Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[WestHibee]

3 minutes ago, Cardle is Magic said:

O’Hara is not a winger.

I thought on Sat they were playing a 4-2-3-1 with Dow, Kennedy and Thomas playing behind O’Hara.

Why you’d play that team and smash long balls forward is a question for the great thinkers of our game.

I wouldn't say O'Hara is striker either.... can drop off a sticker and play in the hole but he's no exactly going to hold up the ball. Especially the balls Connelly was playing 

[Duke Gekantawa]

3 hours ago, R.R.FC said:

Possibly a question for the likes of @craigkillie but what is longest winless run to start a season from a team who has then gone on to stay up in this league?

I still think Dunfermline will be safe, there is enough about that squad to stay out of trouble reasonably comfortably by the end of the season with a competent manager but there can’t be many teams who have stayed up after going the first 13 games without a win.

Even the Raith Rovers team of kids and French duds who had never played 11 aside football assembled by Claude Anelka didn’t take that long to get a win FFS.

St Mirren took 15 games to record their first win in 2016/2017, and had only 4 points at this stage of the season. In fact they had only 4 points going into December

Edited November 8, 2021 by Duke Gekantawa
stupid typo

[CallumPar]

I still think Dunfermline will be safe, there is enough about that squad to stay out of trouble reasonably comfortably by the end of the season

Can people please stop with this nonsense? 13 games into the season and we haven’t won a game - not through luck, but due to being horrendous at football. 11 good individuals don’t always make a good team. We have individual quality, nobody has questioned that. But it’s hard to see any style of play that would work for this ‘team’ the defence is suited to long balls. The strikers are not suited to long balls at all, our central midfield options are either not very good or unproven (in the case of Allan) at this level.

Our best creative players (Kennedy and Thomas) need us to play a quick attacking game, where they’re running at defenders. But we either punt it up the park or play a really slow passing game. Honestly, it’s hard to see a way that these players come together and find a way of playing that works right now. We have a group of decent individuals, not a team. It’s a recipe for disaster. Grant just signed anyone who he thought was good, with no idea how they would fit into any sort of formation/style of play.

[Enigma]

25 minutes ago, da_no_1 said:

Not when he held off 14 of your players at once in front of the Norrie a few years back at the end of a 1-0 win. Legendary.

His season of sluggish water carrying for us was far less legendary.

[D'Jaffo]

Not when he held off 14 of your players at once in front of the Norrie a few years back at the end of a 1-0 win. Legendary.

Legendary for holding a couple players back in the corner?

Quite a fall from grace that he’s now jobbing about for Stenhousemuir at the mere age of 30.

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, da_no_1 said:

I know we've been absolutely fucking terrible this season but there'll be a few teams in that bottom half that must be sh1tting themselves that we might somehow win a game. They must all be looking at our results every week praying that we get beat. If we manage to win a game or even 2 then it's all up in the air. It can all turn around quite quickly.

Just get a half decent manager on board. Soon.

Given that you just got turned over by the second worst outfit in the league on your own midden, I doubt anyone will be 'shiting themselves' at all about your trips to play the top (competent) half of the division. 

You've literally just cut yourselves adrift. 

[Enigma]

7 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Legendary for holding a couple players back in the corner?

I guess the Townies have to hold onto the smallest of wee victories against us at the moment.

[da_no_1]

4 minutes ago, Enigma said:

I guess the Townies have to hold onto the smallest of wee victories against us at the moment.

I guess the Wee Team fans just don't appreciate sarcasm. 

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

1 minute ago, da_no_1 said:

I guess the Wee Team fans just don't appreciate sarcasm. 

Just wait until you appoint Yogi.

[R.R.FC]

19 minutes ago, CallumPar said:

 

Can people please stop with this nonsense? 13 games into the season and we haven’t won a game - not through luck, but due to being horrendous at football. 11 good individuals don’t always make a good team. We have individual quality, nobody has questioned that. But it’s hard to see any style of play that would work for this ‘team’ the defence is suited to long balls. The strikers are not suited to long balls at all, our central midfield options are either not very good or unproven (in the case of Allan) at this level.

Our best creative players (Kennedy and Thomas) need us to play a quick attacking game, where they’re running at defenders. But we either punt it up the park or play a really slow passing game. Honestly, it’s hard to see a way that these players come together and find a way of playing that works right now. We have a group of decent individuals, not a team. It’s a recipe for disaster. Grant just signed anyone who he thought was good, with no idea how they would fit into any sort of formation/style of play.

 

I certainly didn’t say you were unlucky to be where you are. You’ve been absolutely awful and clearly the worst side in the league so far. However, there are still 4 sides above you in easily catchable distance.

Surely a good manager moulds a group of 11 good individuals into a competent team at this level and certainly not one that goes 13 without a win. It’s hardly a stretch to say if you gave John Robertson (for example) this exact squad, as unbalanced as it may be, at the start of the season you may have mustered up 6 points more than you have under Grant/Shields/Whittaker. With that you would be 6th so you’re hardly marooned to the bottom despite your dreadful form.

