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Albion Rovers v Berwick Rangers Sat 24/10/14


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This season is slowly turning into the death knell for some of us and things need to change and change quick. We've had 7 years now of this uninspiring, unambitious garbage. What's worse is that none of the performances are a surprise - from the first game of the season when we were outplaying a poor Arbroath and managed to lose to last week against Elgin - you don't even go expecting a victory. There's no anger because we are starting to struggle to care anymore, and that is the worst thing that can happen to a club, and frankly why should we when the players give piss poor performances week in week in and don't seem to care themselves.

We have a small squad made up of has beens and never will bes. The only exceptions to that are Notman and Gray form the outfielders and Bauld in goal but he still managed to be dropped for some unknown reason.

The two Curries epitomise the whole problem at the club - one with the potential to be a good player who blew his opportunity at a bigger club and has contributed nothng since his return apart from couple of reasonable performances in his first two home matches back and another who didn't have the balls to take his opportunity because he'd rather be a big fish in a small pond showing a lack of ambition to match that of the club and yet after he spends a summer shopping round we're dumb enough to bring him back on higher wages than he had before.

We have a striker who is one of the laziest I have ever seen, fullbacks who are simply not good enough, centre halves who are unreliable. We have no pace, defend to deep and are bullied by any opposition with pace or who get stuck in, our set pieces tend to be poor and our overall play unimaginative and lacking in creativity.

We put up with the shambles of the post championship season on the basis it was a blip after what had been steady progress but this is beyond a blip. Aiming for the final slot in the play offs every year is not good enough and frankly promotion would be an embarrassment.

Sadly the picture of Coughlin isn't likely to be even a joke as he is available and if CC does go then no-one would be surprised to see him back as he still has a huge fan club and bunch of hangers on who would love nothing more that to having him back at the club - as he has escaped all blame for the the post-championship season and seems to be able to do no wrong in the eyes of many.

Saturday afternoons are now a chore and my attendance has been more sporadic than ever - to the extent I would now rather spend more money to watch a struggling team at the bottom of the English 2nd before going to Berwick games.

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After 40 years of following the dream team through good and bad I am genuinely concerned about our future. Financially we are as secure as almost anyone, yet on the field and in the dugout there is an air of detached apathy towards the clubs future. Relegation from the semi-professional set up would be an absolute disaster in terms of trying to get more people to turn up and support the club and it would be left to the ever dwindling hardcore to carry the can.

The board made a brave stand and persuaded Cameron to come, and I like many others was delighted that they could attract someone of that calibre with a proven track record at this level. But something is blatantly amiss here. There's more to this and we are not being told.

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Well I'll still be at all home games - even hopefully in 25 years time when I'm 84!!!!

Paul Curries tweet about anger management suggests that the long conversation on the broken down bus reached a decent level of honesty and intensity. I hope some Board members witnessed it (and joined in) and if Cameron now has a plausible plan with the players committed to the cause and to each other, I'd be happy to see him given another few games.

If it was all vitriol and negativity, he may as well go now, and some of our well paid players can go play against Raith Rovers Reserves on a Tuesday night.

I share much of what StewieG says, but we know this team can play excellent football. For some time we've been a left back and bullying centre forward short of a decent team. Don't really go with the lack of ambition though - appointing Cameron and having our biggest playing budget ever is ambitious enough in my opinion.

Cameron needs to demonstrate in the next 3 games that the catalyst for turning round our season was a broken down Perrymans bus. More of the same and he's gone by Mid November.

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Some good posts. It's really hard to think of where we go from here. I can't think of any answers.

One thing is for sure though, player recruitment has been abysmal going back over 5 years. The players coming in simply aren't good enough to mount any sort of challenge for this league.

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Wonder if going to 3 cbs would help at all, let's say for example young, tulloch and fairbairn with Jacobs and Maxwell wing backs. For the most part that would be solid at least and could be helped with a shield in front of them like Notman.

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I feel Gold has been a good signing. Captain of hibs 20's can't be that bad, i've been impressed from what i've seen of him anyway.

He's been ok in the games I've seen to be fair to him, but I don't think he's come in and improved the team which is what we need. Nothing against him and think he's a decent little player.

Ollie Russell was a Hibs youth cup winning captain too but he was awful at senior level so that doesn't mean much.

