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What now for Brora Rangers


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So the dust has settled and life can return to normal. Thoughts of some great trips out next season only a fleeting memory. To have been so close and failed hard to bear. Was convinced we could have done it but not to be.

Really cannot see us dominating The HL next year as we did for the last two.

The shallowness in numbers of our squad really showed when it mattered with apart from our substitute goalkeeper we only had one real sub on Saturday, the diminutive Michael McLean who is still work in progress. Kirkwood must feel so let down by players putting holidays and other spurious engagements ahead of turning out to play, but his failure to build and rotate a decent sized squad must be laid on his ample shoulders and if he is still around for next year, building up numbers must be priority number one.

I hope we keep Grant Munro and Stewart Kettlewell both of whom are season pro's and can read and control games well. In Gillespie and Morrison we have a midfield dynamo who are up to Muster. Thought Craig McKeown is immense at the back but where was he on Saturday, away on his happy hols if reports are to be believed.

Sid McKay still has mileage in the tank and Zander Sutherland and Andrew Grieg both great players but could do with some competition for their place, to keep them focused. In Joe Malin we have a real star but should give his understudy a game against lesser opposition.

If recent reports are to be believed then Kirky may be heading for pastures new. He would go with my thanks and best wishes. He can hold his own in senior leagues but will need to smarten his appearance up!

What emotional devastation will have Saturday's defeat have left on the team? - Plenty I would have thought.

In hindsight our two energy sapping draws with Edinburgh City were our Everest. We couldn't do ourself justice against Montrose which was a pity as we never performed when we were in the national shop window.

Off the field of play I read in the Sunday Post today that the Brora Board may be quietly pleased we never acceded to the SPFL. If this is true I'd like them to resign enmass. Like it or not the HL is now a feeder league and although unlikely we could find ourselves back in exactly the same position next year. If so are we really to believe we will roll out that old fossil of our Chairman John Young to tell the world for a second time we don't want to up go and again become a laughing stock in Scottish football.

I've not missed a game home or away this season, but I won't cross the threshold again if we going to have this stench of not wanting to progress hanging over our club. I'm not alone in my views.

We have as many off pitch issues which we need to face into. Communications/website/ social media are rubbish. Match day programme the worst in HL with the same old contents just cut and paste each week. I could go on but don't want to go on an endless rant.

I'm not sure if Ben made it back from the states for the match , but I'm sure he is saddened. What a great benefactor he has been to the club and a true supporter also, rarely missing a game. He must feel a bit let down by some of the players actions and by the Chairman, but I hope he stays onboard as we go into a rebuilding season and have another go for promotion to the SPFL in a few years time.

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The last 18 months has seen most of the other SHFL clubs not bother their arse trying to compete, resulting in a dead league.

Formartine will be stronger this year. Cove could have been contenders but being homeless will surely hamper them. Turriff will do well to perform like they did for a second season in a row.

Still fancy Brora for three in a row. The others lack consistency and the ability to go for the throat in the first half like Brora did all year. So many games Brora played this season were done inside 45 minutes which left them fresh for the whole campaign.

Shame certain players couldn't have played yesterday. Some more league experience in the team would have made a difference.

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The last 18 months has seen most of the other SHFL clubs not bother their arse trying to compete, resulting in a dead league.

Formartine will be stronger this year. Cove could have been contenders but being homeless will surely hamper them. Turriff will do well to perform like they did for a second season in a row.

Still fancy Brora for three in a row. The others lack consistency and the ability to go for the throat in the first half like Brora did all year. So many games Brora played this season were done inside 45 minutes which left them fresh for the whole campaign.

Shame certain players couldn't have played yesterday. Some more league experience in the team would have made a differenceWish I shared your confidence

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The last 18 months has seen most of the other SHFL clubs not bother their arse trying to compete, resulting in a dead league.

Formartine will be stronger this year. Cove could have been contenders but being homeless will surely hamper them. Turriff will do well to perform like they did for a second season in a row.

Still fancy Brora for three in a row. The others lack consistency and the ability to go for the throat in the first half like Brora did all year. So many games Brora played this season were done inside 45 minutes which left them fresh for the whole campaign.

Shame certain players couldn't have played yesterday. Some more league experience in the team would have made a differenceWish I shared your confidence

The last 18 months has seen most of the other SHFL clubs not bother their arse trying to compete, resulting in a dead league.

Formartine will be stronger this year. Cove could have been contenders but being homeless will surely hamper them. Turriff will do well to perform like they did for a second season in a row.

Still fancy Brora for three in a row. The others lack consistency and the ability to go for the throat in the first half like Brora did all year. So many games Brora played this season were done inside 45 minutes which left them fresh for the whole campaign.

Shame certain players couldn't have played yesterday. Some more league experience in the team would have made a difference.

Wish I shared your confidence.
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What now for Brora Rangers ??

Well a very upbeat message from our main sponsor today about the start of phase two of the clubs future, sounds like we as a support have a lot to look forward to.

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Great message from Ben. Let's hope the 2015-16 season sees a board room changing of the guard as well who will go out of their way to court positive media comment. Acres of ground and goodwill need to be clawed back.

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I really don't think we should be releasing any players as even our weaker ones will be good valuable squad players. If we are going to have a go at next seasons play offs then we need a necleus of at least 20 players getting revolved on a regular basis. We need to bring in another 6 to 8 and keep those 20 players fully engaged. We need experience and we need to keep our home grown youngsters who can learn as they develop. Let's look to County, Cally and Elgin to see who we can acquire.

We need to win the league and win a charm offensive. We need to get the SPFL hierarchy back on side and throw a few apologies around. We need to be gracious in our dominance if we are having a go.

