Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[Dunning1874]

That's excellent, hopefully we can get another 1000 through every week too.

Can't see many big away crowds though, maybe Morton?

If we were to come to EEP while closely challenging you for the title, we could bring more than 1000.

In reality, I expect most of our home crowds to be less than that.

Edited August 16, 2014 by Dunning1874

[callum-ayr]

That's excellent, hopefully we can get another 1000 through every week too.

Can't see many big away crowds though, maybe Morton?

Depends how we're doing, if challenging for a play off, probably same as last year 300/400

[Poet of the Macabre]

This was the key paragraph for me:

Interestingly, only 39% of season ticket purchases related to a full paying adult price. 61% of purchases related to concessions. As a result, the total income received from season tickets this season, will be approximately the same as last season, even though more were actually sold.

So the numbers are good and should be rightly applauded but we have very little change in income for ST sales.

[DA Baracus]

That's excellent, hopefully we can get another 1000 through every week too.

Can't see many big away crowds though, maybe Morton?

What does it matter what the away crowds are? The fans of teams in this league are good folk who loyally follow their team instead of being cowards who scurry off to support Sevco or Celtic. There seems to be an air of arrogance when some people talk about away crowds in this league. People need to leave that shite alone. We hardly have boast worthy crowds.

I'd much rather see 70 or so Stranraer fans at East End than 5000 Sevco or Celtic fans.

[callum-ayr]

This was the key paragraph for me:

So the numbers are good and should be rightly applauded but we have very little change in income for ST sales.

The high number of youth ST is good though, it shows there is a high level of interest for a future fan base.

[DunfyDave]

If we were to come to EEP while closely challenging you for the title, we could bring more than 1000.

In reality, I expect most of our home crowds to be less than that.

And we would make you very welcome.

[DAFC]

What does it matter what the away crowds are? The fans of teams in this league are good folk who loyally follow their team instead of being cowards who scurry off to support Sevco or Celtic. There seems to be an air of arrogance when some people talk about away crowds in this league. People need to leave that shite alone. We hardly have boast worthy crowds.

I'd much rather see 70 or so Stranraer fans at East End than 5000 Sevco or Celtic fans.

Was just stating the fact that our crowds will be around 3000 because of a lack of away fans.

Not having a go at away support, geographically there's quite a distance between most teams.

I'm not planning to go to many away games apart from maybe morton and airdrie.

[DA Baracus]

Was just stating the fact that our crowds will be around 3000 because of a lack of away fans.

Not having a go at away support, geographically there's quite a distance between most teams.

I'm not planning to go to many away games apart from maybe morton and airdrie.

I wasn't meaning you specifically, just some of our fans in general.

For me it's the opposite; when I can afford to go to games it'll be almost exclusively away games.

[Poet of the Macabre]

Why don't they just give us the trophy just now?

[JF-DAFC]

Wallace injured AGAIN?!

[HoBNob]

" It's Jeffries total inability to realise the failings in the side, address them and change them. Our league record sense the turn of the year, compared to the budget we have compared to the rest of the league. Is nothing short of disgraceful.

Jeffries is lucky that Dunfermline fans have been as patient as we have, most managers would have been out on there arse after that Cowdenbeath game."

Yellow card on. Net, scenes.

[strichener]

" It's Jeffries total inability to realise the failings in the side, address them and change them. Our league record sense the turn of the year, compared to the budget we have compared to the rest of the league. Is nothing short of disgraceful.

Jeffries is lucky that Dunfermline fans have been as patient as we have, most managers would have been out on there arse after that Cowdenbeath game."

Yellow card on. Net, scenes.

Probably for spelling mistakes.

Can't see anything wrong with the opinion.

[DA Baracus]

Haha you actually got a yellow card for that?! It's not abusive and doesn't have swearing. There is zero reason you should get a card for that. Of course it's pathetic that folk get cards on a football website anyway, but this is new depths of arse licking, pant shitting, control freak cowardice. Just a dreadful group of cowards who must have serious issues to have to resort to such petty, laughable, pathetic nonsense to try get some sort of satisfaction. Sadly for them putting the number of yellow cards they've issued on a frivilious football forum won't be any use to their CV.

Seriously, just stop posting on there. Hopefully it'll die

[DAFC]

The thread by Rastapari sums up dot net.

