Infirmary Street

Great stuff City. Wasn’t at the game today but sounds like a good performance as well as the right result - well done everyone and hopefully we can keep it up and get off the bottom before the end of the year

See the keeper waved our first goal in thru him as well. Inglis looks a bit surprised to see it hit the back of the net!

Well done lads. Hopefully we can build on this. All those who travelled down - enjoy! Looking forward to seeing McMinn’s strike in particular...

Guilty but I may have a hidden agenda...

Just be careful because it’s ‘punching above your weight’ that could be the problem. No issue with a bit of ambition but Gretna is only the most egregious example of where the project wasn’t sustainable and it all ended in tears. No-one wishes a bad end to a well-intentioned project but I hope all these initiatives (and wages?) are being costed against current income and not speculated against the prospect of a league place because as others have already said, it will be more expensive in the SPFL and it will be tough to get there in the first place at the first time of asking. Does whoever funds the club have the appetite for 2 or 3 years of big losses before they make the step up, a la Cove? If league 1 and 2 clubs are losing players in bidding wars to LL teams as has been widely reported then there is a lot of money being spunked on unsustainable wage bills not just by Kelty but most obviously also by East Stirlingshire. Good luck to anyone who has a genuinely sustainable setup that could flourish in L2 but please spare us any more expensive, short-lived vanity projects that end up letting everyone down. (Says a nervous Brechin fan ) Edit: AND - you are in the good times now but you really can’t project based on that. Gates have to be looked at in context of a potential 5 game losing run while one of the big teams around you is doing well and drawing the casual support away.

Aye fair enough

I’m in no way resistant to change. As long as it’s the right change, driven by people who have the best interests of the Club and the town at heart. At the moment though I would take more or less anything offered that might see us preserve our position in the SPFL, and I suspect the same is true of many others. That in itself makes us vulnerable, as a group, to making poor choices in haste, so forgive me if I have a healthy scepticism about new accounts popping up and promoting an agenda that changing the model/structure is the only answer to our current problems. It could be that changing the players and/or manager in Jan gets us to a place of safety, in which case would we still feel the same? It could be that laying a plastic pitch, to increase community use and bring extra revenue, is an alternative, for example. It could be that building an indoor snowboarding centre in the car park is the answer! I don’t know any better than anyone else. But the narrative seems to have missed a few steps and gone straight to ‘change the structure’ and I’d just like to be clear on why that is, and who if anyone stands to gain from promoting such an agenda Brechin’s a small place and there are four senior clubs in Angus - there isn’t a magic seam of fans to be mined so we will always be constrained. Yes there are incremental improvements that could be made: we can do more to get younger fans through the gate - and the club has been trying to build stronger links with the YFC recently - but it doesn’t necessarily follow that there is a magic bullet that the existing committee has somehow not spotted. A more attractive team to watch would be a start tho. If you’ve only got 400 core fans then you can’t afford to drive any of them away. Mr Dods still has a lot to answer for on that front

Come on then Brechintogether - joined Nov 17th, all your posts to date seem to be about changing the model and/or bringing in external business expertise, implying that there is something wrong with the current committee. I’m not suggesting you are up to anything nefarious but I do infer that you have some kind of angle on this, and/or know more than you are letting on. Would it be unreasonable to ask you to declare any interests before we go much further with this conversation?

a meeting for fans to discuss current and future plans with the team mgmt and committee (NOT limited to season ticket holders) has just been announced for Tuesday 17th

Story of the season tbf. If only we had 10 more of him

I quite liked Jamie in pre-season and in the first few games. He was a bit unlucky to get injured within a few mins of coming in as sub at Albion and never got himself back into contention after that. Shame but these players have got us to the bottom of the SPFL so there can be no room for sentiment. Just have to hope that better is coming in, soon. All the best.

So some of the higher leagues are doing ‘best’ of the last decade, which for a Brechin fan is a welcome excuse for a bit of escapism. Gone for an unusual, narrow 3-4-3 really just to fit in some of the attacking riches we had back in the day, and Barry Smith is only really there so that he could be in both the best and worst XIs GK: Graeme Smith DF: Barry Smith (original version) DF: Gerry McLauchlan DF: Paul McLean MF: Alan Trouten MF: Craig Molloy MF: Gary Fusco MF: Neil Janczyk ST: Charlie King ST: Rory McAllister ST: Andy Jackson Alright so you would never line up with all those guys in the same team but allow us to dream eh? Edit: few names that get an honourable mention: Craig Nelson, whose best years were in the previous decade; Robert Thomson; James Dale; Bobby Barr; didn’t see much of Garry Brady but had a touch of class.

