The Falkirk FC Thread

[SouthStandBairn]

The current site has highlights back to 2010, but I think that's only from when they moved to the new website and YouTube. They used to have a subscription service for £4.99 a month which included full re-runs of particularly good games. I had a subscription to it back in my student days, so 2007 and earlier.

Not sure they did much live streaming in those days, but my knowledge of free proxies is such that they must have done sometimes.

I’ve got almost every game back to 2009/10 in the archive.

We used to do a classic match every week in the early days, from an old collection of Sportscene/scotsport video tapes. Will need to look into digging these out and check what the licensing restrictions are on these.

[Guest]

That St Mirren game is where the collapse to where we are now began.
We had been playing great stuff in the pre season and for the first 25 minutes or so looked like we could take half a dozen off St Mirren.
As soon as they equalised the confidence completely drained from the team, in the end it was a quite dramatic capitulation.
The beginning of the end for Houston and the beginning of a truly miserable few years for all of us.

He was starved of funds that summer by CC and ML. They then proceeded to throw stupid money at replacing managers and paying off players. Had they given Houston 20% of what they wasted we would not be in the mess we are in.

[Grangemouth Bairn]

14 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said:

 

He was starved of funds that summer by CC and ML. They then proceeded to throw stupid money at replacing managers and paying off players. Had they given Houston 20% of what they wasted we would not be in the mess we are in.

 

I still can’t believe all the nonsense on here when Hartley came in - take about over excitement  

[60`s bairn]

54 minutes ago, SouthStandBairn said:

 

I’ve got almost every game back to 2009/10 in the archive.

We used to do a classic match every week in the early days, from an old collection of Sportscene/scotsport video tapes. Will need to look into digging these out and check what the licensing restrictions are on these.

 

Games were covered before that. Can`t remember the season it started but we certainly filmed highlights from the Dutch tour in 2007. I would imagine the Ajax friendly was recorded too??

[Shadwell Dog]

1 hour ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

It’s called ‘reflecting’.

Houston was never going to cut it for you.

If Falkirk won the Europa League you’d moan that it didn’t have the same quality as it used to have because of the Champions League.

Tosh.I can reflect on the two seasons in the league that were in the main excellent and thoroughly enjoyable.  Going through a season with only 4 losses when the likes of rangers and hibs were our competitors was a brilliant achievement. I can still do that without saying in hindsight he never should've been sacked and I feel ashamed at calling for his head. He cut it for me for 3 seasons and then had to go so you're talking complete pish.

[Shadwell Dog]

46 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said:

 

He was starved of funds that summer by CC and ML. They then proceeded to throw stupid money at replacing managers and paying off players. Had they given Houston 20% of what they wasted we would not be in the mess we are in.

 

We were bottom of the bloody league with easily one of the biggest budgets. And if your budget is tight you cant afford to spunk cash down the drain on a complete jobber like Alex Harris. Going by his signings giving him 20 percent more would have done little to improve our lot. Replacing quality like vaulks and Alston with dross like Rankin and craigen was laughable.

Edited March 22, 2020 by Shadwell Dog

[Guest]

We were bottom of the bloody league with easily one of the biggest budgets. And if your budget is tight you cant afford to spunk cash down the drain on a complete jobber like Alex Harris. Going by his signings giving him 20 percent more would have done little to improve our lot. Replacing quality like vaulks and Alston with dross like Rankin and craigen was laughable.

You are not going to replace these players with buttons.

Anyone thinking we are in the mess we are in because of Houston needs to think long and hard about the catalogue of awful decisions for years before pointing the finger at Houston. Do I think he had run his course? Yes I did and should have gone when we lost to DU. However having decided to stick with him they should have backed him. They didn’t and look where we are now.

[champions]

On 21/03/2020 at 11:13, Bairnardo said:

I get quite despondent when I am unwell. Since my current condition might be the corona, I am in a worse place than normal.

Regular fresh air by going out to the garden, speak to friends/family more often, try video calls to.make it more personal.  The football yesterday was excellent for taking your mind off things, even just the noise in the background.

I've found all of the above helpful during lockdown.

[Shadwell Dog]

14 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said:

 

You are not going to replace these players with buttons.

Anyone thinking we are in the mess we are in because of Houston needs to think long and hard about the catalogue of awful decisions for years before pointing the finger at Houston. Do I think he had run his course? Yes I did and should have gone when we lost to DU. However having decided to stick with him they should have backed him. They didn’t and look where we are now.

