Cold Feet

Ian Ross is moving on. Triallist whilst not really tested did everything right I am concerned that Andy thinks Ian Davidson is a better midfielder than Fraser McLeod. Also on Spartans showing I am not confident. We had five at back and five up top - long balls just cobbled up by defence. Midfield none existent despite Seth being our best player. We have loads of defenders, nearly half the squad. We have a tough start to the season, sure Fraserburgh had no hand in us being at home to Buckie then making us travel to them in midweek. If we don't hit the ground running the season could be over pretty quickly. But if we do........ haha

Yep, thats the fella.

No 5 was a stop gap draft. The no 7 is a Brechin lad who has just been released from Dundee Utd - he is unattached and has been training with the team. I thought the front 3 were doing things our previous strikers were not and that was working back and making tackles on the half way line. They all have energy to burn and looked like a decent combo. Also our keeper looks more assured than Jack - he came for things and made himself available for a pass. Sparky was at Andy Robertsons wedding in Portugal, Bain - holiday, Cruickshank at Highland games with work. Hamish and Cooney not risked. So far so promising. And oh those penalties at half time, oh dear, oh dear but good banter.

Not at all I had defended the committee on a thankless task. I had stated elsewhere that the committee had indeed overseen many promotions. Being on a committee is hard work and time consuming. However many folk had gone on and off pretty quickly due to its inner workings. If nobody wanted to do it how come when the old one left a new one was created? Sometimes committees have a shelf live and regardless of previous successes it comes to and end and ours had. I have no personal beef with any of them but sometimes a change is needed to move forward.

There are many variables in success or arse falling out of everything. As I stated earlier we had a poor committee who oversaw a shit show and resulted in us being in the HL. Much has changed in the last year on / off the pitch and hopefully we will be back soon. Those out with Brechin will struggle to see the change but much has happened As for a level I think we were a solid enough L1 side with flirtations with Championship and L2 - occasionally up / occasionally down. We should be a warning to everyone, sitting in Tanadice for a League game to being in Keith on a wet and bloody cold night under the worst floodlight system known to man.

Not a coffee drinker but by all accounts very good stuff.

Nobody should be complacent. In the years pre pyramind, about 30 we were no place near the bottom of L2, in fact the worst we were was about mid L2 before we appointed Dick C. And whilst we were making hay the rest of the Angus Clubs mostly hogged L2. We were run by a Chairman and committee who had run their course but did not want to change or encourage fresh blood. No investment in the squad when we were in the Championship and a car crash of a season followed. That big kick in the stones resulted in one poor decision after another with managers being hired quickly with little thought - the worst being Barry Smith who spent the playing budget, played a few games and realised his signings were not up to it and then left. Either way we high rock bottom and further fell into HL. It was only then that the old committee were removed and fresh ideas with a plan was set in motion. It has and will continue to take a lot of work to get back whilst unravelling the mess left behind. Their is new hope and connection with he community. Point being every part time club are a few bad ideas from a few past sell by date committee members from being club 42. Hopefully see you all soon.

Ewan Spark signs on at City, local lad who has played for us before. If nothing else he will bring drive, battle and energy.

Having dropped into Highland League I like the home and away fixture - you only play a club twice, unless you meet in the cup. Very refreshing. However, what it lacks is a wider pool of teams playing for something right up to the end. As much as we did ok our season was done with back to back defeats in January. January! Makes it hard to draw in sponsorship and supporters. Not necessarily moaning about missing out but I think what ever system is introduced it needs to allow more opportunity for teams to come up and L2 (in fact all Scottish Leagues) need to get away from 4 games against the same team - gets boring. More opportunity means more interest in the league for longer and helps keep paying customers coming through the door.

Highlights are very well put together. Never a pen and a stupid player getting sent off. I do wonder about grounds now being utilised for teams in SPFL - admittedly some are not great that are already there. However there needs to be some criteria. There seems to be a drive in tier 5 football to invest in players and not the ground and indeed we have many clubs renting - thereby being able to focus on players and not so much about facilities. Even in HL there are huge differences in grounds; some good, some not so and some clearly about to fall down. And pitches, well again a mixed bag. Huge slops and even folds in some. I guess that what we get for being in the HL. However back to original point what standards are there for SPFL teams?

Think you'll find we (Brechin City) had a dodgy decision in the playoffs as club 42

Club 42 two years in a row given a shocking decision against them. There's a conspiracy I tell ya.

Away to Australia I think.

likewise

From my conversations across the HL it appears nobody is really bothered about getting into SPFL. Happy to gather HL titles. For what its worth I can only see FW dropping out and BOD coming in. Cowdenbeath will keep their SPFL status. Congrats to Fraserburgh.

Hey once upon a time we were beating Rangers 3-1 at half time in a league game. True story that. Haha

More reds? They've had a few. Time for Brechin to put them to the sword on Saturday for our last home game of the season.

Top 4 place gets invite to league cup (£20k for just turning up) and to challenge cup (or whatever it is called these days). But one thing in SPFL was that you rarely get to a level of safety until close to end of season or playing for playoff positions. Although not always a good thing LOL.

Ours tailed off when we were no longer in contention; if we had held out against Broch (3-5) and then not followed up with the hangover at Formartine (0-1 loss) then we would still be right in it. However we are not and only the 300 or so die hards are coming to the games. We have also lost a lot of hospitality with games off and the rearranged ones not getting the same amount of hospitality uptake. Next year......?

Yes. Stewards were informed and said they would deal with it. It was also followed up with an email to them to see what had been done. To agree it was nothing is belittling the incident or even condoning the actions. Rod informed. Suspect our raising of the issue added to the pot which prompted HL response

Brechin were also on the receiving end of racial abuse.

HL needs to be finished by 16th April to tie in with playoffs. Assume other leagues are having to do the same.

Anything is possible in part time football and I think as we have shown a few bad judgement calls and you can crash a long way quite quickly. My understanding is that training venues for Brechin are changing next year almost certainly ruling out central belt players from signing. Recruitment will be closer to home; Fife, Perth, Dundee and Aberdeen.

Crikey this sounds very much like us last year. The day we went down I was numb and worried. We kicked out the committee, got a new one, had a successful share issue, new manager, new squad (again) but will have resigned at least ten for next year and won more games in one season than we had in the previous 4 combined! We are doing ok and expect us to return to SPFL in the next couple of years (if not sooner). And have a renewed interest in the cub and its links with the community. The point being sometimes you have to find your rock bottom before making some big changes. All the best.

Wonder if he will get much game time there?