BallochSonsFan

2 things I want from Saturday's game. 1. Avoid injuries. 2. Get a half way decent result. Avoiding injury is the big one. We've got one eye on the play-offs and we need to avoid injuries to key players. The idea of losing key players going into the play-offs is worrying and the temptation in the next 2 games would presumably be to rotate the starting 11 and to try to get some playing time to guys we may need to use in the play-offs whilst protecting our first choice in those positions. Not that we've got a big squad, but you'd probably be looking at the likes of Kelly and Healy starting ahead of Hilton, Wallace or Orsi. But that's a huge risk. Elgin will want to end the season maintaining their improved form. What we also have to avoid is taking a bit of a tanking this week and next because you suddenly find yourself going into the play-offs in terrible form and with no confidence. So we need to play well enough in the next 2 weeks that we go into the play-offs with our head up. A bit of belief. Not going into those games on the back of poor results against Elgin and Peterhead, especially since there's a good chance that we'll be playing Peterhead in the semis. No injuries and a solid, if unspectacular, win. Anything more than that is a big positive. Anything less is a worry with our schedule over the next few weeks in mind.

It's a cracking ground. Feels properly old school without being a ramshackle tip. Good views of the pitch. Covered terracing is fine. Fan facilities are absolutely fine. Food is decent. The social club pre-match is great and the staff and home fans are friendly and accommodating before the game. It's a great away day.

I'm hoping that the ref doesnt fancy it this afternoon so that I can watch the national, but it'll probably be playable.

Unfortunately the problem in this case has not been caused by the local club board.

I've been listening to this a lot lately

Been pissing down on and off for the past 2-3 days. Some really heavy showers yesterday and overnight. Anybody confident that this game actually goes ahead today> Groundsman should be down at the club 8:00 this morning starting to try to work on the pitch. Its going to be showery between now and kick off too. Can easily see this one passing a morning inspection but getting progressively worse towards kick off time.

Sausage rolls were decent.

Was it one of the burnt ones?

Bit of a 90s mood just now. Supposed to be a new Lemonheads album released this year. Would love to see them again and it would be absolutely amazing if Juiana was touring with them. I'd maybe even be tempted to travel if she was doing a few shows with them somewhere in the world.

We've had the better of the first half. A couple of good chances forcing the Spartans keeper into smart saves. The free kicks were taken well. I thought Hilton's shot just before our 2nd was smart as the Spartans keeper was on his heels. We need to do better for their 2nd, but Lennon did really well for our 3rd. As Jan said, it's been a good watch. Lynas booking was absurd - he has to challenge for the header and doesn't lead with the elbow or otherwise go in risky. Wins the header well.

No Crighton, Carlo, Orsi or Div Wilson tomorrow. Oh joy.

I believe the novelty is not having to watch a game through safety mesh and with tyre crash barriers between fans and the pitch.

I'd much rather that they didnt play at what is effectively a local leisure centre. Clubs have had to pay to build stadiums and maintain them. Spartans get to play at a leisure centre and don't have the cost burden associated with owning and running a proper ground.

I'm not involved at the club. Obviously I used to run the man of the match award for a few years and I ran the 50/50 for a couple of seasons when the previous volunteers stepped down having had enough of it. As a current trust board member, we've had semi-regular meetings with the club board whist we were without a trust rep on the club board., so I've had some conversations with messrs Mackay and Hosie throughout the season in conjunction with my trust board colleagues. I've always taken the view that the club needs to be better at communication. We criticise Cognitive for it and we've tried to re-enforce the value of proper engagement from the owners and from the club board. Thats a particular challenge when we've got a club chairman who will not put himself out there and actually spend time with fans. I try to be as honest as possible with posts on here - I'll never break confidences or reveal anything that was discussed that is deemed to be sensitive, but equally I'm more than happy to say what I can and when I can. We've just about got the trust rep on the club board in post now (as he's already said on here) and I reckon that our club chair sees both the trust/club board member and the new SLO as being conduits for communication with fans. I still think that the chairman needs to be far more visible. Half the fans couldn't pick him out from a line up. That's not good. I think he'd be genuinely surprised at the nature of conversation in person rather than the sometimes more aggressive tone of social media posts. But it's not going to happen any time soon. At least with the trust/club board rep just about in place, there should be a more direct voice within the club and a means of encouraging better communication going forward. But a state of the nation address from the chairman to let fans know how the club sees this season and what it's plans are for the future would be very welcome.

I think it's a combination of factors. The pitch sits on an old dock. All sorts of shite was used to fill it in. God knows what drainage is like underneath the pitch and it tends to hold a lot of water. Possibly a really poor soil layer immediately below the turf. Then there's the cutbacks to the maintenance budget over the years. Add in 2 teams playing on it and that's just a losing combination right there.