Slipmat

Don't forget Murphy's work with Bauhaus in the late 70's/early 80's. A charismatic frontman, and songs like "Bela Lugosi's Dead" and "Kick In The Eye" are now regarded as post-punk/goth classics which have stood the test of time.

Our Board of Director may be keen on bringing Murphy in if they are best buddies. I'd prefer Murphy too to McCall to be honest, but first things first, let's get the incumbent buffoon out of the door. No point in contemplating who his successor may be while there's still a danger that he may still be here in May and beyond.

Talking of finances and how to address losses, I was re-reading my Scottish Cup Final programme the other day and it was interesting to read in Davie Rae's interview that in the first season under McCall we lost £330,000 and the second suffered another loss of £120,000 (including the £20k fine for playing Jamie Adams in a cup tie he wasn't eligible to play in). Obviously we hovered around the relegation spots in both seasons which affected crowds. Rae's solution was to go full-time to attract a better quality of player, but crucially he dictated to Chisholm that he ran with a squad of no more than 20 players rather than the 30+ that McCall ("I just need to add another 2 or 3 players to the squad and we'll be fine" - rinse and repeat) had on the books as he felt that the main cause of the losses was the size of the payroll, even one made up of part time wages. The full time team then finished fourth and got to the said cup final and the crowds swelled. Pity that Hewitson wasn't so strict with Bartley in terms of adding more and more players to an already bloated squad this season.

Well, I managed to make it through the first 45 seconds of the buffoon's post match interview before turning it off. His opening gambit regarding his pre-match team talk was "it is imperative that we don't lose this game of football. Go out there and give everything you can, possibly to win it." Possibly? FFS!

Well, he's definitely going to be in situ until the new board has been formed. It's starting to become a major concern that it would seem that only one suitable director has been identified or put themselves forward in the two months since the current mob, who clearly have no intention of dealing with the Bartley problem, announced that they would stepping down. This makes it all the more essential that Hewitson & Co ramp up their efforts to get a new board is in place asap, a new board who recognise that binning Bartley before the summer transfer window opens in order to prevent him from overseeing another summer recruitment shambles is an immediate priority.

I can only assume, to use a well-worn cliche, that Ferguson "does a lot of the unseen work for the team"... because I've failed to see it. Speaking of things unseen, what's happened to Houston? Has he picked up another injury? I know Bartley regularly used him in the scapegoat role, but now he seems to have lost his place on the bench to Jay Burns. I would have thought that at this stage of the season having one of our more experienced players around would be more beneficial than deciding that this is the right time to potentially blood a youngster.

I've called him a lot of things but never a manger! To be fair though, I would never call him a manager either. The fuckwit description certainly applies though.

Annan no longer getting beat

Annan getting beat!

You called it!

Bartley will be satisfied. We've kept a clean sheet for 45 mins.

Kelty 1 Stirling 0. Annan move up to 8th in the live table, Stirling down to 9th.

Annan 2 Cove 0

Annan winning.

He'd get my vote for POTY despite only having played in half a dozen league games! When he picked up his injury we were comfortably top 4 and had just knocked Partick out of the Challenge Cup. Then Ferguson stepped into the Mimnaugh role and has barely missed a match. That's worked out well, didn't it?