Falkirk away 8th April

[Rossmcno1]

2 hours ago, Eastendtales said:

St Johnstone and Livi never have and never will touch the levels of Falkirk for rivalry.

The livi thing was a chairman spat was it not? Yorkston would have burst Keane given the chance. 

St J...are just another club not far from us and I've never heard nor seen any sign of a rivalry in my 36 years. They're definitely a club we need to take a good look at and see what they do to continuously out perform us. 

In the mid 90’s can assure you there was a healthy bit of needle between us and StJ!  Fuelled by being quite close challengers at times but also by a certain ex player…! 😂

 

[Rossmcno1]

3 hours ago, Digs said:

I genuinely don't remember it being anything close to how it is with Falkirk or the Rovers. 

Not saying it was, however should we have a longer stay at that level and be competing, it certainly would catch on.  Different generations will have different feelings about rivalries.  The younger fans of today probably have a different opinion of an Airdrie (pardon me, Clydebank) than those of us who went a lot in the 80’s/90’s will have.  
 

[Rossmcno1]

3 hours ago, GG Riva said:

I fear you're wasting your time, Digs. It doesn't matter how articulate you are and how reasonably you explain it, many posters cannot/will not come round to your point of view. 

The fiercest example of rivalry I can point to is Celtic and Rangers. I don't think any other fan groups hate one another quite so deeply as their fans do. When Rangers went into liquidation, Celtic fans were joyous beyond belief and outraged that the phoenix club was allowed to start up in League 2. There then followed several seasons of laughter as Sevco suffered a number of embarrassing gubbings from diddy teams as they gradually made their way up to the top flight.....

Here's the rub. I worked beside a good number of Celtic fans (and a few Rangers/Sevco fans.) They were openly pleased to see the new club in the top flight. Winning 9 in a row without breaking sweat most years had become a hollow achievement.

Why would anyone believe rivalry in football doesn't matter? Last time we won League 1 it was a bit of a procession. It would have been the same this season if Falkirk weren't in it. 

He’s not wasting his time - nor is anyone on this thread with their views (on both sides I happen to think fairly articulately in the main!), it’s a good debate.  🙂

Still want Falkirk to suffer the same fate as that team you allude to in your example. 😂

[Al k]

Peterhead game rescheduled for the 11th. Little chance of winning title there now.

[Grant]

4 hours ago, Digs said:

I get what you're saying but if I'm thinking rationally, going straight up again would not be great for us IMO. The gap between the Championship and the Prem is huge now and as well as QP have done, if they go up they are in for a rude awakening. 

I think you need to build a squad capable of doing something and a squad suitable for the Championship is rarely going to be good enough to compete at Prem level, you need a bit of investment and with the losses we've had, I just think we could do with a year bringing in some money to start building a squad capable of competing.

I think we have decent players who have the potential to play there but the squad would need to look quite different before it would be ready, and the likelihood of us having a Prem ready squad next season is pretty slim.

Going up twice would be great for us. There's allot to be said for momentum and its certainly not doing Livi any harm. 

Likewise we go up and twice and say we do get relegated, you know what we've got now in the Championship? Parachute payments. 

I want to see Dunfermline win a major trophy, it's unlikely to happen. The only chance of it occurring is if we're a Premiership side and we have the budget that brings. I don't care for an "exciting" championship full of larger sides, you know what would swiftly make that league very unexciting? Cutting about between 6th - 10th. 

Get us into the Premier ASAP. Cheers. 

 

[GG Riva]

2 hours ago, Rossmcno1 said:

He’s not wasting his time - nor is anyone on this thread with their views (on both sides I happen to think fairly articulately in the main!), it’s a good debate.  🙂

Still want Falkirk to suffer the same fate as that team you allude to in your example. 😂

I just meant it in the sense that everyone is entrenched in their opinions on both sides, Ross. I can't see anyone being talked round.

[buspasspar]

39 minutes ago, Grant said:

Going up twice would be great for us. There's allot to be said for momentum and its certainly not doing Livi any harm. 

Likewise we go up and twice and say we do get relegated, you know what we've got now in the Championship? Parachute payments. 

 

Grant can see where you are coming from  ..but I would settle  to see us go up once right now  

[Digs]

49 minutes ago, Grant said:

Going up twice would be great for us. There's allot to be said for momentum and its certainly not doing Livi any harm. 

Likewise we go up and twice and say we do get relegated, you know what we've got now in the Championship? Parachute payments. 

I want to see Dunfermline win a major trophy, it's unlikely to happen. The only chance of it occurring is if we're a Premiership side and we have the budget that brings. I don't care for an "exciting" championship full of larger sides, you know what would swiftly make that league very unexciting? Cutting about between 6th - 10th. 

Get us into the Premier ASAP. Cheers. 

 

I don't necessarily disagree with everything your saying but there's no guarantee we'd be cutting about in 6th-10 either. 

Obviously, I'm not going to be raging if we had back to back promotions, of course I'm not, I'd just like us to get away from the chaos for a bit, and stop going up and down leagues.

We will always be a bit of a yo-yo team but this latest spell has been a long one and that is down to how we have been run in the main. I just think better finances and a squad built over time as opposed to it being revamped every year spunking cash on mercenaries (as that has been a big part of why we've been below the Prem for so long) is the way to do it and fast promotions would mean either getting it spot on next year (very difficult), or building year on year, which appears to be the mantra.

