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.

Think the club should commission a life sized cardboard cut out of Davy Syme. It could be placed at the edge of our 18 yard box for our remaining fixtures. Not only would it provide a better defensive barrier than any we’ve had this season it would be more mobile than Marshall, Mackin, and Aldin and more durable than Miller!

First the positives. Ben Lewis was immense again last night. Also Mark Lamont finally looks like a top midfielder after a slow start at the Buffs. McComb up front is a god send - if he’d gone to Beith we were down. Now the hard bit - how to stop shipping 5 goals every game. I’d play Ben just in front of the back four as a holding midfield player and get him to ensure that the defence doesn’t empty every time we go up the park. Back four for me is Loudon, Woods, Mark Miller, and Boland.

Don’t understand how anyone can be surprised by this. Most managers wouldn’t survive a performance like Wednesday nights display at Cumnock. This was only the latest in a series of absolute batterings the Buffs have taken under Gormley. The defence is abysmal because quite simply we have no decent central defenders. What is really mystifying is the fact that although this was obvious when the season started we’ve done absolutely nothing about it. He should actually have been sacked at the start of December last year after the capitulation at Clydebank.

Broadly agree with your list FM. Although I think Mark Miller and Blair McIntyre have been excellent. Also big Nicol, Robbie Torrance and Dom Bolland have been good at times. Throw in young Jack up front and Euan as the back up goalie you’ve got a decent basis for a squad. What you haven’t got is a top quality central defender who can organise the others and who has the physicality to win those defensive headers at set pieces. Until this is addressed we’ll remain at the wrong end of the table.

As the shoreline suggests this was an easy win for Talbot. Buffs played the wrong team - nowhere near competitive enough in the middle of the park. We played in the wrong manner - way too much playing out from the back on a windy, wet night. Talbots first 2 goals came from exactly this - desperate lunges to try and regain possession in and around our own box resulting in a free kick and a penalty for Talbot. To compound matters Buffs - players and management team threw their toys out the pram midway through the first half and never really recovered. Lastly with the game over at 3-0 we emptied our defence in a desperate attempt to get a consolation goal and instead shipped three more. The new management team have got a lot right this season. We’ve brought in some really good players and we play attractive football. However against teams like Talbot you need to compete in the middle of the park and give them no encouragement. You also need to cope better with adversity.

Just wondering Glensmad what to expect from Craig Leitch - haven’t seen him play for Buffs yet. Looking forward to our meeting in big Scottish.

It’s an interesting one. When Chris started at the Buffs they were relegated for an admin error (nothing to do with Chris) to the district league. The journey from there to being say a top 6 team in the West of Scotland was hugely entertaining. The 2016 team might have won the Scottish, there were 2 promotions, a West final, an Ayrshire cup win and a decent tilt at winning the old 12 team Junior top division one year. The club are an established West Premier side with a set up that improves seemingly on a monthly basis. But (there had to be one) this season has seen player after player depart from the Buffs with little coming in to replace them. Beith are a comparable club to Buffs and will require a similar group of senior players to the ones who have just exited the revolving door at Buffs Park. I expect things to start well (Buffs always started the season well under Strain) but the interesting thing will be what are Beith like come next winter.

Ultimately this was a fine win for Buffs but make no mistake this match turned on a first half straight red for a Glens defender. Prior to the red card Glens had scored one, hit the post and made another 3 or 4 good chances. After the dismissal Buffs slowly worked their way into the match. Jordan Stuart squared things up at the start of the second half and with Ramsay working well on the right flank they took control. Three more goals followed with Ben Lewis’s drive from the edge of the box being the pick of the bunch.

I’ve got no problem with young players playing for Buffs FM. However I agree with Chris here - what’s the point of missing out on a game with say the U18s to sit on the bench for 85 minutes watching the first team. If we do have guys with the talent to step up from the youth ranks then that’s great but I doubt we have. The jump is massive from youth football to where we are and I’m guessing out best kids will probably need to go out on loan for a couple of seasons at say a Dalry or an Ardeer to make the transition.

For me it’s all about the first team squad. We started the season with a small but talented squad. Pitches and weather were good which suited our style of play and no injuries or suspensions. Result - as good a start as anybody with a good win over Darvel being the stand out result. Over the Autumn/Winter the squad got smaller and smaller with constant departures and injuries and suspensions further depleting the team. We never really addressed our ever decreasing numbers and eventually we arrive at Blantyre last Saturday. For me to operate at this level we need a squad of 18/19 players. That’s 18/19 guys at the the level of Collins/McGowan/Syme. Not a dozen plus 4 guys making up the numbers and three more from the youth teams sitting on the bench.