Mid-term report card

[Passionate]

13 hours ago, BFTD said:

What happened to you guys in October? Looking like title contenders, then dropped like a fucking stone!

A few factors. A clusterfuck of a last week of the last transfer window,  we needed 2 players in but ended up losing 2 players Wylie and Sal,  we needed a big bit of luck after that, when you rely on it, you don't get it,   the best right back in the league as mooted by many on here,  Ballantyne was red carded twice, Murray Johnson the very talented keeper going back to Hibs,  being replaced by a not ready but promising youth keeper Henderson.....  Followed quickly to injuries to our talisman Frizzell and  McGill,  it was square pegs in round holes for a few games and we were basically a shambles all due to having no options in any positions,

We finally seem to have our defence sorted which gives us more options, but if Ballantyne fancies an early bath again he will have a 4 game ban looming and musical positions might start again,   imperative we right the wrongs in the January window...

[Passionate]

1 minute ago, FFC 1876 said:

I'm being greedy and going with a 20 man squad from the league that have impressed me this season.

Murray Johnson

Scott Taggart
Sam Fisher
Coll Donaldson
Leon Mccann

Chris Mochrie
Stephen McGinn
Adam Frizzell
Callumn Morrison

Juan Alegria
Ruari Paton

Bench:

PJ Morrison
Kyle Benedictus
Josh Edwards
Iain Wilson
Nicky Low
Kai Kennedy
Callum Smith
Lewis Jamieson
Alfie Agyeman

I will deviate slightly

 

Johnson Air

 

Taggart.   All

Bene.       Dunf

Fontaine.  Edin

MacDonald.   Edin

 

Mochrie  Dunfermline

Frizzell.    Air

Scougall  All

McCabe  Air

 

Robertson. Edin

McIver. All..

 

Going old school 4 4 2

 Subs..

 

Mehmet Dunfermline

Edwards   Dunfermline

Allegria  Fal

Smith.  Air

Wilson qos

Carre Pet

Lyons Mon

 

Going for an experienced back 4 , talented young keeper,   Midfield you might think is a bit light, but with McCabe sitting deep, let's the rest play and up front, 2 physical strikers with different skill sets who can score goals,  bench has options if things go pete tong..

 

[Slipmat]

1 hour ago, FFC 1876 said:

I'm being greedy and going with a 20 man squad from the league that have impressed me this season.

Murray Johnson

Scott Taggart
Sam Fisher
Coll Donaldson
Leon Mccann

Chris Mochrie
Stephen McGinn
Adam Frizzell
Callumn Morrison

Juan Alegria
Ruari Paton

Bench:

PJ Morrison
Kyle Benedictus
Josh Edwards
Iain Wilson
Nicky Low
Kai Kennedy
Callum Smith
Lewis Jamieson
Alfie Agyeman

I thought PJ Morrison was a total bombscare on Friday night.  A one-off blip perhaps given you have him in your squad?

Based on his performances against Queens I'd put Burrell straight into any starting eleven.  He's torn our so-called defence a collective new one twice.

Edited December 27, 2022 by Slipmat

[qos_75]

3 hours ago, Rjc-1988 said:

A very accurate summary of things - continuing to sign squad player after squad player also compounds the misery. We have a huge squad and for once actually have some decent young local players who sadly have rarely featured because the Manager stayed loyal to under-performing players that he brought in. Losing Willie’s services as a player (for some inexplicable reason) had  disastrous consequences as it meant that this truly dreadful defence became a permanent feature. No matter the cost some of these contracts need “ripped up” asap and replacements have to be found from somewhere - it would take a monumental error of judgement for any newcomers to be worse than the defenders we currently have.

I am sure Wullie Gibson said over the summer, that he was going for “quality rather than quantity”. He must have been misquoted there. 

I would like to think the second half of the season will get better. However, I won’t be holding my breath.

Ultimately the key will be getting a manager that can get a tune out of the players on a regular basis. 

[FFC 1876]

8 minutes ago, Slipmat said:

I thought PJ Morrison was a total bombscare on Friday night.  A one-off blip perhaps given you have him in your squad?

