Dougie's Morton v Dick's Arbroath

[ClydeTon]

Arbroath may be shite but I am still terrified of this fixture.

That is all.

Edited August 23, 2023 by ClydeTon
Title was wrong way round. F*d.

[1320Lichtie]

We are much better than last year on paper, a million miles better - although that’s not shown up yet in the results - and I believe we can be a good team. No confidence in us just now though so f**k knows what will happen here

 

Also think every team In the league could have potentially come away with 0 points from the first 3 fixtures we had 

Edited August 20, 2023 by 1320Lichtie

[ExiledLichtie]

No matter how terrible times are, no matter the run we are on, Morton is the one shining light.  They pretty much belong in our trophy cabinet.  If we don't get 3 points here, then we're no more than 3 games from a change in management.

Edited August 20, 2023 by ExiledLichtie

[timlichtie]

1 hour ago, ExiledLichtie said:

No matter how terrible times are, no matter the run we are all, Morton is the one shining light.  They pretty much belong in our trophy cabinet.  If we don't get 3 points here, then we're no more than 3 games from a change in management.

I’m looking forward to this. Cappielow is always a good venue.

Morton are probably closer to management change than us. Dougie  had worked wonders and must be high on the list for a step up.

[madton]

Its about time we finally beat this lot surely? Playing well generally but giving away some silly goals, need to cut them out.

Encouraging to see Baird on the bench yesterday, quicker he is back in the middle of our defence the better. Could he start?

Power was very impressive again yesterday, delighted we have him. Boyd will come back into the starting 11 and Wilson will be in the squad too so we are in decent shape. No idea how long Quitongo is out, thought we missed him yesterday, hopefully not out for long.

We have been expecting additional defensive options for weeks now so we live in hope that we bring at least a RB in before Sat. We are minted after the payday so we need to add some final pieces of quality. If we do, we can absolutely be in and around the top 4.

3-0 pumping. Oakley double, Boyd.

Edited August 20, 2023 by madton

[clashcityrocker]

17 hours ago, ClydeTon said:

Arbroath may be shite

Sorry, your information is wrong - Arbroath have a good squad of players and comparisons to last season are lazy and invalid.

Will we win the game? Maybe, we have a decent chance.

Overall Arbroath are slowly starting to improve as the new signings start to gel - just need a good convincing win to get the momentum going - we were very unlucky not to take at least a point against Queens at the weekend.

Away win.

[ExiledLichtie]

4 minutes ago, clashcityrocker said:

Sorry, your information is wrong - Arbroath have a good squad of players and comparisons to last season are lazy and invalid.

 

0 points from 9 and humped out the league cup groups.  I'm not sure what's so wrong about their information...

[1320Lichtie]

I don’t think we are shite I think we have had a hard first 3 fixtures and there is plenty of potential there in our squad but I’m yet to be proved wrong on that and mostly overall up until this point we have been most definitely shite with a manager who’s been erratic and infuriating and if I was looking in from the outside I would be under the impression that we were shite too 

 

So yeah we will continue to be called shite until results improve and that’s completely fair 

[lichtie23]

1 hour ago, clashcityrocker said:

Sorry, your information is wrong - Arbroath have a good squad of players and comparisons to last season are lazy and invalid.

Will we win the game? Maybe, we have a decent chance.

Overall Arbroath are slowly starting to improve as the new signings start to gel - just need a good convincing win to get the momentum going - we were very unlucky not to take at least a point against Queens at the weekend.

Away win.

0 points in 3 league games. 1 win from 7 competitive fixtures 

[lichtie23]

I’m in the minority here but I think if we lose and aren’t competitive then Dick has to go. 
 

Don’t expect McKenna to be fit for this after going off on Saturday. Fingers crossed (as always) that we have a left back signed 

[Jamie_M]

14 hours ago, madton said:

Encouraging to see Baird on the bench yesterday, quicker he is back in the middle of our defence the better. Could he start?

 

 

Not sure I would be reading too much into that just yet.

His place on the bench seemed far more about making up the numbers than being close to action.

His hand is still certainly strapped up.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Jamie_M

[madton]

You're not sacking Dick after 4 league games surely?

His job is to keep you in this league and he has done that the last 5 seasons. What is the expectation for Arbroath when trying to compete with full time teams with bigger budgets? 

You've not started well but surely the board only consider sacking him if he is marooned at the bottom of the league much further into the season if at all?

Its very difficult for part time teams to survive in this league for a decent period of time as Alloa, Dumbarton, Cove, Brechin etc have all shown in recent years so Dick has done a great job in that respect.

I'd be amazed if your board were even considering sacking him at the point of the season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[madton]

1 minute ago, Jamie_M said:

Not sure I would be reading oo much into that just yet.

His place on the bench seemed far more about making up the numbers than being close to action.

