The Falkirk FC Thread

[Shadwell Dog]

2 minutes ago, Angusfifer said:

This is almost Rangersesque arrogance. You were comprehensively defeated this afternoon by the better side on the day. You are however clearly a decent side, as your current league position would suggest.

Also, if you complete the season with four or five defeats, the chances are that you will finish as champions. 

Funnily enough rangers when they won this league only lost one match all season.and were 39 points ahead.  Im not for one expecting that sort of dominance but in a much shortened season and with the budgetary and full time advantages we have we should've been able to get through a season losing only 2 or 3 times if someone with half a clue was running the side. Unfortunately that isn't the case and yes you thoroughly deserved your win today I don't see anyone denying that on here.

[WestfieldBairn]

23 minutes ago, roman_bairn said:

Yes I do think you are unfairly branding me here.
It’s the last 3 years that have been my concern and the constant change of strategy.
I don’t expect you’d remember but I was never a fan of Hartley and stated my concerns that the initiative could take us into a dark place that it would take us a long time to recover from.
My concern is that it’s exactly that constant reactive change that’s put us where we are today.
Do forgive me if I’m reluctant to push the panic button because we got poor results against Airdrie and East Fife.
The team that wins this title will lose 4 or 5 games. We have lost 2 to date.
If the performance today hadn’t been so bad I would be less concerned than the majority.
It may be that we need to change, I’m not arguing that point. I’m just saying that we should not rush into it when that really isn’t needed.
If we slip off the top and don’t beat Montrose, I’ll probably agree that we need the change but I’ll have severe reservations re our promotion chances.....

For me although we have only lost two the performances have been poor most of the season. If we have a look at the performances- Montrose (A) rubbish, Forfar (H) rubbish, East Fife (H) ok, Partick (A) ok, Cove (H) decent, Dumbarton (A) decent, Peterhead (H) ok, Clyde (A) ok, Airdrie (H) rubbish, Partick (H) rubbish, East Fife (A) awful. Now I know we’ve picked up results which is the main thing, however for me it’s obvious the results are now matching the performances. Results have in the past papered over the cracks and now the cracks are showing. 

Edited January 2, 2021 by CC52 FFC

[Shadwell Dog]

18 minutes ago, roman_bairn said:

Your expectation levels are on a different planet. 

You know that Livingston side that are in the Premier?. They lost 7 games out of 36 in winning the title by 19 points.

Ayr lost 8 in this division, Morton lost 11games in winning this title. Indeed no one has lost less than 5 in recent years....

These were full seasons for a start we're  only playing 75 percent of games so you have to take that into account for starters.  Further more none of those clubs had the size of budget and facilities we have at our disposal.

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by Shadwell Dog

[Numbers_One_To_Eleven]

The biggest problem of this club; the long shadow of the Jeffries tenure. 

[Andy Dufresne]

Ii remember being at Meadowbank and folk going up to the board members nah no Jeffries he is shit,how wrong they were.

[Hank von Hell]

6 hours ago, 18BAIRN76 said:

Facebook maws and the 45 year da's who unironically call him BSLM?

Ha Ha.

The Artists Formerly Known as Mark Campbell's Twitter Zombies 

Hey Boss , look at ma boay's steeple haircut.

 

[Marshmallo]

1 hour ago, Angusfifer said:

This is almost Rangersesque arrogance. You were comprehensively defeated this afternoon by the better side on the day. You are however clearly a decent side, as your current league position would suggest.

Also, if you complete the season with four or five defeats, the chances are that you will finish as champions. 

What is it that fans of other clubs don't get

Falkirk are in this league on merit due to years of being crap. We were justifiably relegated due to poor performance, remained down because we weren't good enough to be top of the table and we lost today because East Fife were better than us. The current squad and management is not miles better than anyone else in the league.

Falkirk are a full time club with a budget and fanbase 3-4x higher than every other club in this league bar Partick Thistle. A well run Falkirk side with a good manager and budget which is spent wisely should not be in League One given the advantages we have over the other clubs in this league.

Both of these things can be true.

[bejazz1]

If anything, it's the opposite to reactive change that's put us where we are today.
It was obvious to anyone that Eddie May wasn't cut out for the job and he should have been punted by the third game of the season. We persisted with him until February by which time it was far too late.
It was obvious in Houston's last season that he had lost it and should have been binned far sooner than he had been. But we persevered for too long and the damage had been done.
Ironically, the best decision the club made in recent season was to realise early on that the Hartley project had failed and binned him earlier in the season. However McKinnon should have been out on his arse when he got us relegated. But we stuck with him, again, for far too long.
The 'reactive change' you talk about doesn't really stand up. We don't have a history of changing stuff on a whim. If anything, it's the opposite.

I agree that we cannot allow much more time for M&M to start getting results or it’ll be the play offs.

The concern for me is that if any team were to go on a decent run I fear we would be left behind, one of the main reasons we are top now is more down to the inconsistent form of Thistle, Airdrie and Cove but I feel these teams are now beginning to fire whereas we are sputtering all over the park.

