Rossmcno1

Unless he’s already agreed a deal to join permanently in the summer 🫥

Cheers Grant! Should be an interesting one to hear about the plans for this summer, and the reflections of the CEO and manager on the season as a whole.

Will anyone from this forum be going and could provide some updates? This happened previously and was really useful for those who can’t be there. 🙂

I do think this season has sucked a lot of life out of the people involved at the club. It’s been a tortuous one with a whole bunch of factors that’s been tough. Factually (discuss reasons in a bit), here’s what it’s been like:- - injury list to key personnel at difficult times - defeats against Raith and their comparative performances - poor financial results - poor transfer windows with late arrivals - negative PR against club and SNW after the Raith laddie got set about by idiots It’s a pretty draining list, many of these factors either partly or totally outwith the clubs control. I say partly because for one, i still maintain that the recruitment has been light and late in both windows which has exacerbated results and injury list. I also think the complete radio silence at times from the boardroom hasn’t helped. Not quite expecting the monthly YouTube conversation from the CEO that Barrowman gives, but at least something from the board as a fans update a quarter - just something!? I keep saying that I see more paid staff but less in terms of quality of output from what I see. Is that because all the good work that has been done simply isn’t being communicated? By the way, all this could easily have happened under previous boards too in terms of the issues of this season. The apathy that Piracy has referred to has appeared in the club well before the recent GmbH team came on board. It would be churlish and incorrect to say it wasn’t there for example, in AJs last season. I do think there is a cultural issue at the club, and those who have been there for a while need to maybe reflect on that. Some change maybe is needed but I don’t think the manager is entirely the issue. Still would have liked to have seen how McPake would have done in the first half of the season if he had a bigger squad and not so many key players out. That said, the style of football recently and in many parts of the season has been utterly atrocious. Thats on him. As for the GmbH, jury’s out for me. All this extra investment yet since they came on board, objectively speaking we have gone backwards on the park, and off the park financially. Thats not an opinion, it’s a fact when compare their tenure like for like with previous. Season ahead looks like it could be a huge opportunity to go for automatic promotion considering the other sides in this league, and our size as a club. Any objective other than winning the damn thing, and there have to be questions asked about the ambition of those involved.

There needs to be a training package completed for all new bar staff - and they all have to be over 18 years of age to serve alcohol. The training has to be issued, a test given, and the results recorded and signed off by a personal licence holder. It’s not like when I learned the bar trade where it was just chucked in on a quiet night with someone who knew what they were doing and got straight into it. The biggest issue is finding the people who want the work in the first place. Its about 3-4 hours of casual labour on a Saturday afternoon, which unfortunately has a very small pool of people available and wanting to work at those times. Even if you bump the wages up and try and increase the price of the product to pay for it, I can guarantee there will be outrage on many forums/social media giving it “I’m not paying £x.xx for a pint of fkking xxxx”. All in all, it’s a tough spot for the club to try and fill on such an irregular occurrence. Not sure there’s any evidence that Mr Cook or whoever don’t want it open. Even if it was just for PR. Probably in fact the opposite. It’s better to have folk whinging about the price of a pint when they’re drinking in your place, rather than sitting somewhere else whinging about not being able to get one at all.

Aye, Recruitment has been an ongoing issue in hospitality industry for a while now. It’s a tough one for irregular event staffing.

Maybe they’ve done some work on how much having that area open would bring in, accounted for the costs associated and just decided not to bother. It’s not so easy nowadays to make money in the bar game. Sometimes it’s simply not worth it, see the amount of pubs etc shutting down across the country. Sad times but if (and that’s the operative word, if) the club have done analysis and deemed it not worthwhile then fair enough? In all of this, communication continues to seem to be a big problem despite the continued growth in our commercial and non footballing departments. Why?

In my tours of the States, have managed to get some nice shots (just using iPhone) in most of the states/cities we’ve been to, but Colorado just blew me away. Garden of the Gods, Estes Park and Bear lake. Incredible contrasts in climate and colour within a 3 hour drive. Enjoy these, can post more from different states if folk want - feedback welcome. 🙂

Yes Grant, alls well that ends well and all that 🫣

Done

Said it so often about McCann, he needs a loan spell to see if he will make it for us. Complete confidence player. He has all the attributes but when it comes to a Saturday, it just isn’t happening right now.

That was the very game that came to my mind. I wasn’t even there, was working down in Plymouth - heart in my mouth when I saw the half time score.

I think he has been exposed without Bene in front of him, but he’s not all bad like you say. I just don’t think he’s good enough for us to be challenging at the top end of the table. If we finish 6th - he’s probably at the right level. But I do think we need better to be challenging at the top.

You mean the “Set Fare Arena” as it will be next season? Or as some witty wags have already named it - the Cab Neu. Either way, enjoy!

Ah, the optimists take DA 😂 a worry free weekend when the Pars are involved is a rare thing indeed. Apart from last season 🤣

Not sure that 1% stacks up anymore. Fixtures on Saturday for teams below us include, Queens Park away at Arbroath, (could see Queens winning by 2 or 3). Ayr away at Thistle, they could easily get a draw. Who’d completely bet against Inverness popping a couple past us and us failing to score? That means we go into the last game, Ayr even on points with us, ICT just 2 points behind, and QP 3 points behind with the goal swing down to say 3 or 4? Queens Park have Airdrie at home, ICT have Morton at home. Both of those are dead rubbers for the home sides. QP and ICT wins there and us losing by 2 v Ayr - that sees us 9th due to QP having scored more goals than us. That does NOT feel like 1% chance to me! 🫣

Some great posts here. We miss width of any kind. KRH for me is the only player we have that is good enough and natural enough in a wide position. I’m excluding Edwards as I firmly expect him to move on. There would have to be a concerted effort to address this in the new preseason, and it’s a big task. One I don’t think mcpake would do. It would mean a complete abandonment of the main formation he has used over the last 2 seasons. an alternative (and I think much more likely) is him doubling down on his formation and looking to develop/bring in more players to play it. I can hear the howls of derision already - that’s not my preferred way, but I just think that’s what he will do. For me, regardless what he decides re formation, there are huge gaps in the team in terms of quality versus most of the league. This means we need to make some player disposals. Whether that’s making them available for transfer or what, it needs doing. Mehmet, OHalleron, Chalmers - all for me in that first wave of most goes, not good enough for the level we should be looking to achieve (title challenge for me). Second wave would include McCann (prefer to loan out at first), Wighton, Comrie. I wouldn’t renew Jakubiaks contract. Much prefer we went for the likes of Burrell at Cove than keep persisting with Wighton and his several underperforming games and recurring injuries. Either way it should be an exciting summer, but I do fear that we have a recruitment system that is too flat footed and worry we’ll end up scrambling again in both windows, which completely kiboshed our season.

Aye this is a very brief but completely true description of how I feel about it all.

Mediocrity.

Unfortunately this could well be how the players see it sometimes ⬆️⬇️➡️⤵️↘️⬅️↙️↖️ 😂

That’s bloody excellent. Well on road to a sellout?

Sounds so simple!!!! 😂

Useless ****ebags. Credit to that Airdrie team. There’s something about them that reminds me of that Livingston team that went from league 1 to the Premier via playoffs. We need to beat them on Saturday for any chance of 4th.

Great pics!

In Austin we were in the pathway for the total eclipse. Unfortunately plagued by cloud today in a city that’s almost always blue skies 😆 still managed to get a decent enough sight of the event, camera photos and videos weren’t great but here’s a couple.