Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[DAFC.]

We’re going to get absolutely battered on Wednesday, surely when that inevitably happens he’ll be emptied?

Probably get the QotS game. Unless we get a proper scudding and things get nasty with fans etc then I can’t see it. Even at that they’d be too scared to give St Peter his jotters. Wankers the lot of them.

[Shandon Par]

Over 5 months since we scored a league goal at East End. 

[DA Baracus]

That was dire yesterday. So dull. We were just so safe and sterile. Kennedy and Thomas tried to take players on and force something, but weren't effective Kennedy has that ability to go by players, but he always takes at least one touch too many or tries to take on one man too many. Hopefully he learns and puts together an end product, be it a pass/cross or shot on goal (he nearly did so in the Inverness game with his shot mind; more of that please).

Our central midfield are slow and uncreative. The ball just gets stuck in there and passed between them. It's plodding and poor and gets us nowhere. We're so slow going forward. Our strikers had almost nothing to work with. Almost no crosses, no through balls, nothing for them to challenge for to get a chance from. Side note, Edwards' run forward was good until he realised where he was an panicked, losing the ball, when a pass for one of the strikers was on that would have put them through on goal with a chance to shoot.

Defence looked solid enough, but there was a free header for Mullin in the first half that he wasted. OFW had one of his best games for us, pulling off two great saves, one either half. Where has this guy been?! Hopefully we see more of that rather than the ghost wristed performances of yore.

 

Anyway, Grant has signed a squad for his 3-5-2/3-4-3 formation, but since it has now been binned (hopefully permanently), the squad is unbalanced. There are now 5 central defenders competing for two spots instead of 3. Will this cause issues? No player is happy not playing, but might some of these guys be a bit miffed that they were presumably sold on an opportunity that has now considerably narrowed? Not to mention the waste of wages. Hopefully with Cole back we can see more of him in midfield. I don't rate Pybus and Dorrans at all. Think both are exceptionally poor signings, and would rather see Allan and Cole given a shot in there until we get Wilson back (if he does come back). We also only have 3 strikers now. I think, if possible, we should look to get one on loan, as injuries can happen. If just one of them is injured, then we can be in a position of needing to change one, or both, of the guys starting in a game but have no options. What's happened to McCann incidentally? You'd think this would be a time for him to get a chance as a backup. Seemingly Wighton and Todorov were injured, thus their subs. If they are both out, we're stuck with one striker. More poor squad management.

McCann, Wilson, Martin, Breen; what's the deal with these guys? 

 

Grant spoke some pish after the game. Said he though Dorrans was excellent and had been for weeks. Strong disagree. He also said that Dorrans hadn't played for 10 weeks when we signed him. It shows. Chucking in a guy who hasn't been able to get up to match fitness is just another poor decision. He obviously needs to play to get match fit, but throwing him in right away in a new team and formation, when everyone is struggling, is poor management to me. Talking of which, apparently Dow isn't match fit. If only we had another winger sat on the bench who is match fit. Baffling stuff. Brainless even. 

 

I saw someone mention the point that Grant was hired for his supposed great football, but now that he isn't getting to play his stuff with his players then what exactly is he there to do? Just another baffling facet of this appointment. I spoke with a friend yesterday about younger players. Weren't we supposed to be signing them and bringing them through? Crawford had a good policy there that had some good success (Comrie, Edwards, Macdonald, Turner). Has this now been binned? If so, why? If not then did they consider how Grant would approach this? Did they ask him? Was the youth academy aspect considered when Grant was hired? What I mean is, was there a discussion of it, with an expectation that 'graduates' of said academy would be playing fairly regularly where possible? To be fair, that is some way off, so perhaps not a consideration when they hired Grant, but it's still something to think about.

 

I watched on Pars TV again yesterday, so wasn't at the game, but felt that there was considerable apathy settling in among the fans. A bad state of affairs there. That was not a game to rouse the fans, although I heard some trying. If we continue to get served up such dull, sterile stuff, more and more fans will drift away and stop attending, and some of them won't be back, whilst some may only be back for select games. We're losing fans, yet the club will soon have to meet the costs of running a youth academy. How sustainable is that? I fear that the youth academy will be short lived. I hope I am wrong.

Talking of Pars TV, it was pretty poor again yesterday. The club have to address this. Get the guys some proper training. With the colder weather coming up, I imagine some folk will opt to watch the game at home rather than sit in an empty East End, but if there are continued issues they might not even bother doing that. The engagement between club and fan is vital, and if folk are only engaging via Pars TV, it needs to be good or the engagement will be lost, and the fan lost. I've seen people say that they've had issues with Pars TV across other social media platforms too. It's been nearly a year and the same issues are still there. It's not fair on the guys who are operating the camera etc either, as they're volunteers and shouldn't be in a position where they get criticism. The club not addressing things is not helping them. Get someone in to give them a session(s) on operating the camera etc.

