The Falkirk FC Thread

[Shooter McGavin]

16 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said:

Watson is a donkey 

He really isn't

[Harry Kinnear]

6 minutes ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

It’s all very well him seeing that last seasons players are awful but he’s now reliant on the board making funds available for him to sign players to replace them that are an improvement. 
 

I’m not a huge fan of waiting till September to bring in loan players when the season starts in July. Our season may well be defined by then.

I mentioned yesterday that I thought Airdrie were miles better than us last season and I don’t see that changing.

We’ve made a shocking start to the league campaign however we need to give McGlynn time. I’ve said before, with what he inherited you don’t turn around in one season. We could have another 2 or 3 seasons at this level.

I agree with giving him time. If we just keep changing managers/squads every season/transfer window we are never getting out this mess. 
 

McGlynn has brought in some decent players but a large proportion of the squad are still last years stinkers. I think we maybe need to be a bit patient and give him the time to get all the players he wants in and the ones he wants to hunt away from the club.

This might take a few more seasons though and I’m just not sure how the finances would go to allow him this time but if we just keep changing things we will be stuck here.

[FFC 1876]

11 minutes ago, Cardle is Magic said:

Have I stumbled into a different decade?

I'm just surprised he said 'Chinese' to be honest.

[Grangemouth Bairn]

3 minutes ago, FFC 1876 said:

I'm just surprised he said 'Chinese' to be honest.

I’m more surprised he’s got any pals to be honest.

[HopeStreetWalker]

34 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said:

It has to get better. But until yesterday we had not lost a goal from open play in 5 games. 
I hope McGlynn, now he has seen with his own eyes, that last seasons players (outside MCKay) can’t be trusted. 
PS I think Airdrie lost their first two last season 

McGlynn will have some hard thinking to do regarding the squad he has assembled his tactics and team set up.

For if the results and performances are the same for the next few games then the seasons over and ambitions are no more than avoiding relegation.

The squad give or take one or two players coming in and out is what's going to see out the season.

Massive game next week we badly needs a win and a good display.

[Tea and Busquets]

1 hour ago, Back Post Misses said:

We had not lost a goal from open play in 5 competitive games till yesterday. That shows we have improved. We lost goals yesterday which were a mixture of bad luck and poor defending.  Donaldson, Henderson and Mackie would play in every other side in the league. 
Get your crowing in early. Long season. We were awful 2nd half yesterday. I genuinely think Airdrie I saw yesterday were better last season. I am sure you can play better. 

I said the exact same yesterday during the game, Airdrie were far better last season and IMO were the best footballing team in the division and should have went up. McGlynn was absolutely spot on we had 5 chances, I counted 3 very good but he’s obviously went with all 5 as very good. The problems arised when we went down to 10 men, had a sub keeper who couldn’t keep hens out a close and Airdrie punished us. The second goal gets even more luck than the first as 1. It wasn’t a corner kick and 2. The ball lands perfect and Gallagher’s feet via a deflection for a second time. Think some people need to chill.

Edited August 7, 2022 by Tea and Busquets

[Proudtobeabairn]

McGlynn has been backed as much as he could have been by ST sales and support generally.  

There were several lessons learned yesterday and hope he's quicker to spot and react to those than Sheerin or Rennie.  

I'm not disagreeing at all that McGuffie, Nesbitt and Hetherington need to  be first to go but I do think unless we improve fast there'll be questions for McGlynn to answer soon over some of his decisions (on signings, selection and tactics).  E.g Oliver, Alegria already look like jersey fillers at best and very poor signings at worst, Mackie much better at CH than LB (but we have too many CHs when everyone fit for him to play there),  expectations low on Lawal, Burrell & Kennedy though they at least have the chance to pleasantly surprise us.  I can see why he put Yeats to right back (Williamson is honking) but why not bring in an actual right back if we're resorting to that by game 2 (unless Williamson was injured of course)? 

Raith fans were quick to say McGlynn signs too many crocks and struggles to find strikers and both those things seem to have become evident very quickly.  Let's hope his positives (experience, man management etc) outweigh those very soon or it could be another very long season.  

 

 

[Craigus]

McGlynn

[Specky Ginger]

9 minutes ago, Proudtobeabairn said:

 

Raith fans were quick to say McGlynn struggles to find strikers.

Let's hope his positives (experience, man management etc) outweigh those very soon or it could be another very long season.  

 

 

In his first spell at the Rovers he signed plenty of prolific strikers - Kevin Smith, John Baird, Brian Graham etc and we always had decent defenders - Mark Campbell, Marvin Andrews, Grant Murray, Laurie Ellis etc.

