phalanx of callow youths whose mettle remains untested or, at best, of indeterminate quality. Historical precedent would strongly suggest that following such a strategy results, in the main, in a concatenation of catastrophes.
Yours etc,
Ranaldo Bairn (attendee since 1983 in case you wondered)
In short. just chucking in the youths and assuming the roads will be chock a block with millions of folk desperate to see their young heroes is, in fact, birthday caird pish.
Its not chucking in the youths. If they are good enough they are old enough. Playing beside experienced players will bring them up a level. It's the only way to go for a provincial club like Falkirk. The players mentioned either get a chance this season or they won't make it. There is a lot of the clubs money spent on these players. We will turn out a multi million pound talent at some time. Which will enable FFC to kick up to the next level.
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4 minutes ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:
Birthday caird pish.
Whit ?
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14 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:
Yeah until we start losing every week and then they'll disappear like snow off a dyke. It was pish under totten the first time it happened and was pish under Pressley the last time we had to do it i certainly don't want to go back to either of those periods.
That's negative, the academy system gets the investment and rightly so. It has to produce the goods and give these players a chance. Not everyone will make it by many will. if they don't make it then we know the scouting and coaching system is not fit for purpose and do something about it. if they do make the grade we get the young talent producing the goods and get the financial payoff to invest further in the future when they move on. Remember the exact same thing being said to me when the likes of Abel , Shirra , Hoggan , Mcleod, Somner, Harley , Young, Fowler and Wheatley first started playing and went on to be good players for Falkirk. The other option is to go with journeymen and hope for the best and see where that got us.
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The situation is the same that faced Willie Cunningham in the late 60's
Talented group in the 21-25 range. With young players on the fringes desperate for a chance to play. Cunningham had a clear out and invested in class experienced players. George Millar at centre half, Alex Scott Midfield/Wing and Alex Ferguson and Andy Roxburgh up front. the 21-25 year old became better players and the youngsters improved every game. It was a glorious era for the Falkirk fans. Attacking football played in a sporting way with pace and skill. Image walking down the game wondering how many goals we were going to score today ! I did, and it was a good feeling
Get Finlayson , Gallacher , Blues , Shepherd and O'Hara in the starting line up from day one. The fans will get behind them and the team.
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The Falkirk FC Thread
in Scottish League 1 General Chatter
Posted
Fair point, but by putting this to the management team and players now. They get their act together to save their jobs, if not no complaints when they go. Falkirk have not sacked managers without giving them a fair chance when things go wrong at the start of a season. One way or another a massive clear out from top to bottom is required if not now then at the end of the season.