CallumPar

I can think of 3. Sure Lawless scored one at East End and one away to Hamilton. Also missed one away to Killie. As you say, main reason for a low number is that we were rarely in the opposition box. If you sit deep and soak up pressure to play for 0-0 (as we often did), then the opposition will have a lot of the ball in/around your box. That means that, inevitably, if the referee gives a decision in their favour it’s much more likely to result in a penalty or dangerous free kick. Likewise, if you don’t spend time in the attacking third, you’re not getting a penalty. The Hamilton game mentioned above, with the Dorrans red is a prime example. Both teams were awful, then they made subs and piled on the pressure. We had barely got the ball out of our defensive third for a good period of time before that penalty. As I say, if a decision goes against you when you’re playing for 0-0 and sitting deep like that, it often results in a penalty/dangerous free kick. Was it unlucky? Yes. Was Hughes’ refusal to respond to opposition subs until we concede a goal more of an issue? Yes. That was an issue at various points - including the playoff final defeat. Having said all of the above, I also don’t think we gave away many penalties. Largely because our players were usually too soft to bring a man down/risk giving away a foul. The amount of goals we conceded, particularly early on, that could have been avoided by someone ‘taking one for the team’ early in the opposition attack was frustrating. Everyone else does it, so why were our players not wise enough to do that?

Yeah, I’m fairly sure any statement will talk about getting ‘back where we belong’ - completely ignoring the fact that we are exactly where we belong right now.

They’ve probably spent the last 5 days drafting up the statement defending Hughes/explaining their decision to keep him. I doubt they’ve come up with anything other than “we think we need consistency” as there’s nothing he has done that justifies keeping him on after he got us relegated. No doubt end up with something about how they see things that we don’t. Talk about him working tirelessly and claim that they’ve seen some progress during his time - despite the fact we seemed to get worse the more players he signed himself. Then they’ll mention how shocked and upset the manager and the board were to the reaction from fans after the playoff defeat. Then tell us we need to back him and the club.

“a leaner and more flexible structure in order to be able to act more decisively and swiftly in the future.” “The footballing departments and squad plans are currently under review. The board will keep you informed as things progress.” Surely the footballing aspect was being regularly reviewed/discussed during the season and it shouldn’t need any sort of lengthy review/investigation? To come out with the part about being more decisive and acting more swiftly, then to not provide any update 9 days after the season ended is mental. I was expecting an update at the end of last week, since they did say we would be informed as things progress.

If true, I’d be very happy with that. Unfortunately though, I think we’re stuck with Hughes and will find ourselves trying to bring in a new manager in October/November to manage the terrible squad Hughes has assembled by that point.

Meadowbank will be worse than Ainslie Park. Two stands, both at pitch level, with a running track between the stands and the pitch!

We paid fees/compensation for Murray, O’Hara, Thomas, Edwards and Turner, who I think were worth it - or have at least shown some glimpses of talent/potential. Also got Nisbet for free, due to a stupid clause Rovers put in his contract. We seemed to be very ‘on the ball’ with getting players under contract at other clubs, or just players we needed to pay compensation for. We also paid fees/compensation for poor signings like Ryan, Lang, McGill, MacDonald and Chalmers. I may have missed some on either/both lists, but it’s clearly been a mixed bag in terms of success of the signings that we paid fees for. My main concern is that of the 5 I’ve listed as not being poor signings, 3 have now left for nothing and only Edwards to date has signed an extension beyond their initial contract. We need to try and sort that. We’ve also developed a new habit of selling some players. We sold Jackson Longridge in 2019, Nisbet and Lang in 2020 and McManus in 2021 for fees. Before that, can’t have sold many players since Willie Gibson?

This is the part I don’t get. Our player recruitment strategy, which had been largely successful, has been tossed out the window. We’re building a training centre and re-establishing an academy, but at the same time we moved away from signing youngsters and trying to develop them and use us as a stepping stone. To be fair, in January we were desperate for players to save us. We failed despite going for older heads though, so we still would have been no worse just building for the longer term.

The longer this drags on, the more uncertain I get that we’ll do the right thing. I understand that these things take time, but the ‘final nail in the coffin’ was last Saturday. Usually, when a manager is let go at the end of the season, it’s announced within a few days. Delaying the removal of the current manager m means delaying the search for a new manager. Delaying the search for a new manager means that the more sought after candidates are spoken to/snapped up by other clubs. Really hope that it’s a case of announcing the departures along with the new structure/team, but that seems unlikely. If they’re punting him, it should be announced today at the latest. If it drags into next week before he’s sacked, that’s just ridiculous and suggests that the mismanagement at the club wasn’t due to departing board members, but those that are still here. The board must know that fans want clarification one way or another. There’s no logical reason for this to drag on longer beyond today.

