Ally_D

A lot has happened since Baz wrote that, so I maybe shouldn't base another comment on it now, but isn't periodic change a good opportunity to look at things afresh? If any organisation becomes dependent on any one individual, that is a failure of governance. At the most gloomy level, it would throw the organisation into crisis if that person were to be involved in a traffic accident. Knowledge / experience need to be shared broadly. So the norms are for periodic refresh (for example 3 year term as Chair), for separation of duties and rotation. Sadly that hasn't been happening at SAFC. Instead we have what looks like a classic Schmittian politics, wrestling over sovereign decision-making, intensifying into friend/enemy distinctions. It happens repeatedly, it results in people who have added value to the Club, and who could continue to do so, becoming weary and standing aside. That is not good. Without wanting to scapegoat for the years of drab on-field performance, the sovereign decision that have been made have often been poor: managerial contracts surprisingly renewed rather than allowed to expire in a dignified way. Would that have happened if broader discussion had occurred? However... If and when the Trust voting returns, I am likely to surprise myself regarding the Resolutions about particular Club Directors. For the governance reasons above, I do think that te current Chair's term should be coming to an end, indeed that this should have happened several years ago. However I also think it crucial that expertise is retained and that in any organisation a former Chair should be a valued member of a subsequent Board. This leaves me unable to agree with the second leg of the proposition to remove him as both Chairman and Director. I do feel that the Supporters' Liaison communications through this season have been poor: sometimes inaccurate, often peevish in tone, and declining to meet the Trust Board recently really isn't on. However, my understanding is that the individual concerned makes valuable contributions in other ways, so while unsuited to that role could be a useful Director in another role. Really, though, the structures need to be refreshed so that side-taking doesn't recur. The "oversight" Resolution should be the basic grounding and the development of a shared Business Plan in a reasonable timetable should be the next step.

A couple of decades ago, managers' contracts were seen out and not renewed. Relatively dignified and allowing renewal to happen through the summer. The repeating pattern over the past decade has been different. Several times, after a season has turned to mulch, I have expected change and instead been astonished to hear that the management contracts have been extended. That has allowed them to repeat lacklustre recruitment (usually involving a couple of players whose sole good performance the previous season seems to have been against SA at Forthbank), and then turned into a crisis by autumn by which time they have to go. I can understand this happening once: a loyalty bond building up between chair and manager, a sense that we are in this together. But not more. The cycle from boosterism to circle-the-wagons crisis does nobody any good. It may even have prevented the innovative approach that has been sought. For example, might broader consideration have reached a consensus that this or that rookie incumbent is an inspiring coach but dreadful at recruitment, or at reading a game, or may benefit from advice from a Director of Football or some such? Who knows, but crisis and rip-it-up-and-start-again means we never find out.

As a season, this is ominously like the first Ray Stewart season: starting with expectation that a squad had been assembled to challenge for the top (it is almost one year since the confident announcements preparing for this season ), then eroding into a slump towards the bottom. Despite mutterings disparaging keyboard warriors, there is a dearth of comments about the situation. Watching the stream of yesterday's match at Elgin, it was dire stuff. Was enough done in January to shore things up? Or has it been assumed that if the upward play-offs were out of reach, a new manager could bring enough spark to get to the end of the season in mid-table? Even that is looking challenging just now.

And Darren Young it is: link.

Since his time as Binos manager, doesn't Moore's track record show issues with turning around a team's run of bad performances? A skill which is the single biggest necessity right now.

Initially he did ok in pepping up a disjointed squad (assisted by the key goalscorer coming back from injury). But the following summer's recruitment was poorly judged and in the seasons that followed, I can only think of a period around a year ago when there was briefly the kernel of an exciting team - in retrospect reliant on Paul Mclean and Andy Ryan.

Aside from Jocky, every Binos appointment has aspired to think differently, but with disappointing outcomes more often than not. Back in 2016, Stirling, Arbroath and Montrose were much of a muchness in the depths in this division. Both Arbroath and Montrose made what looked at the time as dull, unimaginative appointments, but the difference in outcome has been dramatic and lasting.

Unfortunately, he hasn't had a great record of finding ways to turn things around, either when a game starts to run away (for example after half-time yesterday) or over the course of a season.

Grant didn't seem to learn from being pulled up earlier for tackles in similar positions, but I don't think the game turned on his 2nd yellow. The strange set-up at the back always looked awkward and ready to crumple once the City forwards got themselves together, as they had already intermittently and did again for their well-taken 2nd goal.

Isn't the detriment on the Scottish game from attention and availability of games elsewhere already fully worked through? Those going to matches, especially lower league, are unlikely to be swayed by a Big Game elsewhere. Even when a freezing winter midweek game clashes with a match between European Super League would-bes, I don't think that has a significant impact on crowds. It is worth being wary of authorities claiming benevolence to justify their protectionist rulings, especially when its practical impact is to limit the less powerful from adopting new options.