His hand is still certainly strapped up.

Nah i get that but i dont think Dougie is the kind of guy to stick a player on the bench to avoid embarrassment. If he is nowhere near, I don't think Dougie names him.

Would have been interesting to see if he would have played had O'Connor or Broadfoot went off with an injury with 15/20 to go.

His return can't come quick enough in any case.

 

 

 

[lichtie23]

14 minutes ago, madton said:

You're not sacking Dick after 4 league games surely?

His job is to keep you in this league and he has done that the last 5 seasons. What is the expectation for Arbroath when trying to compete with full time teams with bigger budgets? 

You've not started well but surely the board only consider sacking him if he is marooned at the bottom of the league much further into the season if at all?

Its very difficult for part time teams to survive in this league for a decent period of time as Alloa, Dumbarton, Cove, Brechin etc have all shown in recent years so Dick has done a great job in that respect.

I'd be amazed if your board were even considering sacking him at the point of the season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No I don’t think we will. It’s just my opinion. I personally think he’s bulletproof 

[Smokerson]

13 minutes ago, madton said:

You're not sacking Dick after 4 league games surely?

His job is to keep you in this league and he has done that the last 5 seasons. What is the expectation for Arbroath when trying to compete with full time teams with bigger budgets? 

You've not started well but surely the board only consider sacking him if he is marooned at the bottom of the league much further into the season if at all?

Its very difficult for part time teams to survive in this league for a decent period of time as Alloa, Dumbarton, Cove, Brechin etc have all shown in recent years so Dick has done a great job in that respect.

I'd be amazed if your board were even considering sacking him at the point of the season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

He has done a great job and there's no way we will be looking at sacking him.

The simple fact is we have to start picking up points asap, I don't think there will be two teams as poor as Cove and Hamilton were so we have to hang in there and not get detached. We have the nucleus of a decent team.

[Jamie_M]

6 minutes ago, madton said:

Nah i get that but i dont think Dougie is the kind of guy to stick a player on the bench to avoid embarrassment. If he is nowhere near, I don't think Dougie names him.

Would have been interesting to see if he would have played had O'Connor or Broadfoot went off with an injury with 15/20 to go.

His return can't come quick enough in any case.

 

 

 

Ibrox, in front of the cameras might have added extra pressure on that. Looked bad enough having 4 subs mind 3.

Not like its a leg injury so mobility wasn't an issue if still injured. Having him involved with the group in warm up etc would have still made it worth it.

All guesswork.

The fact he never got on for a few minutes either. Maybe he would have if we were a couple down rather than still chasing the game but who knows.

[ExiledLichtie]

Dick has done an amazing job, one of our greatest managers, but last year, he had 2 bad transfer windows, and played some truly awful football.  So far this season, he looks to have signed considerably better players, but some of his tactical choices have been really poor.  The question is whether he is getting the best out of our current players.  Last year, I thought our players were better than our management made them look, and I think its been the same so far this season too.

Ultimately, it just might be his time, and we might need a fresh face and new ideas in.  It can be very difficult to arrest long runs of poor performance.  Last week was a much better performance, but we need to follow that up with a result this week.

[Tattie36]

Dick would not be sacked because of 4 or 5 or even 10 bad league results this season, it would be due to an accumulation of over a year of dreadful results, performances, signings, failed promises etc etc etc.

I don’t believe he’s bulletproof at all and I’d be surprised if he’s not on some kind of performance review at the moment. You can tell by his body language etc that he knows he’s under pressure.

The club have invested relatively very large amounts in the club, on and off the field and we are now set up to be a Championship team. There has already been a significant hit on season ticket sales. If the lack of results and performances continues and isn’t seen as enough to get him on its own then once hospitality, merch sales and gates start taking a significant hit then his time will be up imo. It’s a business after all and there has to be a point where it becomes untenable, no matter how successful the management team have been in the past.

A good performance and a point or 3 on Saturday would go a long way to reversing some of the negativity.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Tattie36

[ClydeTon]

5 hours ago, clashcityrocker said:

Sorry, your information is wrong - Arbroath have a good squad of players and comparisons to last season are lazy and invalid.

Will we win the game? Maybe, we have a decent chance.

Overall Arbroath are slowly starting to improve as the new signings start to gel - just need a good convincing win to get the momentum going - we were very unlucky not to take at least a point against Queens at the weekend.

Away win.

1 win in 7(?) and 7 conceded in three league games.

Good squad, that.

[vikingTON]

Arbroath were on a similar run 12 months ago and won at Cappielow. An absolutely stinking performance from us that day and probably the only point where Imrie's magic has ever seemed to be wearing off.

I'd be happy with any sort of win on Saturday but it would be a sign of progress in the team if we could have a commanding performance to show for it too.