Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[parsforlife]

It's not worrying in anyway that some of our players are not top 4 capable.

[D.A.F.C]

AJ said he is pushing for top four and we should have the budget. I don't think we have the team atm.

I would be pleased with mid table and playing decent stuff tbh.

[Shooboax]

Sean Murdoch is vital for us, he's shown he's a steady keeper.

Geggan is really showing his potential last season after the mare the season before, back on track and a Captain.

Moffat is an intelligent player and with Higginbotham, Cardle and Williamson we have players who can get the ball to him in the box. In the last couple of seasons he's been tracking back out the box to bring the ball back in.

Lewis Martin is our best defender in my opinion, I think he'll prove to be a major asset this season.

Ben Everton Richards is a concern for me. He just needs to learn to play the simple ball coming out of defence rather then looking to surge out of position trying to play the long accurate pass. That's not his job. Keep it simple.

Wedderburn ...jury's out on him for me. Clearly brought in to give us a physical presence in midfield and to break up play. He might get caught out too often.

Higginbotham is clearly a talented lad. Some of the passes he's put forward have been pure class. Maybe a suspect temperament.

Ryan Williamson needs to stay the course, real talent but he looks fragile. Maybe not a natural right back but undoubted the service he provides.

 

[CowdenConvert]

Sean Murdoch is vital for us, he's shown he's a steady keeper.

Geggan is really showing his potential last season after the mare the season before, back on track and a Captain.

Moffat is an intelligent player and with Higginbotham, Cardle and Williamson we have players who can get the ball to him in the box. In the last couple of seasons he's been tracking back out the box to bring the ball back in.

Lewis Martin is our best defender in my opinion, I think he'll prove to be a major asset this season.

Ben Everton Richards is a concern for me. He just needs to learn to play the simple ball coming out of defence rather then looking to surge out of position trying to play the long accurate pass. That's not his job. Keep it simple.

Wedderburn ...jury's out on him for me. Clearly brought in to give us a physical presence in midfield and to break up play. He might get caught out too often.

Higginbotham is clearly a talented lad. Some of the passes he's put forward have been pure class. Maybe a suspect temperament.

Ryan Williamson needs to stay the course, real talent but he looks fragile. Maybe not a natural right back but undoubted the service he provides.

 

Higginbotham was miles above anyone else at CP. couple of mates went to the ICT game and said he was your best player.

Needs to sort that hair out though. WTF?

[Shooboax]

Aye mate the hairdo is awful. He's a player who should probably be playing at a higher level but the usual story not (yet) shown his talent on a regular basis.

[TheMessiah]

4 hours ago, D.A.F.C said:

We need to be steady and hard to beat at home just change straight from free flowing attack into solid defensive unit in the space of 2 months aye?, I think bringing in Wedderburn was a good idea and already Geggan and the team is benefitting but the performance against Cowden was a worry. we won 3-0 and the performance was a worry?

Our full backs are not top four material and going forward neither have a good delivery. I would play Martin before either. you would play Martin, at right-back, ahead of Williamson? Could really do with a solid right back like Reid was. I think Fordyce can play there so maybe? You'd play fucking Fordyce at right-back ahead of Williamson??? I hope he comes back as good as he was.

Ben is a worry for me, but hopefully the mistakes are sparse and he learns from them.

We definitely need another striker or two, a finisher Reilly? and a target man. Moffat is fantastic at holding the ball up but can't finish. Reilly looks a bit lost with the long balls tbh short sriker in not liking long balls shocker, he's played 2 competitive games.. Very hard to judge him as he's had not much to work with.

For the first time I'm starting to doubt AJ and some of his decisions, why, exacly? how much of it has been governed by financial reasons is unclear but man for man we don't look like we can cope with the top four on paper in certain areas.

If we play against fast skilful wingers it's game over. It's not though, is it?

An incredible amount of reactionary pish spouted into one post.

 

Back to .net please.

[itzdrk]

David Hutton

Wow that was a real throwback watching those highlights. What a charlatan.

[CALDERON]

A consolidation season for Dunfermline would be no disaster tbh. Especially after a few years away from this level.

[Have some faith in Magic]

5 hours ago, itzdrk said:

David Hutton

Wow that was a real throwback watching those highlights. What a charlatan.

He never looks like he is going to save anything at all. More flappers than a 20's Jazz club. 

Got to hope Murdoch gets back very soon. 