 

Rory loy would I reckon have been on bigger wages than any other player in the league outside Dundee united. We could have had two decent players for the money he was on. For that we get 6 league appearances and one goal.  Harris would have been on decent cash too coming straight from hibs. Rankin lasted how long? Yes you're never going to replace vaulks  with the same level of player but that doesnt mean to say you have to sign shite.  I mean how many of his signings went on to bigger and better things? Very few if any. Likes of harris and balatoni are now part time as is Rankin.loy is out the game altogether. Mcghee struggling mid table n a pish dundee side. And whose pointing the finger at him for the mess we are in? Certainly not me.  I'm just saying like you his time had come and he had to go. Others though seem to think we should have stuck with him.

Edited March 22, 2020 by Shadwell Dog

[HopeStreetWalker]

1 hour ago, Back Post Misses said:

 

He was starved of funds that summer by CC and ML. They then proceeded to throw stupid money at replacing managers and paying off players. Had they given Houston 20% of what they wasted we would not be in the mess we are in.

 

Good point. Houston's team had come to and end of its time. Injuries, age, players moving on to further their career and he should have had the funds that Hartley and McKinnon pissed against the wall. It's one of the great if's and we shall never know what would have happed if he had got the cash.

Houston was a great player for us. Managed the club to 3 play offs against richer clubs and took us to a cup final.

His team played with passion and commitment. The never say die attitude and teams spirit was their for all to see.

Peter Houston should be remembered for what he did for the club rather than the sad circumstances of his departure.

He deserves to be treated with affection and goodwill as a loyal servant of the club.

 

 

[Shadwell Dog]

3 minutes ago, HopeStreetWalker said:

Good point. Houston's team had come to and end of its time. Injuries, age, players moving on to further their career and he should have had the funds that Hartley and McKinnon pissed against the wall. It's one of the great if's and we shall never know what would have happed if he had got the cash.

Houston was a great player for us. Managed the club to 3 play offs against richer clubs and took us to a cup final.

His team played with passion and commitment. The never say die attitude and teams spirit was their for all to see.

Peter Houston should be remembered for what he did for the club rather than the sad circumstances of his departure.

He deserves to be treated with affection and goodwill as a loyal servant of the club.

 

 

I agree to the latter but still feel his budget in his final season should've been enough for us to be a lot higher than bottom of the league.  If we had been mid table then you could use the old not given enough budget to challenge for the title arguement.  But being below the likes of dumbarton and showing no sign of improvement he had to go.

[Bairnardo]

38 minutes ago, champions said:

Regular fresh air by going out to the garden, speak to friends/family more often, try video calls to.make it more personal.  The football yesterday was excellent for taking your mind off things, even just the noise in the background.

I've found all of the above helpful during lockdown.

Seen notification and wrongly assumed wed be getting into another one of our intermittent disagreements here..... 

Have a green boy and thank you. 

[ShaggerG]

1 hour ago, 60`s bairn said:

Games were covered before that. Can`t remember the season it started but we certainly filmed highlights from the Dutch tour in 2007. I would imagine the Ajax friendly was recorded too??

You've just reminded me to phone to see how big Gordon is. Canny go to see him because of the virus.

[ShaggerG]

1 hour ago, Shadwell Dog said:

Rory loy would I reckon have been on bigger wages than any other player in the league outside Dundee united. We could have had two decent players for the money he was on. For that we get 6 league appearances and one goal.  Harris would have been on decent cash too coming straight from hibs. Rankin lasted how long? Yes you're never going to replace vaulks  with the same level of player but that doesnt mean to say you have to sign shite.  I mean how many of his signings went on to bigger and better things? Very few if any. Likes of harris and balatoni are now part time as is Rankin.loy is out the game altogether. Mcghee struggling mid table n a pish dundee side. And whose pointing the finger at him for the mess we are in? Certainly not me.  I'm just saying like you his time had come and he had to go. Others though seem to think we should have stuck with him.

What would you be saying if Housty hadn't signed Loy when the chance to do so was there and he'd gone to St Mirren and proceeded to tear up the league? 

Apart from the bad start that season, I think the main reason that the BOD acted was because he'd stated that he was going to retire at the end of the term. We would have needed to replace him at that point anyway so it made sense to make the move when we did.

[Shadwell Dog]

10 minutes ago, ShaggerG said:

What would you be saying if Housty hadn't signed Loy when the chance to do so was there and he'd gone to St Mirren and proceeded to tear up the league? 

Apart from the bad start that season, I think the main reason that the BOD acted was because he'd stated that he was going to retire at the end of the term. We would have needed to replace him at that point anyway so it made sense to make the move when we did.