I did like the co-commentator though. Thought he spoke well.

 

I read last week that folk commended the application of the players. I would agree with that, but I would also say that I don't think commitment has been an issue. I think they've all been trying, but they just weren't sure of the new formation in terms of what they were doing. I think it was quite visible that there was confusion about what to do off the ball when we were playing the nonsense with the back central three. It's too easy when a team is losing to claim that players aren't trying or have 'downed tools', but I think the vast majority of the time it simply isn't true. The lack of confidence is obvious too, and that often has players second guessing themselves and often has guys look to play a safe pass rather than try something that might go wrong. Players often want to get rid of the ball as fast as they can when confidence is low. I don't get how there are apparently so many fans who are still unaware of what a huge issue confidence is for players.

 

Anyway, we're bottom of the league, have scored only three goals and are one of only three teams across the top four leagues without a win. I can't see that changing before the first quarter of games are done with. Laughable and we all know what needs done.

[embow]

1 hour ago, VinnyPar said:

We’re going to get absolutely battered on Wednesday, surely when that inevitably happens he’ll be emptied?

I doubt that very much. We have a horrible habit of letting struggling teams get back on track with a win at Stark's. Just go back to how we started QoS season at Christmas last year. This will be close. We're also not very good at holding on to any decent lead we might have with 15-20 minutes left to play.

[CallumPar]

I doubt that very much. We have a horrible habit of letting struggling teams get back on track with a win at Stark's. Just go back to how we started QoS season at Christmas last year. This will be close. We're also not very good at holding on to any decent lead we might have with 15-20 minutes left to play.

Unless you somehow lost at home to Peter Grant’s Alloa, I think you’re safe. I honestly think we’re somehow an even worse team than them.

[DAFC.]

I’d really like to hear the thoughts of the BoD with regards to why they haven’t took the necessary action in sacking Grant. Who seriously thinks on that board that he deserves to manage our club any longer? We are already fucked for challenging for the title and look to be among the worst in the league. It’s a long season, but if the aim was to win the league and we’re still bottom by the end of the first quarter, then how on Earth can anyone on that board still consider him to be the man?

Not only should Grant’s position be under threat, but serious questions are going to need to be put forward to the ones on the board that decided to appoint Grant and ignore 80 applicants. They have took a massive gamble (probably because it was financially cheaper for them at the time no doubt) only for it to inevitably backfire and cost us financially in the long run i.e. fan apathy/anger causing less match-day attendance.

[CallumPar]

Even our website is shambolic. A lot of the articles/interviews have poor spelling/grammar. But claiming we won the playoff game is just bizarre.

[The Toun Clock]

11 hours ago, CallumPar said:

Even our website is shambolic. A lot of the articles/interviews have poor spelling/grammar. But claiming we won the playoff game is just bizarre.

Not sure who's in charge of posting on the clubs official site and if they're a poster on here... I'm very sorry, but it's regularly utter mince. Every article has at least one glaringly obvious typo/mistake like a £ sign in the middle of a word or a number. A quick read over would solve that.

I said it on here a few weeks back that since admin we had some really good times where the club and fans were really connected and a real positive feeling around the club. I genuinely thought we might have had a similar connection that Motherwell have with their fans but instead it's been atrocious.

[Cardle is Magic]

Only @DA Baracus could find 1200 words to write about a goalless draw with Hamilton.

[OwenDAFC]

I said it on here a few weeks back that since admin we had some really good times where the club and fans were really connected and a real positive feeling around the club. I genuinely thought we might have had a similar connection that Motherwell have with their fans but instead it's been atrocious.

That’s the most annoying thing for me. With no fans for 18 months, they had a huge opportunity to draw in big numbers like the first season under Johnston. A decent managerial appointment & good marketing for season tickets is all it would have taken. They’ve went the complete opposite way & id expect our attendances to be as low as they have been in the last 20 years over the coming weeks.

[Sortmeout]

21 hours ago, Shandon Par said:

He’d give them big plates of dour. Never spoken to the guy but been around him a few times in random situations akd he never really struck me as Mr Personality. 

A personality isn’t really important. 

