Fae_the_'briggs Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 3 minutes ago, Greenacres said: This has been mentioned many times why must we be full time . Marv even said in his interview that you can make more money part time and having a full time job. We could pay good part time wages attract a,better quality of player who would just be as fit rather than full time boys. We will get nowhere trying to stay full time on the budget we have . Don't really get the logic in this argument. More clubs going part time, as looks possible, will mean that full time players will have to go part time so it's possibly the same player pool of players your attracting. Is there really that much of a wage gap between lower paid full time players ( like ours are probably) and the better part time players who will command better wages? Given the problem we have in attracting good full time players to come here, how can you be sure we'll attract good part timers. Some Lowland League and WoSL teams will still pay more than us anyway if we go part time which will be a better attraction for Central Belt players. A hybrid model might work but that raises more problems with maybe split training times, etc. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie S Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 (edited) I really like Bartley and I think he’s got great potential as a manager. He’s intelligent, articulate, ambitious and knows the game inside out. His team is a work in progress, but I’m less impressed with the squad he’s assembled than with the man himself. We’ve assembled a very young inexperienced squad, with the emphasis seemingly on potential, and future resale value, assuming we can develop some of these players. That’s not a bad template for a smaller League One side on a modest budget to follow, though it likely won’t result in immediate promotion back to the Championship. It depends on our expectations and aspirations. In terms of returning to the Championship any time soon, I think we’re a country mile away from that level, so, if that’s the goal, this squad probably isn’t going to get us there, this season at least. Some of the loan players we’ve brought in look a bit undercooked to me. McClelland may develop into a decent centre back, but he’s raw and prone to mistakes at the moment. He seems to play whenever he’s fit, but I don’t know what the terms of his loan are. I might have been tempted to pair the returning Brydon (our best defender) with Ambrose yesterday. Oscar MacIntrye has ability, but he’s looked like a wee boy lost at times in the left full back position. It isn’t always easy for kids, coming in on loan from Premiership clubs, to hit the ground running even at League One level. They’re up against battle-hardened experienced pros. Kelty are a team of lower League One journeymen, and they’ll likely finish bottom half, but they had more than enough to deal with us fairly easily yesterday. That should send alarm bells ringing. Last time I was at Kelty, we got skelped 3-0 back in February, not that long after Bartley had taken over. The mitigation then was that he’d taken over a very poor, demoralised side and you couldn’t expect instant magic. Eight months later, and I have to say, that performance yesterday wasn’t much better. Yes, I know we’ve suffered a load of injuries of late, but the team that we put out yesterday looked lightweight and uncompetitive. We looked like an academy team rather than a League One team. I imagine it would be a similar experience watching Hearts B play East Kilbride in the Lowland League, and in truth, the standard on display yesterday was unlikely to be very much better than that. We have a few players with nice technique, but more often than not, the League One journeymen we face week in week out will prevail against a callow lineup like yesterday’s due to their greater physicality, experience and nous. In the long run, a few of these players might come good, and a few years down the line have decent careers in the game, but in all probability they won’t be at Palmerston then, and that’s not going to help us get to where we want to go now, assuming promotion is the aim. The frustrating bit about yesterday was how insipid the performance was. I’ve been at most away games this season, and at Queens Park, Edinburgh City, Patrick and Cove, (though to a much lesser extent at Falkirk) we always looked a threat on the break. At Kelty, we posed no threat whatsoever. We were powderpuff in attack, with no pace on the counter, and a complete lack of supply to our lone striker. I can only assume Walker is one of the players who Bartley has pinpointed as not doing enough tracking back, as his pace was a huge part of that counter-attacking threat away from home, but the manager has shown a marked reluctance to even bring him off the bench of late, even when the team isn’t playing well, and his squad is depleted due to injuries. During the first half, we played the ball around nicely at times in the build up, but never remotely stretched their defence, and there were times when I was willing anyone just to have a go rather than take another touch, or look for another pass. When McKechnie did finally have a shot, it came back off the keeper and Hutchison netted the rebound. Unfortunately the lead was short lived and we conceded what looked like a softish penalty soon after. McKechnie, Brydon and Cochrane were all ok yesterday. I’d be hard pushed to give many of the others pass marks. Johnstone and Ferguson might become players, but made very little impact yesterday. Hard to tell with Hutchison as his service was terrible, but he took his goal well enough. Gibson wasn’t really at his best. Once again, as at Falkirk, I was bamboozled that Bartley took so long to introduce Walker, which must surely be down to the tracking back issue alluded to above, as in terms of attacking threat he offers a lot. Walker had an (almost) immediate impact, curling in a dangerous cross, more or less the first of the match, that resulted in a collision between two Kelty players that resulted in O’Ware being stretchered off. We certainly posed more threat in the last 15 mins, and for a while an equaliser looked likely, though Kelty sucker-punched us for the third in added-on time. If away performances had been highly promising in the early stages of the season (admittedly, our defence isn’t great, but we were always a threat on the counter), the last two away games (Falkirk and Kelty) have seen us offer little in an attacking sense. The players look to be lacking in confidence. The tempo has dipped and we seem to be trying to set up more cautiously. There was absolutely nothing about that performance yesterday that gives me any encouragement that we’re a serious contender for promotion. Yes, we’ll be better and more competitive when the injured players return, but IMO, the current squad is unlikely to get us back to the Championship. I don’t think Bartley is in any immediate danger, and I do think he’ll eventually come good, but the next transfer window will be a big one for the club. Edited October 1, 2023 by Frankie S 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenacres Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 