StuartA

Nice club Annan. Guard of honour AND wearing our heritage strip.

On the upside, that’s Leon got his goal now.

Can’t believe this season is going to be over soon. I really don’t want it to.

Lionhearts v Fifey Hearts.

What a lovely dilemma to have! Fair question to ask though Yes, I think it is the right way to go. First of all, it was a promise made and a bit of a social contract with fans to back the club through thick and thin (it felt thin at the time, mind) which we did. Second, folk still aren’t rolling in it so this gives an affordable minimum buy-in for those who are finding finances tough, so it’s inclusive. And third, there are now several options for folk to contribute more if they want, and some of these more tax/VAT efficient. So I think we’ve got it spot-on.

This is just part of the transition into fan ownership. If you buy into the idea, are willing and (most importantly) able to pay more, then there’s a range of options. If it rankles to be asked to contribute more, then the immediate following thought has to be “I won’t” which everyone has the freedom to do without any come back. I’ve heard it argued that some feel under appreciated if they don’t contribute beyond tickets, strips etc but I don’t buy that as paying more is discretionary and anonymous. There’s of course a legitimate debate around how the funds are raised, but a) we elect our own directors to come up with these ideas and b) the doors are always open to volunteers to help devise and deliver new ideas. Bottom line is that it’s our club now so up to us how we fund it.

Give it to them all. Sophie’s Choice

He’s a cracking player. 100% every week and covers more ground than a hungry cheetah. I know we have a dozen POTY contenders but he deserves to be quoted.

Exactly the reason we want them to go down and Alloa or Montrose up

Because we made an utter c’nt of it for years. Back now though.

This was taken at 1725

Alloa will win the play-offs.

Beaten ever other club home and away, scored at least three against every opponent, top scorers in the country…

The 20 wee guys in the main stand should get a refund. They missed most of the game staring at us. Bless ‘em.

They would have included all ST holders in that, half of whom would have been brushing up on their Gaelic.

Genuinely not having a go. There was never 800 there, half that at best. I don’t want to see any club go down the tubes but Accies have a stench of death about them.

Joking aside, there couldn’t have been more than 3-400 Accies’ fans there. That’s pretty grim for them. Youth sales can’t plug a funding gap as big as that.

I take it all back. Accies: sack Rankine. You’re awful, that was bordering on abuse in the second half, even after the wee chubby midfielder came on.

Hitting every branch of the “failed OF starlet” tree on his way to Darvel or Johnstone Burgh.

I don’t think we’re desperate for anything regarding Rankin. We’re probably just looking at it through the prism of our own failures in the past half decade, and considering dispassionately how that applies to Accies. We know that the revolving door of managers and players damaged our club greatly before the fans rescued it.

Morton is our feeder club. Imrie seems like a decent manager. If JMcG retires or gets poached, we might need a low cost replacement.

Fair enough. The calculation then has to be that your owner/supremo would get the next appointment right and that he’d make this squad work in season 1. Also - and this’ll be unpopular - that you believe Rankin can’t learn or improve. That’s the bit that lots of football fans never seem to want to acknowledge, that folk change.

I say this as a hypocrite because I probably called for every Falkirk manager who was sacked over the past 5/6 years to be sacked at the time. But the risk isn’t just the player turnover, which is damage in itself, but also appointing a manager who isn’t up to getting your club promoted straight away. Hartley, Mackinnon, Sheerin, probably others my brain has rightly expunged all memory of. If your new owner is putting some cash in to make up for the lack of income elsewhere, then great, but who knows how much he has? All my instincts are telling me that sacking Rankin would be a big gamble.

Fair point, but we went through loads of managers during our banter years, bringing with each change a new squad. It kills the club from within. I’d still bet (and probably will) that Rankin would win next season’s League 1 with a similar squad.