The Falkirk FC Thread

[Newbornbairn]

You know what I was at Stirling on the Saturday before the Livingston game and SP went through how Livingston would play out from defence. I watched them practicing pressing the defence high up the pitch and then watched on the Sunday if they carried that out. In the first ten minutes or so the players carried it out to the letter, in fact Alston knicked the ball high up the pitch in that period.

For some reason that stopped but I can assure you that SP set them up to do exactly what you described.

That's interesting and it ties in with Pressley usually spending the first 15 minutes or so in the stand before going pitchside to start yelling. Seems to me he needs a decent captain in the middle of the field to ensure his instructions are stuck to.

[H_B]

Jackie MacNamara is making Pressley look really really bad as well, which is quite amusing.

All of the "what do you expect from a rookie manager...takes time...learning his trade" crap we have heard from the Pressley gobblers over the previous 3 seasons, looks very very hollow as MacNamara is pishing all over him aftre 1 full season of learning his trade, and with a club that has the same budget constraints as he does.

Ritchie picked the wrong horse when May left. No surprise there.

Edited September 27, 2012 by H_B

[old school]

Jackie MacNamara is making Pressley look really really bad as well, which is quite amusing.

All of the "what do you expect from a rookie manager...takes time...learning his trade" crap we have heard from the Pressley gobblers over the previous 3 seasons, looks very very hollow as MacNamara is pishing all over him aftre 1 full season of learning his trade.

Ritchie picked the wrong horse when May left. No surprise there.

Excellent Pressley will never be welcome back at Tynecastle

[KiwiDB]

Jackie MacNamara is making Pressley look really really bad as well, which is quite amusing.

All of the "what do you expect from a rookie manager...takes time...learning his trade" crap we have heard from the Pressley gobblers over the previous 3 seasons, looks very very hollow as MacNamara is pishing all over him aftre 1 full season of learning his trade, and with a club that has the same budget constraints as he does.

Ritchie picked the wrong horse when May left. No surprise there.

Ah hindsight, a wonderful thing, there's no saying whether McNamara would have been a better appointment at that particular moment in time.

Let's wait more than 6 games before deciding if he "pishes all over anyone"

[Guest]

Ah hindsight, a wonderful thing, there's no saying whether McNamara would have been a better appointment at that particular moment in time.

Let's wait more than 6 games before deciding if he "pishes all over anyone"

Spot on

[ShaggerG]

Jackie MacNamara is making Pressley look really really bad as well, which is quite amusing.

All of the "what do you expect from a rookie manager...takes time...learning his trade" crap we have heard from the Pressley gobblers over the previous 3 seasons, looks very very hollow as MacNamara is pishing all over him aftre 1 full season of learning his trade, and with a club that has the same budget constraints as he does.

Ritchie picked the wrong horse when May left. No surprise there.

I don't think many Falkirk supporters would agree that it's amusing HB.

Whilst I have no desire to spring to Pressley's defence as I feel the football has been brutal this season, I do feel that this is generally nonsense.

I fail to see how the BOD of either club could have accurately predicted the success (or otherwise) of either manager. Thistle have been quite lucky (so far) while we obviously haven't. To be fair you apparently didn't want him appointed in the first place but there's surely no way that you could have known that he would fail. Would you have known that McNamara would have been successful? Would you have praised Ritchie if he had been appointed instead of Pressley at the time?

It could be argued that Jim McIntyre pissed all over the 1st division as a rookie manager having taken over from an experienced guy in Kenny. Where is he now exactly?

[MattBairn]

The board should have picked a more experienced manager after May's term.

Whilst it would have in no way guaranteed success, we would have got someone with a track record and proven traits.

Someone with previous for having a 'plan B' or being able to alter tactics during a game to compensate for opposition changes.

It wasn't so much the 'picking Pressley over McNamara' or whomever. Its the fact that they have been consistently going for unproven, untried managers. It a risky (although cheaper) strategy.

