The Falkirk FC Thread

[SouthStander1876]

Just now, da_no_1 said:

Soon to be half a decade in League 1 would suggest not

From League 2*

[Enigma]

4 minutes ago, SouthStander1876 said:

10000% you take the cup. Winning that is once in a lifetime and will stick with you forever. Promotions will come in time

Yeah you always take the cup win as that is once in a lifetime, if you’re lucky, stuff. If you do I guess it might be amusing watching you crash out of Europe to a team from some micro-nation again.

[SouthStander1876]

1 minute ago, Enigma said:

Yeah you always take the cup win as that is once in a lifetime, if you’re lucky, stuff. If you do I guess it might be amusing watching you crash out of Europe to a team from some micro-nation again.

We'd be guaranteed conference league group stages 

[Enigma]

3 minutes ago, SouthStander1876 said:

We'd be guaranteed conference league group stages 

Right enough, forgot the “cup winner” gets the top non-champions league spot.

[SouthStander1876]

If only the runner up rule was still in place

[Bairnardo]

14 minutes ago, Enigma said:

Yeah you always take the cup win as that is once in a lifetime, if you’re lucky, stuff. If you do I guess it might be amusing watching you crash out of Europe to a team from some micro-nation again.

If League 1  Falkirk got European football, I'd give precisely zero fucks about what Diddy knocked us out. I'd be happy to spend all afternoon buying pints in the sun for our starting defence then sing about how #money we are for the 90 minutes. 

[SouthStander1876]

We would be the diddy

[PB1994]

Has a lower league club ever competed in the group stages of a European Tournament before?

Considering what is on offer financially for winning the Scottish Cup, plus the guarantee of 8 European games you'd absolutely take an extra year in the Championship/League 1 if you were ICT/Falkirk if it meant winning the Cup. 

[Bairnardo]

2 minutes ago, SouthStander1876 said:

We would be the diddy

Happiest diddies in Europe

[Numbers_One_To_Eleven]

2 hours ago, Shodwall cat said:

There is absolutely no chance in hell we'd beat Celtic or Rangers in the final so we can forget winning it this season. Next Saturday gives us a decent chance of getting to the final but it will be the first time I've gone thinking we really do not have one single chance in hell of winning it.

No point in turning up with that attitude, just forfeit.

[DA-go Par Adonis]

Probably need Rangers to scrape through against Celtic - then two of their starting XI to fight each other inside the first 10 minutes.

Nevertheless, I'd rather be in the last four with a 2% chance of winning than knocked out.

[Monkey Tennis]

6 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

And we'd won the game before Clyde v Airdrie also. 

Yes, I'm aware of that, giving us 4 points out of six going into that match, a 'run' that even we had already surpassed earlier in the season.

Looking back further of course, we'd been in rotten form before that Airdrie game.  The idea that we were a real form team at the time we played Falkirk is flawed, as conceded by the poster who'd initially suggested it.

It's just you who always seems up for a fight these days.

[bairn88]

28 minutes ago, PB1994 said:

Has a lower league club ever competed in the group stages of a European Tournament before?

Considering what is on offer financially for winning the Scottish Cup, plus the guarantee of 8 European games you'd absolutely take an extra year in the Championship/League 1 if you were ICT/Falkirk if it meant winning the Cup. 

I’d genuinely take an extra 10 years of league 1 football if it meant Scottish cup win and 8 European games. 15 years, that’s maybe the cutoff 

[SouthStander1876]

I'd take relegation to league 2

[Skyline Drifter]

16 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Yes, I'm aware of that, giving us 4 points out of six going into that match, a 'run' that even we had already surpassed earlier in the season.

Looking back further of course, we'd been in rotten form before that Airdrie game.  The idea that we were a real form team at the time we played Falkirk is flawed, as conceded by the poster who'd initially suggested it.

It's just you who always seems up for a fight these days.

If by up for a fight I'll pull you up for posting something I disagree with then have at it. Did we come into that game in something that could be perceived as great form? No. With the benefit of hindsight as being used by the Falkirk fan here though it's not unreasonable to say we were midway through an excellent run of form being as it was game 3 of what was ultimately a 6 game run.

[TxRover]

42 minutes ago, PB1994 said:

Has a lower league club ever competed in the group stages of a European Tournament before?