Brechin City! It would be all too easy to nominate the current side, with the honourable exception of Paul McManus, and Dougie Hill for previous service (though he’s been as culpable as any this season). If not, it would be just as easy to name the whole of the 2018-19 side or indeed, the team from the previous, winless campaign.... I’ve tried to avoid these temptations and to mix it up a bit, although there is definitely a theme. I didn’t see many games in the first half of the decade so City fans of longer standing may have different views but as we’re looking for worst XI of the decade I think the last 4-5 years is a good shout to produce most of those... GK: Michael Andrews. We’ve actually been pretty fortunate with keepers in the last decade with Craig Nelson and then Graeme Smith holding the gloves for most of that time. We’ve had a few duffers recently - hi Connor Brennan - but Andrews shipped goal after goal in a run of 5 straight defeats leading to Jim Weir getting the chop and Nelly having to be brought back from the dead /coaching staff to bring a degree of competency so he gets the nod DF: Kevin Buchan. Perhaps a bit harsh as no fault of the player but he was one of Darren Dods’s panic buys at the start of the season when he replaced McKinnon at no notice and had to fill a pitch with a matter of days before the first game. Nothing in Buchan’s pedigree suggested he was a long-term solution. He wasn’t DF : Ross Perry. Is in the worst XI of pretty much every other team that he has featured for, with good reason DF: Garry Kenneth. Oh dear. There is a book about big Garry’s decline to be written, or maybe a screenplay. 2010: Scottish Cup winner and international caps; 2014: finished in senior football after an ignominious 5 game spell at City (lost four) punctuated by hapless penalties conceded and a final red card to bring his senior career to a close at 27. Apparently turning out for Lochee Utd just now? DF: Tam Scobbie. The blood biles. The whole of last season’s team were rank rotten, as above, but Scobbie’s attitude particularly stood out as putrid. Couldn’t be arsed one iota. In the last game when we needed to beat Stenny at home even to get a playoff place, he couldn’t be f@cked to run from the L to the R side of the pitch to try a long throw in injury time that might have been our last attack of the season. We didn’t deserve to stay up, but he was outstanding in a really rotten field MF: Cameron Blues. Came from good things and seems to have gone back to (relatively) good things but was rubbish for us with the exception of one decent goal. Maybe a bit harsh as young loanees don’t always work out but he’s there representing the ‘disappointing loans’ category. We really needed a hero that year but it turned out not to be Cameron MF: Scott Robertson. There is a theme here of ex Utd guys that should have been better than they turned out. Some City fans reckon he was decent but the games I saw, you had to check the team sheet to see if we even had anyone in centre mid. Put it this way, he ‘anchored’ the midfield in two of the most insipid Brechin home defeats i’ve seen, in April this year, to Airdrie and then Montrose, 0-3 both times - defeats that went a long way to sealing relegation and in the case of Montrose, our fourth defeat to them of the season. A passenger and having played for Scotland only makes it worse. MF: Ross Brown. The current team has to be represented and tbf it could have been any/all of them. We are bottom of SPFL 2, two years after having been in the second tier so sorry Ross - you’ve not really been any worse than the others but you get to carry the can MF: Callum Tapping. Controversial at first glance - far less gifted players have turned out in midfield at the Glebe. However - has ‘enjoyed’ two spells with City. Spent much of that time injured, and after the first time, when we saw him through his rehab only for him to jump ship as soon as he was fit again, city perhaps might have thought twice about bringing him back. But we did, and he proceeded to contribute to us getting relegated for the second year in a row before sloping off to our local rivals. For that he gets in on a worst-value XI basis ST: Ross Kavanagh. Not technically a striker, or a footballer of any description really. But surprised us all by playing one good game against Raith Rovers at the back end of last year when it was too late. Not alone in being rubbish last year and therefore has the dubious honour of representing that team but has now found his level in the juniors. Arguably not quite as awful as.. ST: Ross Caldwell. Aaaaarrrgggghhhh. No words. Sub: Barry Smith (2019 vintage, 1 game v Forfar, aged 45). As if yer da was on the pitch. Best watched with your eyes shut.

Not quite. He also, under no pressure whatsoever, managed to pass a harmless Dumbarton cross into his own net, at 0-0 in the 89th minute at the Glebe during our ill-fated championship season. What a difference another point might have made. Was a decent servant for Brechin until that final year when he went off the boil in serious fashion (though he was not alone in that)

Clinton Morrison Aaron Wan Bissaka Wayne Routledge Ben Watson Nathaniel Clyne Hayden Mullins All those plus Zaha must add up to the best part of 1000 EPL appearances in the last 15 years, plus cup wins for Watson and Routledge and bags of international caps for Clyne, Zaha and Morrison. But no, Jack Ross definitely tops that i suppose he’ll claim we’re being whooshed here

Aptently was shouting and swearing at the linesman Shame because he’s been one of a handful that have been even close to good enough so far. McManus has been the standout; McMinn in goal has been dealt a really poor hand but has been pretty good whenever i’ve seen him and outstanding in the home game against Cove; Inglis has been a pleasant surprise. One or two others have had their (good) moments, but we need more than just glimpses now or we really are in trouble unless Mark can somehow tempt Zlatan to sign up in January saturday will be tough but hopefully a decent travelling support can be the catalyst for a positive result. That’s anything better than 5-2!

