The League 1 Squeaky Bum Battle

[Jan Vojáček]

5 minutes ago, Easy Days for Raith said:

Stenny are gone in my opinion and Brechin are clutching straws

If it’s Brechin in the playoffs, I fancy them to stay up.

Yet if it’s Stenny, I would think Edinburgh City will be in league 1 next season (Yes stenny tore us apart a few weeks back, I just don’t fancy their chances of survival)

I honestly think Stenhousemuir are far from gone. They did a really good job on us a few weeks back, and their form recently has been good. Combine that with the fact they have an excellent goalkeeper, two solid centre-backs, the energy of Conor McBrearty in midfield and one of the division's better strike partnerships, I don't see any reason why they can't stay up. In fact if they end up ninth I'll really fancy them in the playoffs.

At risk of dooming the Warriors (and being awarded the freedom of Brechin) they looked far better against us than Brechin did, and the whole feeling around Ochilview just seems to be a bit more positive than it is at Glebe Park.

Tl;dr version: I disagree 

[farflung lichtie]

League One most seasons seems to the closest of the leagues - judged on the points differential between top and bottom and it’s looking that way again, though the Championship is fairly close this year. Maybe because there are more slots to play for than any of the other leagues or maybe because there’s not much between the teams (most part time etc). As usual, getting a bit of consistency - really difficult - along with momentum is the main thing.

[Christophe]

17 hours ago, Easy Days for Raith said:

Stenny are gone in my opinion and Brechin are clutching straws

If it’s Brechin in the playoffs, I fancy them to stay up.

Yet if it’s Stenny, I would think Edinburgh City will be in league 1 next season (Yes stenny tore us apart a few weeks back, I just don’t fancy their chances of survival)

What a bizarre assessment given we have picked up 7 points out of the last 9 and Brechin have picked up 1.

[Its not only a game]

League One most seasons seems to the closest of the leagues - judged on the points differential between top and bottom and it’s looking that way again, though the Championship is fairly close this year. Maybe because there are more slots to play for than any of the other leagues or maybe because there’s not much between the teams (most part time etc). As usual, getting a bit of consistency - really difficult - along with momentum is the main thing.

Tell me about it- EF went 8 games undefeated- now we cant buy a win!Tough league.....

[PortyMo]

Having seen and played all the teams in the squeaky bum battle, Brechin are by far the worst.
I fully expect them to  be in the relegation spot at the end of the season.
Stenny at Brechin on the last day will be a huge game. 

[Ivo den Bieman]

Really not sure what’s happened at Glebe Park. For so long Brechin were a model for the other Angus clubs as they floundered about lower down the leagues.

That play off win two seasons ago was such a Pyrrhic victory. Sure most City fans would trade that day willingly in return for two years of stability.

9th or 10th that team is done. Likely a total clear out in the summer from the manager downwards.

[1320Lichtie]

Really not sure what’s happened at Glebe Park. For so long Brechin were a model for the other Angus clubs as they floundered about lower down the leagues.
That play off win two seasons ago was such a Pyrrhic victory. Sure most City fans would trade that day willingly in return for two years of stability.
9th or 10th that team is done. Likely a total clear out in the summer from the manager downwards.

Realistically Brechin should be fighting it out with Albion Berwick and Cowden

They're supposedly somehow still skint after a year in the Championship which doesn't bode well

[microdave]

Some folk seem to think that the Championship is the land of milk and honey but if part time teams stand any chance of survival, then they have to splash their income on players that'll help them stay up. When we were there, we played Thistle, Dundee, Hearts, Hibs, Rangers, Dundee United who all brought healthy crowds to the Rock but we used that money to give us the best chance of staying up. I'm not surprised Brechin are as skint as we are. It's virtually impossible to stockpile money in that league and be successful. I realise Brechin weren't successful in their season up there but that doesn't necessarily mean they didn't have bigger overheads than they would have in league one.

[hedgeman83]

Well apparently the money that we did have was used to pay off Dods so any money we made in the championship is now pretty much gone

 

 

[Brechin City FC]

7 hours ago, Ivo den Bieman said:

Really not sure what’s happened at Glebe Park. For so long Brechin were a model for the other Angus clubs as they floundered about lower down the leagues.