42 minutes ago, Fae_the_'briggs said: Don't really get the logic in this argument. More clubs going part time, as looks possible, will mean that full time players will have to go part time so it's possibly the same player pool of players your attracting. Is there really that much of a wage gap between lower paid full time players ( like ours are probably) and the better part time players who will command better wages? Given the problem we have in attracting good full time players to come here, how can you be sure we'll attract good part timers. Some Lowland League and WoSL teams will still pay more than us anyway if we go part time which will be a better attraction for Central Belt players. A hybrid model might work but that raises more problems with maybe split training times, etc. We could try the hybrid set up think Airdrie and Raith did that for a while hopefully get the best of both worlds one thing for sure we need to change something as it is getting worse rather than better 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nithsdale Wanderer Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 2 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said: How does going out in the quarter final (effectively the first round) represent getting to within a whisker of the final? It doesn't. I realised a few hours ago. I think because we are League 1 now, I forgot the play-offs in the League above have an extra layer.. Seemed exciting at the time though, we really should have held on at Falkirk. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QOSQOS Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 I heard yesterday was our ‘youngest ever’ team, oldest was 23. Just curious, is that a fact or just speculation? Not sure where I would begin to check, it’s not stats that are immediately available. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biblemaster Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 3 hours ago, Waspie said: He (Church) wasn't a stand-out at Alloa. Should really have said he stood out whenever I seen him, which would have been twice at most! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayemphoto Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 New Match Album: Kelty Hearts v Queen of the South See the full album HERE 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazzyStar Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 Let’s all spare a thought for Iain Wilson, who has found himself in a terrible predicament Spoiler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERSOUTH Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 1 hour ago, MazzyStar said: Let’s all spare a thought for Iain Wilson, who has found himself in a terrible predicament Reveal hidden contents Explain?? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazzyStar Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 1 minute ago, SUPERSOUTH said: Explain?? Thought he was better than playing in league one and is now bottom of the championship with Morton. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QoS99 Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 18 minutes ago, MazzyStar said: Thought he was better than playing in league one and is now bottom of the championship with Morton. Yep sure he’s gutted about the team of superstars he’s left behind… 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazzyStar Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 (edited) 4 minutes ago, QoS99 said: Yep sure he’s gutted about the team of superstars he’s left behind… Well the team he’s currently at aren’t awash with superstars (or even many half decent players) either. Edited October 1, 2023 by MazzyStar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fae_the_'briggs Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 2 hours ago, MazzyStar said: Thought he was better than playing in league one and is now bottom of the championship with Morton. Couldn't care less tbqh, he's gone, we've got enough to think about with the form we're in now. I don't think it'll be entirely his fault where Morton are. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bod Posted October 2, 2023 Share Posted October 2, 2023 10 hours ago, MazzyStar said: Let’s all spare a thought for Iain Wilson, who has found himself in a terrible predicament Hide contents Oh to have had him in our midfield on Saturday! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
die hard doonhamer Posted October 2, 2023 Share Posted October 2, 2023 1 hour ago, bod said: Oh to have had him in our midfield on Saturday! Because he did so well last time we played at Kelty 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slipmat Posted October 3, 2023 Share Posted October 3, 2023 (edited) Reserves update: A very young reserve team was beaten 2-4 at home by Dunfermline today (well it has to be a very young team considering our more "experienced" first team players were all born in or after 2000 on Saturday ) Team was trialist, Burns, Kennedy, Watson, Hall, Rogerson (Hawes 63), Downie (Davidson 86), Oram (Millar 86), Irving, Meagher, Mendy (sub not used Thomson (GK): Mehmet, Fenton and Sutherland of the Pars' first team squad played and Ross Irving and Shay Meagher were our scorers. League takes a break until the end of November to focus on league cup games now. Here's the table: HOME AWAY POS. P W D L GF GA W D L GF GA GD PTS 1 Kilmarnock Reserves 3 1 0 1 8 3 1 0 0 4 1 8 6 2 Ayr United Reserves 2 1 0 0 4 2 1 0 0 2 0 4 6 3 Queen's Park Reserves 3 1 0 0 4 0 1 0 1 3 4 3 6 4 Dundee Reserves 3 1 0 1 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 -1 4 5 Livingston Reserves 2 1 0 0 7 0 0 0 1 2 4 5 3 6 Hibernian Reserves 2 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 1 3 0 3 7 Dunfermline Athletic Reserves 3 0 0 1 1 4 1 0 1 4 3 -2 3 8 Queen of the South Reserves 3 1 0 1 5 5 0 0 1 0 4 -4 3 9 Airdrieonians Reserves 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 13 -13 1 Edited October 3, 2023 by Slipmat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoBNob Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 Calling Sutherland a first team squad player when he's just went out on loan is a bit of a stretch, was a v v young side out yesterday. Every outfield player came through the academy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERSOUTH Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 Maybe they should have played the defence in the reserve match that we are going to play against Stirling. A get to know yer team mate and pitch exercise... A bit of practice... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19QOS19 Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 36 minutes ago, SUPERSOUTH said: Maybe they should have played the defence in the reserve match that we are going to play against Stirling. A get to know yer team mate and pitch exercise... A bit of practice... No chance we'd have got through it without another injury 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qos_75 Posted October 5, 2023 Author Share Posted October 5, 2023 19 hours ago, 19QOS19 said: No chance we'd have got through it without another injury Or shipping a couple of goals. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.