Yeah, I think the wording of the statement cleverly hints that the manager and/or management team are being sacked, but they can’t actually announce it yet. Could just be seeing what I want to see though.

Decent enough statement. Accepted responsibility for the season. As above if it isn’t followed up by news of Hughes leaving, then it’s disappointing. They can’t release a statement basically saying “we got it wrong” and then keep the manager, can they? Otherwise it’s just empty words and a bit of a fake apology. Talking about ‘the manner in which the relegation came about’ and ‘standards falling well short’. The term ‘starting at the top’ also gives me some hope, is that reading too much into it? Probably. ‘Footballing department and squad plans’ being under review, surely means the management team?

Done a quick bit of research. Dom Thomas started 16 league games this season. We got 20 points in those 16 league games. That means that he didn’t start in 20 league games and we got 15 points in those 20 games. Worth noting that, in line with The Toun Clock’s criticism, he was subbed off early (around the hour) in defeats to Inverness and Killie, having been underwhelming. But I’d argue his ratio of poor games is quite far off. Given he probably played well in around 50% of his starts this season, which is a hell of a lot better than any of his teammates (except Donaldson). Worth noting that we scored 22 goals at East End and 15 of them came when he was on the park. Away from home, I think he was less influential, but obviously got the winner away to Inverness. We struggled to score away from home all season though and he’s far from the only one to blame for that. I actually think the issue could be that we were too reliant on him, so teams would try and stop him, knowing we didn’t really have any other serious threat.

Think you have to add Ayr at home (Hughes’ first game) to the list as well. He played well that day. Once you factor that in, you seem to be arguing that someone who’s performance was crucial in 4 of our 7 wins isn’t going to be a big loss? I thought it was very noticeable that he was the only player in the team that was direct and drove us forward. Particularly in the latter stages of the season, once we had Chalmers, Polworth and Lawless in there. Thomas was always the one who kept pushing forward in games, when everyone else kept slowing the game down. We definitely missed his style of play in the playoffs.

You guys better not be messing around. Either way, I’d imagine we’ll be releasing something today/tomorrow. Wonder if we’re just going for one big statement announcing all departures/changes (directors, management and players)?

Yeah, the board seem more focused on self-preservation and doubling down on their mistakes, rather than accepting they’ve made mistakes. I think that’s what makes it so much more frustrating. They’re human, they’re going to make mistakes. They’re absolutely not going to get everything right. But these guys are supposed to be intelligent and successful businessmen. Surely, to get to where they have, they’ve made mistakes and had to rectify them? Surely they’ve hired the wrong man for the job in their own businesses and had to offload them and re-recruit for that role? I certainly doubt they hold out for ages, hoping that by some miracle these staff, that don’t look up to the job, suddenly become competent. Fully expect them to stick with Hughes and opt to slag off the fans again. Then, within weeks, they’ll ask us to buy season tickets at championship prices, contribute to the lifeline (which will now be more important than ever - again) and buy new kit/leisurewear from the shop. They might even remind us that they keep a ‘donation’ option open when renewing season tickets/buying match tickets, in case you don’t feel like you’re giving them enough money.

Wonder if they’ll just copy and paste from the statement defending Grant… “individual mistakes, losing possession in dangerous spaces and lack of defensive compactness played a big role in why we couldn`t win games.” “With a little bit of luck and a better exploitation of our scoring chances, we could have won one or two games and would then also be in a better position in the table.” “the coaching team will continue to work on the balance between defence and offense in the coming weeks in order to be able to score goals” “positive encouragement rather than criticism is what we need from the stands “ “Finally, the Board would like to state that the behaviour of a handful of supporters at the end of Saturday’s match was completely unacceptable” “the DAFC Board are made up of supporters themselves who have acted on a voluntary basis for the last 8 years” I wonder if Meggle and co had to ask the other directors what the fans were saying at the end, as they directed the ‘dirty Falkirk b*****d’ chants at Hughes.

I think it was 33 Mehmet OFW Stolarczyk Comrie MacDonald Todd Watson Graham Martin Gaspuitis Connolly Breen Jones Donaldson Ambrose Edwards Fenton (league cup only) Dorrans Cole Pybus Allan Wilson Chalmers Polworth Thomas Dow Kamwa Lawless Kennedy Wighton Todorov O’Hara McCann Seriously considering whether I’ll be buying a ST or picking and choosing games, if Hughes is in charge. Serious mismanagement all around the club right now.

Yep, the Raith fans did warn us, after all. We should all be personally humiliated that we didn’t listen and allowed our board to appoint him. Just about every Pars fan on here has openly said we’re going down for months and the vast majority of us acknowledged we were lucky to avoid bottom spot and have a shot at the playoffs. Even then, I don’t think many of us were confident ahead of the weekend - I certainly expected us to lose, as we did.

