Berwick v Annan

[Hallowed Turf]

Yesterday's highlights:-

 

[annanbear]

Some strike from sinnamon for the 2nd goal.good to get our first points on the board for the season and against berwick which is always an added bonus 

[Francesc Fabregas]

The defending at Annan Athletic's third goal, my word.

[JakeSAFC]

Blair Henderson

[beaver1]

What about the keepers save in the second half. Stupendous.

[berwick-the-unbeatable]

14 hours ago, Disc Potato said:

Eric Tait would do anything to help BRFC and his passion for the club shines through in this interview. He is now a director and simply shouldn't be put in that position. JC was very honest but poor recruitment has got us into this state.

It wasn't rocket science that we needed to strengthen the back bone of the team that leaked the most goals in the division last season. Adding an 18yo from the second tier of junior football wasn't going to plug the holes. 

There is money in the bank, funds should be released to support the next manager to strengthen the team or face the consequences of a slow death in the lowland league.

After an £80k loss and I'm sure I read somewhere we can expect more of the same after last year's laughable cup efforts - is there? We're mismanaged from the very top I'm afraid. I don't disgree that, assuming Coughlin goes, which his interview very much pointed towards, the new man needs backed with the money to bring his own men in else we will remain in danger, but it raises yet more questions about our board. To wait until 3 games into a season when it was quite clear we'd struggle with more of the same at the back end of last season to shift the manager on would be as baffling as the infamous roof statement. The majority, if not all of our budget will be gone and the number of decent players available will be almost zilch at this point anyway. 

Sadly, we're in a huge rut and have been for 10 years. I get the feeling that we're in another position where we'll plaster over cracks. Coughlin can go, you can pretty much predict the final shortlist for the new gaffer and we might waste some more of the ever-depleting rainy day fund to make sure we're the 41st best team in Scotland, but are we going to get the kind of meaningful change that leads to us having something positive to play for at the end of a season? I don't think so, and sadly I don't think we will until it's too late. 

[berwick-the-unbeatable]

1 hour ago, beaver1 said:

What about the keepers save in the second half. Stupendous.

Feel for him. He's clearly a talent but only so much he can do - that save is a result of 2 men somehow losing an Annan player despite being touch tight as the ball is travelling, and is followed by the whole Berwick team (including player-coach and captain Scullion), looking around as if it's normal. He was excellent away at Motherwell after being peppered for 90 mins. Certainly a learning experience for him.

[Emfaefifeyahoorsur]

I was at your game yesterday and I wouldn't be too quick to run up any white flags after only three games into the league campaign. Berwick, in the main, have a big strong side that can play a bit . Annan's third goal was a disaster and a hard one to come back from . However, Berwick enjoyed a good spell just after half time and had you scored then, things may have been different .
Annan from nowhere have assembled a team which is a mix of hardened pro's and youthful kids with pace and enthusiasm. Berwick will not be the only team they triumph against given that they are not finished recruiting and will get stronger .
Remember, Berwick pumped the champions elect . You will win enough games to see you ok.
Agree with the comments about the keeper. He is a talent that Berwick can build upon.

[BB_Bino]

I don't see your board sacking Coughlin, not after last week. The board have quite clearly bought his excuses.

I sit right next to the away Directors and Party, and it was quite clear that they idolise Coughlin and don't see him as the problem. Even when Arthur Bell turned up to the game, everyone fawned over him and at the full time whistle there were shouts of "chin up John", "unlucky John" one person even walked past saying "could you imagine the job he'd do with that (Stirling) team?".

I said when you appointed him that it was a disaster for you and that he wasn't the great white hope that many at the club thought he was, it would appear from last weekend that many on your board still have trust in him and are maybe more critical of the money they can provide. Time will tell.

[Ivo den Bieman]

I am also surprised Berwick have stuck with Coughlin. He was a decent manager in his time but he seems a bit of a dinosaur now.

From a distance the club seem to have had the same manager for the last decade; Coughlin, Little, that guy from Bo'ness who ran a post office; more or less the same type of manager brought in to do well enough but not to frighten the horses too much. There seem to be an awful lot of Edinburgh wasters in that team as well; lazy guys who dont give a f**k.

The best Berwick teams always used their location well; combining some of the better part timers from Newcastle with decent players from Edinburgh and the Borders. I feel a good northern league / non league manager from the North East of England would give the club's playing side the fresh eyes it so desperately needs. Berwick have been circling the plughole for quite a while now but given the boardroom problems fans have spoken of on here it doesnt look like change is coming soon.

(Eric Tait looked absolutely seething in his interview yesterday...many more results like that and Couglin must be away).

[berwick-the-unbeatable]

47 minutes ago, BB_Bino said:

I don't see your board sacking Coughlin, not after last week. The board have quite clearly bought his excuses.

