Rossmcno1

1 hour ago, Superally said:

I hope so too, The support needs a positive message over the close season. 

Well if they can’t articulate one in a room full of pars fans ahead of a season with a winnable league including Falkirk Livingston and potentially Raith, then that’s a huge worry.
 

3 minutes ago, the saline hill puma said:

What a dreadful midfield that is

Holmes starting ahead of our own youth player again is a disgrace as well 

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

5 hours ago, Grant said:

I'll do my best to take notes Ross 

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.

6 minutes ago, Piracy said:

No thanks. 

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. 🙂

1 hour ago, Piracy said:

Your confidence is heartening. 

Anyone watching the last few cannot fail to see the lack of confidence in our ability and game plan. I think there's something affecting things behind the scenes. There's an almost prevelant air of apathy about the club on match days.

I hope James McPake stays and gets full backing from the club over the summer. He does do a lot of analytical stuff and talks really enthusiasticly about learning about the game. I think he's an honest and passionate guy.

I'm not convinced about the board and their future plans for the development playing side, which is what most fans worry about. There's 2 consecutive seasons of heavy financial losses to consider and the intention to reign in the spending and how that influences signings. It's great that board to say that Gmbh Fussball were absolutely willing put their hand in to their pocket to put the necessary £300k in to the development of the academy/training facilities, but how long will they keep putting substantial sums of cash into the club? 

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.

1 hour ago, Secure Par said:

Sorry when I got trained as bar staff at 18 I was in the bar and learnt the job.. it wasn’t that hard tbh but I presume it’s harder nowadays? 

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.

1 hour ago, Piracy said:

It's because there's a shortage of 5 hospitality staff for tomorrow's game. I got that straight from 2 people at the club after I contacted a couple of them this morning. They rely on a number of youngsters/students and a lot of them have exams just now. 

Old Inn it is for some Pars fans, money in their tills. 

 

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

33 minutes ago, Legend85 said:

The club not able to offer any reason for it being shut because it looks like that club is losing out on quite a few £ with people moving to the old inn now.

 

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. 

35 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

Those of us with longer memories will recall sitting in the Rugby Park stand one end of season , the sun was shining and the pars were staying up. Unless they lost something like 7-0 to erode our better goal difference. I think  we were 4-0 down at half time and bricking it but Killie completely eased off and we stayed up. 

Complacency can make fools of us all.

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.

27 minutes ago, DA-go Par Adonis said:

Still think Mehmet gets a bad rap. He's made a few mistakes but so have most keepers in this league.

He then gets nothing (from some) in the way of credit when he wins us points from keeping out a penalty or making a good stop. 

If Bene and Fisher stay fit, I don't think Mehmet is one of the major issues.

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. 

1 hour ago, SanguinePar said:

Forgot all about this. Might head along the road, get used to the Pasta Bowl again for next season (or in case we aren't there next season!)

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 🤣

18 hours ago, parsforlife said:

I'd like to get 5th for the extra prize money but its hardly something to get the pulse racing.

Our season is petering out, were not playing great but not totally terrible either.

Folk claiming its a big game to avoid 9th are being silly, we have less than a 1% chance of ending up there FFS

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. 

8 hours ago, da_no_1 said:

We have the set up off the pitch

We have a a fanbase other clubs would kill for.

We're being short changed on the park.

Been like that for a few years now.

Still ****ed off this morning.

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

Mediocrity.

34 minutes ago, SanguinePar said:

Here's how it works:

 

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

34 minutes ago, Digs said:

1500 tickets sold so far 👏👏👏

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

12 minutes ago, DA-go Par Adonis said:

We win 3-0, Thistle beat Airdrie by a couple and then we're all looking towards Friday night, thinking that Utd could beat Airdrie to clinch the title.  

United win 4-0 and then all we need to do to take it to the last day is beat ICT at home...  1-0 Caley due to a last minute penalty, everyone in the team plays terribly.

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.

On 04/04/2024 at 07:17, Boston Red Sox said:

St Andrews on the west Sands on Saturday (about the final whistle)

 

And the view over to Arbroath. Was thinking thank FK I'm no up there but it looked ok on the highlights.

Great pics!