[Cardle is Magic]

18 minutes ago, OwenDAFC said:

 

That’s the most annoying thing for me. With no fans for 18 months, they had a huge opportunity to draw in big numbers like the first season under Johnston. A decent managerial appointment & good marketing for season tickets is all it would have taken. They’ve went the complete opposite way & id expect our attendances to be as low as they have been in the last 20 years over the coming weeks.

 

The young lads in the NW still seem well up for it tbf. A winning team under Petrie would be averaging 4000-5000.

[CallumPar]

That’s the most annoying thing for me. With no fans for 18 months, they had a huge opportunity to draw in big numbers like the first season under Johnston. A decent managerial appointment & good marketing for season tickets is all it would have taken. They’ve went the complete opposite way & id expect our attendances to be as low as they have been in the last 20 years over the coming weeks.

Agree with this. I expected a big push and a wee marketing campaign to get fans back and get them excited. Instead, we’re left feeling alienated and with many just not wanting to go back. We were sold this whole ‘fan owned’ model, as if fans have a voice and it was a group of guys who understand and relate to fans. Instead, we’re left with some of our more wealthy supporters, who don’t actually know how to run a football club and don’t seem to understand the average football fan. I’m not sure they understand the fact that paying £20 per week is a lot of money for some people. The least they could do is try and be ambitious, rather than accepting mediocrity and having people question whether it’s worth paying money to attend games - and we’re long past that stage. People have now realised that it’s not worth it.

Appointing a manager who looked so far out of his depth last season, because he played ‘good football’ and bragging about dismissing 80 applications in favour of headhunting the guy is embarrassing behaviour and not what any fans wanted to happen at all. It really makes me question what they know about football. The object of football is to win games. Therefore ‘good football’ gets positive results. Passing it around the back and getting possession stats up counts for absolutely nothing - as the league table should have shown Peter Grant and our board last season.

I missed going to games when we weren’t allowed. I was really looking forward to being back. But was surprised that there seemed to be no real push from the club. No encouragement for fans to return, nothing to try and get people excited. Then the league campaign started and I fear they’ve really blown it. Why on earth would anyone want to come back now, when the product is dreadful and we have a proven failure in charge?

I’m only attending games, since I live just along the road and have paid for my season ticket. But it almost feels like a chore going to games now. Not planning on going to any away games - other than Raith this week (again, ticket already bought), until the club sort out the mess they’ve made. This is the most disconnected I have felt from the club in about 30 years.

[da_no_1]

1 hour ago, Cardle is Magic said:

The young lads in the NW still seem well up for it tbf. A winning team under Petrie would be averaging 4000-5000.

That would be immense but I think you're crowd estimates are a bit high.

[DAFC.]

Stewart Petrie would have been a masterclass appointment for the coffers. He'd do a lot better than this balloon. Easily. 

"HE DOESN'T WANT IT11!!!11" crew will be along shortly to tell us that they know better and that he definitely wouldn't consider going full-time to manage "[his] team" 

[TheScarf]

9 minutes ago, DAFC. said:

Stewart Petrie would have been a masterclass appointment for the coffers. He'd do a lot better than this balloon. Easily. 

"HE DOESN'T WANT IT11!!!11" crew will be along shortly to tell us that they know better and that he definitely wouldn't consider going full-time to manage "[his] team" 

Do you not think he's been approached by various clubs in the last 2 years who were looking for a manager?  Unless he's wanting 5k a week, why do you think it is that he's still the Montrose manager?

[Stellaboz]

6 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

Do you not think he's been approached by various clubs in the last 2 years who were looking for a manager?  Unless he's wanting 5k a week, why do you think it is that he's still the Montrose manager?

Because he's waiting to come home to East End, the dream job. All will be well in the universe again ❤

[DAFC.]

2 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

Do you not think he's been approached by various clubs in the last 2 years who were looking for a manager?  Unless he's wanting 5k a week, why do you think it is that he's still the Montrose manager?

Because he is waiting on Ross McArthur to slide in to his DM's

If John Robertson is looking to get in to a full-time gig again, then he would ideal (if we go for guys that are not in a post) If that is the case then I'd expect him, Brian Rice, Alex McLeish, Jim McIntyre, Ricky Sbragia, Stuart Kettlewell, Yogi Hughes, Gary Caldwell, and Ray McKinnon to be the favourites. Would take Robertson ahead of all of them by quite a considerable distance. 

[Cardle is Magic]

1 hour ago, da_no_1 said:

That would be immense but I think you're crowd estimates are a bit high.

The “official” crowds for Inverness and Hamilton were both > 3000. Is it *really* a stretch?

[Shandon Par]

3 hours ago, Sortmeout said:

A personality isn’t really important. 

Is that on your Tinder profile?