Dunfermline Athletic vs Alloa Athletic

[LeodhasXD]

10 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Did he though? I guess the answer is yes since you "finished" 8th and stayed up but it's often forgotten in the arguments about Thistle and their game in hand whilst being 2 points behind us that it was very much a 3 horse race. Alloa were 3 points clear when things stopped off the back of a terrific post Xmas run and, in particular, having taken 7 points out of 9 against us. Also 3 draws in three v Thistle.

Grant had one window in reality. He got O'Hara firing only behind Nisbet and Shankland. And with the team that swept aside Inverness, it was looking bright until the time that play got stopped. If I remember right Partick and yourselves were on an awful run.

Inverness never looked liked scoring. Scott Banks looked unplayable. I was glad to see that was not what he was like on Saturday. The kind of run you are on just now I wouldn't have been surprised for us to do last year with that team. And as has been mentioned this season we've had to replace Flannigan, O'Hara, Banks while coping with a lengthy absence of Trouten (top scorer two years ago and second last year) and Taggart who was excellent on Saturday again. 

I'm maybe different from most supporters in that I can enjoy an almost neutral view of the game and appreciate it for what it was. Dunfermline a good back's to the wall job after a solid half hour while Alloa were perhaps as good as we've been since the game against Dundee on the telly. I've said from the first game against Dunfermline that's one of their strengths soaking up pressure and punishing teams but if we can continue playing like that going forward We'll pick up points most times than not but even if we don't, it's entertaining enough for me to recommend watching.

 

[Father Barrys Sign (Top Half)]

2 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Did he though? I guess the answer is yes since you "finished" 8th and stayed up but it's often forgotten in the arguments about Thistle and their game in hand whilst being 2 points behind us that it was very much a 3 horse race. Alloa were 3 points clear when things stopped off the back of a terrific post Xmas run and, in particular, having taken 7 points out of 9 against us. Also 3 draws in three v Thistle.

You can spin that either way. Certainly in coming with results at just the right time, particularly against your direct rivals, Grant did a great job. It might also be considered that he got lucky with the timing of the shutdown arriving just when Alloa had completed a run of 1 defeat in 8. If it had arrived 6 weeks earlier you'd have been clear at the bottom.. If it had arrived 2 months later, who knows? He's lost your position as "best part time team in the country" and doesn't look massively likely to achieve that this season either.

Just playing Devil's Advocate though, I've no axe to grind with Grant other than the fact he nearly always beats us (so did most previous Alloa managers since Hartley mind you). It might be argued we've kept him in a job with our inept results against him.

Just to back up Leodhas personally I think Grant did really well last season, particularly taking into account the circumstances. He was appointed as competitive games started- squad was threadbare and he had to hit the ground running in terms of assessment of squad and putting his stamp on player deployment, tactics etc.

He also had to contend with injuries to key players, far worse than anything his predecessor Goodwin had to deal with. No different to a lot of other clubs of course, but we always run lean in terms of squad numbers and need a bit of luck to have our key players available regularly.

Of course theres no way of telling how the season was going to end, and Championship is hugely unpredictable at the best of times, with not much in it at the bottom when it was called. But when season stopped as you say we were on a really good run and looking likely to climb the table. I think the majority of the support did not see the curtailment as a relief, more of a missed opportunity to see how far the team would go.

His signings were all really good and we ended the season with our best performance of the campaign- a really dominant win over Inverness.

Arbroath benefitted from being a bit of a surprise package, but to their credit had an excellent season. I dont really think finishing above Alloa really hurt Grant's reputation. And again, we were in good form with an outside chance of potentially catching them.

Given all this, I think Grant had a successful season after taking a bit of time to find his feet. 

[Skyline Drifter]

Like I said, I've no axe to grind with Grant. From the outside I think he's done a good job and I'm a little surprised at some of the discontent on here although I guess looking increasingly marooned in 10th will do that.

I'm just suggesting he benefited a fair bit from fortunate timing in the ending of the season last year. If the season had been ended on January 1st would he have been seen as having done a great job last season?

I absolutely acknowledge that the same is true of Allan Johnston this season. If it had ended on Boxing Day he would be getting absolute pelters (indeed he was at the time). But it didn't and two months down the line we've lost only one game since and been in the lead in every single game with only yourselves actually beating us. Right now his stock is high again. Maybe in a month it's not so high again.

[Waspie]

5 hours ago, CallumPar said:

 

Is this serious? In football, winning is all that matters. Regardless of any opinions about Saturday’s game, the fact is that Dunfermline won and got 3 points, moving us further ahead of Raith and Dundee.

Yes, we would all like to see our team play well and win. But it’s a result-based industry and it’s all about getting as many points on the board as possible. Even teams spending millions of pounds on players have to win ugly at times. In fact, winning ugly is normally the difference between winning promotion and falling short, or the difference between avoiding relegation and getting relegated. If anything, we haven’t won ugly often enough over the last few years. Sometimes you need to play poorly and win, especially in a division as tight as this one.

What awkward truths are we apparently trying to avoid here? Nobody is claiming we played well. Everyone knows we need to play better if we want to get promoted. Sorry if this seems a little harsh, but the ‘awkward truth’ is, given your league position, getting points on the board is all you should be worried about with just 11 games left this season.

 

The point I was making was obvious enough and other Dunfermline fans don't appear to have any problem working it out, with a few agreeing. And I've also said a few times that our position looks bleak. 

4 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Did he though? I guess the answer is yes since you "finished" 8th and stayed up but it's often forgotten in the arguments about Thistle and their game in hand whilst being 2 points behind us that it was very much a 3 horse race. Alloa were 3 points clear when things stopped off the back of a terrific post Xmas run and, in particular, having taken 7 points out of 9 against us. Also 3 draws in three v Thistle.

You can spin that either way. Certainly in coming with results at just the right time, particularly against your direct rivals, Grant did a great job. It might also be considered that he got lucky with the timing of the shutdown arriving just when Alloa had completed a run of 1 defeat in 8. If it had arrived 6 weeks earlier you'd have been clear at the bottom.. If it had arrived 2 months later, who knows? He's lost your position as "best part time team in the country" and doesn't look massively likely to achieve that this season either.

Just playing Devil's Advocate though, I've no axe to grind with Grant other than the fact he nearly always beats us (so did most previous Alloa managers since Hartley mind you). It might be argued we've kept him in a job with our inept results against him.

Leodhas and Father Barry have answered this already and I agree with their points. He came in right on the eve of the season and took a while to find his feet but as the season came to a premature finish we were looking stronger than at any point previously. We'll never know now but I don't think we'd have had any relegation issues. Subsequent loss of Flannigan and O'Hara and some excellent loans meant he started again a few months later with significantly weaker team, and he has had shite luck with injuries too. There are certainly plenty of things he could have done better the last few months too but overall he is still in credit I'd say. The chairman won't even be thinking about a change. 

Edited February 22, 2021 by Waspie