They’ll be lower, but I don’t think that will be astronomical, or anywhere near the biggest financial concern. As I say, Falkirk will bring larger support than anyone did this season, twice. The rest will obviously be lower, but QP’s support of a couple of hundred at the weekend was probably in the top 5/6 away supports that we’ve seen at EEP this season. The drop in home crowd will be the bigger concern, along with the prize money you mention. Our new CEO will be taking a salary, which increases costs as well. However, I’d be really concerned if we end up with such a large squad of players who (you’d assume) are well paid. We have a first team squad of 27 players just now and had 33 (I think?) different players play for us this season. Regardless of the division we ended up in, we should have been already planning to cut the first team expenditure and trim these numbers down. If we stick with Hughes, I fear we’ll end up doing the same again though. Ambrose, Polworth, Donaldson, Stolarczyk, Thomas and Lawless will be on decent money and will all be leaving. If we also manage to offload 2 high earning strikers and Chalmers, our costs would be cut by a massive amount. Yes, we need to recruit new players. But we won’t be signing players on the kind of money these guys are currently on. If we haven’t put a relegation clause in Yogi’s contract though, we will be struggling financially for the next 12 months, through our board’s stupidity. Not sure that would be a surprise to many of us though.

To be fair, I think it’s different if the incoming manager particularly wants to work with one (or more) of our existing coaches. I’d be fine with that. The issue myself and, I assume, others(?) have with the coaches staying on is that we seem to be forcing our existing coaches on every new manager. AJ had to work with Potter (who he replaced as manager). Crawford came in as coach, then got made manager, so got to bring in his own team. Grant had to work with Shields and Whittaker. Hughes had to work with Shields and Whittaker. I think Dorrans is getting into his coaching badges - sure that was mentioned at one point. So it wouldn’t surprise me if he ends up being forced on any incoming manager as a player/coach and/or is lined up to become manager once the next man (or even Hughes?) leaves.

Not convinced away crowds will be much lower on average. We had, at most, 2 away supports over 1,000 this season in our 18 home games. Falkirk will bring more than 1,000 twice next season. Signed up for next year we have: Mehmet Comrie MacDonald Todd Breen Edwards Fenton Chalmers [emoji2961] Dorrans Allan McCann O’Hara Todorov Wighton Would expect 2 of those strikers to leave. If Hughes is in charge, it’ll definitely be Todorov and Wighton. Hopefully Chalmers has a relegation release clause. We need a full rebuild in the boardroom, management team and playing staff and I’m actually of the opinion that the more people who leave, the better. Of those out of contract, I’d offer something to Pybus and Martin, that’s about it. Thomas, Donaldson and Stolarczyk won’t play for us in league 1. It’s not worth wasting anyone’s time trying to keep them.

When Grant/Yogi we’re appointed, I’d have said ‘hell no’ to Scott Brown, or anyone like that. However, I’d be open to it now. Anybody that isn’t called Peter Grant would fill me with more hope than Hughes does. But I’m at the stage of thinking someone has to take a punt on a recently retired player at some point. If he interviews well and seems to have good a good vision for the future and displays an understanding of the club and the job, I’d say someone like Brown is definitely worth a shot. He’s seen these shitebags in training and will be keen to offload the deadwood right away. Get him in and come up with a longer term plan for the club. I’d be more willing to give time to someone like Brown, if we can see what he’s trying to do and see year on year progress under him. If we brought in someone more ‘proven’ I think we’d be expecting instant success. I also think at least one of our coaches has to go, or we reshuffle things to make Shields head of academy or something - wasn’t he brought here, due to his success with an academy in the US? If our first choice for new manager doesn’t want to work with any of the existing coaches, those coaches have to go. It’s as simple as that. I’m fed up of seeing coaches hang on under multiple managers, until their given a shot to be manager themselves. Even then, we told AJ he had to work with Potter, the manager he replaced. Mental stuff.

This better not be a wind up.

Be something cringey like ‘Time to get back on Par’ - then, following poor early bird sales, they’ll release a statement criticising fans for not buying tickets when we still have Hughes, Shields and Whittaker in charge and are charging the same price as we did for championship season tickets. On a lighter note, after a summer of Yogi’s recruitment, we could be spoiled for choice in terms of what jobber the P&B Pars sponsor next year @101

It really is incredible that they managed to attract around 2.5k fewer home fans than they had at the QoS game. It must be around a 45% drop in home attendance from one week to the next, despite it being a crucial game. If the board can’t see that and realise that the management team have to go, I really worry about where they’re going to take us. 45% fewer home fans at a playoff game, than turned up on a Friday night the week before. Let that sink in. The club are having a nightmare just now and it’s clearly not just the performances on the park that are the issue.