Airdrie Utd v Raith Rovers

[SuperHans]

Sounds like Jimmy Nicholl. 
How did he get on? 

Kenny Millers a shining example. Tossed on the same pile as Cathro and Lee McCulloch... We can do this all night. My point is that do we blame the board at this point for not taking a gamble and trying to bring in a guy who had experience in managing in this league (fairly well) with limited resources?

[Ro Sham Bo]

1 hour ago, SuperHans said:

 

So because it's away and 'tough opposition'..? We're going to have quite a few away games, will this mean that there's going to be a lot against us this season?

We're undefeated in all of our games so far, Davos coming back from injury and we came from behind to get a point in a game against our rivals that we shouldn't have taken anything from thanks to 2 penalties.

If anything, there's plenty going in our favour going into this game.

 

Our record in away games over the last couple of years suggests we are definitely up against it. 

Undefeated with 1 win from 3 against the bottom 3 sides in the league. Not exactly inspiring is it?

[SuperHans]

Our record in away games over the last couple of years suggests we are definitely up against it. 
Undefeated with 1 win from 3 against the bottom 3 sides in the league. Not exactly inspiring is it?

I'd say it's a bit of an overreaction to consider going into every away game as 'up against it'. We may well get beat on Saturday, I'm not exactly sure what the result will be. But I'm confident that we are a better side than them. Airdrie lost their last home game to Montrose and we can already see that their fans are desperate for a home win. Their home record compared to our away isn't actually as bad as some might think.

[Diamond Oracle]

Whatever happened to Willis? Looked really good for you. We signed him, he found valentes and hasn't been seen since.

Nelly is currently plying his trade in Cairo.

He must have finally found a club able to pay this mystical development fee to some mystical French club.

[Scottydog]

1 hour ago, SuperHans said:

 

I take it you were dead against his appointment when it happened? You must have been one of the guys wanting Young, Campbell or Bollan? Or that Easton should be the manager with no experience or proven record in senior football management?

 

Funnily enough no, I wasn’t 100% dead against him. Though I did tell the man who interviewed him and subsequently gave him the job that I was disappointed in his choice.  I would rather we’d opted for Lennon over Young, Campbell, Bollan or Smith, and even at that Lennon wouldn’t have been my preferred option. To be fair our star has fallen so far from where we were and the attractive package we were when McKinnon left is more of a poisoned chalice. Just think of how things might have been if Jack Ross had been offered and taken the job instead of Locke, sadly “he didn’t interview as well as GL did”.

Craig Easton should have been handed the reigns after the humbling in Paisley, at the very least he would have brought the dressing room together again and we might have done better in the play offs.

 It’s our consistent ability to remake the same mistakes that’s killing us.

[SuperHans]

Funnily enough no, I wasn’t 100% dead against him. Though I did tell the man who interviewed him and subsequently gave him the job that I was disappointed in his choice.  I would rather we’d opted for Lennon over Young, Campbell, Bollan or Smith, and even at that Lennon wouldn’t have been my preferred option. To be fair our star has fallen so far from where we were and the attractive package we were when McKinnon left is more of a poisoned chalice. Just think of how things might have been if Jack Ross had been offered and taken the job instead of Locke, sadly “he didn’t interview as well as GL did”.
Craig Easton should have been handed the reigns after the humbling in Paisley, at the very least he would have brought the dressing room together again and we might have done better in the play offs.
 It’s our consistent ability to remake the same mistakes that’s killing us.

I'd agree with a lot of that. Smith wasn't an inspiring appointment but who would have been? I don't know if Lennon was ever an option and if he was then he'd have had good reasons to turn us down for the Clyde job.

Jack Ross is a big 'what if' moment. To be honest, who knows what he could have done for us. He may well look at not getting the job at Raith as a huge bullet dodged. But my original point highlights that regardless of the past, this season has so far been one big complaint about everything and we're in some kind of negative spiral where the club can't do anything right, the fans jump on their backs the moment something goes wrong and Starks Park has turned into a toxic library with people waiting for a mistake to be made to vent their frustration.

Going back to Jack Ross, the moment he turned everything round can almost be pinpointed to an incident when he went into the stands to 'confront' angry fans criticising him and his team. The message that came out was along the lines of 'why don't you get behind us?'.

Wouldn't that be a good idea to try regardless of what's happened over the last 2-3 seasons or are we all still too bitter to actually support the team?

[RR #1]

26 minutes ago, SuperHans said:

 

Jack Ross is a big 'what if' moment. To be honest, who knows what he could have done for us. He may well look at not getting the job at Raith as a huge bullet dodged

Going back to Jack Ross, the moment he turned everything round can almost be pinpointed to an incident when he went into the stands to 'confront' angry fans criticising him and his team. The message that came out was along the lines of 'why don't you get behind us?'.

Wouldn't that be a good idea to try regardless of what's happened over the last 2-3 seasons or are we all still too bitter to actually support the team?

 

What a lot of shite. Jack Ross turned things round at St Mirren because he recruited well and signed an entire new team in the January window. It had nothing to do with confronting fans. 

As for people being to bitter to support the team. I like every other fan who turns up does so with the intention of supporting the team.  Do you honestly think fans don't want to get behind the team? When you get absolutely no enjoyment or entertainment for two straight years surely you have every right to complain. 

[Broken Algorithms]

19 minutes ago, RR #1 said:

What a lot of shite. Jack Ross turned things round at St Mirren because he recruited well and signed an entire new team in the January window. It had nothing to do with confronting fans. 

