YirTea'sOot

Sorry to hear Dev's hung up the boots. Mr. Reliable for the BUs and a great servant. No appearance was complete without a couple of crunching tackles - never ever saw him shirk a 50-50. Wish him well for the future.

Very early but that's my gut feeling as well. We have a rookie manager who, as mentioned above, has inherited a squad that already had players signed for the season by the previous manager and although he has brought in quite a few himself, it's not ideal. I think the BU faithful will need to be patient - not our greatest virtue, myself included - but there's a lot of goodwill towards the new management team and while every BU fan would love immediate success, we need to give Hunts time to implement his formation and tactics with the new squad even if there are a few bumps in the road.

The ship didn't really need steadying, it was just drifting aimlessly. No chance of the league or relegation and only the League Cup to play for which to give credit where credit's due, Little and the team were a penalty kick away from winning. Not privy to the discussions when appointing Little but the committee seemed to make it clear at the time that they weren't looking for a caretaker for the remainder of the season. It's not as if he was being interviewed for a position at a club and a committee that he knew nothing about. He knew what he was getting into. I should hope that the question was asked 'What if Christie gets another job and wants you to join him?' Suppose it doesn't really matter if it was or what his answer was. It's done now and we move on. I can understand why Christie wanted him. It frees him up to shout 'HEY, (insert name of Bo'ness Tranent player). COME ON' twenty times a game which seems to be the sum total of his coaching ability. With a big budget comes big expectations and, if Christie's time at Bo'ness and his man management skills are anything to go by, I await reports of him signing players, falling out with them, giving them the cold shoulder, them becoming unused subs and then being punted out on loan or disappearing from the match day squads altogether. I don't know if this happened in his first stint but Tranent fans you have been warned. Lenny will be a good signing for Tranent. Lots of potential, direct and good running at defences at speed. Only slight criticism would be that he needs to add an end product more often. If he can do that, then they've won a watch.

We definitely need a goalscorer but, unfortunately I think we also need a new goalkeeper if we are to mount a serious challenge next season. Musa pulls off some amazing saves but lets in too many soft goals and has always got the potential for a howler in him. The less said about passbooks, through balls and clearing his lines, the better. Sharp intakes all around me whenever he has to play the ball on the deck. Really hoping it's been first season nerves and that he settles down next season and becomes a dominant keeper for us long term but he's got a bit to go to get there.

Doesn't show it there but I believe that Gala came back from 2-0 down with 10 men (keeper sent off). Congrats to them. Sore one for the Wee Rose.

The Continuity Candidate. Hopefully he's more competent than the one currently being touted for the top job in a different sphere of life. Wouldn't be difficult. I wish him (Little) all the best and hope he can get us back playing and challenging again soon.

That's very kind of you. Or you could open the door and offer him another job. He's done Midlothian (Bonnyrigg), West Lothian (Broxburn), East Lothian (Tranent) and us. He may still have Fife on his bucket list!

Maybe the current Manager might like to enlighten us as to why he's hanging Nick Locke out to dry at right-back? Not his fault but he got roasted last week by the Celtic B whippets and was left isolated again today. Ryan Stevenson was playing midfield and swapping them would have been a better option cos our midfield created very little today. Todd, a CH, on the bench when either Jamie or McArthur could have moved and started at right-back. Absolutely mystifying, even by Christie's clueless standards.

Last season was one of the most difficult in memory on the playing side with supporters turning up at numerous games to find that we had a match day squad of only 11 or 12 players. Despite this, the teams we put out put in some superhuman performances and even managed to reach the League Cup final but fell just short against an East Kilbride team who had a cast of thousands to select from. Last season we finished 11th in the Lowland League. Today, we find ourselves 11th in the Lowland League. Granted that the league is stronger with Tranent replacing Vale of Leithen (Hearts B seem to blow hot and cold) and there are still 10 games to go but going by the most obvious benchmark we have not improved this season. This is despite the club/committee backing the manager in the transfer market since he arrived only for him to sign some of the most average players I have seen pull on a Bo'ness jersey in recent times. I'm not talking Joe Prince-Wright or Barry Donald levels here but not far off in some cases. If we finish this season trophyless and in the bottom half of the table again, Christie should do the decent thing and walk and take the decision out of the committee's hands.