He should have called it a day after the united game but like many a manager he hung on too long.Managers live and die on their recruitment and his simply wasnt good enough. All signings have risk some more than others but if both your major signings one season turn out to be complete tosh then you are going to lose your job I'm afraid whether the fans though one would be a good signing or not.  That season wasnt a one off re dreadful signings as my previous list shows. For every decent one there was far more complete dross signed  in his time as manager unfortunately ( a trend that unfortunately continues to haunt the club right up to January past).  At the end of the day St Mirren with a smaller budget than us cruised the league whilst Houston had us bottom until he got punted.  That shouldn't over shadow the previous couple of seasons that were excellent nor should they cloud our judgement on whether it was right to give him the elbow when we did.

Edited March 22, 2020 by Shadwell Dog

[18BAIRN76]

See Morton are linking to a fan account doing Twitter updates from a classic match where they eh... beat the worst Falkirk side in about 40 years to stay 8th in the Scottish Championship?

I mean - *that* away day!  

 

[roman_bairn]

Rory loy would I reckon have been on bigger wages than any other player in the league outside Dundee united. We could have had two decent players for the money he was on. For that we get 6 league appearances and one goal.  Harris would have been on decent cash too coming straight from hibs. Rankin lasted how long? Yes you're never going to replace vaulks  with the same level of player but that doesnt mean to say you have to sign shite.  I mean how many of his signings went on to bigger and better things? Very few if any. Likes of harris and balatoni are now part time as is Rankin.loy is out the game altogether. Mcghee struggling mid table n a pish dundee side. And whose pointing the finger at him for the mess we are in? Certainly not me.  I'm just saying like you his time had come and he had to go. Others though seem to think we should have stuck with him.

Sorry Shadwell, but what a load of shite.
Balatoni and McGhee were not dreadful signings. They would both fare very well against the current shite we have.
Harris was a disappointment but definitely had the potential. Sometimes these things just don’t work out.
As for Loy, virtually no one thought that was a dreadful signing at the time.
The issue I have when you slate signings, you do it because they don’t work out, not because they have the stench of awful at the time we sign them.
Anyone can slate anything with hindsight you know.....

[Shadwell Dog]

16 minutes ago, roman_bairn said:

Sorry Shadwell, but what a load of shite.
Balatoni and McGhee were not dreadful signings. They would both fare very well against the current shite we have.
Harris was a disappointment but definitely had the potential. Sometimes these things just don’t work out.
As for Loy, virtually no one thought that was a dreadful signing at the time.
The issue I have when you slate signings, you do it because they don’t work out, not because they have the stench of awful at the time we sign them.
Anyone can slate anything with hindsight you know.....

Where did I say they were dreadful?  Mcghee was mediocre at best and as I said is struggling in a poor dundee team. Balatoni ended up at edinburgh city which again shows you the standard of that signing.Harris was living on his cup semi performance against us. Was shit at hibs after that and shit at queens also and yet we still signed him. No surprise his career has continued on the downward spiral too. I said before he arrived he'd be a complete disaster.  And anyway what we think of signings when they arrive means not a jot.  Do you really want me to say players were great signings when they turn out to be complete shit??It's how they end up that results in whether you win championships or get relegated. Wr as a club have a history managers  with  awful recruitment basically since hughes second last season in charge.  That's why we are now in league one and it shows no sign of improving any time soon.

 

Am I the only one here that rates signings on their performance at the club and not how I felt about them when they signed. Surely how you feel about a player before they arrive means feck all and  it certainly wont win you anything.

Edited March 22, 2020 by Shadwell Dog

[60`s bairn]

1 hour ago, ShaggerG said:

You've just reminded me to phone to see how big Gordon is. Canny go to see him because of the virus.

I was in touch a couple of days ago and he was doing fine then.

[roman_bairn]

Where did I say they were dreadful?  Mcghee was mediocre at best and as I said is struggling in a poor dundee team. Balatoni ended up at edinburgh city which again shows you the standard of that signing.Harris was living on his cup semi performance against us. Was shit at hibs after that and shit at queens also and yet we still signed him. No surprise his career has continued on the downward spiral too. I said before he arrived he'd be a complete disaster.  And anyway what we think of signings when they arrive means not a jot.  Do you really want me to say players were great signings when they turn out to be complete shit??It's how they end up that results in whether you win championships or get relegated. Wr as a club have a history managers  with  awful recruitment basically since hughes second last season in charge.  That's why we are now in league one and it shows no sign of improving any time soon.
 
Am I the only one here that rates signings on their performance at the club and not how I felt about them when they signed. Surely how you feel about a player before they arrive means feck all and  it certainly wont win you anything.

I rate Houston as a manager because of the overall package he delivered for us. Signings is only one aspect and in that area he signed better players overall than we’ve had ever since.
I’m just bored of the same drivel slating one of the best five managers we’ve had in the last 40 years....