A competent manager who can instil some confidence in the players (maybe by the plate-full) and get them organised it’s hard to imagine you not having enough to get to safety.

That’s without taking into account you will have a substantially bigger budget than every side around you at the bottom of the table in January to make some changes. Granted January is a difficult window and you may have to limp along till then but I would still be very surprised if Dunfermline were relegated if they get this managerial appointment correct.

Personally don’t really care if you stay up or don’t but I just think there’s enough for a new manager to work with that you’re clearly not doomed.

[CallumPar]

I certainly didn’t say you were unlucky to be where you are. You’ve been absolutely awful and clearly the worst side in the league so far. However, there are still 4 sides above you in easily catchable distance.
Surely a good manager moulds a group of 11 good individuals into a competent team at this level and certainly not one that goes 13 without a win. It’s hardly a stretch to say if you gave John Robertson (for example) this exact squad, as unbalanced as it may be, at the start of the season you may have mustered up 6 points more than you have under Grant/Shields/Whittaker. With that you would be 6th so you’re hardly marooned to the bottom despite your dreadful form.
A competent manager who can instil some confidence in the players (maybe by the plate-full) and get them organised it’s hard to imagine you not having enough to get to safety.
That’s without taking into account you will have a substantially bigger budget than every side around you at the bottom of the table in January to make some changes. Granted January is a difficult window and you may have to limp along till then but I would still be very surprised if Dunfermline were relegated if they get this managerial appointment correct.
Personally don’t really care if you stay up or don’t but I just think there’s enough for a new manager to work with that you’re clearly not doomed.

As has been mentioned though, to finish 8th you generally need 40 points. That means we need 33 from our remaining 23 games. That’s a tough task for anyone at this level. To be comfortably safe (as you and others have mentioned), we’d need at least 50 points, which would mean 43 points from the remaining 23 games. Only 2 teams (Killie and Inverness) have bettered the ppg total that we would need for that, so far. It’s just not even a reasonable suggestion.

There is absolutely no chance that we will be comfortable at any point this season, due to what has happened and the squad that we have. That’s the point I quoted and questioned. I’m not arguing that literally any other manager could have got us more points than Grant did. I genuinely believe that they would. I just can’t agree with anyone who thinks, from where we are now, we will be comfortably safe. It’s very very unlikely we will finish above 9th and that is in no way comfortably safe, given it would result in a play off. That’s the reality of the situation.

At the risk of over-simplifying things, I feel the need to point out that being bottom of a 10 team league means that at least 4 teams above you are getting points each week. In the championship, those clubs near the bottom do pick up points and anyone can beat anyone. That makes climbing the league a lot tougher than you’re making out.

[DAFC.]

1 hour ago, R.R.FC said:

I still think Dunfermline will be safe, there is enough about that squad to stay out of trouble reasonably comfortably by the end of the season with a competent manager but there can’t be many teams who have stayed up after going the first 13 games without a win.

A lot of people seem to think we'll be safe. I honestly just don't see it. MAYBE get 9th at a push, but there has to be massive changes for that. The squad is not good enough. There's too many luxury players not equipped for what's ahead. I honestly think we are fucked. CallumPar makes good points above. Generally 6th-10th are really poor but take points off teams above them from time to time. We can't even beat teams 6th-9th at home. We are in a bad state. Unless we go on a mad winning run all of a sudden, I think we are seriously fucked. Whoever comes in and if they manage to keep us up, they are automatically a legend in my eyes. It's seriously that bad. 

[Cardle is Magic]

59 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Legendary for holding a couple players back in the corner?

Quite a fall from grace that he’s now jobbing about for Stenhousemuir at the mere age of 30.

 

48 minutes ago, Enigma said:

I guess the Townies have to hold onto the smallest of wee victories against us at the moment.

Is this some sort of double whoosh or did you both not realise he was clearly taking the piss?

[craigkillie]

18 minutes ago, R.R.FC said:

Possibly a question for the likes of @craigkillie but what is longest winless run to start a season from a team who has then gone on to stay up in this league?

I still think Dunfermline will be safe, there is enough about that squad to stay out of trouble reasonably comfortably by the end of the season with a competent manager but there can’t be many teams who have stayed up after going the first 13 games without a win.

Even the Raith Rovers team of kids and French duds who had never played 11 aside football assembled by Claude Anelka didn’t take that long to get a win FFS.

Since the move to smaller divisions in 1975, there have been 7 sides who have failed to win their first 13 games and then not finished bottom. Of those, two were still relegated after finishing 2nd bottom.

It's only happened thee times in a 36 game division, and only once in this division - that was St Mirren in 2016/17.
 

