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2 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

Chapman and Aitken are very similar characters, both went through good spells then lost the plot, both have been bitter since leaving, and it's been exposed that both treating clubs legends with very little respect. 

It's a real shame Brittso couldn't have continued coaching with us. He'd probably still be working for us if we'd given him that chance. Piss poor.

I really had no idea that he was so disappointed about the way he left. It was 11 years ago and he still sounded absolutely gutted. Especially because he was replaced by Gary Wilson - who was garbage - and then we shunted Mick Dunlop out there until Paddy Boyle came in. It would've been fantastic for him to play a part in the title win and then move into coaching.

On Chapman I agree. A lot of players praise him as a coach - but his man management left a lot to be desired. Both Brittso and Mick Dunlop have no time at all for him after the way he treated them.

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2 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

Chapman and Aitken are very similar characters, both went through good spells then lost the plot, both have been bitter since leaving, and it's been exposed that both treating clubs legends with very little respect. 

Yup, Aitken's treatment of Graham and to a lesser extent Fleming was shocking. The guys at Alloa must have absolutely loved sending Aitken down.

I'll never forgive Aitken for the way he approached the play-offs and freezing Froxy out. That probably makes me sound almost as bitter as wee Stevie himself (scapegoating Froxy for the winning goal in the cup final and his comments on Twitter and to the press after leaving).

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48 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

I actually get annoyed every time I think about our squad. I didn't think Duffy could've topped the unbalanced mess we began last season with but he's out-Duffied himself this year.

That gave me an idea. With the help of the Sons Archive I thought I'd take a wee look at every player Duffy has signed and pop them into hit, miss or meh categories.

Hit

Henk van Schaik
David Ferguson
Brian McLean
Morgyn Neill
Isaac Layne
Rico Quitongo
PJ Crossan
Ryan McGeever
Joe McKee
Reghan Tumilty
Adam Frizzell
Nat Wedderburn
Jaime Wilson
Sam Wardrop

Miss

Ben Armour (I didn't think he was bad, but he didn't play much or make a huge impact)
Boris Melingui
Conor Brennan (maybe a bit harsh, but he was meh)
Stefan McCluskey
Conor Scullion
Ryan Tierney
Jordan Pettigrew
Jordan McMillan
Mati Zata
Matthew Shiels
Callum Wilson
Robert Jones
Denny Johnstone
Donald Morrison
Returning Ross Forbes
Daniel Church

There's still time for Forbes, Morrison, Johnstone and Jones to be fair. But that's an awful lot of signings that have either made no impact, or been worse than the player they replaced.

Meh

Chris Smith - Does what he does
Ruaridh Langan - It was a big season for him and he's currently heading towards the miss category.
Jai Quitongo - Never fit
Chris Hamilton - Needs games in a settled position
Matthew Reilly - Fast becoming the new Stevie Ross. He's just vanished with injury for months.

I think the strongest squad we've had under Duffy was the one at the end of 2018/19 that was mainly assembled by Aitken, with a few shrewd Duffy additions. Since then I think we've regressed a fair bit. Look at our 11 from the last day of the season at Arbroath in 2019:

Conor Brennan

David Ferguson Craig Barr Brian McLean Cammy Ballantyne

Ross Forbes Kyle Hutton Stuart Carswell Bobby Barr

Dom Thomas Calum Gallagher

Granted DT was far too good for this league and Carsy and Hutton had issues playing together, but that team had far more balance than where we are at the moment. In fact I'd probably only swap in Kevin and Wedderburn for Brennan and Carsy/Hutton from the side that started on Saturday I think. Maybe Wardrop too, but Ferguson was really steady for us and I liked him a lot.

Edited by Jan Vojáček
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7 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

 

Conor Brennan

David Ferguson Craig Barr Brian McLean Cammy Ballantyne

Ross Forbes Kyle Hutton Stuart Carswell Bobby Barr

Dom Thomas Calum Gallagher

 

If we'd had that team and Duffy from the start of the season, I reckon we'd have challenged Arbroath (pretty sure form-wise we were about the best at the end of the season).

That's actually quite depressing comparing that team to now... I take it all back, our current side is awful 😪

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Just now, FifeSons said:

If we'd had that team and Duffy from the start of the season, I reckon we'd have challenged Arbroath (pretty sure form-wise we were about the best at the end of the season).

That's actually quite depressing comparing that team to now... I take it all back, our current side is awful 😪

100%

Form wise between January and May only Forfar Athletic picked up more points than us. Aitken, for all his flaws, was good at attracting good players and selling them on the ideas of playing for us. Duffy was good at turning said good players into a hardworking, well-organised and dangerous team which Aitken failed to do. If we could blend them into one then we'd be onto a bit of a winner imo.