Edited September 27, 2012 by MattBairn

[Shadwell Dog]

Experiences tell you that the vast majority of inexperienced managers given their first job in the SPL fail miserably. Stevie Wonder could see that. So we dont just make that mistake once with Eddie may we confound it by bringing in Pressley and lo and behold we're relegated without so much as even a whimper. How anyone could then give Pressley the job after as has been mentioned his results i the last five games of that season against the dregs of the SPl is incredible. The BOd then gambled on himtaking us straight back up by gambling the clubs finances to provide the best budget possible. Pressley again failed miserably and we were never really in the hunt for the top spot despite the standard being perhaps the poorest for decades. The result was also trouble with the HMRC which saw the bod having to grovel to all and sundry for soft loans to stop us going bust. The fans then call for pressley's head which is ignored as usual and we then actually have half a season of decent football which is unfortuantely folowed by a return to the woful stuff we'd been accustomed to the seasons before. Some decent cup runs paper over the cracks and our clown of a chairman who wouldnt know a football if smacked him on the arse then decideds o ludicrously give our manager a 3 year contract. Pressley fails miserably to sign the right players in the summer and a woful start to the season follows with us still getting ploughed with the same old young team excuses etc. Meanwhile in a league where noone has a huge budget Partick Thistle and Dunfermline are fighting it out at the top whilst we struggle at home to part timers liek Airdrie who could only dream of budgets and training facilities like the ones available to our squad. The whole thing is a decacle from start to finish and noone can surely now provide pressley with anymore excuses for the situation we now find ourselves in. The man should be turning up tonight and offering his resignation before dispappearing into the night. In my opinion he's right up there with the worst managers this club has ever had.

[Thundermonkey]

I think the arguement that new players are not adapting to his tactics is weak.

A good manager will sign players that already suit his tactics. If he can't find these players he will find a system that gets the best out of what he has. I've not been to a game this season but results would suggest that neither is the case. Is this a fair assumption?

Before you look at the opposition and how to best stop them you need to ensure you know how to get the best out of your own players first.

In other words, you can only piss with the dick you've got. A classic example being when Walter Smith took the Scotland job. Identifying when to go back to basics is surely not rocket science from a manager???

[H_B]

Ah hindsight, a wonderful thing, there's no saying whether McNamara would have been a better appointment at that particular moment in time.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Falkirk should have appointed McNamara. That would have been equal folly.

My point about him is purely that he is showing how easy it is to pish all over Pressley's performance with the same budget constraints and even less experience.

[Shandon Par]

It could be argued that Jim McIntyre pissed all over the 1st division as a rookie manager having taken over from an experienced guy in Kenny. Where is he now exactly?

Back at Bristol City as professional development coach - overseeing the transition of players from the academy to the first team.

I'll let you good Falkirk people decide whether that's a step up or down from managing the Pars.

[billyg]

I fail to see how the BOD of either club could have accurately predicted the success (or otherwise) of either manager.

If you work alongside someone (in the game) and take an ongoing interest in said person then surely their qualities and weaknesses become known to you ? The most glaring example of this revolves around Falkirk FC nearly forty years ago. Willie Cunningham was a fairly successful manager with Falkirk before moving to St Mirren ,but with the St Mirren support baying for his blood after an horrendous run he was asked to stand down .He stated that he would only do so if the club apopointed his Falkirk protege Alex Ferguson, who was now with th 'Shire, which of course they did. IMO the Falkirk folk should have recognised McNamaras potential and given him some sort of a role , unless Pressley saw him as some sort of threat and wanted shot of him !

[MattBairn]

If you work alongside someone (in the game) and take an ongoing interest in said person then surely their qualities and weaknesses become known to you ? The most glaring example of this revolves around Falkirk FC nearly forty years ago. Willie Cunningham was a fairly successful manager with Falkirk before moving to St Mirren ,but with the St Mirren support baying for his blood after an horrendous run he was asked to stand down .He stated that he would only do so if the club apopointed his Falkirk protege Alex Ferguson, who was now with th 'Shire, which of course they did. IMO the Falkirk folk should have recognised McNamaras potential and given him some sort of a role , unless Pressley saw him as some sort of threat and wanted shot of him !

McNamara could still fall flat on his arse, he is still unproven IMO.

Pressely did well last season (personally I don't think it was down to him, but that's another issue) and is again proving that he cant manage effectively (as he did the season before last)

My point is that constantly going for inexperienced managers is a dangerous business plan. Not that the board should have picked McNamara, I think that would also have been too big a risk.

