Park the Buffs

As the shoreline suggests this was an easy win for Talbot. Buffs played the wrong team - nowhere near competitive enough in the middle of the park. We played in the wrong manner - way too much playing out from the back on a windy, wet night. Talbots first 2 goals came from exactly this - desperate lunges to try and regain possession in and around our own box resulting in a free kick and a penalty for Talbot. To compound matters Buffs - players and management team threw their toys out the pram midway through the first half and never really recovered. Lastly with the game over at 3-0 we emptied our defence in a desperate attempt to get a consolation goal and instead shipped three more. The new management team have got a lot right this season. We’ve brought in some really good players and we play attractive football. However against teams like Talbot you need to compete in the middle of the park and give them no encouragement. You also need to cope better with adversity.

Just wondering Glensmad what to expect from Craig Leitch - haven’t seen him play for Buffs yet. Looking forward to our meeting in big Scottish.

It’s an interesting one. When Chris started at the Buffs they were relegated for an admin error (nothing to do with Chris) to the district league. The journey from there to being say a top 6 team in the West of Scotland was hugely entertaining. The 2016 team might have won the Scottish, there were 2 promotions, a West final, an Ayrshire cup win and a decent tilt at winning the old 12 team Junior top division one year. The club are an established West Premier side with a set up that improves seemingly on a monthly basis. But (there had to be one) this season has seen player after player depart from the Buffs with little coming in to replace them. Beith are a comparable club to Buffs and will require a similar group of senior players to the ones who have just exited the revolving door at Buffs Park. I expect things to start well (Buffs always started the season well under Strain) but the interesting thing will be what are Beith like come next winter.

Ultimately this was a fine win for Buffs but make no mistake this match turned on a first half straight red for a Glens defender. Prior to the red card Glens had scored one, hit the post and made another 3 or 4 good chances. After the dismissal Buffs slowly worked their way into the match. Jordan Stuart squared things up at the start of the second half and with Ramsay working well on the right flank they took control. Three more goals followed with Ben Lewis’s drive from the edge of the box being the pick of the bunch.

I’ve got no problem with young players playing for Buffs FM. However I agree with Chris here - what’s the point of missing out on a game with say the U18s to sit on the bench for 85 minutes watching the first team. If we do have guys with the talent to step up from the youth ranks then that’s great but I doubt we have. The jump is massive from youth football to where we are and I’m guessing out best kids will probably need to go out on loan for a couple of seasons at say a Dalry or an Ardeer to make the transition.

For me it’s all about the first team squad. We started the season with a small but talented squad. Pitches and weather were good which suited our style of play and no injuries or suspensions. Result - as good a start as anybody with a good win over Darvel being the stand out result. Over the Autumn/Winter the squad got smaller and smaller with constant departures and injuries and suspensions further depleting the team. We never really addressed our ever decreasing numbers and eventually we arrive at Blantyre last Saturday. For me to operate at this level we need a squad of 18/19 players. That’s 18/19 guys at the the level of Collins/McGowan/Syme. Not a dozen plus 4 guys making up the numbers and three more from the youth teams sitting on the bench.

Must be over a decade ago now I attended a Meadow Talbot league match at Meadow Park. Meadow were the big spenders at the time but Talbot won an scrappy match by the odd goal. On the way out the ground I heard two different conversations between Talbot supporters. The first was moaning about Talbots poor performance, Tommy Sloans managerial shortcomings and the abject awfulness of certain players. The second conversation was how that days win had set a new record for Talbot being undefeated in the league. They had gone something like 25 matches undefeated consisting of the end of the previous season and all the matches in the current season. It seems nothing has changed.

What’s been achieved at the new ground is amazing in a such a short time period and everybody involved deserves tremendous credit. However the playing squad has actually got worse as the season has gone on with one departure after another. I’d like to see a bit more stability on that front with us actually building (however gradually) a squad that can compete with Talbot.

I’m a bit sceptical about 17/18 year olds getting into our first team en masse. There’s a physicality and a level of know how required at the level we’re at now. Also when you go on a poor run confidence evaporates in young players as we saw in recent weeks. I get the infrastructure thing taking priority but there’s a level of expectation around the club and the supporters now that demands a stronger playing squad than we’ve currently got - both in terms of quality and numbers.

A fair summing up FM. I think our inconsistency is due to a lack of any real strength in depth. Our best 11 can give anybody a game - Pollok game proved that - but the quality drops of severely beyond that 11. Our bench most weeks consists of players carrying knocks, unproven youngsters and guys who are miles off the pace at this level. Tommy Sloan regularly picks up 3 points by bringing on real quality second half - and if we want to compete for the league we need a squad of 20 top level players not a dozen.

Tremendous performance from Thomas Collins yesterday. Constantly made something out of nothing and battered the Pollok defence despite giving away about a foot in height to the central defenders. Credit also to Davy Ramsay who had maybe his best game of the season and won the penalty just by being persistent. It was a scrappy game on a hard surface but Buffs wanted it more.

Carlo Monti’s one man goal of the season competition had a new entry yesterday with a 35 yard free kick that thumped in off the underside of the crossbar. Thought the winner at home to Clydebank was going to be it but think yesterday’s was better.

Can you give us some info on what phase 2 of the ground improvements involves parkcircus?

To be fair to Killiepieo - of course he has switched allegiance to Talbot. Who would want to film Bangaverage juniors every week whose season highlights might be a local derby win and a run in the West. Instead he has a constant diet of big occasions with plenty of silverware to film. Twenty years ago he would have been a Buffs supporter.

Totally on the money Funky Monkey. Noticed at half time Talbot had nine players kicking a ball around - Buffs had 2 and I doubt if Sam was fit. Best Buffs XI this season (think we started with 9 or 10 of them) will give Talbot a game but thought it was a massive task when Fleming went off. All credit to the lads they gave it a go but Talbot were unplayable once Glasgow came on. I think Tommy Sloan might have assembled the best squad of players the Juniors has seen both in terms of quality and strength in depth. Most of them could play Senior and the “reserves” would be automatic choices for any other junior club in the top division. In short Talbot now are effectively a Senior team operating in the junior ranks.