Based on his performances against Queens I'd put Burrell straight into any starting eleven.  He's torn our so-called defence a collective new one twice.

He's only just back having been out for months with a knee injury, prior to that he was doing well for us so that's why he's in there. Burrell's hot and cold and he's very easily bullied, coming on later in a game when there's a chance to get in behind a tiring defence suits him perfectly. 

Alegria's a better foil to play off of as he's very good at bringing other players into the game. 2 goals and 2 assists for him in the 2 games he's played against your lot.

Edited December 27, 2022 by FFC 1876

[DAFC.]

Expected us to be in a similar position to where QoS are just now after such a cluster-f**k of a season last year, so fairly chuffed with the way things have panned out.

Unsure if I am being overly-critical, but despite being top and PROBABLY the best team in the league, there has been a fair amount of shite performances, especially at home. The league is that dreadful that we will get away with it though. Clyde and Peterhead look like League 2 jobbers sleepwalking their way through this season, yet we somehow through 4 points away to them. Those are the two games which have annoyed me the most. 

The home performances have been questionable this season. It’s a season where we are endeavouring to get the job done without playing particularly well or looking like we were back in 2015/16 ie pumping teams with little effort. Tad harsh there as this team is nowhere near as good as that one, but we should be aiming for those levels given stature, budget etc etc.

At this point I’ll go out on a limb and say we’ll win the league, but there’ll be plenty of draws on the way. If we’d got all those 6 points we should have against Clyde and Peterhead, at this point in the season, I’d be stunned if we didn’t go on to win it. As it is, we failed to get those 6 points, so there is still that nagging doubt as we aren’t as far away from Edinburgh and Falkirk as we probably should be. 

 

 

[TheBigGuy]

Clyde are doing slightly better than what I thought. I didn't envisage Peterhead being below us or by so many points.

Jim Duffy appears to be getting more of a tune out of the squad now. Our best hope is to probably win the 9th place playoff? I believe we can do this as Dumbarton look to be the best league two can offer.

I'd say there is an ever increasing kasim between 8th in League One and ourselves and below. I don't see a bright future for the club sadly. But the former may keep us alive and kicking in league one slightly longer.

[Reggie Perrin]

2 hours ago, TheBigGuy said:

Clyde are doing slightly better than what I thought. I didn't envisage Peterhead being below us or by so many points.

Jim Duffy appears to be getting more of a tune out of the squad now. Our best hope is to probably win the 9th place playoff? I believe we can do this as Dumbarton look to be the best league two can offer.

I'd say there is an ever increasing kasim between 8th in League One and ourselves and below. I don't see a bright future for the club sadly. But the former may keep us alive and kicking in league one slightly longer.

Chasm 

[Shandon Par]

23 hours ago, Reggie Perrin said:

Chasm 

Colin Kasim Richards.

[Guest]

It’s difficult to be totally objective about a mid term report card.

Plus points have to be the overall recruitment which is just about as good as we could have hoped for, and some results being unexpectedly good.

Downsides are definitely the “tinker” moments (Kelty away being a big let down) and despite some signs that McGlynn was getting more from last season’s duds, they have all reverted to type other than McCann who has become our Mr Consistency, and probably our player of the season.

Results against Dunfermline, Airdrie and Montrose (what we would have considered key opposition) have continued to disappoint (especially when the latter two are weaker than last season and we are stronger).

I guess I would have gone for a B, but given the gap to Dunfermline, it’s a B- from me. Much improved over last season’s F.

[LeodhasXD]

Mid term report card: D

Final report when we win another famous promotion:

[parsforlife]

A- things can’t realistically be going much better,  solid as f**k in defence resulting in only one league defeat.  The only thing stopping it being A+ is we miss a little bit of spark going forward and have ended up with a few more draws than ideal, that’s being greedy tho.

[Otis Blue]

Has to be a "D-" for QOS ... lack of experience at the helm, at goalkeeper and at key central defence have been the big deficiencies.  Must do better, second half.

Edited December 30, 2022 by Otis Blue

[Waspie]

A lot better than last season for Alloa in that we are safe from relegation concerns and in contention for the promotion play-offs, but in truth we haven't been great at all and often pretty disjointed as a team. Frequent changes in shape and personnel haven't helped and we aren't as good as we could be given some of the players we have. 

