El Disastrico; Albion Rovers v. Berwick Rangers

[Redcar]

4 hours ago, tescodave said:

Sad thing is the amount of our fans posting in glee about what a great point it was. This against possibly the worst side to have graced the Professional structures of Scottish Football.

The club is in real danger of going out of business if this alarming trend continues. Is there any plan and strategy from the Board to halt this journey toward oblivion and indeed start heading us in a totally opposite route? If there is nobody appears to be advertising it.

Brutal stuff indeed.

You must be reading a parallel thread. 

"Shocking, rapid decline, disapointment, turgid, unhappy, crap, poor, brutal, lazy, phew, disillusioned......" 

Don't know where you are seeing all the Berwick fans 'posting in glee'. 

[dougster]

5 hours ago, tescodave said:

Sad thing is the amount of our fans posting in glee about what a great point it was. This against possibly the worst side to have graced the Professional structures of Scottish Football.

The club is in real danger of going out of business if this alarming trend continues. Is there any plan and strategy from the Board to halt this journey toward oblivion and indeed start heading us in a totally opposite route? If there is nobody appears to be advertising it.

Brutal stuff indeed.

1 I don’t disagree with your comment about the club as my earlier posts can prove.

2 I’ll celebrate a point if I want to  it’s much better than losing or maybe that’s what you really wanted ? 

3 I’ve never actually seen you post anything positive, apologies if I’m wrong. 

4 to have any chance, we have to stay in the league this season hence the celebration. 

[berwicksfinest]

1 hour ago, dougster said:

1 I don’t disagree with your comment about the club as my earlier posts can prove.

2 I’ll celebrate a point if I want to  it’s much better than losing or maybe that’s what you really wanted ? 

3 I’ve never actually seen you post anything positive, apologies if I’m wrong. 

4 to have any chance, we have to stay in the league this season hence the celebration. 

Just a quick genuine question, would it have been better to lose rather than scrap a draw??

Even under Colin Cameron, Micheal Renwick we had the occasional win, Now we seem to have sunk to celebrating last gasp draws

As said before we've steadily got worse since 2007, why celebrate the draw we're clearly not good enough to be in this division, maybe the shock of relegation is whats needed to give Berwick the kick up the a*~e they need

[dougster]

12 minutes ago, berwicksfinest said:

Just a quick genuine question, would it have been better to lose rather than scrap a draw??

Even under Colin Cameron, Micheal Renwick we had the occasional win, Now we seem to have sunk to celebrating last gasp draws

As said before we've steadily got worse since 2007, why celebrate the draw we're clearly not good enough to be in this division, maybe the shock of relegation is whats needed to give Berwick the kick up the a*~e they need

Understand the sentiment and being better than Albion is not where I want us to be but this is my team my club I don’t want us to be relegated for a kick up the arse or anything else,  I hope you as a Berwicker would feel the same. 

[Bold Rover]

I wasn't there yesterday. It's dramatic how the Rovers have fallen from beating the likes of Livingston and Ayr to being unable to prevail over a Berwick team as described by their fans above, all within two seasons. 

Lots of finger pointing and blaming going on, perhaps understandably. In my view what we are seeing is the brutal reality of market forces in action. The Rovers is a business with too few customers and too high overheads. We have survived by the generosity of benefactors and patience of lenders. When those ran out, austerity was necessary and in football you get what you pay for. 

[BerwickMad]

Getting relegated to the Lowland League is a bit more than a ‘kick up the arse’. More of a burial. I’m not sure what you’d expect to get better after that if it was to happen.

 

Montrose had a kick up the arse. Cowden did. Actually getting relegated doesn’t bare thinking about.

 

Last summer should be the final kick up the arse imo and we’re still suffering for it, as by the time the mayhem was over, it was too late for Robbie to get in the required quality. All that’s really gone wrong since, you could argue, is the managerial appointment.

 

Since the summer nearly everyone involved in the club is working together and there’s to be a new strategy put in place led by the new director. I’m not sure any more could have been done since the summer to improve what we’ve seen on the park beyond appointing the manager, and he’ll argue that things will get better.

 

I’m still of the opinion that I have been for the last two or three years the club needs totally new leadership and people to take the club forward. However, they can’t be magicked out of nowhere and at the moment there’s little alternative, so as long as everyone’s working together and making the club as attractive as possible to give us the best chance of it happening, there’s little else we can do to hurry that up or make it more likely.

 

 

[berwicksfinest]

1 hour ago, dougster said:

Understand the sentiment and being better than Albion is not where I want us to be but this is my team my club I don’t want us to be relegated for a kick up the arse or anything else,  I hope you as a Berwicker would feel the same. 

Believe me as a Berwicker I want to see the team challenging for promotions, not to go into every Saturday dreading 16.45 and how many we're going to ship.