If you don't blindly follow the team and support the manager, no matter what, you must be against the club and not a true fan.

It was this kind of thinking that allowed masterton to pull the wool over the eyes of fans, the very thing that that guy protested about outside the stadium.

It's because we care deeply about the club and how the team is performing that we criticise and talk about it, if we didnt care we would just walk away.

An Aberdeen fan attended our game yesterday and described us as having no width, tactically inept and very poor at set pieces.

If he can see it after one game then that says it all for me.

Jefferies seems unable to fix it and stubbornly defends his players or fails to acknowledge any talent or skill from the opposition.

Why are we playing several youngsters who aren't physically able to cope with this level of football?

Why has set play defending not improved despite having full time training and better resources than all the teams in our league and arguably half the league above?

Why is Wallace constantly injured?

Why are we playing four central midfielders every week?

Why is Millen not attacking more and why doesn't Williamson get more of a chance?

Why do we not just sign more experienced guys? Forfar show that it's possible on a lower budget.

Playing youngsters simply isn't going to work, I don't rate any of them and I don't rate Jefferies as a manager and starting to really dislike his post match bullshit.

[Parscelona]

I don't think its unfair for fans to outline their fears over Jefferies management.

I realise he has two relegations on his CV, albeit the first one was largely down to McIntyre failing to build a proper squad for SPL and he couldn't change much, so i will give him a pass on that one. In the First Division, yes we got a points deduction due to our financial troubles, however our fate remained in our hands to avoid the play offs and he messed it up.

First Division Relegation Season

- 3-1 up away to Partick with ten minutes to go and we lose two goals meaning we go into a final day showdown, yet at least our destiny is still in our hands

- We simply have to better Cowden's result, with us at home to an already relegated abysmal Airdrie team and Cowden facing a tricky match away to Hamilton. We end up losing and Cowden pull off a great win.

- In the play offs, we get humped by Forfar in the first leg, however we turn it around in the second albeit it helped with the fact that they were down to eight men. We are then well beaten by Hartley's Alloa in the final.

Last Season

- Aim was to get into the play offs and win them as everyone knew Rangers would win the league.

- We got into the play offs, yet our form leading into them was abysmal. Two wins in our last ten games, where we only managed to score eight goals. Jefferies got away with it though as he kept saying that he was constantly changing the team to keep as many players fit as possible for the play offs which were more important than any momentum leading into them.

- We lose the first leg to Stranraer and manage to overcome the part timers through extra time.

- Then we draw away to Cowdenbeath in the first leg and get embarrassingly humped in the second leg in front of a packed home support. For me personally, i have seen us lose a hell of a lot of games but that one hurt more than most, it was probably up there with that night in Perth.

This Season

- We sign some of the best players in the division from last season, including the top scorer which according to Jefferies gives us a stronger squad, yet we find ourselves without a win in our opening two league games and we haven't scored a goal either, which is simply not acceptable for the team that has the biggest budget and has been tipped by several to win the league.

There are those who disagree of course and believe that some are just overreacting based on the opening couple of games. However, what they need to realise is that it is not just about the opening couple of games, our form in 2014 has been really shoddy, so fans have a right to be concerned.

#apologiesforthelongpost

[parsforlife]

1.Jefferies seems unable to fix it and stubbornly defends his players or fails to acknowledge any talent or skill from the opposition.

2.Why are we playing several youngsters who aren't physically able to cope with this level of football?

3.Why has set play defending not improved despite having full time training and better resources than all the teams in our league and arguably half the league above?

4.Why is Wallace constantly injured?

5. Why are we playing four central midfielders every week?

6.Why is Millen not attacking more and why doesn't Williamson get more of a chance?

7.Why do we not just sign more experienced guys? Forfar show that it's possible on a lower budget.

Playing youngsters simply isn't going to work, I don't rate any of them and I don't rate Jefferies as a manager and starting to really dislike his post match bullshit.

And breathe

1.I don't see this big issue people have with JJ's interviews , he certainly isn't stubornly defending the players in yesterday's one for example , and whilst he could be slightly less focused on purely what we do I'm not really bothered by that, I'm interested in what he thinks of our performance, not the opposition. Not that he doesn't ever praise opposition anyway.

