Number Eleven

An unexpected chance to increase our lead at the top to 11 points and get a measure of revenge for our only league defeat of the season. Will Rhys Breen and Matty Todd make it - there will probably be changes in any case. We need to be ready for a physical challenge against Montrose.

We still need the players to keep focused to bag the points to get over the line but every point dropped by Falkirk helps along the way.

The club seems to be trying multiple routes to engage with fans which is a good thing. There is no one group that can say they represent all fans - as we can see on here there is a range of different opinions.

It’s very positive that the club has such confidence in the management team to offer long term contracts and that the management team are enjoying themselves to sign the contracts. We’ve seen some rumours about other clubs being interested and if they did want our manager they’ll have to pay decent compensation. What if results are bad and the board decide a change is needed? We all hope it doesn’t happen but it may be there is a set compensation clause built into the contracts so the club isn’t obliged to pay all the way to summer 26.

Falkirk will be delighted after totally dominating Queens on corners.

A poor game, Edinburgh haven’t managed to score against us this season and we could’ve played for another 90 minutes and they still wouldn’t. I’m not sure we would either. The manager was bold with his substitutions but they made precious little difference. Matty Todd was a big loss as no one else was willing or able to make the sort of runs he does. One bright spot was Kane R-H putting in tempting crosses from the right but no one managed to get on the end of them. We bounced back from these blips before so let’s hope we manage it again.

I take no wins for granted this season given the draws against Peterhead and Clyde. Hopefully we carry our second half form from the Falkirk match into this game - if so we’ll win comfortably.

I think that one of the main financial issues for the club is that we have a stadium designed for Premier League football and have to meet all of the associated costs. Players’ contracts can be designed so that costs vary based on the league the club is in but the stadium costs are fixed. This means we need to be in the top league to meet our expenses and it’s really difficult to balance the books even in the Championship - look at the big loss made last season.

The club had to act as this was not the first example of unacceptable behaviour this season. What is an appropriate and proportionate response? I don’t think the club is intending to punish PATG fans but allowing only ST holders should make it far easier to identify the guilty parties and exclude them if they won’t mend their ways. Hopefully the club is reaching out to supporters groups to reinforce what is and is not acceptable behaviour so normal service can be quickly restored.

Thanks for this, it’s an interesting analysis. If the pattern continues we can expect 8 wins in the fourth quarter!

Some great pictures on this thread. I took this one that shows the fantastically loyal Falkirk support cheering on their team in stoppage time. 😂

It’s nights like this that make it all worthwhile. Brilliant team performance in the second half but a shout out for Matty Todd - I think we might’ve witnessed the best moment of that young man’s life so far. 8 points clear with 9 to play - just keep going!

Well done Bene. What a great difference he’s made to the defence this season for his leadership as well as his defending. A certainty for the team of the season.

A really competent performance from the Pars today. We didn’t create lots of chances but took them when they came along and didn’t give Alloa a sniff. Alloa were physical and played the ball long to no great effect. A worrying injury to Aaron Comrie and the original reorganisation when he went off, with MacDonald playing on the left and Otoo moving to the right wasn’t working and thankfully quickly changed. Roll on Tuesday and another win!

A huge game for the Pars today. With Falkirk lurking just around the corner it’s a vital 3 points at stake. Alloa proved to be a difficult side to beat when we played them twice at home at the start of the season, although the away game resulted in a decent win.

It also seems to show that Edinburgh, Alloa, Airdrie and Falkirk all have a better than 50% chance of finishing in the playoff spots so care needs to be taken when interpreting the results.

We have 0 chance of finishing outside the top 4 according to this model. It also suggests we have the easiest games in comparison to the other 9 teams - but we also don’t have to play the best team in the league.

Great to get back to winning ways - keep doing that and the league is ours!

Last week’s lacklustre performance seemed like a reaction to the excitement of the previous game. Hopefully that is all out of the way and we can refocus on James McPake’s mission for this season - winning games of football. Bringing in a good experienced player in Paul McGowan should give us a boost, especially creatively which has been our weak spot.

Very serious issues for Falkirk - how can they continue to trade with these huge losses year on year? Looking at our recently published accounts I’d expect us to report a loss for this season that will dig into the funding that was supposed to pay for the training centre. It’s really clear full time football is not sustainable in League 1 and is a real struggle in the Championship.

Welcome to the Pars Paul. A surprise signing but it brings in creativity and experience and could be the catalyst to win the league.

The headline loss at over £500k is very concerning at first glance. It is partly mitigated by the netting effect of the grant - we reported a £200k profit the previous season on the back of it. A certain loss was expected due to the investment in the training centre and the club has committed to over £2m of lease payments, presumably for that. While there is a big stack of cash in the bank it looks like this was expected to pay for the costs associated with developing the training centre. I’m surmising this, it isn’t stated in the report. It would be really interesting to know how much of the loss was over and above the expected points and also how the club expects to fund the costs to develop and run the training centre. I assume that GmbH won’t keep pumping money in.

The point is that this isn’t a loan that must be paid back in cash. The club can simply issue shares instead.

A disappointing game today and a draw was probably a fair result but we won’t get a better chance to win a game than a late penalty. I think having Mochrie, Mahon and Ritchie-Hosler in the same starting 11 may be a bit too inexperienced, especially at the defensive side of the game. We are still top with a 5 point lead and 9 other teams in this league would swap with us at the drop of a hat.

I think the psychology of this game is fascinating. Will Airdrie focus on their dominance with 11 men or will the Pars have the upper hand due to the incredible comeback? This is a different game but there’s bound to be some sort of impact from playing 2 games in a week against the same opponent. One thing that’s been clear this season is that James McPake is prepared to make changes when things aren’t working out.