Boardroom aside, there seems to be a air of acceptance with the dire, example yesterday "celebrating a draw against team 42".  Phrases like let the manager settle, let him pick his own team no the one inherited. wait until transfer time. Summer window we'll see him strengthen the side.

All of which hasn't happened since 2007. As Berwickers surely we can expect better and ask why all the promises haven't been met. 

To answer your question no of course I don't want to see relegation, but conversely i don't want to see season 19/20 in tenth place 

[Cosmic Joe]

4 hours ago, berwicksfinest said:

Believe me as a Berwicker I want to see the team challenging for promotions, not to go into every Saturday dreading 16.45 and how many we're going to ship.

Boardroom aside, there seems to be a air of acceptance with the dire, example yesterday "celebrating a draw against team 42".  Phrases like let the manager settle, let him pick his own team no the one inherited. wait until transfer time. Summer window we'll see him strengthen the side.

All of which hasn't happened since 2007. As Berwickers surely we can expect better and ask why all the promises haven't been met. 

To answer your question no of course I don't want to see relegation, but conversely i don't want to see season 19/20 in tenth place 

There is nothing converse at all about not wanting your team to be relegated either this season or next.

Or celebrating a late equaliser no matter what the opposition... 

[Owsley]

8 hours ago, Bold Rover said:

I wasn't there yesterday. It's dramatic how the Rovers have fallen from beating the likes of Livingston and Ayr to being unable to prevail over a Berwick team as described by their fans above, all within two seasons. 

Lots of finger pointing and blaming going on, perhaps understandably. In my view what we are seeing is the brutal reality of market forces in action. The Rovers is a business with too few customers and too high overheads. We have survived by the generosity of benefactors and patience of lenders. When those ran out, austerity was necessary and in football you get what you pay for. 

You also had £82,500 x 2 from televised cup games (if that's still the amount, doesn't seem to have changed in years). Built a new terrace which should have paid for itself with the large supports of Dunfermline, Ayr, Airdrie etc. It just seems to be catastrophic mismanagement and the ever changing board can't help matters. 

[dougster]

7 hours ago, berwicksfinest said:

Believe me as a Berwicker I want to see the team challenging for promotions, not to go into every Saturday dreading 16.45 and how many we're going to ship.

Boardroom aside, there seems to be a air of acceptance with the dire, example yesterday "celebrating a draw against team 42".  Phrases like let the manager settle, let him pick his own team no the one inherited. wait until transfer time. Summer window we'll see him strengthen the side.

All of which hasn't happened since 2007. As Berwickers surely we can expect better and ask why all the promises haven't been met. 

To answer your question no of course I don't want to see relegation, but conversely i don't want to see season 19/20 in tenth place 

I can't disagree with any of that, I said at the time it's not the gang of 4 who should shoulder the responsibility for another wayward season, what about the last or the one before that? Who is responsible for the serious decline in playing standards over the last 5-6 years or even longer? I'm afraid it's rudderless ship and has been for a very long time, we badly need Scottish football experience at boardroom level, someone who really knows Scottish football at THIS level now - not 20 years ago or the level below. I'm a John Bell fan but even he must admit the last few years have been woeful not just this season but since before Porteous left . Can he turn it around? Yes i believe he can but he needs to , (And excuse the french) , f'ck the hangers on right off, get rid of the drinking culture in the boardroom and start again with a fresh board, bring  in some football nous and maybe just maybe we won't be wishing for another Albion Rovers this time next year.  God I hope so, I really do 

[tescodave]

1 I don’t disagree with your comment about the club as my earlier posts can prove.
2 I’ll celebrate a point if I want to  it’s much better than losing or maybe that’s what you really wanted ? 
3 I’ve never actually seen you post anything positive, apologies if I’m wrong. 
4 to have any chance, we have to stay in the league this season hence the celebration. 

Can there be anything positive posted over the past x amount of seasons?![emoji23]

Nobody wants the team to lose, be relegated etc but plenty fans want to club to start heading in a positive direction....a direction that it hasn’t enjoyed for many a year now sadly. It is well and truly stuck in reverse and I’m not convinced a change of Chairman is going to halt that and knock us back into forward gears.

On any other given year our points total would have us cast adrift so we are thankful for Rovers but this can’t be acceptable in any way surely? The long term decline of our club appears to have made many fans expect this as the norm though and that’s frightening.

[The Pastmaster]

15 hours ago, Owsley said:

You also had £82,500 x 2 from televised cup games (if that's still the amount, doesn't seem to have changed in years). Built a new terrace which should have paid for itself with the large supports of Dunfermline, Ayr, Airdrie etc. It just seems to be catastrophic mismanagement and the ever changing board can't help matters. 