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What a mixed bag,loads of chances and two bad,bad goals. Keeper should get the first if not the second. The first goes practically under him then he saves one on one and again after a heart stopping pile driver, then stands still as Gemmell bundles in. It's like a Mannone masterclass.

Think Albion need a trip to B & Q with their new found cash reserves. A roller, a decent lawnmower and strimmer for the thirty year old weeds at the back might suffice. Still a dump.

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I think we're just a bit of confidence away from some good wins. That wasn't too bad (apart from the shittest freekick i've seen in a long time near the end). Our next league game is against Shire who we pumped 5-0 last time so that could be the game we need.

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Some good posts here which reflect the growing concern of the Berwick support about the team's headlong slide towards the foot of the table.

Also plenty of comments from people who don't seem to be at many Berwick matches but feel compelled to offer their views without having seen much of the team in action.

I was at Cliftonhill on Saturday, and it was'nt pretty. Rovers were no great shakes, but they were organised, had pace, people who worked and a player in John Gemmell who got folk animated, on and off the pitch. That made them superior in most departments to us. The first half display was rank rotten, gutless, abysmal, pathetic, unwatchable rubbish.In mitigation, the wind and a bumpy pitch made life difficult for both sets of players, but we were lethargic and disinterested. The managers' selection of Horobine and Willis failed horribly, though his hand seems to have been forced by the alleged no-show at training of 3 players during the week. There were suggestions on the terracing that the manager is also unhappy with the attitude of a number of players in training. Nor was he helped by Stevie Notman's late withdrawal with a bruised foot sustained in training.

None of which excuses the tactical farce masquerading as a 4-5-1 formation. The midfield (Ross Gray excepted) isn't supporting lone striker Darren Lavery, working his tits off trying to create something from very little, and I don't understand with this need to protect the back 4 with a deep-sitting midfielder. It reeks of safety first, a lack of confidence and a lack of ambition. As soon as Dargo joined Lavery up top on Saturday we looked much more dangerous. The thing about this team is they're light years ahead of the 2006/7 championship winning team in terms of technical ability, but not on the same planet when it comes to team spirit, sheer guts and bloody mindedness and commitment to grinding out results in the most challenging circumstances. Instead of that, we've got a team of overpaid, disinterested fannies, one or two honourable exceptions aside (Gray, Bald, Jacobs, Lavery).

At the start of the season, we won 2 out of the opening 3 matches and played title winners Arbroath off the park in the other game. We played imaginative, slick football that was good to watch and the players looked brimming with confidence. The decline since then - 4/21 points - has been dismal and the management team shows no sign whatsover of being able to arrest our freefall. It looks to me like they've lost the dressing room. If that's the case after 10 games, how can the board/management pull it out of the fire with 26 games remaining? Who's going to spend their hard-earned money to go and watch a team that does'nt look as if it gives a monkeys?

It's a tough one for the board. They've invested heavily in this team (it's claimed that the manager has the highest wage budget of any Berwick manager), but it's not working. Like many supporters, i was delighted when we appointed Colin Cameron and genuinely believed he would deliver the minimum requirement of making the playoffs, with a title challenge a real possibility. That seems laughable now. If Elgin win in midweek we'll be 9th. There is plenty of time to turn things around. These things might still happen. We could win 5 games on the trot and climb the league again. But watching that tripe on Saturday, irrespective of an improved second half performance which rarely looked good enough to salvage even a point, I just don't see it happening.

Of all Colin Cameron's signings, only David Gold has been any kind of success, and he remains a 60 minute wonder. Kerr Young was decent on Saturday, but we have'nt won since he joined us. Willis and Maxwell have been huge disappointments.

I've no idea where we go from here. We need some luck, certainly, but I also want to see a hard-working, aggressive team that looks like it cares about playing in the black and gold, not a bunch of disinterested mercenaries for whom 90 minutes on a Satuday is an unavoidable inconvenience to their Saturday night drinking plans.

I also want to see a manager barve enough to play with 2 strikers and stop mollycoddling his back 4 with a defensive midfielder. If we're not in the play-offs by Christmas, then it's unequivocally time for a change.

I want this team to do well. i want the manager and his assistants to do well. But I am heartily sick of watching Berwick Rangers teams that just are'nt up to it on the field. Look at the astonishing job Gus McPherson has done at Queens Park. I want to see that kind of spirit in the team I support. This is nowhere near good enough.