Nah, not with Christie in charge. Unless Stenny got relegated. You're right. We are nothing special and apart from the odd super optimistic fan, there's a lot of disenchantment on this thread with team selection and tactics under the current management. Admittedly, it's the only sample you can use but since we're unbeaten in two trips to Central Park this season and with my blue tinted specs on, should have won last night, it maybe says more about where you are just now. Pitch wasn't the greatest but it's the same for both teams. Did the condition of it play a part in your goal? Possibly, but Musa should have done better regardless. Personally, I enjoy away trips to teams with grass pitches. Good trip down to Berwick a few weeks ago. The majority of Bo'ness fans didn't want the pitch ripped up at Newtown as it was a cracking playing surface (cue obsessed swanshagger reply that their playing surface is the bestest ever in the history of the universe) but we were told it would benefit the club going forward. Still up for debate IMO. Bit of a doom and gloom post on your thread today regarding finances. Hope that's not the case but tough times for everyone.

Wee shout out to the under 20s. Been a difficult first season for them but I believe they came from 5-1 and a man down to get a 5-5 draw at Dalkeith last night. Hopefully a sign of better things to come for them and a fighting spirit replicated by 'the big team' this afternoon.

Thanks Dave. Must be out the loop as that move passed me by so I don't know who instigated it but it was obviously done without having or seeing the need to have a replacement lined up or Nicky Locke being fit enough to step in and play there which regardless of how well he does weakens the team IMO as we need him further forward. So we basically have 3 recognised CHs and that's assuming you class Hawkins as a CH. As I said previously, all it needs are injuries/sending offs/suspensions and we end up where we did today with Dev playing at CH. Amateur hour. And before someone comes on and says 'Well, who's available? Who would you get?' That's not my job. That's what Christie and his buddy are being paid to do.

It might come a week sooner as the way we're playing I hope we don't underestimate Thorniewood. Get Dan on to at least work the Gala CHs and try to hold the ball up. They were tall but they looked quite young and he could have used his experience against them. When one of your available CHs get sent off and Dev has to cover, it says it all about our options at that position. Todd was suspended but we should have a defender on the bench who can play CH if there's an injury or dismissal and that's on Christie who has been backed by the club in his recruitment. Where's Dylan Coll? Is Carstairs even still on the books? Everyone around me could see that Smith should have come off sooner and fresh legs put on especially after Jamie was sent off. Players have to take some of the blame but someone needs to tell Christie that shouting 'Hey, come on' every 5 minutes isn't going to cut it tactically in the Lowland League and his pal Little seems incapable of providing any useful input either.

Is Macauley injured or just been unavailable for the last 3 matches? Was listed as sub today and would surely have made more sense to give him and Ward a half each instead of starting Dev at left-back - although he was dependable as ever.

So on the one hand we've got posters saying that the rumour that things are not so good with the club regarding players are 'bollocks' and a 'lot of pish'. And then in the same breath, saying that some are taking money under false pretences by continually being unavailable for whatever reason and others picking and choosing their games? Huge contradiction there.

After his performance against Mussey, Nicol deserves to be the first outfield name on the teamsheet today if he's available. We shall see.

Cheers Alan. That's something to look forward to then.

Assuming there are no other Cup competitions still to start (please feel free to correct me if there are), unless we can come up with a markedly improved performance against either Beith on Saturday in the Challenge Cup or Musselburgh a week Tuesday in the EoS Cup then our season is effectively over. I hope we can somehow pull a result out of the bag, preferably two, but if we can't and the standard of performance doesn't improve, the above is only going to get worse.