Your point about parachute payments is a good one, which I'd forgotten about admittedly but up and down, up and down is far too chaotic so if we are to be patient and build slowly, I'd rather do it watching bigger games than watching us play teams like Kelty, Peterhead and Hamilton etc. The novelty of the seaside league wears off quickly...

[Grant]

5 hours ago, Digs said:

I don't necessarily disagree with everything your saying but there's no guarantee we'd be cutting about in 6th-10 either. 

Obviously, I'm not going to be raging if we had back to back promotions, of course I'm not, I'd just like us to get away from the chaos for a bit, and stop going up and down leagues.

We will always be a bit of a yo-yo team but this latest spell has been a long one and that is down to how we have been run in the main. I just think better finances and a squad built over time as opposed to it being revamped every year spunking cash on mercenaries (as that has been a big part of why we've been below the Prem for so long) is the way to do it and fast promotions would mean either getting it spot on next year (very difficult), or building year on year, which appears to be the mantra.

Your point about parachute payments is a good one, which I'd forgotten about admittedly but up and down, up and down is far too chaotic so if we are to be patient and build slowly, I'd rather do it watching bigger games than watching us play teams like Kelty, Peterhead and Hamilton etc. The novelty of the seaside league wears off quickly...

The drama you have with trying to build a squad in the second tier in Scotland is that you have about two years max with it at that level, before the good players get picked off. 

 

Hopefully with promotion we can keep a hold of Edwards, Todd etc. However if they have another great season next year in the championship they'll be away, and finding as replacements at that level is nigh impossible. 

Then you have the rebuilding phase which takes time... Which is why next year with us having a fairly settled squad, I don't think we'll lose any star players (as opposed to the last time we were promoted we lost Faiss) we could be, if the league makeup is kind, in with a right good chance of promotion. Now if we were in the rebuilding cycle I wouldn't be against a championship with big clubs, but next year? Give me the smallest and weakest clubs please. 

[Grant]

5 hours ago, GG Riva said:

I just meant it in the sense that everyone is entrenched in their opinions on both sides, Ross. I can't see anyone being talked round.

Oh I don't expect anyone to be talked round GG! It's just nice seing other people's thoughts though. 

[GG Riva]

11 hours ago, Grant said:

Oh I don't expect anyone to be talked round GG! It's just nice seing other people's thoughts though. 

Very true, Grant and you're the last person I'd expect to talk round. You hold very strong views which you firmly believe in. Nowt wrong with that, unless you're wrong of course. 😉

Nothing wrong with wanting to see the Pars in the Premiership, I think we can all agree on that. When it does happen  - and it will - our budget will certainly increase, but the sad fact is it'll never reach the levels of the big city clubs, so the best we can reasonably hope for under the present set up is to consolidate our place in the bottom 6 - a bit like St Johnstone or Livi. You may not agree but other than the 60s and a season under Bert and Dick, the only time we've finished in the top 6 was under the 2 Jimmys, when the club was getting massively into debt, spending money we didn't have.

Isn't it ironic that we're all enjoying this season much more than last, even though we're in a lower league? The reason is simple enough - we're winning far more games than we're losing. More home fans are attending, compensating for smaller travelling support. It'll be interesting to see how this season's total home support compares with last season's. I sometimes wonder if being a top Championship club would be a better scenario for the Pars than Premiership strugglers? Look at the likes of Killie and United. Both were the main attraction in the Championship, but regularly get gubbed this season. Can't be much fun for their fans.... 

[Number Eleven]

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.

[parsforlife]

5 hours ago, GG Riva said:

Very true, Grant and you're the last person I'd expect to talk round. You hold very strong views which you firmly believe in. Nowt wrong with that, unless you're wrong of course. 😉

Nothing wrong with wanting to see the Pars in the Premiership, I think we can all agree on that. When it does happen  - and it will - our budget will certainly increase, but the sad fact is it'll never reach the levels of the big city clubs, so the best we can reasonably hope for under the present set up is to consolidate our place in the bottom 6 - a bit like St Johnstone or Livi. You may not agree but other than the 60s and a season under Bert and Dick, the only time we've finished in the top 6 was under the 2 Jimmys, when the club was getting massively into debt, spending money we didn't have.

Isn't it ironic that we're all enjoying this season much more than last, even though we're in a lower league? The reason is simple enough - we're winning far more games than we're losing. More home fans are attending, compensating for smaller travelling support. It'll be interesting to see how this season's total home support compares with last season's. I sometimes wonder if being a top Championship club would be a better scenario for the Pars than Premiership strugglers? Look at the likes of Killie and United. Both were the main attraction in the Championship, but regularly get gubbed this season. Can't be much fun for their fans.... 

Whilst we do enjoy having the winning edge and its certainly far more fun chasing titles over fighting relegation,   the reason it is more fun it because there a prize to be won,  an opportunity to test ourselves, to grow and progress.   

[GG Riva]

6 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

Whilst we do enjoy having the winning edge and its certainly far more fun chasing titles over fighting relegation,   the reason it is more fun it because there a prize to be won,  an opportunity to test ourselves, to grow and progress.   

That's certainly true and it's helped ease the pain of last season. Last time we were in the 3rd tier, we had two miserable seasons in it and folk were rightly hacked off that we couldn't compete with the likes of Forfar, Stranraer and Brechin, to name but 3. 🙁 References to the Seaside League were commonplace.