2. Who is not physically coping? Yesterday the youngsters were spence, Martin, Millen and Drummond.

Millen and Drummond cope better than williamson and whittle and Martin makes up for it otherwise, spence is coping just fine.

3. Our set play has clearly improved, it's far from ideal but much better than this time last year.

4. I've no idea, I have no idea why this is in your rant

5. I don't know tbh, it doesn't seem the best use of our players. It can work(and the right decision) in certain games but it shouldn't happen so often.

6. Millen gets overcritised becouse he doesn't bomb up and down the line, he is involved in quite a few of our attacks and when we seem to be pussyfooting around 30 yards from goal it's often Ross that puts an end to that and puts the ball into dangerous areas in the box. His game isn't that of Williamson or woods/mcmillen that went before him, why people want him to play a style he isn't suited to I don't understand.

Why Williamson doesn't play more? Becouse all to often his runs end with him losing the ball with him miles out of position, and even when he is in position he can still look clueless in defence. He probably should have come on last week and/or yesterday tho when we needed someone more direct, I think last year the mix of Millen and Williamson was mostly correct, this year, well I think him starting v Annan and millen vs rovers were the right decisions given the level of those opposition. I didn't see the annan game but Millen deserved to keep the shirt for the Brechin game for his performance vs rovers. This week I don't know as I wasn't at the Brechin game. A lot of people seem to have made the decision that Williamson is far better than Millen, I don't think this is true at all and them sharing the games is probably right.

7. Like who? I don't see anyone really kicking around this level I'm desperate to sign, and that's probably more true for experienced players than others, taking your forfar example, I'd much rather if we were forced to sign some of their players it would be guys like Hilson, Denholm or husband(ignoring our over abundance of Center mids) than shite like dods.

8. You don't rate any of the youngsters, so why the desperation to play Williamson? We've got talent in some of these young guys for sure and that is coming from outside the club as well.

[Larbert_Par]

The thread by Rastapari sums up dot net.

If you don't blindly follow the team and support the manager, no matter what, you must be against the club and not a true fan.

It was this kind of thinking that allowed masterton to pull the wool over the eyes of fans, the very thing that that guy protested about outside the stadium.

It's because we care deeply about the club and how the team is performing that we criticise and talk about it, if we didnt care we would just walk away.

An Aberdeen fan attended our game yesterday and described us as having no width, tactically inept and very poor at set pieces.

If he can see it after one game then that says it all for me.

Jefferies seems unable to fix it and stubbornly defends his players or fails to acknowledge any talent or skill from the opposition.

Why are we playing several youngsters who aren't physically able to cope with this level of football?

Why has set play defending not improved despite having full time training and better resources than all the teams in our league and arguably half the league above?

Why is Wallace constantly injured?

Why are we playing four central midfielders every week?

Why is Millen not attacking more and why doesn't Williamson get more of a chance?

Why do we not just sign more experienced guys? Forfar show that it's possible on a lower budget.

Playing youngsters simply isn't going to work, I don't rate any of them and I don't rate Jefferies as a manager and starting to really dislike his post match bullshit.

Wow. Talk about one extreme to another. I hear what you're saying and I don't see an issue with questioning the team, tactics and so on. Grant's yellow on daft.net was ridiculous.

To answer a few points though. We're playing youngsters because that's the majority of the squad we have. Otherwise we'd have had to sign a shedload of new players, for which we simply don't have the budget. Forfar do have some good, experienced pros but they are part-time - players who have gone on to careers outwith football. Being a full-time club, it's more difficult to attract seasoned pros who want to remain full-time on the sort of money we have to play with.

Wallace had two issues last season - he went for a double hernia operation in the summer, and has been, and appears to be still, troubled by this inflamtion of the pubic bone. I'm no expert, but it affects his ability to run if it flares up so clearly it's something they'll have to look at. I know he has missed the odd day or two of pre-season because of it.

I agree with you on the lack of natural width to the team, and I think when Stirling is back in the starting XI you'll see an improvement there. Unfortunately he isn't 100 per cent match fit yet, but I'd think he'll play some part on Tuesday and start on Saturday. Maybe even look to play Faissal wide as well? It definitely needs addressed though.