Edited September 27, 2012 by MattBairn

[Guest]

You know what I was at Stirling on the Saturday before the Livingston game and SP went through how Livingston would play out from defence. I watched them practicing pressing the defence high up the pitch and then watched on the Sunday if they carried that out. In the first ten minutes or so the players carried it out to the letter, in fact Alston knicked the ball high up the pitch in that period.

For some reason that stopped but I can sure you that SP set them up to do exactly what you described.

I didn't Pressley watch in that game, but I have made a point of doing so since. He clearly isn't an attack minded manager. Last season's first half to the season (8 wins from 18 games), is as close as he has ever gotten to it, and it;s hard if not impossible to see the entirety of 2012 as anything other than extremely poor. If he did indeed seek to apply the weel kent tactic for defeating Livingston, and it lasted for no more than ten minutes, then he either changed in a way that we all know too well, or he was unable to get the players to stick to what he wanted.

Either here or OneF I spoke about our recent bright starts. In both the Hamilton and Airdrie games, we started positively, but in both games, it was SP who brought the brightness to a juddering halt by reverting to a more defensive set up as soon as we scored. If he truly intended going for Livingston, then why he allowed it stop after 10 minutes is certainly something I'd love him to explain.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Guest

[Ranaldo Bairn]

It's like watching Serie A* some years ago: team A scores, then sits back. Team B either scores and it finishes 1-1, or they huff and puff unsuccesfully and yet another tedious 1-0 is recorded. Football Italia used to bore the tits off me. The actual matches were the worst bit.

*clearly the skill of the players is less, but you know what I mean.

[ffcsam]

Would someone who went along to tonights meeting please post what was said etc please?

Oh aye, Mattbairn, you can do it

[FFC_GJS]

I just got a text from someone who is there and we only made a profit of 200k last season despite the sales of Higginbotham and Wallace and the cup runs. This was seen as acceptable by the accounts guy.

[ShaggerG]

Back at Bristol City as professional development coach - overseeing the transition of players from the academy to the first team.

I'll let you good Falkirk people decide whether that's a step up or down from managing the Pars.

Yea, I knew that. I meant where is he in terms of success as a manager!

I could say something cutting like cleaning the bogs at Starks would be a step up from managing Dunfermline but I've always quite liked the Pars, so I won't!

[Thistle_do_nicely]

I think the arguement that new players are not adapting to his tactics is weak.

A good manager will sign players that already suit his tactics. If he can't find these players he will find a system that gets the best out of what he has. I've not been to a game this season but results would suggest that neither is the case. Is this a fair assumption?

Before you look at the opposition and how to best stop them you need to ensure you know how to get the best out of your own players first.

In other words, you can only piss with the dick you've got. A classic example being when Walter Smith took the Scotland job. Identifying when to go back to basics is surely not rocket science from a manager???

And when he took over at Rangers after Le Guen, too. Signed David Weir, for example, who shored up the porous defence including Karl Svensson.

Anyway; regarding McNamara, the main criticism most fans had of him, last season, was that we just weren't scoring enough goals. Whatever work he's been doing since then has paid dividends, so he's got the ability to identify faults with the team and take steps to rectify them. Blindingly obvious, but it always amazes me the way some managers fail to do so e.g. failing to realise that the club badly needs a new left back but using the wage money elsewhere, for instance.

He's been brilliant with the most recent transfer window, too. Only poor signing would really be Mark McGuigan but even then that's only if you're being really harsh, because he bagged several goals for us last season and has had a great loan spell thus far with Albion Rovers. Hugh Murray and Steven Lawless have both been exceptional.

He doesn't tinker with the team too much unless absolutely necessary, either, which seems to be a major criticism of Billy Reid at the moment going by P&B.

He's not prone to the bullshit that Ian McCall used to come out with before/after matches, either.

I seem to remember a few fans toying with the idea of getting rid of him last season, but the general consensus on here was a) that he needed more time and b) there would be no suitable replacement available or money to pay him off anyway.

I know its early days in the league but I've got real faith in him, for the reasons outlined above.

[ffcsam]

TDN, yer analogy of Jackie there is very reminiscent of how I , and a few others felt about Elvis last season.

I can only hope that Elvis somehow turns this season around but tbh, I have zero confindence in him or the board at this moment in time

Edited September 27, 2012 by ffcsam