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Some good posts here which reflect the growing concern of the Berwick support about the team's headlong slide towards the foot of the table.

Also plenty of comments from people who don't seem to be at many Berwick matches but feel compelled to offer their views without having seen much of the team in action.

I was at Cliftonhill on Saturday, and it was'nt pretty. Rovers were no great shakes, but they were organised, had pace, people who worked and a player in John Gemmell who got folk animated, on and off the pitch. That made them superior in most departments to us. The first half display was rank rotten, gutless, abysmal, pathetic, unwatchable rubbish.In mitigation, the wind and a bumpy pitch made life difficult for both sets of players, but we were lethargic and disinterested. The managers' selection of Horobine and Willis failed horribly, though his hand seems to have been forced by the alleged no-show at training of 3 players during the week. There were suggestions on the terracing that the manager is also unhappy with the attitude of a number of players in training. Nor was he helped by Stevie Notman's late withdrawal with a bruised foot sustained in training.

None of which excuses the tactical farce masquerading as a 4-5-1 formation. The midfield (Ross Gray excepted) isn't supporting lone striker Darren Lavery, working his tits off trying to create something from very little, and I don't understand with this need to protect the back 4 with a deep-sitting midfielder. It reeks of safety first, a lack of confidence and a lack of ambition. As soon as Dargo joined Lavery up top on Saturday we looked much more dangerous. The thing about this team is they're light years ahead of the 2006/7 championship winning team in terms of technical ability, but not on the same planet when it comes to team spirit, sheer guts and bloody mindedness and commitment to grinding out results in the most challenging circumstances. Instead of that, we've got a team of overpaid, disinterested fannies, one or two honourable exceptions aside (Gray, Bald, Jacobs, Lavery).

At the start of the season, we won 2 out of the opening 3 matches and played title winners Arbroath off the park in the other game. We played imaginative, slick football that was good to watch and the players looked brimming with confidence. The decline since then - 4/21 points - has been dismal and the management team shows no sign whatsover of being able to arrest our freefall. It looks to me like they've lost the dressing room. If that's the case after 10 games, how can the board/management pull it out of the fire with 26 games remaining? Who's going to spend their hard-earned money to go and watch a team that does'nt look as if it gives a monkeys?

It's a tough one for the board. They've invested heavily in this team (it's claimed that the manager has the highest wage budget of any Berwick manager), but it's not working. Like many supporters, i was delighted when we appointed Colin Cameron and genuinely believed he would deliver the minimum requirement of making the playoffs, with a title challenge a real possibility. That seems laughable now. If Elgin win in midweek we'll be 9th. There is plenty of time to turn things around. These things might still happen. We could win 5 games on the trot and climb the league again. But watching that tripe on Saturday, irrespective of an improved second half performance which rarely looked good enough to salvage even a point, I just don't see it happening.

Of all Colin Cameron's signings, only David Gold has been any kind of success, and he remains a 60 minute wonder. Kerr Young was decent on Saturday, but we have'nt won since he joined us. Willis and Maxwell have been huge disappointments.

I've no idea where we go from here. We need some luck, certainly, but I also want to see a hard-working, aggressive team that looks like it cares about playing in the black and gold, not a bunch of disinterested mercenaries for whom 90 minutes on a Satuday is an unavoidable inconvenience to their Saturday night drinking plans.

I also want to see a manager barve enough to play with 2 strikers and stop mollycoddling his back 4 with a defensive midfielder. If we're not in the play-offs by Christmas, then it's unequivocally time for a change.

I want this team to do well. i want the manager and his assistants to do well. But I am heartily sick of watching Berwick Rangers teams that just are'nt up to it on the field. Look at the astonishing job Gus McPherson has done at Queens Park. I want to see that kind of spirit in the team I support. This is nowhere near good enough.

Great post. Needs to be a massive reaction in a winnable cup-tie on Sat. Arguments on the pitch? 3 players not turning up? Struth.
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Meant to include the consistently excellent Stevie Notman in the "honourable exceptions category".

I'll be going to Methil on Saturday, in the hope that a cup win revives our season. Hope springs eternal etc.

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I certainly wouldn't put Fairbairn in the 'disinterested fanny' camp either, granted I wasn't there on Saturday. He made some mistakes earlier in the season but definitely don't think it was due to disinterest. From what I've seen of the development squad, he's really knuckled down and is helping a lot of the new players along showing leadership.

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