16 [out of 36]: Motherwell finished 9th out of 12 in the 1988/89 Premier Division
16 [out of 38]: Dundee United finished 11th out of 12 in the 2000/01 SPL.
14 [out of 36]: Hamilton Accies finished 9th out of 10 in the 1995/96 1st Division (still relegated).
14 [out of 36]: St Mirren finished 7th out of 10 in the 2016/17 Championship.
14 [out of 39]: Alloa Athletic finished 13th out of 14 in the 1977/78 1st Division (still relegated)
13 [out of 39]: Berwick Rangers finished 8th out of 14 in the 1976/77 2nd Division.
13 [out of 39]: East Fife finished 5th out of 14 in the 1985/86 1st Division (only 2 points off promotion!)

 

[DAFC.]

Just now, craigkillie said:

Since the move to smaller divisions in 1975, there have been 7 sides who have failed to win their first 13 games and then not finished bottom. Of those, two were still relegated after finishing 2nd bottom.

It's only happened thee times in a 36 game division, and only once in this division - that was St Mirren in 2016/17.
 

16 [out of 36]: Motherwell finished 9th out of 12 in the 1988/89 Premier Division
16 [out of 38]: Dundee United finished 11th out of 12 in the 2000/01 SPL.
14 [out of 36]: Hamilton Accies finished 9th out of 10 in the 1995/96 1st Division (still relegated).
14 [out of 36]: St Mirren finished 7th out of 10 in the 2016/17 Championship.
14 [out of 39]: Alloa Athletic finished 13th out of 14 in the 1977/78 1st Division (still relegated)
13 [out of 39]: Berwick Rangers finished 8th out of 14 in the 1976/77 2nd Division.
13 [out of 39]: East Fife finished 5th out of 14 in the 1985/86 1st Division (only 2 points off promotion!)

 

So, essentially we need to pull something off like they did that season, which was a borderline miracle? Yeah, we're fucked. 

[Shandon Par]

Still, next season we’ll see Falkirk, Joe Carrie, maybe Petrie, Big Nat. Plenty to enjoy about relegation. 

[craigkillie]

St Mirren only had 4 points compared to Dunfermline's 7 at this point, and were already 7 and 8 points adrift of 9th and 8th respectively, which is more than the task Dunfermline face. The Pars' biggest issue is that they have rubbish goalkeepers, terrible full-backs, no good holding midfielders, a bunch of flaky and/or overrated attacking midfielders, and of their three main forwards two of them have never really been goalscorers and the one who has been is out of form.

A new manager might be able to sort some of that just enough to keep you up, but there's also vibes of our squad when Wright took over last year, where it was already too far gone and even the arrival of Lafferty wasn't enough to stem the flow.

Edited November 8, 2021 by craigkillie

[Ro Sham Bo]

1 hour ago, R.R.FC said:

I certainly didn’t say you were unlucky to be where you are. You’ve been absolutely awful and clearly the worst side in the league so far. However, there are still 4 sides above you in easily catchable distance.

Surely a good manager moulds a group of 11 good individuals into a competent team at this level and certainly not one that goes 13 without a win. It’s hardly a stretch to say if you gave John Robertson (for example) this exact squad, as unbalanced as it may be, at the start of the season you may have mustered up 6 points more than you have under Grant/Shields/Whittaker. With that you would be 6th so you’re hardly marooned to the bottom despite your dreadful form.

A competent manager who can instil some confidence in the players (maybe by the plate-full) and get them organised it’s hard to imagine you not having enough to get to safety.

That’s without taking into account you will have a substantially bigger budget than every side around you at the bottom of the table in January to make some changes. Granted January is a difficult window and you may have to limp along till then but I would still be very surprised if Dunfermline were relegated if they get this managerial appointment correct.

Personally don’t really care if you stay up or don’t but I just think there’s enough for a new manager to work with that you’re clearly not doomed.

Agree with this.

Even a Jim Duffy type would be able to keep them up.

 

[DAFC.]

28 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

St Mirren only had 4 points compared to Dunfermline's 7 at this point, and were already 7 and 8 points adrift of 9th and 8th respectively, which is less than the task Dunfermline face. The Pars' biggest issue is that they have rubbish goalkeepers, terrible full-backs, no good holding midfielders, a bunch of flaky and/or overrated attacking midfielders, and of their three main forwards two of them have never really been goalscorers and the one who has been is out of form.

Comrie is one of this league's better full-backs. He is massively out of form, however. I will give you Edwards though. Boy is fucking useless. Breen and Vytas should be our centre-back pairing. Connolly is a fucking haddie. He can get punted back to Dundee United along with Graham in January. Folk are just stealing a wage at this club this season. 

A goalkeeper and centre-mids are absolutely essential, however I think we could be doing with a left-back and a left sided midfielder/winger as well (punt Kennedy back to Rangers; can't afford to have players like him)

[oneteaminglasgow]

2 minutes ago, DAFC. said:

 (punt Kennedy back to Rangers; can't afford to have players like him)

Shite ones, you mean?