I've already made my point on the experienced players, but to add to it, the club's long-term vision (which I believe is correct) is to bring through our own players, who will then hopefully be sold to bigger clubs. Do we really want to go down a route of bringing in players on more money on a short-term basis? I think we'll look to strengthen still (I think we could do with another defender and midfielder) as promotion is crucial this season. But the only way the youngsters will learn is by playing - don't forget, a lot of them are only 18 or 19. I'm not excusing the start we've had this season, but they're going to be inconsistent. It was just a week or so ago they were being hailed for playing so well against Rovers!

You say you don't rate any of the youngsters. Does that include Ryan Williamson who you want in ahead of Millen? What about Lewis Martin? Good enough for Scotland's under-19's, but not good enough for League One?

I'm not saying everything's perfect, and I agree there are elements of JJ's team selection / tactics that fans are entitled to question. Your point about improving set-pieces is also valid.

But I just feel that with some folk, we're either really good or, after a defeat, we're utterly terrible. There seems to be no middle ground. However, this is the sort of debate that should be encouraged between supporters, whether we agree or not. Your post, like Grant's, made valid and reasonable points which I don't have a problem with.

I don't think its unfair for fans to outline their fears over Jefferies management.

I realise he has two relegations on his CV, albeit the first one was largely down to McIntyre failing to build a proper squad for SPL and he couldn't change much, so i will give him a pass on that one. In the First Division, yes we got a points deduction due to our financial troubles, however our fate remained in our hands to avoid the play offs and he messed it up.

First Division Relegation Season

- 3-1 up away to Partick with ten minutes to go and we lose two goals meaning we go into a final day showdown, yet at least our destiny is still in our hands

- We simply have to better Cowden's result, with us at home to an already relegated abysmal Airdrie team and Cowden facing a tricky match away to Hamilton. We end up losing and Cowden pull off a great win.

- In the play offs, we get humped by Forfar in the first leg, however we turn it around in the second albeit it helped with the fact that they were down to eight men. We are then well beaten by Hartley's Alloa in the final.

Last Season

- Aim was to get into the play offs and win them as everyone knew Rangers would win the league.

- We got into the play offs, yet our form leading into them was abysmal. Two wins in our last ten games, where we only managed to score eight goals. Jefferies got away with it though as he kept saying that he was constantly changing the team to keep as many players fit as possible for the play offs which were more important than any momentum leading into them.

- We lose the first leg to Stranraer and manage to overcome the part timers through extra time.

- Then we draw away to Cowdenbeath in the first leg and get embarrassingly humped in the second leg in front of a packed home support. For me personally, i have seen us lose a hell of a lot of games but that one hurt more than most, it was probably up there with that night in Perth.

This Season

- We sign some of the best players in the division from last season, including the top scorer which according to Jefferies gives us a stronger squad, yet we find ourselves without a win in our opening two league games and we haven't scored a goal either, which is simply not acceptable for the team that has the biggest budget and has been tipped by several to win the league.

There are those who disagree of course and believe that some are just overreacting based on the opening couple of games. However, what they need to realise is that it is not just about the opening couple of games, our form in 2014 has been really shoddy, so fans have a right to be concerned.

#apologiesforthelongpost

Again, valid points but I look at that Airdrie game and we should've been about 6 up at half time. Our own fault we weren't mind. But also the majority of the team playing in the play-offs were doubling up in under-20's games including the Youth Cup final, so it was mentally and physically draining for them.

While as I've said I'm not panicking just yet (nor do I think we were as bad as some made out yesterday) again, your point about our form in 2014 is valid. If we haven't seen much improvement after 6 or 7 games, then I'd be worried. For the moment though, we're only 2 games in and we know the players can play better. I have faith they will pick it up.

[Socks]

I find it weird that anyone blames Jim Jefferies for either relegation. He was appointed manager in March of the SPL season, and he wasn't abe to get a team who were out of ther depth to improve, which wasn't a surprse at all.

