R.R.FC

Am I the only one that would have Bene out the team before Davo? Granted neither have been great this season so it’s a bit of a toss up but I think Bene gets way more slack because of the player he was. Can count the number of impressive games he’s had since his injury on one hand. I really like him and would love him to return to his pre injury form but I’m starting to doubt that player still exists.

Just checked back over the last 2 and a half seasons to see just how bad our away form is. We have won 16 of our last 59 away games in all competitions. 2 of those wins were against highland league teams. However, we did also manage to lose to Highland League opposition this season. If we’re just calculating our results against league teams it is 14 wins from our last 56. So a win percentage of 25%, no matter how good our home form is we’re going nowhere until the away form is sorted.

I think so, he can start putting together his team for next season in January. Gives them half a season to gel so we can hit the ground running next year. Who knows, if the additions are really good, they might even be enough to win us the play offs...okay too far.

We have been ahead in all 3 of our away defeats and lost the winning goal in the last 10 minutes. We’re just not solid enough at the back. You never get the feeling when we get our noses in front that we will see it out. We have actually been in front in every single away game this season and have only won 3 out of 8. That’s not acceptable. I’ve said before, the hallmark of McGlynns teams previously were solid defence, hard work and unbelievable fitness. However, at the moment we look frail at the back and seem to lose as many late goals as we score. There doesn’t appear to be any obvious fitness advantage over other teams. Hopefully he’s given the funds to perhaps move on a couple of players and bring in a few to really put his stamp on the team for the second half of the season. Only one McGlynn signing playing today and he scored and has been our best player the last few weeks.

Seen it posted elsewhere but it really is as simple as this on the grass vs astroturf debate: Good grass pitch>good astroturf pitch>bad grass pitch>bad astroturf pitch Unfortuantely, due to various different issues we haven’t really had a good grass pitch for quite a while so I think the astroturf is beneficial to us in that respect. It will also hopefully help cut down postponements with a bad winter, although I acknowledge quite a few astroturf pitches suffered postponements with frost last season. Further to all of this, an astroturf pitch can allow the first team, youth teams and women’s team all the train at the same place. Fairly crucial when you’re looking to be a community club and also eliminates the cost of expensive training facilities. Once we’re in a position to rent out the use of the pitch we will then be able to generate income from the stadium 5/6 days a week as opposed to twice a month. I understand there will be costs to go along with that but from a cash flow point of view that is a big help, particularly in the summer or recently where we’ve only had 2 home games in 6 weeks. Obviously the pitch is great just now because it is new. As rightly pointed out, the true test will come when it gets a bit older. Ensuring it is replaced at the correct time and replaced properly. However, the extra investment the club put into the initial installation should stand us in good stead.

Delighted to have Flanagan signed and for 2 years too, obviously all players are going to say it’s great working for the manager but the extensions of Nesbit and Flanagan along with recent performances prove that the team are really buying into what McGlynn and Smith are doing. Was thinking the same as you mention regarding a fit team the other day. Would be nice for McGlynn to have a positive selection dilemma for a change. Would be a welcome change thinking which good players to leave out the team compared to barely scraping a team together from 11 fit players as we’ve done a few times this season. I think our best midfield and strikers would be Flanagan and Armstrong wide with Gillespie (although I’d also be happy to see him continue at RB) and Hendry in the middle. Vaughan and Nesbit would be up front. That would leave out Wedderburn, Matthews and Buchanan who have all been excellent in recent weeks and also Duggan. Would be a nice problem to have but we all know, they’ll never all be fit at once.

Part and parcel of football unfortunately it’s fair enough tactics from Campbell. They were up against arguably the best player in the league on his day and our biggest creative force I’d expect Arbroath to do whatever they could to keep him quiet. Kicking lumps out of him is probably the most effective way to do that. If we resort to that approach against Linn in a couple of weeks and it keeps him quiet and we win then I’d be delighted.

Not sure if it’s been mentioned before but loving the irony of Falkirk’s player of the month being sponsored by Top Class Recruitment.

Remember Alan Young coming out and saying at the end of that season he didn’t think the appointment of Gary Locke was a mistake?

Tbf the sell on clause with Bates wasn’t the issue, although it’s clearly ridiculous if one wasn’t included. As far as I’m aware he left Rangers at the end of his contract so they’ll have received nothing anyway so a sell on clause wouldn’t have helped us. The problem was letting him go for no fee and 2 loan players for 6 months.

Agreed though Armstrong was also available with freedom of contract 2 weeks ago and seemed to have no other offers. Obviously his performances have been great and will hopefully continue but at this point I’m not sure it will have been enough to have teams knocking down the door to get him. I think Cardle heading back north may also help us on that front. I’d imagine he’d be looked at ahead of Flanagan or Armstrong (at the moment) as an established winger for any championship side looking to add in that position. Thats my hopelessly optimistic view on it though. How great would it be to have Gillespie, Hendry, Vaughan, Armstrong, Flanagan and Nisbet all available at once!? Anyway, fantastic news on Nisbet, didn’t think that would be possible, as others have said who’d have thought missing out on Loy and getting him would be the best thing to happen to us in the summer.