Considering what is on offer financially for winning the Scottish Cup, plus the guarantee of 8 European games you'd absolutely take an extra year in the Championship/League 1 if you were ICT/Falkirk if it meant winning the Cup. 

Queen of the South in ‘09 perhaps?

[Guest Caractacus Potts]

2 hours ago, Shodwall cat said:

The budget had to be increased or pep guardiola couldn't have got us challenging with the dross left over from last season.  Anyone who thinks those that have moved on have done so out of the goodness of their hearts is kidding themselves. We'll still be paying a percentage of hetheringtons full time wage as well I'd expect whilst decent money is being taken up by Williamson, Watson for little or no return.

 

On the cup semi we still had to beat a decent Ayr side with a far bigger budget than ourselves to get this far. As a league one club you're not going to get to a semi without a bit of luck in the draw but let's not diminish the fact that we beat a side a good bit above us in the pyramid .  I bet Aberdeen wish they were in our position and they would've had exactly the same easy run to the semi as we've supposedly had.

How do you know this? Ayr had a reporter turnover of £1.2m up to June 2022 which I’m pretty sure was lower than ours and we already know John McGlynn was handed an extra £150k on top of his existing budget which still presented a £400k loss despite a projected increase of £600k on income. 

[Otis Blue]

3 hours ago, Shodwall cat said:

There is absolutely no chance in hell we'd beat Celtic or Rangers in the final so we can forget winning it this season. Next Saturday gives us a decent chance of getting to the final but it will be the first time I've gone thinking we really do not have one single chance in hell of winning it.

Yeah, know how it feels.  That said, I think you'd have some outside chance if it was the Govan mob you faced, but not the Parkhead mob (they'd be a step too far).  They'd also need to have an off day obviously.

In 2008 we faced the Govan lot just days after they'd played Zenit St Petersburg at the UEFA cup final in Manchester, so that wasn't exactly a weak side they had then.  We were handicapped by having no games (and losing match fitness) for a few weeks prior to the game (whilst the staunch side were moaning about being forced to play too many games too quickly - bloody shame).  Because of this we started far too slowly and were 2-0 down by HT, but rallied second half to pull it back to 2-2 before Chris (f-ing) Boyd scored the winner.  The point was though that once we levelled they were clearly rattled and didn't look too clever for a while - alas we couldn't capitalise on it.  So you need some (a lot of) luck, and you need them to not be on it, and you need them not to be called Sellick ... but you just never know.

I think 2008 was the year there was no sponsor for the Big Cup, which was a bummer, so no doubt we missed out on some extra cash there.  We were also in the First Division then (now the Championship) and tbf we did have a decent side back then.

[Skyline Drifter]

1 hour ago, TxRover said:

Queen of the South in ‘09 perhaps?

08. And no we didnt. We lost to Nordsjaelland in the 2nd preliminary round. I think they then lost to  Kharkiv or someone and didnt get group stage either. Though they did reach Champions League group stages a couple of years later.

[Guest FFC1965]

1 hour ago, Otis Blue said:

Yeah, know how it feels.  That said, I think you'd have some outside chance if it was the Govan mob you faced, but not the Parkhead mob (they'd be a step too far).  They'd also need to have an off day obviously.

In 2008 we faced the Govan lot just days after they'd played Zenit St Petersburg at the UEFA cup final in Manchester, so that wasn't exactly a weak side they had then.  We were handicapped by having no games (and losing match fitness) for a few weeks prior to the game (whilst the staunch side were moaning about being forced to play too many games too quickly - bloody shame).  Because of this we started far too slowly and were 2-0 down by HT, but rallied second half to pull it back to 2-2 before Chris (f-ing) Boyd scored the winner.  The point was though that once we levelled they were clearly rattled and didn't look too clever for a while - alas we couldn't capitalise on it.  So you need some (a lot of) luck, and you need them to not be on it, and you need them not to be called Sellick ... but you just never know.

I think 2008 was the year there was no sponsor for the Big Cup, which was a bummer, so no doubt we missed out on some extra cash there.  We were also in the First Division then (now the Championship) and tbf we did have a decent side back then.

Your team - like us in 2009 - was handicapped in the cup final chiefly by the fact that the Govan mob were stuffed full of players on EBTs - players they could not afford ergo they cheated.  

Our respective clubs were denied a once in a lifetime chance at a trophy by a tax dodge.  Both had a credible chance of victory had the opposition had a team that reflected their true means at the time.