The only way we outfoxed anyone from Beith watching this afternoon would be if they were at the Sauchie game last Saturday and thought we couldn't play any worse than we did there.

We were very fortunate to get to extra-time today after being 2-0 up. Grant was an empty jersey this afternoon - not an uncommon occurrence but he seems to be Christie's golden boy.. Dev & Gemmell were getting overrun in midfield. Stevenson's end product was hopeless despite getting into good positions out wide numerous times. Any time I see Hawkins play he either looks terrified or way off the pace. Skinner didn't have his best game today but he was constantly having to provide cover across the back and was injured in a last ditch saving tackle to prevent a goal. McCormack should have been moved to CH with Hawkins going to RB where he could do less damage. No idea where Galbraith or Carstairs were. Injured? Suspended? Cup-tied? Work commitments? We seem to have signed 2 players who at best can play every second game if that. Not that Galbraith was missed - another empty jersey more often than not. Consistently watching the long ball getting played to Matty Flynn and hoping that he can hold off a centre-half who's 6 inches taller than him and control it on his chest (which to be fair to him, he does more often than you would expect him to) is soul destroying stuff. The young lad from Motherwell must be wondering what he's let himself in for. Our manager's tactical solution to everything seems to be just shout "Hey. Come on" to various players every two minutes. I will continue to support the team home and away but the fans deserve much better than has been served up to us this season and if that means wholesale changes are required then that needs to happen.

Agree with the previous poster regarding the limitations of Broadwood as a place to watch a Lowland League match but the elevated view from the stand certainly highlighted our deficiencies. I don't know whether Cumbernauld had done their homework but it was noticeable that pretty much every kick out in the 1st half was targeted at our left back area and McCauley never won a single header. He was maybe carrying an injury since he was subbed at half-time but even Dev was winning the same headers in the second half. We missed Michael Gemmell as soon as he went off as there was no-one in midfield to break up play and retain the ball and we started to get overrun. Some of the passing yesterday was dreadful with Dev surprisingly being one of the main culprits. The jury's out on Galbraith for me. I can only comment on the games I've seen him play but apart from the occasional flash I haven't seen anything special. Granted he has also been injured but yesterday he was painfully slow, got caught in possession numerous times and played countless aimless forward passes. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for some of them as by that time we had Gribben and Kieran up front who are not the most mobile but I've yet to see him justify the reputation he came with. I don't want to be too critical as the squad have had a hectic run of games and hopefully no midweek game this week will help but it is noticeable as someone else mentioned previously that we struggle against young, pacy teams who knock it about - Broomhill must still be wondering how they never got anything from last week's game. Finally, 4-1 certainly flattered Cumbernauld but it would have been even more painful if not for Andy Murphy. Some more top class saves yesterday coupled with his display against Broomhill which went a long way towards us securing the win. Hopefully onwards and upwards. Mon the BU!

Strong candidate for the 'Least Surprising Statement on P&B in 2021' award.

Deserves everything that comes his way then.

Never understood this and hopefully a lesson learned for the management team. Seen it before where just because a player isn't suited and booted, they think they are invisible to the officials and say/do what they want when in fact it's an open goal to a referee, especially one as far out of his depth as the one yesterday was. I hope McCormack wasn't stupid enough to enter the field of play at the end as has been suggested in a previous post. If he did and was spotted, he'll be hammered by the league and should get his baws booted by the club as well. On a more positive note, I haven't been overly convinced by Greg Skinner so far this season but thought he played really well yesterday. Not often you say that when a player gives away a 'penalty' and gets sent off but in an unfamiliar back four line-up I thought he was excellent. Nice to have Dev back as well.

If you feel you need the match highlights to prove we were stiffed, fair enough. As I said, I'm more concerned about this afternoon's game than whether or not last week's opponents are playing silly buggers.