[Jimmy MCcabe]

A point each tonight does no one any favours bar EF so we will have to go for it and hopefully we will play like we did at Montrose. Looking out the thermals and heading to Smokieville tonight, always cold but one of the decent grounds that are left.

[tuckersloan]

East Fife will win the league comfortably regardless of what happens in this game and there ain't three other teams in the league who are capable of finishing above a very mediocre Stranraer outfit. Stranraer's season will come down to 2 or 4 play-off fixtures at the end of the season. The same will probably apply to Arbroath as well. As much as we try and build games like this up as important fixtures it doesn't really hide the fact that in circumstances like these the new system makes it all less competitive - not more. I hope am proven wrong and Stranraer end up fighting it out with East Fife but with the current squad and Britton in charge I honestly can't see that happening.

[Jimmy MCcabe]

Surely the fact that we are in with a shout is credit to the managements ability to utilise his contacts and persuade players to come to us , we have no Divine right to be above the Forfars, Dumbartons ect who have similar budgets and at least this season the squad is not full of ageing journeymen but players gaining experience and improving, you talk of mediocrity Tucker but this charge could be laid at most teams in the bottom three leagues. I agree East Fife should win the league but money talks a n example was the comment we should have went for Bobby Linn on loan, Sure was the reply but we would have to release 6 players to pay his wages.

[tuckersloan]

Erm.........Britton got us relegated last season and we have won 6 games out of 12 in a league that includes the likes of Elgin, East Stirling, Stenhousemuir and Albion Rovers. All due respect to these teams but if finishing above sides like this is what we now consider a success our standards really have slipped. Only promotion would make up for Britton's previous inept performance IMO. Am really not convinced we will achieve that. Yes we are in the top half but the top half of one of the worst league. I reckon it would be harder to be say 8th in the second division than third in this league. If we continue with Gerry in charge I fear we will become an established bottom league team.

[the_russian]

I believe the question on Simon's lips is "how many fans will Stranraer bring to Gayfield?"

[PearlJamGr]

Is Mullen playing tonight? He must be one of the very few ones benefiting from Britton's... magic wand

[JimLichtie]

Agree with many of the comments on here, play-offs in this years circumstances are dull dull dull. However, I cling to the hope of an East Fife collapse.


Weren't playing very well just now, lumping the ball forward without any real thought yet we have still gone 10 games unbeaten and sit fourth so the comment above about a mediocre league has some truth.

Suprised that a few are calling for McGlashan to be shown the door. Sure the footballs not been great in past games but we are more than matching our 'play-off goal' and with the budget East Fife have (That's not a dig at East Fife, I'd love an investment into Gayfield) we can not be expected to be topping the league.


McGlashan's hoping for a win..... click

[SimonLichtie]

JimLichtie, on Nov 16 2007, 14:19, said:

Weren't playing very well just now, lumping the ball forward without any real thought yet we have still gone 10 games unbeaten and sit fourth so the comment above about a mediocre league has some truth.

Aye, and if John started letting the players play how they want to instead of making them play the long ball they'd be alot happier, and we would be in a better position than we are.

[Mel Hutchwright]

JimLichtie, on Nov 16 2007, 12:19, said:

Suprised that a few are calling for McGlashan to be shown the door. Sure the footballs not been great in past games but we are more than matching our 'play-off goal' and with the budget East Fife have (That's not a dig at East Fife, I'd love an investment into Gayfield) we can not be expected to be topping the league.

Yes, some of the criticism of McGlashan's been well over the top. It's fair to say that a hefty percentage of us have genuine reservations about the style of play we've adopted, but the calls for him to be given the heave ho are a bit ridiculous. Would dearly like us to ditch this long ball game as soon as possible though.

He's undeniably made us a difficult team to beat, but I don't want to witness many more of the dour draws that we've seen in the last few weeks. I fear it might be more of the same tonight though.

[the gub]

Mel Hutchwright, on Nov 16 2007, 12:55, said:

Yes, some of the criticism of McGlashan's been well over the top. It's fair to say that a hefty percentage of us have genuine reservations about the style of play we've adopted, but the calls for him to be given the heave ho are a bit ridiculous. Would dearly like us to ditch this long ball game as soon as possible though.

He's undeniably made us a difficult team to beat, but I don't want to witness many more of the dour draws that we've seen in the last few weeks. I fear it might be more of the same tonight though.

You should play the Stranraer style .We played the long ball and run like hell to keep the ball up the other end of the pitch,hard to play against,made us hard to beat,but was hellish to watch.

Now we're trying to play on the deck with a bit of flair,but we've never won the league playing that way.I think it's a choice between winning things or looking good,in this division you can't have both.

[Mel Hutchwright]

the gub, on Nov 16 2007, 13:07, said:

Now we're trying to play on the deck with a bit of flair,but we've never won the league playing that way.I think it's a choice between winning things or looking good,in this division you can't have both.

Oh aye, it's undeniable that your going to struggle to succeed in this league if you attempt to play like Arsenal, and it was no coincidence that Berwick and ourselves finished in the top two places given last season given that we were both big strong sides that played an effective, if fairly uninspiring, style of football.

Can't recall us being quite so dependant on the long ball last season as we have been the last 3 or 4 league games though.

[Mel Hutchwright]

Yet another bloody draw.

Didn't play particularly well, although passed the ball about nicely for the first quarter of an hour or so, but feels like two points thrown away given the missed penalty and Tosh squandering a sitter.

Stranraer looked like a team there for the taking up until our missed penalty, which apperaed to revitalise them, and they possibly looked the team most likely to sneak it after they equalised.

Yet another bloody draw.

[Blue Moon]

That evened the score tonight for this fixture this season. It was our turn to get an undeserved draw.
We hardly put two passes together in the first half hour.

Then we get a goal back and promptly start the second half as badly as the first. We only really got going when Scott Black produced a superb save from Sellars penalty. Had that gone in its game over and we're going home with nothing.

Credit to our lads, we then realised we could sneak away with a result and started playeing for the last twenty minutes. Grabbed an equaliser and had a couple of decent chances to smash and grab a winner.

Poor game, poor performance. Happy with a point.

[lichtgilphead]

Blue Moon, on Nov 17 2007, 01:20, said:

That evened the score tonight for this fixture this season. It was our turn to get an undeserved draw.
We hardly put two passes together in the first half hour.

Then we get a goal back and promptly start the second half as badly as the first. We only really got going when Scott Black produced a superb save from Sellars penalty. Had that gone in its game over and we're going home with nothing.

Credit to our lads, we then realised we could sneak away with a result and started playeing for the last twenty minutes. Grabbed an equaliser and had a couple of decent chances to smash and grab a winner.

Poor game, poor performance. Happy with a point.

Annoyingly, 1-0 Stranraer at Stair & 2-1 Lichties at the Gayf would have put both teams 1 point better off.....

Oh well.....

[Jimmy MCcabe]

Arbroath were robbed, we were poor in most departments only Mark Stewart gets pass marks for us.

[b ross]

Jimmy MCcabe, on Nov 17 2007, 06:31, said:

Arbroath were robbed, we were poor in most departments only Mark Stewart gets pass marks for us.

Aye.... two points squandered! Hey ho, the trials and tribulations of third division football!