Looking back at our record this season, one thing stuck out to me. We’ve dropped points in 7 games so far, we have been in winning positions in 5 of those.That seems like an awful lot, particularly for a full time team in a part time league. To put that into perspective we only dropped points in 5 games from a winning position in the whole of last season. We need to improve defensively and start seeing games out when we get in front. If we do that we might just be able to grind out enough points to keep in touch till the injuries ease off, if they ever do!

Not saying they aren’t good defensively. Gillespie in particular is but is he much better defensively than Matthews or Wedderburn? I’d say that’s a pretty defensive central midfield which in fairness may be part of the issue. The players returning will add an attacking threat which should in theory ensure we have to defend less which should help but they’re not going to solve all our problems. Anyone who thinks that is extremely optimistic or totally naive. I think a new right back is essential. McGlynn’s interview was spot on yesterday, he knows where the issues are and I have faith he’ll solve it given more time to work with the players and add a few more of his own. Tight defence and fitness/scoring late goals were the hallmark of McGlynns teams last time around so the current issues will frustrate him more than anyone.

Yeah, in hindsight the Crane signing looks to be a mistake, he’s been at best okay since he signed but Murray was also competent at left back and looks clueless at right back. Young Jamie Watson is not ready either. Signing a right back would have been the better option. As you rightly point out, people discuss the attacking injuries we have but the defence is where the issues are. We have conceded 20 goals in 9 away games this season which is pretty terrible. You’re going nowhere conceding on average 2 goals a game away from home. Our defensive record at home is better but we have still only kept 2 clean sheets all season. It’s an issue that we need to sort and whilst getting the likes of Vaughan, Hendry, Duggan and Gillespie back no doubt help the team massively, they won’t solve the defensive issues.

In that case you are absolutely correct, apologies. Lack of cleansheets this season is a real worry as is the loss of late goals. For a full time side we seem to have lost an awful lot of late goals in a part time league. Particularly in the last few weeks. Hopefully McGlynn gets to put his own stamp on the team in January and we can get a few of our injured players back into the mix.

Yeah that’s a ridiculous statement, as much as you have disliked him over the years, we only had a full choice defence until Davo went off today and we were never in any danger of losing that game when he was on the park. Second half we fell apart without him, which is inexcusable and East Fife throughly deserved their win after that but it was most certainly not a ‘full choice of defenders’.

12 points from you would be most welcome right now to be fair. You couldn’t even manage that against Gary Locke FFS. Genuine question, when was the last time either side took maximum points from the derby in a season? Also, I had a bet pre season on you guys to finish top 3. Can I wave goodbye to that money or has the team shown any signs they are capable of going on a run similar to the second half of last season?

Is he a better option than Lewis Milne in that position? I know nothing about him but the answer is yes.

That will most likely be dependant on us getting promotion. Can't see us staying ft next season if we are in this league still. It will definitely be dependant on promotion. Not from the clubs point of view, although I’m pretty sure we’ll at best employ a hybrid PT/FT option if we don’t go up. But Nisbet at his age with his goal scoring form isn’t going to sign up to the possibility of another year in League 1. If he gets anywhere close to maintaining this form he’ll easily get a club in the championship or down south. Hopefully we go up then we have a chance of keeping him but i’d be stunned if he signed anything until he knows for sure where we’ll be playing. Good news if we are indeed signing a right winger, clear weakness in the side just now.

Yep, Nesbit has been excellent. Who’d have thought missing out on Loy would have been the best thing that could have happened to us. Am I right in thinking there is only 2 league games he hasn’t scored in?

Would agree with that, we went with a quality or quantity approach in the summer and have been extremely unlucky with injuries which was always the risk. To be without Vaughan, Hendry and Gillespie for a significant period of time will have a major effect. They are our 3 best players (except for arguably Nisbet) and all 3 would be in the discussions for best player in the league, any team would struggle without that quality. That’s not even mentioning Duggan who was one of the top scorers in the league last year with a dreadful East Fife team. I think we showed against Stranraer we’re capable of grinding out results and winning ugly and that will be what we need to do until some of the injuries clear up. If we are still in touch with Arbroath by December/January when injuries start to clear up and we can add a couple more to the squad i’d be pretty confident we’ll win the league but it seems like the next few weeks might be damage limitation.

That would be me, in the exact post you quoted! . I think everyone’s aware of the struggles to get fans through the door and Livi’s poor crowds are widely acknowledged. I think the reason it was raised though was because it was a clear reduction on our own crowds this season. Hopefully it was just the October holidays and they’re back to their usual levels against Brechin.

I’d say in comparison to ourselves. We had 2187 against Arbroath. I realise there was a few hundred Arbroath fans and it was a bigger game but 600 is still a big drop. Can’t see our crowd for the Montrose game but it’s still 162 down on our previous home game against Forfar. Not a substantial drop but I had hoped the return of McGlynn may have seen an increase in crowds. In saying all that I think the October holidays are the biggest factor in any crowd drop so we shouldn’t read too much into it.

Fair play to him, like you say can’t have been an easy thing for him to do. Just shows that you never know what is going on behind closed doors, Nade always seems a confident, happy larger than life character. Strange to think he was scoring the winner for us at Ibrox only a number of weeks later. Glad the club supported him properly at the time and hopefully he is still getting the help and support he needs elsewhere after his recent troubles.

Given our record (or lack of) for receiving and scoring penalties in the previous 2 seasons, I personally think Nisbet’s penalties should count double.