Still certain that Kirkwood will get a leg up to the SPFL, maybe even Raith. I for one wouldn't be adverse to Stuart Golabek taking over. A quiet thinking type of guy who deserves much credit for our championships. I think he'd improve on field discipline which has cost us dear recently.

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1/Since the weekend result where we put ourselves ( self inflicted) in an almost impossible position where due to a lack of desire right from the start from the clubs Chairman and Committee since many weeks at the AGM ( itself a joke) to fully commit to the undoubted opportunity which we as a H L football club were presented with through the play-off games the chance of winning promotion to Div. 2 of SFL AND along with a few of our most influential Players missing from these games for seemingly personal reasons, holidays trips etc, we had to play the most important series of games in the clubs history without our strongest team available on the day to the Manager. That without doubt made our task just too big an ask of us .But Im sure we will have learned a lot from it the mistakes we made.

2/ Now in hindsight I think we as a club were also not ready to take the step up to Div 2.I think if we are honest we have arrived where we are a year to soon. Will we ever get another chance at it ? I really hope we do BUT things will need to change on and off the park there is no doubt there.

3/ We have been very lucky indeed to have Ben Mackay as our benefactor .His financial commitment, and energy, has lifted our club to the impossible already and won 2 league titles and cups along the way in a very short period of time. If only Ben had the same level of commitment shown to him from the Clubs committee and of course some of the players who have not been available for one reason or another when we ALL needed them most .

4/ I think going forward Ben needs to take in his own people to run this football club .It is now a completely different club if going forward is the way we are going. Its a business now first and foremost. It needs Commercial input to manage and maximise the Clubs resources so the club can help contribute to the undoubted huge financial costs that come with keeping this journey going. Realistically are the present Committee able to do whats needed now ? I think the answer is no to that.

5/If the decision is taken by all that is it now, and we have enjoyed the journey so far and made our own history along the way then so be it, but having tasted defeat at the final hurdle at the weekend it was such a sore one to take and Im sure it could have been different if we had been at full strength on and off the park .Ben and the supporters have shown what commitment is needed and its now the football club who need to match it.

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1/Since the weekend result where we put ourselves ( self inflicted) in an almost impossible position where due to a lack of desire right from the start from the clubs Chairman and Committee since many weeks at the AGM ( itself a joke) to fully commit to the undoubted opportunity which we as a H L football club were presented with through the play-off games the chance of winning promotion to Div. 2 of SFL AND along with a few of our most influential Players missing from these games for seemingly personal reasons, holidays trips etc, we had to play the most important series of games in the clubs history without our strongest team available on the day to the Manager. That without doubt made our task just too big an ask of us .But Im sure we will have learned a lot from it the mistakes we made.

2/ Now in hindsight I think we as a club were also not ready to take the step up to Div 2.I think if we are honest we have arrived where we are a year to soon. Will we ever get another chance at it ? I really hope we do BUT things will need to change on and off the park there is no doubt there.

3/ We have been very lucky indeed to have Ben Mackay as our benefactor .His financial commitment, and energy, has lifted our club to the impossible already and won 2 league titles and cups along the way in a very short period of time. If only Ben had the same level of commitment shown to him from the Clubs committee and of course some of the players who have not been available for one reason or another when we ALL needed them most .

4/ I think going forward Ben needs to take in his own people to run this football club .It is now a completely different club if going forward is the way we are going. Its a business now first and foremost. It needs Commercial input to manage and maximise the Clubs resources so the club can help contribute to the undoubted huge financial costs that come with keeping this journey going. Realistically are the present Committee able to do whats needed now ? I think the answer is no to that.

5/If the decision is taken by all that is it now, and we have enjoyed the journey so far and made our own history along the way then so be it, but having tasted defeat at the final hurdle at the weekend it was such a sore one to take and Im sure it could have been different if we had been at full strength on and off the park .Ben and the supporters have shown what commitment is needed and its now the football club who need to match it.

1. I was surprised that your Chairman did not come out to the local media P&J etc to retract those very unfortunate and naive comments about not wanting to go up.Had he done so then who knows what course the direction of the play off ties would have taken. I think in simple terms the players and the manager wanted it,but the Board did not. As for Players going AWOL on jollies then that tells me that whilst successful on the pitch there is a control issue about. It is Managements absolute right to manage.

2. Cant really comment whether you would have been ready or. That lad that came on looked quite useful but I assume he was knackered after his paper round in the morning.

3. Clearly his backing has galvanized the club. His message on your website was encouraging for you.

4. In visiting Dudgeon Park for the first leg its clear that there is little commercial savvy evident. As a visiting neutral couldn't even buy a Brora Shirt. As for the match day programme little or no effort put in there.

If the AGM has already passed then it will be difficult to change things which may continue to make things difficult to influence.

Good luck to Brora. Your arrival onto the big stage has probably just been postponed,but next time around please learn lesson from Media disasters which were own goals of the highest quality.

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One of my mates made the long trek from Fife to Brora for the Edinburgh city game and could not get a programme. Seems extraordinary.

I am not in the slightest surprised it illustrates well just what a piss poor job that somebody is doing producing the programme. To be honest your mate missed absolutely nothing. The Chairman each week spouts out 5 paragraphs of nothing.The manager and captains spots substantially less..No pics of previous matches,no articles to read,no record of the opposition,no record of players participation this year,no supporters views, no update on injuries,no update on youth teams ........I could on and on and on.

It seems to me that this season all the effort has been put in by the players and ground staff.

I am aware that board duties are voluntary and I don't want to be churlish but there absolutely needs to be changes.Club progression needs to run right through the organisation and outside perception will be crucial going forward.

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