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Sons' sorrow


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25 minutes ago, microdave said:

I'm sure we'll muddle through as we usually do when a crucial player leaves.

To be honest, Duffy has muddled his way through every transfer window since he arrived and I fear this may be one too many. His approach to transfers, his lack of urgency and his general lazyness with signings has me concerned. The full squad in general could do with a bit of work and now we have to try and replace our best player, who has quite literally earned us points on his own this season.

For all Duffy seems like he’s a good man manager I’m seriously concerned at the state of the squad just now and he’s not really shown anything with his signings so far that would suggest he can even do some minor surgery on a squad that desperately needs it. 

The postponments, the general standard of player/imbalanced squad, the lack of goals, our best player leaving at short notice in January - it all just feels a bit ominous. Hopefully I’m wrong.

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What sort of temperatures/weather do you think we need to get the park playable? Are we ideally needing a week of milder 6-8 degrees with a bit of limited rainfall? 
Feel like I spend far too much time on the Met Office these days! But with heavy rain due next week I wondered if that might end up waterlogging the park when it defrosts. 
You really need temps above 5 if it's going to thaw out quickly, it was pretty wet when this set in so I'd imagine it's set quite deep now. The first couple of inches will defrost quite quickly as that bit is just like a sponge full of dead thatch( I tried to get them to deal with it for years, was eventually getting the work done until Alloa relegated us then it got shelved again) if the soil under that is frozen you get the problems if it rains as there is nowhere for the water to go. If got the vertidrain that was due at the end of December that would have helped big time and it would thaw so much quicker. But with the game on Boxing Day getting called off I guess it wasn't done. Just my take as it's hard to judge when you aren't on it.
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5 minutes ago, optimistic said:

Stenny extend their keepers loan deal from hibs. Fs, thanks jack ross, nothing like rubbing it in

Well, that seems fairly obvious to me. I assume the other 'keeper is further down the pecking order - hence him playing at a level lower than ours. Just as Kevin did before this season.

Gutting, but completely expected.

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Just noticed a comment on the FB page about giving young Michael a chance. I had the pleasure of taking in one of his youth teams games at the end of last season (in an official capacity before anyone thinks i was breaking rules etc) and although he seemed a very confident and competent young boy with an exceptionaly good kick for a young lad, we would be in all sorts of trouble if we went into a run of games with him as our no. 1. I can only assume JD will bring in cover from somewhere whether it be the juniors or another premiership loanee.

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56 minutes ago, pleslie99 said:

Just noticed a comment on the FB page about giving young Michael a chance. I had the pleasure of taking in one of his youth teams games at the end of last season (in an official capacity before anyone thinks i was breaking rules etc) and although he seemed a very confident and competent young boy with an exceptionaly good kick for a young lad, we would be in all sorts of trouble if we went into a run of games with him as our no. 1. I can only assume JD will bring in cover from somewhere whether it be the juniors or another premiership loanee.

The young lad shouldn’t even be anywhere near our bench, nevermind starting. I’m for having these young lads training with us or even travelling with the squad on matchdays but they are nowhere near ready for this level of football straight from Dumbarton Utd. 

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I'd like to think that the departure of Kevin Dabrowski and the current fixture suspension could be a catalyst for the DFC Board and Jim Duffy to now engage in a frank and hopefully constructive discussion as to how we go about remaining in this Division. We are all aware of the pressures under which the club is currently operating but it would be a missed opportunity not to explore changes additional to a replacement keeper.

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1 hour ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

I'd like to think that the departure of Kevin Dabrowski and the current fixture suspension could be a catalyst for the DFC Board and Jim Duffy to now engage in a frank and hopefully constructive discussion as to how we go about remaining in this Division. We are all aware of the pressures under which the club is currently operating but it would be a missed opportunity not to explore changes additional to a replacement keeper.

I'd guess that over 90% of any energies available will be deployed in keeping the club in business.

Dabrowski has been great for us but he'll be delighted at the possibility of getting a chance with Hibs, a chance that arrived due to  his form with us. Best wishes to him. Chris Smith has been decent when we've called upon him but he's injury prone we now need cover. 

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12 hours ago, Howlin' Wilf said:

I'd guess that over 90% of any energies available will be deployed in keeping the club in business.

Since March last year the club has received around £30-35K in donations from fans, £50k from James Anderson and £150k from the government. We also had the players and staff furloughed for much of last year. I get we have running costs and we've barely had a home game, but surely with over £230K in donations in the last year (and the low level of player we have on our books) the stress of staying in business isn't quite what it was when this kicked off? 

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Since March last year the club has received around £30-35K in donations from fans, £50k from James Anderson and £150k from the government. We also had the players and staff furloughed for much of last year. I get we have running costs and we've barely had a home game, but surely with over £230K in donations in the last year (and the low level of player we have on our books) the stress of staying in business isn't quite what it was when this kicked off? 
I don't think it's quite as simple as that Moonster. As regards monies, only that first element will have been delivered in full; the Anderson funding came with a raft of conditions, and I'm pretty sure that evidence of compliance will be required ahead of full payment. As for the Scottish Government cash, that has been a recent announcement and I'd be surprised if much of it has yet made its way to the clubs.
However, the point still stands. We obviously need another keeper, and preferably not a young lad, but surely we should be trying hard to rotate other elements of the squad. That won't be at all easy, but I'd be concerned if another keeper was the extent of it.
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8 minutes ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

I don't think it's quite as simple as that Moonster. As regards monies, only that first element will have been delivered in full; the Anderson funding came with a raft of conditions, and I'm pretty sure that evidence of compliance will be required ahead of full payment. As for the Scottish Government cash, that has been a recent announcement and I'd be surprised if much of it has yet made its way to the clubs.
However, the point still stands. We obviously need another keeper, and preferably not a young lad, but surely we should be trying hard to rotate other elements of the squad. That won't be at all easy, but I'd be concerned if another keeper was the extent of it.

We could apply for the Anderson money any time we liked and I'm sure Simon had mentioned on here that we would be doing so/had done so. If we haven't received government money I imagine we will soon - furlough was available when required so not sure what would stop this support coming through sharpish. I understand cash flow is king at clubs and given we can't get a home game on we have none coming through, but I would still hope these funds would keep us afloat. If we're in danger of going out of business we should probably say so and maybe ask for some money.

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18 hours ago, pleslie99 said:

 I can only assume JD will bring in cover from somewhere whether it be the juniors or another premiership loanee.

Good luck with that! Bigger clubs have worked out now that Covid is an ongoing problem for the rest of the season and that goalkeepers are so specialist they are VERY reluctant to let them out on loan. We had to play at 16 year old at Raith in the League last week (though that was mainly due to an injury in the pre-match warm up). As it stands at this minute we don't have a sub keeper for tomorrow's Scottish Cup tie.

3 hours ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

I don't think it's quite as simple as that Moonster. As regards monies, only that first element will have been delivered in full; the Anderson funding came with a raft of conditions, and I'm pretty sure that evidence of compliance will be required ahead of full payment. As for the Scottish Government cash, that has been a recent announcement and I'd be surprised if much of it has yet made its way to the clubs.

The Anderson money was paid in full as soon as you asked for it. There are conditions on what it can be spent on but you get the cash up front in the bank account. The compliance is audited retrospectively.

The Scottish Government cash was 50% paid to clubs before Xmas. Not sure when the other half is coming.

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