Following up on the announcement, I want to pay tribute to all those who have been involved in providing SAFC's excellent streaming service since Covid. The cessation is bad news for those of us who still regard attending events as too risky, but I could see that the numbers of users dropped significantly when it returned to being a personal judgment whether to attend games. (I really don't get the restraint-on-trade position of UEFA/SFA etc., however. It is unlikely in the extreme that the enticement of any streamed Scottish League Two fixture is going to result in rows of empty seats at Old Trafford, Prenton Park, etc., but there we are.)

A journey best taken on an air of confidence. It has been a long time since the season when Stranraer and Stirling teams that were both excellent for this level competed and prevented Gretna's rise for a year.

In fairness, my recollection is that there were significant players carrying injuries into the playoffs (though which team doesn't?), but also that some carried into his final season - particularly Darren Smith who could otherwise have been expected to score goals, as he did when he recovered. And also that some of his signings came good for us afterwards (Danny Jardine, for example). But, as is often the case, he couldn't turn around a sustained period of poor form and a management change was beneficial.

For all that Cove, QP, Kelty's push out of this league gets the attention, it is surely Arbroath and Montrose that are the more interesting model: teams that were stuck languishing towards the foot of this division but were then propelled upwards by decent management.

Unfortunately, I think you are being too kind, glossing it as a closer match than it was. Once again, the Binos side was huffing and puffing without guile. If they appeared to be pressing in the 2nd half, that is probably just down to the tendency of a team at this level with a 2 goal lead to sit back. I doubt Greg Fleming will have felt he had a stressful afternoon. Lacking McLean and Leitch, this team is shaky at the back and creating little from the middle. Like last year's, this team is less than the parts.

Normal service resumed. That was so like all those Forthbank games after the March resumption. Different players but the same outcome: stuck on the back foot with a total lack of any cunning to get forward.

Fees have been few and far between! It's a long time since we got £30K from Airdie for Eddie Forrest (from memory, and the old club were rather tardy about paying it). Then there was Iain Turner - and that's about it for the past 20 years?

Loss of Andy Ryan to Accies (link) puts a whole new perspective on the coming season. A player who was the catalyst for every good aspect last season. Who can step up?

It's not as if the club didn't run into problems in the previous season with lack of cover for injured keepers. And having both Binnie and Currie at various points this season has been very necessary.

Extending the contracts probably looked deft and smart on March 28th when the season stood at W6 D4 L1. But as they say, it is a mistake to assume past performance is indicative of future performance. And so it proved. There has been a pattern over the past decade of extending management contracts too early. It is commendable to appreciate those you are working with, maybe there's some Stockholm Syndrome between Board and management, I don't understand the dynamic. But these early extensions surely remove much fo the leverage for a frank end-of-season assessment where the management team are challenged to demonstrate exactly how they will do better next time, if they are given the opportunity.

Yes but it is a pattern of several years mid-table finishes when the target has clearly been set higher. And given that the record against the better teams in the division was dismal,especially since March, I doubt anyone really believes that this team would have been capable of coming through the playoffs if yourselves or Stranraer had dropped a couple more points.

I think the best football under KR was just after he started, when he was working with Mackay's squad. He seemed able to coax better from them - although he also reaped the benefit of significant players (D L Smith) coming back from injury. After that initial period, everything seemed to sink into a mid-table norm, not helped by poor signings. The 19-20 team I found particularly hard going, with poor signings turning in performances that recalled some really tedious days out in the past (Gala, Hurlford). This year's squad was better chosen and should have achieved more. Questions need to be asked why they didn't. Tonight's club statement pointing to injuries and the schedule of games really doesn't hang together. I am sure each and every team had to safeguard against similar issues.

And achieved nothing better than the same mid-table position that has become the norm. Also unconvinced that Darvel was the place to look to strengthen the squad. It just seemed to unsettle whatever cohesion there had been. Compare and contrast Arbroath and Montrose, two teams which were in the same morass and changing managers: a massive contrast in achievement since then.

Another desperately poor finish to a season. As with the curtailed early-2020 games, since the 2021 resumption the team was losing as many as it won (and those generally against the teams at the bottom). I enjoyed watching this season's team much more than the previous, there's been some players linking well going forward, but the really telling point is that in neither season was the management team capable of turning around poor form against the better teams.

I agree, prior to the break the defense looked confident, the same can't be said since, and that is probably down to the loss of McLean. And unfortunately, the team never looks like recovering from the loss of a goal. Let's hope someone can step up with a bit of magic today.