Not to mention the £130000+ loan (at 38%APR) with Shawbrook Bank  taken out by two Directors who left before the ink was dry on the contracts

Edited March 4, 2019 by The Pastmaster

[Redcar]

4 hours ago, tescodave said:

I’m not convinced a change of Chairman is going to halt that and knock us back into forward gears

What do you suggest then?

[tescodave]

What do you suggest then?

He needs some good people around him Redcar and I just don’t see those in the present set up. Maybe I’m wrong, do you feel the change is going to make enough difference and we will see the clubs fortunes improve?

[Redcar]

28 minutes ago, tescodave said:

 

He needs some good people around him Redcar and I just don’t see those in the present set up. Maybe I’m wrong, do you feel the change is going to make enough difference and we will see the clubs fortunes improve?

 

I see it as a first step in the right direction for a change. You can't conjure up new Directors and JB will have his work cut out, but I do think he has a better grasp that we need to do things differently, than we've had for years. 

And I too may be wrong! 

[Fergie1]

Always been hugely impressed by the work colin pike has done and duns and continues to do now at tweedmouth in terms of funding etc. Surely he would be a good addition to the board? 

[BerwickMad]

Always been hugely impressed by the work colin pike has done and duns and continues to do now at tweedmouth in terms of funding etc. Surely he would be a good addition to the board? 

Duns fell out of the EOS and had to start again at the bottom of the Border Ams under his watch and Tweedmouth have picked up one point all season and lost the manager who at least had them improving. We need a little more than arranging to have a few fences put up and a programme produced. It would be nothing more than a job for the boys and would represent more of the same.

We need new people on the board to either invest or fill the skills shortage, whilst looking for new people to take the club forward imo. George Mathison is a great start. Someone who’s worked in strategy in the bank for decades and is time rich since retirement. He’s arranged big charity events in football too so is fairly well known.

As someone has mentioned, we need some actual football expertise on there. Maybe the managerial appointments and contract offers would have been better with some more experience in football on there. People who are skilled in actively going out and finding new investment and who know the right people.

We need people who can bring something to the table and actually lead on parts of a strategy. That doesn’t mean others shouldn’t be involved in making things work. Everyone with an interest in the club should be from directors down to fans. But surely the long term aim has to be a vast improvement in what we have, not a slight change and an acceptance that a new chairman means that all is good again.

[berwick-the-unbeatable]

I see it as a first step in the right direction for a change. You can't conjure up new Directors and JB will have his work cut out, but I do think he has a better grasp that we need to do things differently, than we've had for years. 
And I too may be wrong! 

I've said this for I don't know how long but half the issue for me is that so much is pinned on or expected of whoever is the chairman. At the minute they are the person in power to the point that it's as though we operate with Madrid's presidential model.

The leadership ability of anyone in that role is clearly key in getting the most out of the rest of the board (or at least should be), but at the moment what we lack more than anything is a functioning and talented board of directors who are responsible and accountable for different areas of a strategy to take us forward, much as has just been mentioned above.

There can't be room for passengers - simply wanting the best for the club doesn't distinguish you from any other fan. It needs to be a committed group with a diverse range of expertise and the time to push us forward. Clearly they're not all that easy to find, but I don't for a second think there isn't better than we've had out there.

Ultimately for me though, and as much as he goes into the role with my best wishes and hopes, John can achieve f**k all without a team around him who are capable of enabling his vision. I'd say the same for anyone else who may occupy the role. A total takeover might be the unrealistic dream, the above should be an achievable change.

[haufdaft]

Not to mention the £130000+ loan (at 38%APR) with Shawbrook Bank  taken out by two Directors who left before the ink was dry on the contracts

They'd almost be cheaper getting a provy cheque.

Is this a fact or a rumour?

[Glenconner]

17 minutes ago, berwick-the-unbeatable said:

I've said this for I don't know how long but half the issue for me is that so much is pinned on or expected of whoever is the chairman. At the minute they are the person in power to the point that it's as though we operate with Madrid's presidential model.

The leadership ability of anyone in that role is clearly key in getting the most out of the rest of the board (or at least should be), but at the moment what we lack more than anything is a functioning and talented board of directors who are responsible and accountable for different areas of a strategy to take us forward, much as has just been mentioned above.

There can't be room for passengers - simply wanting the best for the club doesn't distinguish you from any other fan. It needs to be a committed group with a diverse range of expertise and the time to push us forward. Clearly they're not all that easy to find, but I don't for a second think there isn't better than we've had out there.

Ultimately for me though, and as much as he goes into the role with my best wishes and hopes, John can achieve f**k all without a team around him who are capable of enabling his vision. I'd say the same for anyone else who may occupy the role. A total takeover might be the unrealistic dream, the above should be an achievable change.

You mean directors with enough money to spend on the club or directors that can fundraise the money.