The reason we never quite made that final leap was that our midfield always seemed too staid and one dimensional.

 

When he returned for his second spell, the midfield was the strongest part of the team by a country mile - Regan Hendry, Brad Spencer, Ethan Ross etc and he completely transformed Ross Matthews, but our defence was never quite as secure and our forward line never quite as prolific (Falkirk scored many more goals than us in the Covid season).

I can understand Falkirk fans wanting to see a manager more visibly angry and animated after yesterday, but doing that in public just isn't his style. And as Rovers fans know only too well, going all 'Yogi' on players and publicly berating them doesn't generally lead to a happy ending.

[Grangemouth Bairn]

19 minutes ago, Tea and Busquets said:

I said the exact same yesterday during the game, Airdrie were far better last season and IMO were the best footballing team in the division and should have went up. McGlynn was absolutely spot on we had 5 chances, I counted 3 very good but he’s obviously went with all 5 as very good. The problems arised when we went down to 10 men, had a sub keeper who couldn’t keep hens out a close and Airdrie punished us. The second goal gets even more luck than the first as 1. It wasn’t a corner kick and 2. The ball lands perfect and Gallagher’s feet via a deflection for a second time. Think some people need to chill.

I think most people are chilled tbh mate just people are pissed off. We’ve been in this division for a while now and it’s fair to say we’ve regressed each season.

People have different views on yesterdays game but I’m old fashioned and 4-0 is, and always will be, a total pumping to me.

[AL-FFC]

Get Nesbitt so far to f**k and cut that f**king bun off his hair, loses possession too many times and sh*t out a few tackles, Morrison trying to walk the ball into the net instead of seeking out the pass, Alegria still young and needs a bit confidence but not physical enough., though he had a couple of chances. Losing McKay was a blow and putting us down to 10 men.

Think Burrell and Lawal looked decent enough and  are def worth the start next week can't do any worse. Push Yeats back into midfield and as much as options are limited for RB he is more effective as a midfielder

I can't see McGuffie going and McGlynn has worked with him before so might still get something out of him

 

[Harry Kinnear]

1 minute ago, AL-FFC said:

Get Nesbitt so far to f**k and cut that f**king bun off his hair, loses possession too many times and sh*t out a few tackles, Morrison trying to walk the ball into the net instead of seeking out the pass, Alegria still young and needs a bit confidence but not physical enough., though he had a couple of chances. Losing McKay was a blow and putting us down to 10 men.

Think Burrell and Lawal looked decent enough and  are def worth the start next week can't do any worse. Push Yeats back into midfield and as much as options are limited for RB he is more effective as a midfielder

I can't see McGuffie going and McGlynn has worked with him before so might still get something out of him

 

I think out of the three McGuffie gives more than Nesbitt and Morrison but it’s slim pickings to be honest.

[18BAIRN76]

Just now, Harry Kinnear said:

I think out of the three McGuffie gives more than Nesbitt and Morrison but it’s slim pickings to be honest.

I’d generally agree with you Harry but were so many instances yesterday where McGuffie shat out of tackles or kept turning into trouble whenever he got the ball. None of them are good enough.

[Harry Kinnear]

2 minutes ago, 18BAIRN76 said:

I’d generally agree with you Harry but were so many instances yesterday where McGuffie shat out of tackles or kept turning into trouble whenever he got the ball. None of them are good enough.

I agree none of them are good enough and in an ideal contract free world they would all be gone.

[Duncan Freemason]

1 hour ago, NUMBER 7 said:

Nobody wanted to see that result yesterday, and i’m not in the heads gone camp, like many these last 15 hours.

The second goal, came from a bit of play from a corner kick that was wrongly awarded.

Nisbet McGuffie  and  Hetherington lost their battles and continually couldn’t get the ball away from under their feet, hence losing possession, actually the park looked dummy and a nightmare to play on.

The two new guys that came on showed enough to indicate they have a bit of skill, and I’m sure we’ll get a win next week

 

 

There is no “heads gone” camp. People were rightly angry at what they had just witnessed, and a them having a rant was near enough inevitable after that performance.
 

It’s a complete irrelevance if the corner kick was correctly awarded or not. The defending of it was back to our keystone cops approach of last season.

Nesbitt & McGuffie do not “battle”. Their lack of desire to really compete in the middle of the park has been a huge issue for a year now. At the end of last season, most would have been chuffed to see the back of them along with Hetherington, Williamson and McKay.