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6 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

100%

Form wise between January and May only Forfar Athletic picked up more points than us. Aitken, for all his flaws, was good at attracting good players and selling them on the ideas of playing for us. Duffy was good at turning said good players into a hardworking, well-organised and dangerous team which Aitken failed to do. If we could blend them into one then we'd be onto a bit of a winner imo.

A few annoying dropped points in that spell cost us an unlikely play-offs spot IIRC (losing to Stenny at home and conceding late against Montrose?).

ETA: yup, if we'd won both those games, we'd have made the play-offs. Fine margins.

Edited by FifeSons
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14 hours ago, airdrieman said:

 

If you have an HDMI cable you can also plug it into your device and tele and it will work through that. We use Pixellot as well and that's what I've been doing. Has worked with no issues every time. 

Tried using an HDMI cable... nothing..my tablets a few years old now, so perhaps down to that

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1 minute ago, FifeSons said:

A few annoying dropped points in that spell cost us an unlikely play-offs spot IIRC (losing to Stenny at home and conceding late against Montrose?).

I can't remember the exact points at the end of the season, but aye those two games were sore ones. Losing in injury time to Brechin in January when we only had one or two subs was a poor result too. 

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3 minutes ago, Jan Vojáček said:

I can't remember the exact points at the end of the season, but aye those two games were sore ones. Losing in injury time to Brechin in January when we only had one or two subs was a poor result too. 

image.png.049bfcd1591167a53237663c89e5aa7e.png

Its a sad state of affairs when we're yearning for that season, which was, by all accounts, an abject failure.

Edited by FifeSons
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6 hours ago, Jan Vojáček said:

I think the strongest squad we've had under Duffy was the one at the end of 2018/19 that was mainly assembled by Aitken, with a few shrewd Duffy additions. Since then I think we've regressed a fair bit. Look at our 11 from the last day of the season at Arbroath in 2019:

Conor Brennan

David Ferguson Craig Barr Brian McLean Cammy Ballantyne

Ross Forbes Kyle Hutton Stuart Carswell Bobby Barr

Dom Thomas Calum Gallagher

Granted DT was far too good for this league and Carsy and Hutton had issues playing together, but that team had far more balance than where we are at the moment. In fact I'd probably only swap in Kevin and Wedderburn for Brennan and Carsy/Hutton from the side that started on Saturday I think. Maybe Wardrop too, but Ferguson was really steady for us and I liked him a lot.

Away from the obvious DT and the CBs, what a difference having someone like Bobby Barr would would make to us right now. An actual, natural winger. Ironically, I was disappointed with how he left us too.

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2 minutes ago, Howlin' Wilf said:

I see Stenny and Hibs have entered a "strategic agreement" whereby Stenny get first pick of Hibs loan players along with other connections. Not sure I like the sound of that.

 

Whats not to like? Sounds like a win win for both clubs to me? Hibs send their promising youngsters to a team and guarantee them football against real men. Stenny benefit from getting some good quality young players out to prove themselves.

I'm sure if it was us, we wouldn't be turning our nose up at it.

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1 hour ago, Howlin' Wilf said:

I see Stenny and Hibs have entered a "strategic agreement" whereby Stenny get first pick of Hibs loan players along with other connections. Not sure I like the sound of that.

 

Hopefully this is a positive step away from the colts.

It feels like it could be.

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2 hours ago, Howlin' Wilf said:

I see Stenny and Hibs have entered a "strategic agreement" whereby Stenny get first pick of Hibs loan players along with other connections. Not sure I like the sound of that.

 

It sounds like a win win for both clubs tbh and I’d love to see us do something similar. It’s not something I’d ever envisage happening under Duffy. 

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Just now, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

Sorry?

I'm looking at the negatives. If you take 3 or 4 players from a big club, that club might expect them to play every week and in their preferred positions. Which is fine I they're consistent and better than your own signed players. It's also a big saving on wages I suppose.

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1 hour ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

I'm looking at the negatives. If you take 3 or 4 players from a big club, that club might expect them to play every week and in their preferred positions. Which is fine I they're consistent and better than your own signed players. It's also a big saving on wages I suppose.

I’d like to think that any agreement with a parent club wouldn’t require you to play the loanees at all times, in their preferred position regardless of form or injuries. Parent clubs will understand that it’s pretty much impossible to committ to that in competitive football with paying fans. I can only speak for ourselves but we’ve had loads over the years who end up sitting on the bench if they aren’t good enough or covering other positions when required. I can’t really remember us ever being forced into playing a loanee every game in a certain position. 

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