Digs

I deliberately stayed off it. Some of the comments I seen on our own Club facebook post were enough for me to give it a wide berth. People engaging their mouth before their brain was in gear. It comes to something when we are being called a scummy club by the likes of Airdrie 🤣

I’ve seen him a couple of times for East Stirling. Given he’s playing against men, you can’t tell, and doesn’t look out of place. Reads the game really well, comfortable on the ball and has great pace.

It doesn’t even stand up to any sane scrutiny that it was deliberate. Wreck the already wettest part of the pitch. Miss out money across the bars, and through the gates as less people will be drinking and attending when it is inevitably rearranged for a midweek. It doesn’t really even benefit us other than the walking wounded getting a bit more recovery time, but the majority of injuries are a minimum of 6 weeks. Fisher benefits and Summers, Wighton and Hammy get a bit more time for injuries to heal without playing. It’s hardly a sea change in the injury list.

The failure was the leak.

Who says it was on? A lot of people seem to be assuming that.

It was absolutely soaking, my Mrs sent my a snap at 0930, there’s no way they were going to be able to remove the amount of water lying and it be playable. Not sure what’s embarrassing about a malfunction of equipment. It was a burst pipe for the USH.

You’ve really made a huge thing out of a throwaway comment, and are going waaaay too deep into what I actually said even though I’ve explained it three times now. Boston was joking, I made a light hearted comment back, saying supporting a team like ours when there’s more ****e than good, is what makes the good times, when they come round fleetingly, more enjoyable. Winning the league was enjoyable, you said so yourself. I had a brilliant night. Then moved on. That’s it, that’s all I said and all I meant. It wasn’t a commentary on the relative merits of this achievement versus other successes in the past. You made it that, for reasons which are staggeringly unclear to me. And I look forward to the next good thing that happens, whatever and whenever that may be. Beating the Rovers to stop them winning the league, getting into the play offs by the skin of our teeth, if we do, maybe getting to the final game? Who knows. That’s it, that’s literally it, ITS NOT THAT DEEP. What you’ve said in the start of the first paragraph is literally all I was saying and you’ve turned it into this whole big thing. Also, you wouldn’t laugh in anyone’s face because if you did that in the circumstances I described, you’d look like an idiot because not one person, anywhere, certainly not me at any point in this discussion has said it is something to celebrate long term, but those players will always have that medal and it’s one more medal than you will ever win. Leagues are won over a season and tables don’t lie. They deserve to be proud of their win. For that moment in time Any player should be proud of any medal they’ve ever won, at any level, because winning stuff is difficult, no matter what level you play at. That doesn’t mean they can’t aspire to be better, or being proud of their achievements means they are settling for mediocrity. Belittling that achievement, for reasons best known to you, doesn’t paint you in a great light if I’m honest. You just sound entitled. Im actually annoyed you’re making me say that, you’ve made a huge deal out of nothing here, and I’ve no idea why. I’m actually baffled as to how I’ve reached this point in the discussion.

Well I can say is I’m not sure why you support Dunfermline mate because by your definition good times are few and VERY far between. As I said, if you can’t enjoy what we did last season, and wrote it off as expected because it’s a poor league, you’d need to write off most of our achievements as a club because the lower leagues are where we achieved them bar two short periods in the 60’s and 00’s You’re at it if you maintain that winning a league title by a decent margin with a record number of clean sheets can’t be described as good times. You just sound like you’re being contrary for the sake of it. One one hand you’re saying you celebrated the Falkirk win and the league title but they were hollow victories. If they weren’t good times, ie a specific period in time that you enjoyed that is better than any of the ****e times, which was my original point I was making, why did you celebrate them? Make your mind up 😂 I dare you to tell any of the players or staff that their achievements last year are meaningless because it is a diddy league but let me know when you do because I want to watch that. I’ll bring popcorn.

I’d imagine he’ll go back if we get bodies in/back from injury.

Aye, but all I said was the ****e times are made better by good times, which those were. That’s it. I never claimed we were where we want to be etc, just that it was enjoyable, and it was.

You’re a ray of sunshine you eh? 🤷‍♂️😂 Jeezo man, if you can’t enjoy those three things as a Pars fan without going ‘it was just league one’ what’s the point of even going?

Contrary to what I thought might happen (good call @kelty_par) Sam Young has been recalled tonight likely as extra defensive cover.

Jeez, last season was a while ago eh? 🤣

It's also what makes the good times even better 👍

They did say yesterday that he was hopeful of definitely one, possibly two. Second being more of a longer shot but they were certain of Malachi.

New guy straight into the squad and Otoo and McCann both back, with the walking wounded having had 8 days to rest/recuperate. I'm a lot more optimistic about tomorrow now.

Fri 12th Jan 24 Inverness CT 2 v 1 Dundee Utd Sat 13th Jan Arbroath 1 v 1 Ayr Utd Dunfermline Ath 1 v 1 Airdrie (37/4985) Morton 1 v 2 Partick Raith Rovers 2 v 0 Queens Park Remember to check your predictions before you post. Good Luck & COYP

I've no idea what sort of team we'll be able to field so not going to make any predictions now. Anything close to a first team, with maybe some new faces 🙏, we could still get a decent result. Let's see what Thursday and Friday bring...