Fortunately for you, Mr Wilson has his own ideas. Not that it likely would have made much difference. Jesus we are in dire straits. (Edit - wasn’t at the game but it seems unlikely that we played well and were just unlucky...)

We are desperate and will take anything but a good performance would be very welcome - there hasn’t been much sign of a new manager bounce yet and it’s hard to see where the improvement might come from. Not sure what i’d change from last week tho really. We started with one striker at home which is always a bit disappointing but is probably justifiable away. I’d like to see luke watt starting probably ahead of page and i’d Prob prefer olly Hamilton to one of inglis or Allan to drive some counter attacking in support of McManus but we don’t have an abundance of options if we’re honest. That leaves us with managerial tactical master strokes or individual players having blinders as our routes to success. Still time for either to come to fruition but we need to start showing some improvement pretty sharpish. Your home win looks a pretty safe bet, objectively, but hope springs eternal

Yeah that’s embarrassing stuff. You have to think that maybe the whole club needs to grow up a bit based on that - it’s not just the guy writing the report (who is obviously a rabid fan - which is a good thing - but also a bit of a zoomer). These things don’t usually get published without the say-so of at least one senior person and if the clubs management are routinely signing that kind of immature nonsense off, then it says more about the wider organisation than it does about the boy writing the words imo

Played 4 or 5 times so far. Not made a huge impact but then is playing in a struggling side. Didn’t see the away game at Annan in the cup - he was pretty anonymous in the replay but to be fair that could apply to most of the side. Early days though and we are hoping for a positive reaction tomorrow - Wilson has been quite forthright in his pre-match comments and it doesnt sound as though he’ll be tolerating much more of the same. However he’s not likely to have much room to manoeuvre in terms of the playing staff so it’s going to come down to coaching and man management ability. Have said it before but there is some ability in the squad if it can be unlocked and hopefully Allan can be one of those who starts to show what he’s capable of - starting tomorrow!

Yep that was a 2-0 hammering which is a bit worrying - we got a chasing in the first half despite playing down the hill and he fact that the meagre home crowd was reduced to cheering the odd quarter-chance in the second half spoke volumes. Both goals were a bit soft but tbh Annan wouldn’t have been flattered by 3 or 4. Too many home players just not up to it. Keeper did nothing wrong, again and I thought Chris McLaughlin was very good. McManus worked hard as ever but to everyone suggesting we need another good striker alongside him i’d say - fine but if we can’t keep possession of the ball and give it to the front men in the first place then it doesn’t matter who those guys are. On that note I would start McCord every time. I know he’s not fit and I appreciate the manager sees him in training when we don’t, but at least he can put his foot on the ball and give it to someone in a red shirt which is more than can be said for most. Olly Hamilton had a couple of bright moments as well but has to learn to get his head up when he’s made 30 yards at speed

Domestic cups forum for this pish

If he gets the right results no-one will care. If not... Having said that, the bigger issue is surely lack of pies at the Glebe on Saturday by half time. Or any hot food for that matter! I managed to get a scrape of soup - just enough for a cup - in about 40 mins. I guess the club had a reasonable expectation that Stirling would bring next to no travelling support but even still, seems like a bit of an oversight. At least we have a few weeks to get the catering, and the fitness, up to scratch

The draw was perhaps always the safest bet for this one, but 1-1 doesn’t really tell the full story. Thought City were the better team for about an hour - we took the lead and Stirling fans started to get on their team’s back, then McManus could have put us two up from another McLaughlin cross from the left. Had that gone in I reckon that would have been the ballgame but Albion then started to come right back into it, which coincided with us seeming to run out of legs, rather worryingly. At one point we had three guys out of action on the pitch. We ended up really hanging on and were probably lucky not to lose - couldn’t quite see from down the other end but it looked as though McMinn made yet another good save to tip one onto the bar. Emile Ngoy did head one back from almost behind the post that unfortunately found a Stirling shirt on the line rather than a red one. Not a disaster but the players definitely need to do some extra strength and conditioning work or something, based on that evidence. Also I wouldn’t have taken Knox off so early. I know he flits in and out of games but he does offer an out ball. Once he was off, the ball just kept coming back at us despite McManus’s undoubted efforts

Are you for real?! You’re top of the league, unbeaten with 22 points from a possible 24, goal difference of +17 - but your strikers aren’t up to it??!!