Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[da_no_1]

I know it doesn't fit with your narrative, but Rovers fans have thought he was shite well before he signed with Dunfermline. It isn't anything to do with that, I'm afraid. 

Also shocked that you're the first to respond. Nisbet (shite) Murray (shite) Hendry (soon to be shite). Your narrative is pretty repetitive as well.

Pars fans are the opposite especially on .net. Wild claims that we should've kept absolute dross (in their time with us) like Gavin Reilly and Gozie Ugwu would mean having a 751-man squad.

[Stellaboz]

Now that we have a free weekend, will the time be used to further the on going Iceland investigation?

[CALDERON]

51 minutes ago, da_no_1 said:

Nisbet (shite) Murray (shite) Hendry (soon to be shite)

 

That's just not true now, is it? 

[da_no_1]

That's just not true now, is it? 

Probably not but you guys just can't seem to grasp that any player can develop and improve after leaving Starks Park.

[DAFC.]

That's just not true now, is it? 

I don’t think anyone said they were shite, but I do recall someone saying they carpool together and hoped they would die in a crash on the way to training, so that was nice.

[D.A.F.C]

11 hours ago, Stellaboz said:

Now that we have a free weekend, will the time be used to further the on going Iceland investigation?

It’s right next to EEP, you would think someone could at least go round.

[DA Baracus]

On 11/02/2021 at 10:35, VinnyPar said:

I posted this on the Dundee match thread but interested in other people's thoughts.

Is Crawford as bad a manager as many people think? Tactically this season I think he has been a lot more astute, willing to change the team and game plan depending on the opposition and is not afraid to change things during the game if things aren't going our way (Inverness,Clyde, Raith, Dundee). Last season he was still working with a % of AJ's perma diddies and starting the rebuild, his transfers have been absolutely spot on and I struggle to think of a bad signing he's made (assuming McGill and Bowman were McNamara's doing). 

I'm not for one minute suggesting he's perfect however I do think he is overly criticised by an element of our support.

What's the deal with his contract btw? Is it still month to month?

I think he should be 'relieved of duties' at the end of the season.

He's a club legend and has probably received more leeway than any other manager recently, and I wouldn't argue with that as he's banked a massive amount of goodwill (he gets in my all time XI).

He is excellent at identifying signings and getting them in. Dow is a great example. He had fallen down to Peterhead and many mocked us for his signing, yet he was our second best player last season. Crawford has a brilliant eye for young talent and doesn't just sign the usual jobbers. Turner, Edwards and Comrie are great examples.

Unfortunately Crawford is too cautious as a manager. Our away performances under him are often appalling and often ineffective. Rarely do we play well in away games and therefore we rarely win. The knock on is that players go in to the next game with reduced confidence, and if we don't win that it compounds and continues.

Under Crawford we have had some excellent away performances, but the majority of those have been when were the less favoured team (Celtic and Hearts away are prime examples).

Recently we've been terrible to watch. We are overly cautious, we are unimaginative and we are slow. We slow our attacks down. We play across the pitch looking for the pass but never finding it. We fail to create chances.

Crawford has had the team perform brilliantly on occasion. He's had the team been good on occasion. He's had them grind out results on occasion. Unfortunately he's had them been awful on too many occasions. He's had dreadful runs every season.

He isn't up to it over a season.

[D.A.F.C]

I think his inexperience is his undoing. Like try to play football when you can’t or not adapting to other teams, playing on the front foot.

Don’t understand how the team that did well against Hearts put in a display like Morton away. Or maybe it’s like I say, failing to adapt, playing football with wingers on a messed up pitch. Dick Campbell and others show what can be done with less resources. We finished below a part time side. That alone should have been game over but because it’s Crawford he gets another season. 
Morton and Arbroath away has told me that we won’t progress under him. Would be astonished if we get promoted this season. We could beat Dundee 6-0 on aggregate then lose 5-0 to ICT. We’re all over the place.

[DA Baracus]

To simplify things; Crawford is a shitebag in away games, and when (predictably) we don't pick up results playing like timid pussies in away games it bleeds in to home games.

He is too concerned with not losing rather than winning. Like AJ, he has done a good job taking us to a level but isn't good enough to take us past that level.

As noted previously, Crawford has been given far more time/patience than other managers, and I can't argue that he deserves it. However, imagine AJ having 2 wins in 10.

[DA Baracus]

My final rambling; Crawford is one of my all time favourite Pars players. He makes my all time Pars XI.

I desperately hope he proves me wrong as a manager.

[parsforlife]

14 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

As noted previously, Crawford has been given far more time/patience than other managers, and I can't argue that he deserves it. However, imagine AJ having 2 wins in 10.