It's a reflection on how poor the league is that we are in contention. The standard has been dropping for a while but this season is particularly poor. Of the three sides I expected to be competing for the title, have to give Dunfermline credit for being top and losing just one game. Good at the back and enough further up to keep collecting points. In truth though, they haven't been particularly impressive and with the resources and players they have - in a shit league too - could be a lot better. Maybe they will kick on further but as it stands they are probably the leaders the league deserves. Falkirk can argue they are making some kind of progress under McGlynn after years of regression, but again they really haven't been great either. Perhaps more to come from them as McGlynn continues to sort out the mess he inherited. QoS have been really grim. Big job for the new manager there but with the right appointment they are certainly still capable of getting to the play-offs 

I expected another group to be battling for fourth. Montrose look to have plateaued a bit this season and it seems to be the first real challenge for Petrie in his successful reign there. By no means a disaster and still in contention but they aren't as good as they were and perhaps a rebuild required. Airdrie have gone backwards a lot from last season and questions remain about their rather radical decision on the new management team. Kelty might be happy enough to be consolidating but like Alloa, have players to be doing better than they are. 

Of the three I thought would be at the bottom Edinburgh have done fantastically well. Maybury spent his budget well and would appear to have improved players he inherited too. All this amidst turmoil off the field. By far the most impressive achievement in the league so far. Surely bigger clubs are keeping an eye on Maybury. 

Clyde and Peterhead have been terrible, two of the weakest sides at this level for a long time. However tough circumstances were, the two managers who departed those clubs left a real mess behind them and a huge challenge for the new men. 

[HoBNob]

Alloa, having played a game more, and being ten points behind, are in contention for the title? 

[Waspie]

5 minutes ago, Grant228 said:

Alloa, having played a game more, and being ten points behind, are in contention for the title? 

For the play-offs. Although I don't expect us to finish in the top four. 

[Passionate]

10 hours ago, Waspie said:

A lot better than last season for Alloa in that we are safe from relegation concerns and in contention for the promotion play-offs, but in truth we haven't been great at all and often pretty disjointed as a team. Frequent changes in shape and personnel haven't helped and we aren't as good as we could be given some of the players we have. 

It's a reflection on how poor the league is that we are in contention. The standard has been dropping for a while but this season is particularly poor. Of the three sides I expected to be competing for the title, have to give Dunfermline credit for being top and losing just one game. Good at the back and enough further up to keep collecting points. In truth though, they haven't been particularly impressive and with the resources and players they have - in a shit league too - could be a lot better. Maybe they will kick on further but as it stands they are probably the leaders the league deserves. Falkirk can argue they are making some kind of progress under McGlynn after years of regression, but again they really haven't been great either. Perhaps more to come from them as McGlynn continues to sort out the mess he inherited. QoS have been really grim. Big job for the new manager there but with the right appointment they are certainly still capable of getting to the play-offs 

I expected another group to be battling for fourth. Montrose look to have plateaued a bit this season and it seems to be the first real challenge for Petrie in his successful reign there. By no means a disaster and still in contention but they aren't as good as they were and perhaps a rebuild required. Airdrie have gone backwards a lot from last season and questions remain about their rather radical decision on the new management team. Kelty might be happy enough to be consolidating but like Alloa, have players to be doing better than they are. 

Of the three I thought would be at the bottom Edinburgh have done fantastically well. Maybury spent his budget well and would appear to have improved players he inherited too. All this amidst turmoil off the field. By far the most impressive achievement in the league so far. Surely bigger clubs are keeping an eye on Maybury. 

Clyde and Peterhead have been terrible, two of the weakest sides at this level for a long time. However tough circumstances were, the two managers who departed those clubs left a real mess behind them and a huge challenge for the new men. 