Albeit cameos for one or two, all five are still at the club, and all five played a part in that shambolic mess yesterday. As someone says regularly, “it’s the hope that kills you”. We saw how McGlynn was getting a performance out of McKay, and we hoped (and maybe even felt) that he was doing the same thing to the other four. Sadly not. The other four made life impossible for their team mates in just the same way as they did last season.

Set aside McKay for a moment, and those other four seem to be the catalyst for our most horrific performances last season, and now this. Yesterday will have done two things for them……..their new team mates now know they are not the guys they want beside them in the trenches, and M&S now know it too.

[Tea and Busquets]

18 minutes ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

I think most people are chilled tbh mate just people are pissed off. We’ve been in this division for a while now and it’s fair to say we’ve regressed each season.

People have different views on yesterdays game but I’m old fashioned and 4-0 is, and always will be, a total pumping to me.

Which everyone is quite rightly allowed to pissed off it. On the face of it 4-0 to anyone who wasn’t at the game is a total pumping but we need to pick the bones of it. 
 

At not point in that game, until maybe the last 5 minutes, did I think we’d lose by that margin or be pumped. It just wasn’t that type of game. Anyone who sees we lost 4-0 would think we were under the cosh from minute 1 to minute 90 and it simply wasn’t the case. That’s why I made the earlier comment “it was never a 4-0 game”. A 4-0 score line yes but never a 4-0 game as it completely flattered Airdrie.

The full situation is made worse because of what happened last year, rightly so. But at no point was that ever like the Queen’s Park game. Sitting at Firhill it was like Queen’s Park would score with every single attack and dominated from the first minute. That’s not what happened yesterday. Luck was shining more on Airdrie yesterday with the two fortuitous goals. 
 

My biggest annoyance would be at the chances we wasted again with Morrison in particular being the biggest culprit. 

[Ecosse83]

23 minutes ago, AL-FFC said:

Get Nesbitt so far to f**k and cut that f**king bun off his hair, loses possession too many times and sh*t out a few tackles, Morrison trying to walk the ball into the net instead of seeking out the pass, Alegria still young and needs a bit confidence but not physical enough., though he had a couple of chances. Losing McKay was a blow and putting us down to 10 men.

Think Burrell and Lawal looked decent enough and  are def worth the start next week can't do any worse. Push Yeats back into midfield and as much as options are limited for RB he is more effective as a midfielder

I can't see McGuffie going and McGlynn has worked with him before so might still get something out of him

 

Agree with Yates comment. His inability to pass the halfway line yesterday stopped any decent attacks on the right. Didn’t make any mistakes defensively but does need to get further up of playing right back! Definitely better in the middle of the park 

Edited August 7, 2022 by Ecosse83

[Bainsfordbairn]

It was said in last weeks programme notes by Jamie Swinney that they hoped to add another 2-3 players by the end of the transfer window. Two subsequently signed after that article in Burrell and Lawal. Lets speculate that the third signing could be a rightback to replace / compete with Williamson, given that he was dropped in favour of Yeats yesterday. 

Which leaves us with four midfielders in Hetherington, McGuffie, Morrison and Nesbitt that many want dropped. 

Who do you replace them with? Based on my speculation in the first paragraph, we probably won't sign another midfielder. So you then have possible midfield cover of Henderson, Kennedy, Malcolm & Ross, all of whom are injured atm.  

Yeats is an obvious candidate to return and based on what I saw yesterday I think Lawal has something to offer, But you're still going to have two out of the original four starting every week. 

The only other possibility I can think of is playing two up top, say Alegria & Burrell, with three in midfield of Yeats / McGinn / Lawal. Then five across the back with two attacking wingbacks in McCann & Williamson. (or a new RB). But I don't think we have enough fit central defenders to do that unless MacKay is able to return alongside Mackie & Donaldson. 

Unfortunately I don't think it's as simple as just saying "drop all four" from yesterdays midfield.  

 

[FalkirkBairn2021]

We are really fucked though. I totally get and agree with the desire to never have Nesbitt, Morrison etc near a starting 11 but we're a long way from being sure the alternatives are better.

There is a danger the guys not playing become immediately better just by not contributing to this shambles but I'm not sure changing our XI within this squad will make f**k all of a difference.

Maybe Kennedy, Lawal and Burrell would do better in the final third  but the jury's out.

[1320Lichtie]

I thought Airdrie looked extremely average in the 3-0 win we had against them 2 weeks ago. Bold as you like fired Falkirk right on the coupon thinking not a problem and aye they fucked it.
 

How have you managed this?

 

I had so much faith in McGlynn too