I don't think it was harsh, it's ifs and buts, and taking the worst viewpoint. It's relevant, absolutely but I think, personally, that this automatically means we are in a relegation battle, when we have things like games, and a transfer window on our side to mitigate them. I'm not sure what you're getting at with your last point. I'd have thought that was obvious. It's not a risk to try and improve your infrastructure, and it may not come with guarantees, but our club will be in a better place with it in place rather than without. What is a risk, is putting that to one side, in order to concentrate on reaching the top division, which clearly implies spending that money put aside for it by adding it to the playing budget which is never going to happen, because as I say, they have clear plans to do both. That is what the initial post I responded to was suggesting. Even if it did happen, there is lots of evidence to prove that that definitely wouldn't guarantee success.

That is a concern to be fair, and I don't know the answer to that. On the face of it, there's something not right, but I'm pretty sure they won't just be sitting there scratching their heads bemoaning their bad luck. They'll be looking at load, individual and collective, individual rehab, warm ups/cool downs, the type of training they are doing and in what order with a view to working out whether it is something they are doing at training causing it, or it really is just bad luck. This is what the Sports Scientist is paid for and I'd be amazed if this hasn't been continually reviewed.

To be fair though, all of it this season is down to injuries. Had we had a full squad or near enough all season, we wouldn't be where we are, which I still contend, isn't as bad as folk are making out. Everyone just needs to relax a bit.

You could but it could easily be argued against. That is only one part of it, and again, that's a very literal interpretation of what I said. For us to be the club we'd all love to be, with a great youth system from a decent academy, producing players for the first team, seeing them do well in turn helping the team, and even selling them on for profit. We need a decent training facility. We have been training at public pitches, high schools and rugby clubs, spending a fortune on pitch and facility hire in the process, with very little to show for our money, which is A LOT by the way. It's not just about having a nice flat pitch for the first team to train on, but is obviously a benefit though, it's about all of the players from youth to 1st team, and womens team having a central hub. That environment, which includes not only training, catering and educational facilities eventually is really important for breeding not only individual players, but strong teams, and an ethos of how those teams should play and how individual players carry themselves. It can't be underestimated how influential it is for a young player to be around good senior pros.

You've both taken what I said a wee bit too literally. I meant it's knee jerk to suggest we are in a relegation battle. we're not. There's plenty points to play for, and even though we've no wins in 5, with a wee bit luck the picture would have been very different. So I'd disagree that our performances have been generally awful. Only Arbroath and Queens in that time have been truly awful, with both having mitigating circumstance, with Queens being exceptionally so. It's been small margins that have put us where we are (injuries notwithstanding) rather than being utterly Peter Grant/Yogi atrocious week after week. That's why it's knee jerk. If we were in February with these injuries and this squad, I'd agree we have a major issue. As it stands, it's early January and we can do something about it. So there is still time. I just don't understand the mindset of saying talk of relegation whilst being in the playoff spot is realistic, that's a ridiculously negative way of looking at things, even if it is arithmetically possible. Everyone is different, either glass half full or glass half empty. If you are involved in the running of a team, which I have been for most of my life, you tend to be half full, as you can't afford to be anything else. As soon as you start thinking negatively, you're doomed. That's why I think the way I do. It's not blind optimism, it's keeping a positive mindset to enable change which I'm sure the manager and his staff and the players are doing to believe they can turn things round, or they'd be as well giving up now. I do get why people are saying what they are, but as I said, until recently, even if we didn't get a result, the performances, even with a depleted squad which we've had all season, haven't been terrible. There is hope if we can get bodies in. On the ten year plan, they've said this all along, multiple times, that that's what they are doing. I've mentioned it in at least two of the fan meeting updates I've done, as they said it at the time. They've also said they have had to readjust some aspects of given the relegation and the issues we've had (now resolved) with the Civil Service grounds. They have been crystal clear from day one that they wouldn't chuck money at the team and try and buy success. That's not what the investment is about, it's about building a club. It's a key distinction that these matters are separate from the day to day running of the football club at the moment. They will have an impact absolutely, but the real impact and key drivers for this are long term. As I said, day to day team matters and this plan for the club as a whole are not mutually exclusive, you don't have to do one or the other. It also doesn't mean there is no money available, both Cook and McPake have confirmed every window that there has been money available. That doesn't mean we chuck daft money at players if we don't think they are worth it just to get them in (Wotherspoon). Managing the budget and club responsibly is surely the way forward.

Exactly that. Whilst the Commercial Manager is about developing, maintaining and increasing revenue streams, whether that be by advertising, selling/hosting events at the ground, or increasing bums on seats at games. Anything to do with revenue generation is in his purview and he is responsible for not only overseeing what is already in place to maximise the revenue, but to come up with new ways of doing that too.

So the answer is abandon their ten year plan for short termism? That makes no sense. The two things aren't mutually exclusive and I'm pretty sure they aren't just hoping for the best. Do people not remember where we were chucking good money after bad chasing a pipe dream? Clearly the team needs bodies. That doesn;t mean an entire business plan should be chucked out the window in the hope that we might get some extra money from being promoted. Being promoted would absolutely not have been the target at the start of the season, they are far more conservative and patient than we are clearly. We are currently 4 points off the playoff, with a game in hand and playing the team currently in fourth on Saturday with 17 games to go. Realistic talk of relegation is knee jerk nonsense. We're closer to the playoffs than we are relegation so people need to stop wetting their knickers and calm down. Our support is so bipolar it's ridiculous. Win a couple of games we're talking about catching 3rd, lose a couple then we're in a relegation battle. It's a crazy way of thinking.