Park the Buffs

The main issue I’ve got if we keep Chris Aitken is simply this: what’s he going to do different this coming close season that he couldn’t do last year. We needed a massive rebuild of the playing staff last summer and we changed virtually nothing. I remain unconvinced a season and a half in that were any better than we were under Gormley.

First some perspective on worst Buffs performances ever. I give you - April 21st 2023 Kilwinning Rangers 0 Clydebank 7 (that wins the prize for me). Same manager that night. Are we any better almost a year later?

Agree with you about yesterday’s game Energyzone. Thought we were better team first half. Sending off killed us - although the boys worked incredibly hard to get back into the game after it. Realistic promotion hopes may have ended yesterday but it’s the defeats to teams not in the promotion race that have really scuppered them - think Maybole, Renfrew, St Rochs, Thorniewood, and Whitletts. I don’t know if Chris Aitken will continue next season. My main gripe with him is that we were in poor shape (in terms of the playing squad not fitness) when the season started. I think most Buffs fans were expecting a hectic close season with a big turnaround in personnel -instead it was incredibly quiet.

It’s a very competitive league but it holds very little appeal except to the hardcore supporters who turn up every week. Only real way to boost the gates would have been to have mounted a sustained challenge for the league from the beginning - which we singularly failed to do. Having recovered from an awful start we lost our way again recently and momentum and consequently gate money has been lost. On a positive note we did get the points yesterday albeit against a poor Cambuslang team. Highlight for me yesterday was a comment from the crowd aimed at Langs diminutive left winger who went to ground very easily after an innocuous challenge - “he collapsed like an MFI wardrobe”.

I actually quite like the midfield - although it has one glaring omission - we’ve never replaced Ricky Hanvey. Blair McIntyre , Jordan and Mark Lamont are all premier league players - add someone like Hanvey (from a few years back admittedly) and that’s a pretty decent midfield.

On a similar theme to JBs from next season why don’t we give the premier league teams a bye to the last 32 of the west. That would free up 2 more Saturdays for league football in the top division before the turn of the year.

Think that statement just shows how daft the situation is Glensmad. The South Challenge cup, West and Junior Cup all vying for dates at the same time of year is daft - it’s a legacy from the Juniors/West Region coming together and quite simply it diminishes the importance of the league.

There is a problem with cup competitions getting in the way of league business at our level. However it’s only going to affect a handful of teams really adversely each season - so the response from the masses when u complain about your end of season fixture list is - tough get on with it. Beithboy is right to be concerned - Beith are probably the best side in the league this season but are competing in four cup competitions so they’ll end up with a backlog of league fixtures.

Can see no matches on the 7th October for either Cambuslang or Blantyre. Sure the Buffs would be happy to play either or have I missed fixtures for them?

Don’t hold back PC tell it as u see it. Seriously though it’s hard to make a decent argument against your statement. It was a highly optimistic supporters bus on the way to Cambuslang last Saturday but 3 games in thats all gone.

The Machin/Boyd partnership up front doesn’t work. There’s nowhere near enough movement and no risk of anybody running beyond the defence - consequently it’s easy to defend - Gary Fleming demonstrated that last Saturday and Maybole confirmed it on Wednesday.

Hi Kennie the point that I was trying to make was that all the cup football that is currently being played is potentially undermining the sporting integrity of the league. If you’ve got 3 games a week to play for the last 2 months of the season and your rivals are playing Saturday only there’s only one winner. If there’s another solution other than the one I’ve suggested let’s hear it.

You say there’s room for both tournaments Kennie and technically I suppose you’re right. The problem somebody like Talbot will have is if they have a good cup season (and they usually do) they will be playing league games Monday, Wednesday and Saturday for 2 months at the season end. This in all probability will scupper their chances of league success. The way forward for me is all teams in the top league have floodlights and midweek league games are played throughout the season so that at any stage all the teams in the top league have played the same number of games.

Apologies. The pivotal 3-5 game I’m referring to was in fact against Petershill

I agree with you FM that Gormley must take the lions share of responsibility for our relegation. Chris Aiken must be given a chance to build his own team. One factor in our relegation that has not been mentioned and ironically is a positive (sort of) is our performance in the cup competitions. Buffs had a decent season in terms of the 3 cup competitions they entered. In the West they thumped Arthurlie and put out St Cadocs and Drumchapel before losing on penalties to Talbot at Talbot in the semi final. In the big Scottish Tranent were beaten and Buffs hosted Forfar in R2 - quite a milestone. They went deep in the South Challenge cup also reaching the QF. The upshot of all this cup success however was that they were massively behind most of the other teams in the league in terms of games played. This lead to huge fixture congestion at the business end of the season and an horrendous injury last. One example - we were sent to Talbot on a Monday night before the pivotal 3-5 Cambuslang game on the Wednesday. Would Cambuslang have won that match if Buffs hadn’t expended a huge amount of energy at Beechwood? I guess my point is - if the Buffs want to get back to the top flight immediately they are going to have to prioritise league games at the expense of cup runs. The South Challenge cup has completely failed to capture the imagination of anyone. The QF at Buffs Park against Gartcairn was one of the lowest key occasions imaginable. A drab game in front of a poor crowd. If that had been the QF of the old Junior Scottish the place would have been raucous (and full)! I’d play the Under 20s in it next season.