1320Lichtie

Any other Airdrie players that might go or are part time? Or is it now just a fully full time thing Gallagher is coming to us?

Can’t believe they were filming in the shop just as a young local lad clearly really wanted to buy a top!!!

Is this not Pongo aka Ryan McCord An absolutely unbelievable footballer aside from the running part

Only Edinburgh City have an entry level ground in the leagues, going by that table?

Few of my dads mates kicking about in there Also proper good scenes behind the goals for all 3 second half goal’s especially the Tosh goal

Would imagine so - Petrie probably be a good manager for a player like that to play for stepping up. Also Dundee and Perth would be extremely handy for a Dundee based player. Gallagher and McIntosh are a brilliant start for us and don’t think you could get much better for L1 so not a problem area but the thought of McGrath does intrigue me a wee bit. Anyway…. If I had to put money on it I would say Montrose

Where do Forfar train? He is a Dundee lad. We train at the Oriam two nights so it would be a bit more of a slog than it would be for him if he went to Montrose, think they’re one night Dundee and one night Perth. Or he might go where he thinks he’d play the most.

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/highland-league/6442330/grady-mcgrath-looks-set-to-depart-highland-league-brechin/ Got Leighton McIntosh and Calum Gallagher signed for next season but be a decent option and maybe one for the future Wonder where he’ll go

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/highland-league/6442330/grady-mcgrath-looks-set-to-depart-highland-league-brechin/ Be a good 3rd choice

All good comments - I think if a Part Time team makes it into the Championship then they need to try and capitalise on it off the park with their support and infrastructure - that would set them in good stead going forward. I think it is fair to say that we have done that. I would never want to see us move away from just being a part time club either though, for what? I don’t see what’s wrong about being happy with that. We will never be a Premiership club so if we can go up and compete in the Championship during our more successful seasons, which we and others can - then why change your entire set up. A lot of these FT clubs are financially a mess. It is not about being unambitious or anything like that which are comments I read sometimes it is just that everyone has their place in the pyramid. In the same way there are several Championship clubs who at their peak may be lower half Prem teams and at their lowest may be L1 teams. To be honest after this and last season, you quickly come to realise that the only thing that matters is enjoying watching your team and being happy on Saturday afternoons more often than not regardless of what division you are in. Never take that for granted

I had these fears But Hamilton staying has made me change my mind I don’t think it’s anything to do with money either it seems a bit far fetched for me to think EF couldn’t match or atleast get very close to the wages we could give certain players especially with the Campbells there I feel like a lot of them probably feel similarly to us, love the guy but he had turned into an absolute gobshite and had seriously lost the plot by the end The Bobby comments never sat well with me at all and can’t imagine the players would’ve been too fond of them either. The fact that the fans singing a players name was ‘getting on the managers tits’ is just a bizarre thing to say It’ll be interesting to see how he gets on next year

I think he would see it as one last chance to maybe play in the Premiership, Falkirk a big club too - it would be appealing but like you I would love to see him stay another couple years. Also the Courier seem to have stopped putting articles online, cannot find this one either.

You are spot on. I think the biggest hurdle, in my opinion, is that it is incredibly hard to turn over players and continue to be decent when you are part time. There is zero let up in the Championship every week is a battle. If you are slightly off it you will struggle. The pool of part time players good enough to compete in the Championships a lot smaller in comparison to the large amount of Full Time players good enough to play in the division. I also think there is a noticeable difference in intensity in the Championship. We have been absolutely riddled with injuries all season. 8-12 players out some weeks. The strength of our squad just could not compete but the teams above us are hardly world beaters either. It is just hard to build up a very good squad of part time players, all the best part time players will not want to come to your club to sit on the bench. It’s a much harder job to stay in the league for a prolonged period of time when you’re part time but there’s no reason why well run and well organised part time clubs and teams cannot go up and do well. I actually think we ruined every good thing we had going when we attempted to go hybrid at the beginning of last season (22/23) and I think we’ve not really recovered from it even now. We have signed 13 ‘Full Time’ players and the only good one has been Jay Bird. They also were only ever going to be here for a season at most so you kind of lose all the benefit of a team and squad unit when you start going down that road. We’d have been much better off staying fully part time.

LD is at Alloa yeah. He was at Arbroath but he left last season. We signed some absolutely hopeless Full Time players who come and stayed in the town, they seemed to be the way Dick was trying to go at the start of last year ( start of 2022/23 ) and guys like LD were allowed to leave by Dick. I think Gaston could be a shout for you especially if Rab Douglas is returning as a keeper coach. I would happily still have him around next season for us but not sure if McIntyre is keen he’s not been playing him. He would be such a safe and simple signing for McIntyre so it kind of feels like McIntyre has another keeper lined up.

Maybe depends on what Delaney is doing outside of football just now. If he’s managed to get himself a decent job doing whatever and is settled in Scotland maybe we could pull that off. That seems too good to be true though.