As for people being to bitter to support the team. I like every other fan who turns up does so with the intention of supporting the team.  Do you honestly think fans don't want to get behind the team? When you get absolutely no enjoyment or entertainment for two straight years surely you have every right to complain. 

You've made two very valid points. St Mirren got into a ridiculous situation that season. But they had the ability to get shot of pretty much all of a team, and bring in a lot of players at the same time. We didn't have that opportunity, much in the same way we've not benefited from having a supermarket turn up and offer us money for our land, allowing us to build a brand new stadium without any detriment to finances.  He's an excellent manager, but at the same time, he had a huge advantage over ourselves, and even more over Ayr. 

As for the second part, I'm a bit of a happy clapper myself, but it's exceptionally frustrating at times. Over the last couple of years, we've seen a team under McKinnon which after a few signings started playing some excellent football (with that said, the Championship was utter dross that season and we were the best of the rest aside from Rangers, Falkirk and Hibs). But aside from that, the last time we played attractive football was well over a decade ago.

Over the last season we've seen a promising team start the league, only to utterly lose it in January as we watched us grind out results. It really is brutal at times watching defenders who don't want to play the ball out of defence on the ground, midfielders who don't come to collect the ball (although Wedderburn seemed happy to do so on Saturday), or showing the ability to play passes through the middle of the park. As a result, we rely on forwards who are forced into running about like headless chickens tracking back and then going forward.  

Nobody expects us to be a freeflowing masterclass, but it honestly feels like the basics are missing. I've lost count of how many times I've seen 6 yard passes go out for throw ins when it seems impossible to not reach the intended target. 

[SuperHans]

What a lot of shite. Jack Ross turned things round at St Mirren because he recruited well and signed an entire new team in the January window. It had nothing to do with confronting fans. 
As for people being to bitter to support the team. I like every other fan who turns up does so with the intention of supporting the team.  Do you honestly think fans don't want to get behind the team? When you get absolutely no enjoyment or entertainment for two straight years surely you have every right to complain. 

I'm not naive enough to think that him going into the stand was the sole turning point for St Mirren. The resources he had at his disposal and the faith the St Mirren board put in him were the main driving factor. However, there was a huge shift in attitude amongst the supporters at that moment. His message was clear and simple and it was that he needed the supporters getting behind him and the team.

No one has a "right to complain" it's a choice. It was announced on the Off the Ball show on Radio Scotland that Smith should be sacked after the Cove Rangers result, the abuse the players were getting from 'fans' down in Stranraer during and after the game was embarrassing and then Buchanan getting cheered and jeered off the pitch on Saturday by his own supporters. What kind of message do you think that sends to the players? Go on social media and all you see are dribbling cretins seething over everything and anything the club do.

Someone said on here during the summer that they've never known the club to feel so distant from the fans. We've just started a the season and not lost a game (yet) and already there is this negative narrative before every game we go into.

[L. Brilliant]

Imagine getting into a conversation with superhans

[Diamond8]

When are the schools back? Superhans seems like a total Muppet.

[airdrieman]

We've had a good start to the season, bar the Montrose game, but I still think this will be our biggest test so far despite the indifferent start to the season for Raith. Would be nice to pick up a home win against a 'promotion rival' in front of hopefully a decent crowd. We seem to have had success with the new formation so would imagine we will go with that again but with Stewart dropping into Robertson's position and Millar or Gallagher coming into the midfield. Hopefully, Duffy and Wilkie have sufficiently recovered too. 

Score draw with neither team doing quite enough to win over the piece. 

[Ebanda's Handyman Services]

To be fair to SuperHans he has a point regarding the negativity about pretty much every aspect of the club from some. 

I appreciate his positive outlook. 

 

[L. Brilliant]

To be fair to SuperHans he has a point regarding the negativity about pretty much every aspect of the club from some. 
I appreciate his positive outlook. 
 

If it actually his and not his Young son's

[goodwin]

On the left on Saturday, McDonald and Victoria. Josh now has to fight his way back in

On the right,  Stewart and Carrick (who had an excellent game at Stennie; pass for the 1st goal included). Or O'Neill and Stewart if carrick is needed in the centre due to Duffy's injury. Or Carrick on the right and McIntosh in the middle in  place of Duffy.

Midfield as started on Saturday, Cairns and goal machine Conroy, with Gallagher and a possibly fit again Miller on the bench

 

[Airdrie1977]

33 minutes ago, goodwin said:

On the left on Saturday, McDonald and Victoria. Josh now has to fight his way back in

On the right,  Stewart and Carrick (who had an excellent game at Stennie; pass for the 1st goal included). Or O'Neill and Stewart if carrick is needed in the centre due to Duffy's injury. Or Carrick on the right and McIntosh in the middle in  place of Duffy.

Midfield as started on Saturday, Cairns and goal machine Conroy, with Gallagher and a possibly fit again Miller on the bench

 

Or Robertson if he wins appeal?

[Diamond8]

Or Robertson if he wins appeal?

Are we appealing?

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

31 minutes ago, Diamond8 said:

1 hour ago, Airdrie1977 said:

Or Robertson if he wins appeal?

Are we appealing?

Not very.

[Hank Scorpio]

Honestly can’t believe Conroy is still playing. He was completely finished when he was with us about 5 years ago.

[waysider]

12 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Honestly can’t believe Conroy is still playing. He was completely finished when he was with us about 5 years ago.

Most Airdrie fans don’t believe it either. He’s a different player this season. Playing further forward and scored 5 goals already, most of them crackers. Probably won’t last but enjoyable at the moment.