I sit right next to the away Directors and Party, and it was quite clear that they idolise Coughlin and don't see him as the problem. Even when Arthur Bell turned up to the game, everyone fawned over him and at the full time whistle there were shouts of "chin up John", "unlucky John" one person even walked past saying "could you imagine the job he'd do with that (Stirling) team?".

I said when you appointed him that it was a disaster for you and that he wasn't the great white hope that many at the club thought he was, it would appear from last weekend that many on your board still have trust in him and are maybe more critical of the money they can provide. Time will tell.

I don't think anyone can see the board sacking him, but it very much sounded to me as though he was planning to offer his resignation in that interview. I really don't think we'd reject it a 2nd time. Arthur Bell is a weird one though and seems to either just be loitering about on his own accord after leaving in controversy. 

With regard to Coughlin, he's a good guy and only wants what's best for the club. The half-season after taking over he had was excellent - though he clearly benefitted from the likes of Jordan McGregor, Callum Crane and co who've all gone on to better things. I think he failed to replace them (and still hasn't), whilst he also handed out two year deals off the back of that honeymoon period to others. For all, there is probably an argument they weren't good enough. He also lost the likes of Henderson and McNeil to divisional rivals (whatever you think of Henderson, his goalscoring record was valuable).

If you want to defend his transfer record, then I suppose you can look at some the utter fucking guff we've had in the past decade. The internal argument sems to be that we can't afford nor attract decent players anymore. But then, we have had a few decent players. The majority went on to make what a lot of the time appeared sideways moves. Guys like Kyle Wilkie for example, who it was rumoured picked EF despite us offering more money, or Paul Willis. It also appears we never quite get the best out of players. Finn Graham and David Gold always looked steady, but never quite reached the heights they've gone on to.

He rejects being overly negative in interviews but it's something I'd have to disagree with. The approach is frustrating to watch at times, although I disagree with those that appear to think that only teams that play 4-4-2 can succeed - especially in modern football. 

Speaking of modern football, another thing Berwick managers have bemoaned is a lack of leadership amongst players etc. Coughlin himself has gone on record as saying it's not his job to motivate them, that they should be self-motivated and even in his most recent interview he said that he performed some 'old school' management at half-time.

I think the reality is that, whether you like it or not, the game has moved on, we're not going to have 11 Roy Keanes and players probably don't constantly react positively to being slated or the manager directing blame to the attitudes of players after every match. On the park, we're stuck with what we have and will have to work with that. I don't think Coughlin can get the most out of them.

[Redcar]

Coughlin's unfathomable decisions are summed up by his treatment of Jonny Fairbairn. 

Fairbairn was one of our best players under Cameron - the only decent player in a crap cup performance up at Hibs. 

Now, he might be a difficult character, perhaps a bit of a tit, and difficult to manage. But Coughlin is paid to be Manager and if he can't do anything about Fairbairn's allegedly dodgy attitude, that says a lot about Coughlin's gaffer ability. Meanwhile, why is he on the bench - get rid completely if he's such an arse. Why give him a 2-year contract? And if he is on the bench, why not put him in at Kilmarnock instead of a left back? And for 2 league matches running, leave him on the bench in favour of youngsters or the hapless out-of-position Mackinlay again?

The Boardroom ambition stuff is worth discussing, but I can't get past the games, and the incredulous decisions Coughlin makes.

[NE63 exile]

2 hours ago, Ivo den Bieman said:

I am also surprised Berwick have stuck with Coughlin. He was a decent manager in his time but he seems a bit of a dinosaur now.

From a distance the club seem to have had the same manager for the last decade; Coughlin, Little, that guy from Bo'ness who ran a post office; more or less the same type of manager brought in to do well enough but not to frighten the horses too much. There seem to be an awful lot of Edinburgh wasters in that team as well; lazy guys who dont give a f**k.

The best Berwick teams always used their location well; combining some of the better part timers from Newcastle with decent players from Edinburgh and the Borders. I feel a good northern league / non league manager from the North East of England would give the club's playing side the fresh eyes it so desperately needs. Berwick have been circling the plughole for quite a while now but given the boardroom problems fans have spoken of on here it doesnt look like change is coming soon."

We may have had this conversation on here before but the top Northern League/North East non-league players are way out of Berwick's budget. And even if they could afford them its unlikely they would commit to the travelling when they are getting paid top dollar for playing on their doorstep.

A lot of them are turning away advances from Blyth Spartans and Spennymoor in the National League North and to an extent Whitby in the Evo-Stick because they don't fancy the travelling. If they won't sign for the likes of Blyth and Spennymoor who are on the doorstep then you will struggle to get them to sign for Berwick with home games and training well over a 100-mile round trip up that god forsaken A1 three times a week let alone the baggage of the travelling to Elgin, Montrose & Peterhead.

The only way this might work is if you recruited a manager and a team and perhaps trained in Tyneside a bit like what Stranraer have done for years basing themselves in Glasgow or Ayrshire. I spoke to an successful Northern League manager at the back end of last season when he was looking for a new club and mentioned to him about the possibilities if the Berwick or Annan jobs were to come up would he be interested. But his reply was they would never get the top players to travel across or up that far.