For me next 2 league games are crucial. Drop any points and we make change it’s as simple as that. We need to show some intent, desire and make up for the catastrophic f**k up of the last 3 games.

I know a lot of us on here are sceptical of the dual manger set up. So hypothetically, If the board were to decide to end that agreement and go to a single manager and remove one from the position (similar to Ross County before Kettlewell was sacked), who would be the best option to take the role? You never know that could help solve the problem.

[Gaz]

I'd probably give it to Miller. McCracken can take his chance pyramid shilling his shitty Herbalife, reflecting on why he didn't take a yellow card for the team in the cup final.

Edited January 3, 2021 by Gaz

[Guest]

Ii remember being at Meadowbank and folk going up to the board members nah no Jeffries he is shit,how wrong they were.

There used be a radio quiz show “What’s My Line” where the aim was to determine someone’s job/skill via a limited number of questions.

I can remember a couple of months into JJ’s time someone in the stand bellowing out “Jefferies you’d be brilliant oan What’s My Line coz nae fucker would ever guess you’re supposed to be a football manager.” Lots of people have indulged in Jefferies revisionism. The man was despised by many for a good few months.

[Gaz]

The start of Jeffries tenure was before my working memory but if people are using that as a reason to give M&M a chance then that's a hell of a straw man argument. Football is much more transparent these days. Thirty years ago no-one would have seen us lose at East Fife apart from the few hundred who would have went. Now we can all see it, now we can all see the deficiencies.

[AGPar]

25 minutes ago, bejazz1 said:

I know a lot of us on here are sceptical of the dual manger set up. So hypothetically, If the board were to decide to end that agreement and go to a single manager and remove one from the position (similar to Ross County before Kettlewell was sacked), who would be the best option to take the role? You never know that could help solve the problem.
 

 

Neither. They came as a pair. Whenever the time comes, they go as a pair. Anything else is a complete and utter cop-out. 

Ross County are an incredibly poorly-run football club, pumped up by the ego and largesse of one individual. He is a media darling however, so his horrendous decision-making is never subject to any serious scrutiny. I would not be copying anything that mob do.  I personally find them every bit as dislikeable as the West Lothian mob.

Edited January 3, 2021 by AGPar

[Hank von Hell]

As I said numerous times it was a huge gamble appointing M&M, one I did not agree with - being as they were untried rookies and I always think 2 managers just does not work.

But the club have backed themselves into a corner - you can't sack them when they are top of the league or especially if they win the league which I still expect to happen.

The major problem comes in season one in the Championship when I'd see us seriously struggling - if we give them too long we could be back in relegation trouble again before we can get a manager in, who is hopefully suitably qualified for the job and probably without "Falkirk blood".   

[Reggie Perrin]

1 hour ago, Hank von Hell said:

As I said numerous times it was a huge gamble appointing M&M, one I did not agree with - being as they were untried rookies and I always think 2 managers just does not work.

But the club have backed themselves into a corner - you can't sack them when they are top of the league or especially if they win the league which I still expect to happen.

The major problem comes in season one in the Championship when I'd see us seriously struggling - if we give them too long we could be back in relegation trouble again before we can get a manager in, who is hopefully suitably qualified for the job and probably without "Falkirk blood".   

To be honest I am seriously beginning to think the major problem is escaping from this league not hypothetical problems in the Championship.

[Guest]

Do you mean by punters on PnB, or proper warned by people who actually knew?

Someone with close ties to Hamilton told the club how poor Alston’s stats were

[Guest]

Time to think longer term IMO.

We keep getting told the plan is to get us to the Premiership. If that is the case you have to set out a football plan to get you there and the manager has to be the most important call.

So the thought process has to be IMO. Are M&M the men we think are going to get us there? If the answer is yes you stick with them. If it is no why waste any time? They may well stumble over the line and win this league, however if your call is they are the wrong people you have made it even harder to make the change.

I don’t really care if we were 10 points clear - IMO they are not the right people to get us where the club say they want to get to so you should make the change now.

I suspect now they will appoint the DOF who will quickly have to make that assessment. If that person comes in and sticks with M&M I would be shocked

[Hughsie]

17 minutes ago, Bantabairn said:

 we lost out on promotion through no fault of them

So they’re not getting any blame apportioned for us not being top when the season stopped?

[Bairney The Dinosaur]

Once a DOF comes in it is only a matter of time before a manager goes.

[Guest Ecosse83]

I think we all know deep down Miller and McCracken will never manage another club apart from ours, there just not manager material. It’s a nice idea having them in charge but it’s time to get real and get a proper manager in. 

Oh and why no interviews this morning? Is the going getting too tough already? 

[bridge of allan bairn]

I dont think m&m are the long term future of the club. 

Changing management feels a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic though. I dont think well ever get out of this mess we have gotten ourselves in till we own our own stadium and land round it, and have our own academy and produce our own players.  I dont care how long it takes but it would be good to have a long term strategy aimed at that again. not renting everything and loaning players.