Not convinced this year's league is poor,  we seem to be lifers here now,  The league is now getting choc full of teams who don't think they should be there,   Dunfermline, Falkirk, Alloa, QOS, probably Airdrie, the quality o f player and manager is decent,  With a small window of getting 2 max teams promoted , you can see where frustration kicks in,    probably the aforementioned teams and you can throw in Edinburgh and Montrose and I don't think they would be any worse than Accies, Arbroath and Cove in the championship..   The league itself could do with a couple of the ' big one's getting promoted,  pick which 2 you want.... I don't think anybody would have picked Cove and QP to go up last season.....

[Mr November]

14 minutes ago, Passionate said:

Not convinced this year's league is poor,  we seem to be lifers here now,  The league is now getting choc full of teams who don't think they should be there,   Dunfermline, Falkirk, Alloa, QOS, probably Airdrie, the quality o f player and manager is decent,  With a small window of getting 2 max teams promoted , you can see where frustration kicks in,    probably the aforementioned teams and you can throw in Edinburgh and Montrose and I don't think they would be any worse than Accies, Arbroath and Cove in the championship..   The league itself could do with a couple of the ' big one's getting promoted,  pick which 2 you want.... I don't think anybody would have picked Cove and QP to go up last season.....

As you say, we’ve been stuck here for longer than anyone and I think the league definitely has a lot more quality now than it did five or six years ago. There isn’t a particularly great team in this league but I think the overall quality and competition is certainly a lot stronger now than it has been for a while.

I’ve mentioned it before but Livingston aside, the quality in 16/17 was dreadful, with one of the worst Airdrie sides in memory finishing 3rd and that Brechin team that went on to win four points in the Championship getting promoted. I’d fancy everyone other than Peterhead and Clyde to beat those two teams. I think the main reason is the influx of Cove, Queen’s Park, Kelty etc compared to having a few jobber teams, which makes things a lot trickier for clubs like Airdrie, Alloa etc.

 

[Waspie]

9 hours ago, Passionate said:

Not convinced this year's league is poor,  we seem to be lifers here now,  The league is now getting choc full of teams who don't think they should be there,   Dunfermline, Falkirk, Alloa, QOS, probably Airdrie, the quality o f player and manager is decent,  With a small window of getting 2 max teams promoted , you can see where frustration kicks in,    probably the aforementioned teams and you can throw in Edinburgh and Montrose and I don't think they would be any worse than Accies, Arbroath and Cove in the championship..   The league itself could do with a couple of the ' big one's getting promoted,  pick which 2 you want.... I don't think anybody would have picked Cove and QP to go up last season.....

I certainly don't think Alloa shouldn't be here. The third tier is pretty much our natural level as a club since the four league setup began. 

Interesting point about the standard. I felt the level in the Championship was dropping over our most recent three years in that league and it didn't appear to be particularly strong last season, or indeed again this season. There are some very average looking sides in contention for promotion there too. 

I didn't think last season in this league was great but Cove were a pretty solid outfit and I wasn't surprised they went up. QP were a pretty poor team but things fell into place nicely for them and they took advantage. They are clearly a better team now, although the fact they are sitting 2nd in the Championship is perhaps again a reflection of falling standards there too. 

And as an aside, I don't think a poor Brechin side fluking promotion in 16/17 is a reflection on the standard of the league that season. We made a mess of the play-offs that season but we finished miles ahead of Brechin in the league and actually beat them 6-1 a few weeks earlier. Indeed while we weren't as good post Jack Ross, the Alloa side of the first few months of that season was class. Knocked 2 Premier League sides out of the League Cup and gave the Celtic team who went unbeaten a very tough game. That team and the side who went up the year after (after a slow start in fairness) were absolutely miles ahead of the current Alloa team. 

Standard is subjective though and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Waspie

[BFTD]

Aye, League One's been gradually filling up with clubs who feel they could or should be playing at a higher level, but none of them look like they're too good to be here - without changes after promotion, you wouldn't put money against anyone being involved in a Championship relegation battle next season.

I don't think anyone here thinks Alloa should be in the Championship - we've been occasional raiders, even at our most successful times, and it's slowly getting more difficult. For example, there are five clubs currently above us in the structure who weren't in the SFL thirty years ago, and there'll likely be more to come. That's not a complaint, just an example of why nobody at Alloa's getting carried away about our station in life!