Your right about the North East players doing a job for Berwick in the past. A big problem is getting them to commit to sign for the club but the even bigger problem is keeping them once that three times a week journey up the A1 for training and games begins to get the better of them. Eric Tait knows all about that having tried it himself when he was manager at the start of his reign. Jim Jeffries, Ralph Callachan and Jimmy Crease (first time around) seemed to make it work ok but realistically it means you need to move training back to Berwick like it was then instead of being in Edinburgh or East Lothian where it's been for the past decade or so.

 

[tamthebam]

8 hours ago, Ivo den Bieman said:

I am also surprised Berwick have stuck with Coughlin. He was a decent manager in his time but he seems a bit of a dinosaur now.

From a distance the club seem to have had the same manager for the last decade; Coughlin, Little, that guy from Bo'ness who ran a post office; more or less the same type of manager brought in to do well enough but not to frighten the horses too much. There seem to be an awful lot of Edinburgh wasters in that team as well; lazy guys who dont give a f**k.

The best Berwick teams always used their location well; combining some of the better part timers from Newcastle with decent players from Edinburgh and the Borders. I feel a good northern league / non league manager from the North East of England would give the club's playing side the fresh eyes it so desperately needs. Berwick have been circling the plughole for quite a while now but given the boardroom problems fans have spoken of on here it doesnt look like change is coming soon.

(Eric Tait looked absolutely seething in his interview yesterday...many more results like that and Couglin must be away).

Fair point Ivo but I suppose some of the problem is that decent players from Edinburgh might now prefer to play for the City (not that I've seen much evidence, cough cough). Actually I would imagine decent players from Edinburgh now make more money playing for Bonnyrigg, Lithgae and Bo'ness than Berwick and don't have to travel to Peterheid, Elgin, Annan twice a season etc. 

[Ivo den Bieman]

True- of course I'd forgotten how much money there is now in the Northern League / NPL, and Edinburgh players aren't exactly short of a gig. Maybe the strength of Berwick's location 30 years ago is now a weakness, as a result.

[NE63 exile]

Some serious dough been getting paid down there for the last two decades hence why the league is dominating the FA Vase during this period.

As regarding the current situation at Berwick. The excuse that seems to have been rolled out over the last four or five seasons is that at the club are struggling to attract players down to the club. I think you are correct about the junior players. They are getting good money to play on the doorstep. Plus I heard a good few didn't fancy the trail down to Haddington for training surmising that the club are still based down there.

[Disc Potato]

On 20/08/2017 at 13:07, berwick-the-unbeatable said:

After an £80k loss and I'm sure I read somewhere we can expect more of the same after last year's laughable cup efforts - is there? We're mismanaged from the very top I'm afraid. I don't disgree that, assuming Coughlin goes, which his interview very much pointed towards, the new man needs backed with the money to bring his own men in else we will remain in danger, but it raises yet more questions about our board. To wait until 3 games into a season when it was quite clear we'd struggle with more of the same at the back end of last season to shift the manager on would be as baffling as the infamous roof statement. The majority, if not all of our budget will be gone and the number of decent players available will be almost zilch at this point anyway. 

Sadly, we're in a huge rut and have been for 10 years. I get the feeling that we're in another position where we'll plaster over cracks. Coughlin can go, you can pretty much predict the final shortlist for the new gaffer and we might waste some more of the ever-depleting rainy day fund to make sure we're the 41st best team in Scotland, but are we going to get the kind of meaningful change that leads to us having something positive to play for at the end of a season? I don't think so, and sadly I don't think we will until it's too late. 

Six figures plus still in the bank, although hefty predicted losses again this season would making another sizeable dent. The wage bill has roughly been the same for the last ten years, give or take 5-10k. However, the expenses continue to rise and a complete overview of the budget is required.

Investing another 10-15k on two/three players this season, might reap rewards by earning more prize money in the cups and keep us away from the basement. That would be papering over the cracks but it would buy time for change.

Without that two year run of cup/sky money we would have been long gone. Opportunities to re-invest that money are quickly running out. 

The supporters club are major shareholders but nothing is a problem while there is money in the bank. 

The divide in certain groups doesn't help the club but that is a problem that has existed for many a year and unlikely to change anytime soon. Personally speaking and as you know, that is something that really pisses me off. Would love to see everyone pulling in the same direction and supporting each other. The first step would be to appoint a chairman that has the respect of the majority. 

There is talent out there such as yourself that can help under the right leadership and guidance. When you look at the options available, I would like to see Brian Porteous return as chairman with a board that doesn't vote in two groups. 

It is still possible to halt the slide but time is quickly running out.

[HibeeJibee]

Well, relegation to LL would sure as hell make a financial dent and create difficulties in attracting players, that's for sure.