AlansHotBath

I didn't take that into account, but you are right.

I'm possibly missing someone obvious but he was the League's longest serving manager - been there since 2013 and about a week longer than Dougie Samuel at Spartans. Quite a shift, but it sounds like the club want to do something different to stop dropping out the league

I believe it's largely used to cover admin costs that would otherwise fall to clubs, like insurance. There was also talk it was used to pay to improve the league's comms/social media output. Aside from maintain a website and publishing results and league tables after game days, which is the absolute bare minimum you'd expect from a functioning league body, they dont really seem to do much (i appreciate there are costs involved in both those things)

That was last season during a match against the Shire. Think he might've come onto the field during the game as well iirc?

It probably depends on how you process that disappointment. Being a sore loser can help if you can channel that frustration into improving yourself, someone like Klopp seems like a massive sore Loser but is evidently able to turn that into motivation and a learning experience to improve. If you are just bitter about it, or you are annoyed at your players and wont do anything to change it then I doubt it will help.

Clark definitely improved us and got us to a position where we didn't need to worry about relegation. Be interesting to see if he can do the same at Albion. All the best to them and him, anyway. Jardine is probably the best manager in the league, but I think Lachlan would be a good signing regardless. It'll be an interesting time next season!

Not even BSC/Broomhill's best Cup run. Anyway, I'll choose to believe getting beat twice by a terrible Shire side has turned Ferry and co off management for life.

Funny, perhaps, but based on that guy's account he's talking shit. If you are using a football club to create content for your YT series why wouldn't you at least stay until the end of the season to finish off the 'story'?

I wasn't able to go either, unfortunately. I can't imagine we'll be anywhere near promotion next season, I think the point is more about making the club sustainable in the long term (which realistically is as a LL club) rather than firing a bunch of money at the wall and hoping it all works out (again).

Some interesting news coming out the club this week - two new members of the Board who (as far as I am aware) have no previous connection to the club. Not sure what they mean by "taking routes that have not yet been seen in the Scottish game" but the club has been stagnating for a while now so I do think this is a positive step, even if it's very early days.

Shire's game against Cowden at TFS is off as well

I am largely positive about that appointment, I also assumed it would be someone connected with the club. The main caveat being how long he has gone without managing, his last management job was before a few of our squad were probably born. But I think he's stayed involved in football as a coach, so hopefully shouldn't be much of an issue. Count me as optimistic and intrigued!

He's the best manager in the league imo, but I think when he's been linked to jobs elsewhere folk have said he's happy managing in Edinburgh, presumably because of personal/work reasons. Might be rubbish, mind you, and it would definitely make sense for EK to get him if they could, assuming Rutkiewicz is a goner.

CSS are going to save us from the nonsense of a Colts league win, and god bless them for it

iirc it covers costs that clubs would otherwise shoulder, so it's not a direct payment but it does save clubs money each season. The League itself used some money to "improve" their website and social media output.

I haven't been at many games this season because my interest in football has been on the wane recently (I'm sure in part because of how the Shire have been this season, but more generally I have just felt like I've got better things to do than watch any level of football). The structural issues the club has are pretty clear and covered above. The club wont be able to generate a bigger fanbase, income or connection with the local community without it's own ground (Firs Park or elsewhere), but it cant get a ground with those things (or another mystery businessman decides to invest in the club). On the pitch, it's obvious this has led to a lack money for players. Last season we had a reasonable level of success, but a lot of the games were by quite fine margins, we weren't generally winning or losing by a lot. This season the quality of pretty much every part of the team has dropped, particularly in midfield and at full back, so the drop off from last season's results had been quite stark. I do think Del is limited as a manager and probably isnt good enough to get something greater from the sum of its parts from the team over a long term period, (not to mention reoccurring issues of losing points from winning positions and discipline, which go beyond this season) but I doubt he'll be sacked. He's still mostly popular with the fans, and I doubt we could actually get anyone better in at the moment given our current situation. There seems to have been enough glimmers of good performances so far to make me think we can scrounge together enough points to not be relegated, but that will be dependent on Dalbeattie not suddenly improving at some point.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/sep/16/zander-murray-comes-out-as-gay-scotland-gala-fairydean?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other A historic announcement- Gala's Zander Murray is the first Scottish player to come out as gay while still playing. Hopefully one day this will not be news, but in the mean time I am sure he will be an inspiration to people in the Scottish game, and we can move onwards further towards a type of football that is genuinely welcoming to everyone. I am sure this was not an easy step to take, but fair play to the club as well for giving him a platform and a place to feel comfortable enough to do it.

That's all games postponed this weekend (and likely next weekend as well for the funeral). I'd have thought ploughing on with the TheTradeRadiator.com South Challenge Cup Second Round would be a great mark of respect for the Queen, but it is what it is

Surprisingly good performance and result last night against St Mirren B. I thought we'd get leathered, especially when I saw Brophy in their starting line-up, but I suppose he's no match for Connor Greene and Tony Coutts. Hopefully use this to get the league season back on track.

That'll be the chippy lights back on then

I was at the game last night and thought it was overall a decent performance. Ewing does indeed look like a pretty commanding CB and should form a good partnership with Greene, and Honeyman, a winger recently signed on loan from Falkirk, looks very exciting. He created our goal but we didn't do much attacking in general in the second half so he wasnt able to have much more impact on the game. The main downside was Andy Kay getting a straight red for mouthing off at the ref, apparently refs have been told to clamp down on that from players this season so hopefully that's a lesson learned. My main concern is at fullback, we've definitely downgraded there and in particular the guy playing LB looked about 12, very quick but I can see him being bullied off the ball a lot this season. We tend to do a lot of work through our fullbacks so hopefully that is something we can tweak and accommodate for over the coming weeks.

I think Shire will finish midtable, I'm not really familiar with the guys we've signed and I haven't been at any of our pre-season games, but even if we stand still I think Bo'ness and Open Goal Broomhill Football Club will improve, and it was fine margins for us finishing above Berwick and CSS, so wont take a lot for us to slip down a few places. Mind you, I thought that at the start of last season and it went better, so who knows. We may be reliant on loan signings again over the course of the season. Edit: plus the inclusion of Cowden and Tranent, who I probably expect will be looking to finish in the top 6 In terms of real teams who can actually be promoted, looks like East Kilbride and Spartans will be favourites imo.

Spotted this in the Ardeer thread: https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20220707/282943863967591 According to "Lowland League sources" their payments are up to date but they want to distance themselves from the company.

Interesting approach. I wonder if eventually they will just go all out and have folk pick the team via the app.