 

[smpar]

A consolidation season for Dunfermline would be no disaster tbh. Especially after a few years away from this level.

Definitely. I like Johnston's optimism and I think he really wants us to be aiming for the top 4, that comment wasn't just a crowd-pleaser. But that kind of target would make a 5th-7th place finish (which is much more likely IMO) look like a massive disappointment.

[parsforlife]

if we're expected to finish lower mid-table then i'd assume its a case of being better looking up towards a hopeful top 4 finish is a better target than looking down to avoid being dragged into a relegation fight.

[CALDERON]

Top 4 isnt out of the question.  St Mirren had a duff season which really helped us, that could happen to anyone I guess.  But 5th-7th is a reasonable start back at this level, and would probably see one of the "big" teams (if not both) in this league gone to help even out things for the next year.

Its unfortunate for teams at our level that this league has had some big players in it over the past few years, which dilutes the chances of everyone else to do much.  Things will even out eventually, its about being competitive until then. 

[Salvo Montalbano]

1 hour ago, Have some faith in Magic said:

Got to hope Murdoch gets back very soon. 

 

Another three weeks before Murdoch is back apparently. 

[CallumPar]

Let's be realistic here... At best, our lifeline fund is bringing our budget to a competitive level in this division. Looking at prize money from last season, we received around £105k and Ayr £90k. 8th in the championship received just under £170k. Raith in 4th received £274k (so around £170k more than us) and Falkirk £400k (almost 4 times what we got)... And well, there's no question that our budget is a lot lower than Hibs'. Dundee United got around £950k, and will receive parachute payments, so will be well ahead of us also.

This means that, budget wise, we are likely to be competing with Raith, Morton, St Mirren (who will be receiving parachute payments) & QotS. It won't be until we consolidate our Championship status, and receive the prize money from that, that will we will gain a financial advantage from the lifeline.

I realise that a bigger budget doesn't guarantee success and a smaller budget doesn't guarantee failure. But finances would suggest that anywhere from 4th-8th would be a decent finish. Anything above that, would be great and anything lower than that, would be poor.

We have several first team players (Murdoch, Williamson, Ben, Martin, Spence, Hopkirk, McCabe...) who have never played regular football above league one level before - some have arguably never played regular football at league one level.

The experience of Fordyce, Talbot, Geggan and Wedderburn in particular might come in handy, as they will know about grinding out results at this level, as well as recovering from poor results/performances. They were involved in teams that battled relegation. Geggan played for us, when we had a bunch of kids struggling to stay up. These guys will be wanting to prove what they can do, at this level.

Adapting to playing full time players most weeks, and higher quality of players, whilst dealing with the expectation of fans/coaching staff, will be a real test for these players. We have got quality, and some players who have coped at a higher level. Again, their experience should prove useful and hopefully help out others around them. It should be an interesting season, there will be a few learning curves and poor results, along the way. I just hope that when the going gets tough, the fans stick behind the team.

[DA Baracus]

Talking of Hopkirk, what's happened to him? Doesn't seem to be getting any game time. Is he injured?

[The Toun Clock]

9 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

Talking of Hopkirk, what's happened to him? Doesn't seem to be getting any game time. Is he injured?

Aye he's injured mate. Not too sure what the problem is but I noticed he put a post on social media last week saying he'd had a setback.

[Shooboax]

Consolidating ourselves in this league is exactly what we need to do.

Steady progress and and hanging onto to a reasonable level of realism is how it should be.

AJ has stated that he think top four is a reasonable ambition for the club. Good luck with that.

[Shandon Par]

Losing 5-1 is shite, can't escape that fact, but it was only the league cup. Getting thumped by the same margin by St Mirren didn't do us too much harm last season. It's only the central striking role that concerns me - hopefully Faissal gets sick of turning out for Blackburn's u-23s but if not, Reilly or Moff need to step up (unless AJ) unearths a gem. 

Williamson doesn't worry me as much as he does others - big Nat seemed to have a good understanding with him, as did Paton last year. He gives us so much going forward that the other guys need to make sure to cover him when he's on his forays. Martin can pressurise Talbot for LB slot. Higgin... and Cardle are exciting players. 

Even Hutton doesn't worry me too much - the players probably needed a stern lesson like the other night to make them realise there's no margin for error this season. 

[DA Baracus]

We've just signed Scott Lochhead. I assume he's one for the under 20s? Used to play for Dundee United. 

[Poet of the Macabre]

What have I missed over the last two weeks?