AJ went on similar runs of bad form.  3 wins in 15 the year we made the playoffs.  2 wins in 13 immediately after promotion.   The first one is similar to this year in that he got a good start. Had that bad run then finished the season strongly (At least i hope this season ends well)  The 2nd he survived on a bit of good will from the league winning side.  

For me we just need to judge him based on his targets.  Taking over from AJ,  keep us up- success(all be it far closer than it should have been after the run of 1-0 wins) 

last season- Be in contention for play-offs,  Should have done better, however done very well in his other remit in building a young squad and making some money selling players on.  Meh,  COVID call off helped him here.

This season.  Play-offs minimum.  Not getting into them would be a massive failure,  getting promoted through them would be a great success,  what happens in between is up for debate.   Currently meeting that target,  however he needs to finish the season far better than the current run of form.  Wait and see.

He’s doing ok.  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 14, 2021 by parsforlife

[Bucuresti Par]

I think Crawford is doing fine. Recruitment has been good and we've seen more tactical flexibility this season. Defensively we have been solid all year. 

We've had two bad performances recently, Ayr at home and Arbroath in that gale. Otherwise we have been quite unfortunate not to pick up more points, we did enough in the second half to beat Morton away, could have won at Inverness and deserved a point at Tynecastle (and may well have had all 3 had we got in front). If the forward players had been in a little bit better form, we'd have another 4-6 points. No that we have more options; Banks, Fraser Murray fit again and Wighton, we can drop guys that are hopelessly off form (Thomas and even Dow up until the Raith game). 

I think the criticism of the performances (of the team and individuals) has been too strong, it's too simplistic to say that if we don't win we were pish, and if we do we were brilliant. Some of the performances recently have been better than some games we won at the start of the season. I am not sure what people expect either in some of the conditions the players face in Scotland in the winter.

I am confident we'll finish 2nd or 3rd and give the playoffs a good go, if we achieve that then we'll have met expectations. If we don't make the playoffs then it has been a poor season for sure, either way though, the time to review Crawford's position will be the end of the season.

[D.A.F.C]

Good points but we didn't win those games and he's the manager.

[HoBNob]

On 13/02/2021 at 00:17, da_no_1 said:

Utterly shocked that Rovers fans think an ex Rovers player who signs for Dunfermline is shite.

I've got no problem with Raith fans saying that Wighton was shite for them, they've been saying he was shite for them since he played for them, it'd be different if they'd spent the past four years saying he was brilliant and now changed there tune because he played for the Pars. 

 

No different to Pars fans giving there thoughts on Ugwu when he signed. 

 

On Crawford @parsforlife nails it for me, my main criticism of Crawford is that he's quite a cautious manager. 

[Guest Axle Grease]

So Wighton is shite and Crawford needs to go. 

Some right expresso depresso's on here. 

 

[DAFC.]

McManus was genuinely hopeless in the Championship before he came to us. I’ll reserve judgement on Wighton until he’s had a proper run of games in a Pars jersey. I don’t think he is a man to take us to the next level, but I hope he proves me wrong.

[parsforlife]

32 minutes ago, DAFC. said:

McManus was genuinely hopeless in the Championship before he came to us. 

Not sure where you got that from.  Reasonable but not brilliant in his 2nd spell at Morton, played well enough to get a deal at rovers,  did well, we signed him and he was able to take the generous wages Ross county were offering, regular starter in their league winning side.   Next deal was back with us.  Where was he hopeless?

Edited February 14, 2021 by parsforlife

[Michael W]

On 13/02/2021 at 00:17, da_no_1 said:

Utterly shocked that Rovers fans think an ex Rovers player who signs for Dunfermline is shite.

Well, he was shite for us! That Hearts paid money for him was quite a shock to be honest given what we saw, but things can change. 

He was 18 when he signed him on loan and there's a pretty long history of teenagers being loaned into the lower leagues and struggling, yet managing to do OK in their careers. Given that exposure to the player is usually very limited once they leave, it gives little opportunity to change opinions as there's no frame of reference. 

Declan McManus is another that didn't set the heather on fire with us but seems to be doing just fine, for example. Again, he was here a while ago. 

Edited February 14, 2021 by Michael W

[Stellaboz]

Fuucking hell. Taking the Valentines Quiz on the BBC website reminded me that Leishman turned up at Stephen Simmons' wedding to get him to sign a contract with us. 

 

[DAFC.]

19 hours ago, parsforlife said:

Where was he hopeless?

The part where I said before he came to us i.e. when he played for Raith* and Morton

*getting relegated in hilarious circumstances to boot