ShaggerG

Taylor's more of a one man band, partly due to the way we play now. TBH he can sometimes come over as a bit of a fanny on the pitch although that's not as bad as it was at first. For about the first dozen or so games he seemed to pick up an injury, limping about the pitch for a few minutes in each game when I doubt there was anything wrong with him. There were plenty of other petulant incidents too. As I say though he seems to be toning that side of his game down. Farid was more of a team player for me, again partly down to the way we played. Duffie for example is much less effective now because he doesn't have the cross to the striker available to him and he generally runs out of ideas now when he gets forward. I think that it's fairly obvious that Lyle's a better footballer although I'm not entirely convinced that he's a better finisher. I think Farid was possibly more composed in front of goal and I haven't seen a striker as good as that in the air in all of the many years that I've followed Falkirk - just brilliant! We all know too just how well Farid clicked with the fans. He genuinley did love playing for us and it was all great at the time. I just hope he gets over the terrible injury that he's had and gets back playing again soon. We can only wonder and dream of what their combined strike force would have done. It would have been absolutely awesome!! On a final note - what the feck are we going to do without Lyle next season?? Doesn't bear thinking about!

Our defence has been a nightmare all season, the only decent pairing being McGeever & Kingsley. Rather than plod on with a back four/centre two, would it not be worth trying a back 3? Might work, might not, but surely couldn't be much worse than we've seen and it's got to be worth a try. Both full backs, Duffie in particular are good at going forward but we're not using that to it's full potential. I'm thinking a back 3 of McGeever, Flynn and Kingsley with Dick at left wing back may be worth an experiment.

This fee will justify Ritchie and Pressley's strategy in bringing through young players. I expect a ten year contract to be signed in due course On a serious point, that must be close to a million brought in, in transfer fees. Where did it all go? I appreciate Wallace and Higgy fees may have been performance/appearance related. Well, you've answered your own question. We haven't had it all yet. From memory we got something like £300k for Wallace and £200k + for Higgy. A good bit more to come for Wallace in due course providing he manages to jump through whatever hoops were put in place at the time.

You didn't go to Kirkcaldy then?

Gulnar's fine. Well above average!

And he's out with a career threatening injury! Should have stayed.

Least I could dye my hair!

Starting to feel it Sam.

John would be better. Ok, he's a pensioner but would still give us more than most of them at the moment!!!

Just the fine that's new news but HB's paying it for old time's sake!

Yea, I knew that. I meant where is he in terms of success as a manager! I could say something cutting like cleaning the bogs at Starks would be a step up from managing Dunfermline but I've always quite liked the Pars, so I won't!

I don't think many Falkirk supporters would agree that it's amusing HB. Whilst I have no desire to spring to Pressley's defence as I feel the football has been brutal this season, I do feel that this is generally nonsense. I fail to see how the BOD of either club could have accurately predicted the success (or otherwise) of either manager. Thistle have been quite lucky (so far) while we obviously haven't. To be fair you apparently didn't want him appointed in the first place but there's surely no way that you could have known that he would fail. Would you have known that McNamara would have been successful? Would you have praised Ritchie if he had been appointed instead of Pressley at the time? It could be argued that Jim McIntyre pissed all over the 1st division as a rookie manager having taken over from an experienced guy in Kenny. Where is he now exactly?

I've a feeling that was meant to be link to something.

I think we can all be very vocal when the occasion requires. Did you hear the shout at the Hamilton fans to stop their moaning at the end of the game on Saturday? Feck me - voice like a fecking fog horn. I'm sure it could have been heard in Motherwell! Don't shout at the players, well not the laddies anyway, unless it's shouts of encouragement. Shout instead at the BOD in particular because of the apparent pandering to Sevco although, unless they're blind, deaf and stupid, they surely already know what our feelings are! Also, Duncan Freemason said earlier that he thinks that Ritchie's main aim now is to simply produce players with the sole aim of selling them rather than using them, at least for a significant time, to strengthen the team. I agree with him and, again, I think we need to let Ritchie know that we're not happy with that as a future strategy. The Presley situation I feel is rather more delicate though. Most folk didn't want him to start with although I couldn't quite work out why and I was reasonably happy with the appointment at the time. He then proceeded to make a bit of a dick of himself on a few occasions and the football wasn't great. As we all know though things did improve, at least to a point and I think he did a reasonable job with the resources available last season. This season's been pish of course and I don't see any improvement to come unless he changes his formation and tactics. The concern however is that, the more we boo, shout abuse etc, the more he'll dig his heels in (what the f**k is it with football managers) and the decline will intensify and affect the young players even more. Not very sure if shouts from the stands asking for change without any abuse involved would work but I think that's what we need to do to see changes made.