In the first division season, we started really well. Barring that pumping at Firhill, he held it together remarkably well for the first half of the season, even after the first part of that season's major issues started in October. We were top of the league after beating Dumbarton away in January. As the fnancial problems worsened, so did displays on the park, culmnating in the 4-0 home loss to Partick where nobody was even that fussed about the result due to the more important things happening, and the midweek loss to Falkirk the day we went into admnstration when the players' minds just didn't seem there - not surprising given that many knew they'd be made redundant the following day. If the criticism of the manager relates to the last 6 league games, after all the players made redundant left, that seems mad too. Given the team we were left with, a record of 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses was not bad going at all. Nobody thought we had the slightest chance at Firhill, and in the first half we were well outplayed as expected. The second half performance was outstanding, and although we lost the two late goals I was proud of them all that day. The Airdrie game was disapponting of course, but we were unlucky that day, having one of those games where we made loads of good chances but the ball just wouldn't go in. In the pay-off final we played badly in the first game, but Alloa simply had a better sde than we did for those two games. Although we won the seond game 1-0, Alloa were the better team, and would probably have won on the day if they'd had to.

Folk can legtmately criticise what happened yesterday and also some thngs from the end of last season, but I thnk it's completely unfair to use anything from the two relegation seasons as reason to criticise him. It would have been utterly absurd for him to have been sacked after either of those seasons.

[Parscelona]

I was more using the example of the Airdrie game as evidence of a bottle crash rather than blaming Jefferies for us going down. Even though we lost a few players, we should have beaten an already relegated Airdrie team, who were playing a few youngsters themselves, yet we couldn't deal with the pressure.

My growing lack of belief in Jefferies is based upon our form...or lack of form in 2014. If you include the play off games as league games, we have only won three of our last sixteen. That is an utterly dreadful record for a club like us at this level.

[DAFC]

I don't think its unfair for fans to outline their fears over Jefferies management.

I realise he has two relegations on his CV, albeit the first one was largely down to McIntyre failing to build a proper squad for SPL and he couldn't change much, so i will give him a pass on that one. In the First Division, yes we got a points deduction due to our financial troubles, however our fate remained in our hands to avoid the play offs and he messed it up.

First Division Relegation Season

- 3-1 up away to Partick with ten minutes to go and we lose two goals meaning we go into a final day showdown, yet at least our destiny is still in our hands

- We simply have to better Cowden's result, with us at home to an already relegated abysmal Airdrie team and Cowden facing a tricky match away to Hamilton. We end up losing and Cowden pull off a great win.

- In the play offs, we get humped by Forfar in the first leg, however we turn it around in the second albeit it helped with the fact that they were down to eight men. We are then well beaten by Hartley's Alloa in the final.

Last Season

- Aim was to get into the play offs and win them as everyone knew Rangers would win the league.

- We got into the play offs, yet our form leading into them was abysmal. Two wins in our last ten games, where we only managed to score eight goals. Jefferies got away with it though as he kept saying that he was constantly changing the team to keep as many players fit as possible for the play offs which were more important than any momentum leading into them.

- We lose the first leg to Stranraer and manage to overcome the part timers through extra time.

- Then we draw away to Cowdenbeath in the first leg and get embarrassingly humped in the second leg in front of a packed home support. For me personally, i have seen us lose a hell of a lot of games but that one hurt more than most, it was probably up there with that night in Perth.

This Season

- We sign some of the best players in the division from last season, including the top scorer which according to Jefferies gives us a stronger squad, yet we find ourselves without a win in our opening two league games and we haven't scored a goal either, which is simply not acceptable for the team that has the biggest budget and has been tipped by several to win the league.

There are those who disagree of course and believe that some are just overreacting based on the opening couple of games. However, what they need to realise is that it is not just about the opening couple of games, our form in 2014 has been really shoddy, so fans have a right to be concerned.

#apologiesforthelongpost

I think the common theme in those games is that there seems to be little or no improvement since the crisis and senior players were let go.

From this the common denominator seems to be that the young players just simply aren't good enough to perform consistently at this level.

The entire philosophy of trying to bring through young players isn't working - why are they all unable to follow instructions when we are a full time team.

Sorry but it's just not acceptable to lose so many games at this level with the resources we have. No offence to Forfar but we have been beaten easily by the same tactics three or four times in two years and Jefferies finds it laughable.

Look around at Cowden, Airdrie and others who are bringing through better young players with less resources, don't let all the tub thumping rhetoric about he stood by us when we were in trouble get in the way of the facts.

Unfortunately because of the crisis it will now take a total collapse for our board to step in and get rid.