Yea, fair enough, but what kind of money though? £50k, £100k? (MR would cream himself at the latter IMO) and the prospect of Weatherston as a full-time replacement doesn't exactly fill me with confidence! I'm concerned that we may start to turn against the wrong people. Yes Duffie has been poor this season, he's admitted as much himself and his performance on Saturday was woeful! Last season we were happy to dismiss many errors by the young players for the very reason that that's what they are - young and still learning! A few months doesn't make a lot of difference from that point of view and I feel that these laddies still deserve our support and encouragement. We've already had folk on who have been severely critical of Kingsley who I think has been our best defender, maybe best performer overall so far, and someone recently was on ranting about Sibbald saying he was the most 'overrated player in Scotland'! Overrated by whom exactly? A fair chunk of the Falkirk support possibly, although most of us I'm sure were realistic enough to know that a then 16 year old was going to have a significant dip in form at some point. The vast majority of Scottish football can't overrate him because they don't know who he is FFS! His contribution on Saturday was significant I felt. As per usual he wasn't involved as much as I would like but I thought that what he did do he did ok. I was pleasantly surprised by his tackling for example. He's obviously not the strongest in the tackle but his timing was great most of the time. He was more effective in the tackle than Murdo for example who's clearly a much stronger player. IMO, with the exception of Kingsley, none of the younger guys have been as good as last season. That'll be down to a lot of reasons. The aforementioned expected form dips, the loss of a leader in the middle of the park (Millar) but, significantly I think, SP's fucking about with formations and trying to put round pegs in square holes. He needs to realise that he's not the master tactician that he thinks he is and just let the individuals do what they're good at in a formation that is easier to get to grips with. David Weatherston at full back FFS!! As I said at the start of the rant however, while some of the more senior players maybe deserve a kick up the erse, we need to keep encouraging the younger players or they may just retreat completely into their shells!

Spot on mate, McIntyre isn't up to much!

Not if it's done properly as DB says. Flynn's not as slow as he looks either!

I agree with this. We've got problems in midfield and defence so 3 at the back would help as the ball would spend more time on the wings which is our most effective attacking tactic IMO. Would also help a rather slow and ponderous defence.

Bloody disgrace! Should have been the half & half!

Possibly because they're playing a game and want the fans to believe they would vote no when, in fact, they didn't? You seem like a reasonable guy so I'm sure you can see what I'm getting at!

So Alloa haven't issued a statement since the vote to say that they voted no then? I think some members of our BOD may well be quite weak, they may also want fans to think one way when they voted the other and all of the other stuff you mention too. I'm not having a go at Alloa here mate, I'm simply saying that things can be read one way or another depending on the individual. You presumably have launched your wee attack on the Falkirk board because you believe that they voted yes and that they're trying to cover it up. That's your opinion which, of course, you're entitled to but you may not necessarily be correct.

Had it then said................... 'and therefore we consequently voted no', or words to that effect, but it didn't. As I say, I've little doubt that they did in fact vote no but it does demonstrate that different people can have a different slant on what something means if it's not absolutely clear-cut. The Falkirk statement said that the decision was absolutely the right outcome. Why would they say that if they voted to put them in div. 1?

Whilst that is much more clear-cut than the Falkirk statement and I'm certain that, from what's in there, Alloa did in fact vote no, it doesn't actually say that. I'll be extremely disappointed if it comes out that we voted yes (although I think the statement hints at a no vote) however I don't see that any sanctions from the fans will help matters. If however we can oust the board without hurting the club then fair enough!

Terry Mullen

That's just not true.