That play off win two seasons ago was such a Pyrrhic victory. Sure most City fans would trade that day willingly in return for two years of stability.

9th or 10th that team is done. Likely a total clear out in the summer from the manager downwards.

Absolutely not.

[Rovers_Lad]

1 hour ago, microdave said:

Some folk seem to think that the Championship is the land of milk and honey but if part time teams stand any chance of survival, then they have to splash their income on players that'll help them stay up. 

Spot on but also applies to any full time team

[1320Lichtie]

Some folk seem to think that the Championship is the land of milk and honey but if part time teams stand any chance of survival, then they have to splash their income on players that'll help them stay up. When we were there, we played Thistle, Dundee, Hearts, Hibs, Rangers, Dundee United who all brought healthy crowds to the Rock but we used that money to give us the best chance of staying up. I'm not surprised Brechin are as skint as we are. It's virtually impossible to stockpile money in that league and be successful. I realise Brechin weren't successful in their season up there but that doesn't necessarily mean they didn't have bigger overheads than they would have in league one.

 

They didn't splash any money on any good signings though? You get 160k for finishing bottom don't you? Also are Dumbarton not very restricted in how many away tickets they can sell? Sure our away end has a larger capacity than your stadium

[SlipperyP]

Stenny win today, Forfar have downed tools....

[theoriginalhedge]

8 hours ago, 1320Lichtie said:

 

They didn't splash any money on any good signings though? You get 160k for finishing bottom don't you? Also are Dumbarton not very restricted in how many away tickets they can sell? Sure our away end has a larger capacity than your stadium

A very simplistic and somewhat misguided view of how our club experienced their season in the championship. 

Firstly we just sneaked into the play offs with an average squad of players who peaked at the right time after losing more games than they won throughout a pretty turgid  season.  

Secondly , no one , including our management committee expected in their wildest dreams that we would gain promotion from that 4th spot.   Financial preparations therefore were not in place and the manager was given a budget similar to  league 1 ( slightly larger to take in the players' increased wage expectations )  . This was after much deliberation on whether or not to gamble on bringing in supposedly better players  in the vain hope of survival. 

The decision to stick with what we had was based on the timescale from the play off final to the the start of the season and actually the quality of player available as most of the decent ones had been snapped up.   Also and most importantly the memory of  Pink Campbell's disastrous efforts of bringing in "experienced players"  ( mercenaries ) still sticks in all our throats as well as basically crippling the club financially.  

Obviously we couldn't go through a whole season with that same small squad due to injuries and suspensions and the squad had to be increased.  The bulk of that £160k was used to subsidise  that along with trying to maintain an ageing stadium to an adequate standard for championship football. The  longer the season went without us winning made it increasingly difficult to attract any quality players and the ones we did sign weren't any better than the ones already there and added nothing of note to the team morale. 

 

I hope this helps explain how difficult it was  and is for part time   (and some full time ) clubs  to survive in a league  with a much higher standard than League 1.   Fair play to Dumbarton for lasting so long and also Alloa for showing a bit of form just now.   It is all about managing resources correctly .  Unfortunately we went up at the wrong time financially but I still wouldn't have refused the opportunity nevertheless. 

 

[1320Lichtie]

A very simplistic and somewhat misguided view of how our club experienced their season in the championship. 

Firstly we just sneaked into the play offs with an average squad of players who peaked at the right time after losing more games than they won throughout a pretty turgid  season.  

Secondly , no one , including our management committee expected in their wildest dreams that we would gain promotion from that 4th spot.   Financial preparations therefore were not in place and the manager was given a budget similar to  league 1 ( slightly larger to take in the players' increased wage expectations )  . This was after much deliberation on whether or not to gamble on bringing in supposedly better players  in the vain hope of survival. 

The decision to stick with what we had was based on the timescale from the play off final to the the start of the season and actually the quality of player available as most of the decent ones had been snapped up.   Also and most importantly the memory of  Pink Campbell's disastrous efforts of bringing in "experienced players"  ( mercenaries ) still sticks in all our throats as well as basically crippling the club financially.  

Obviously we couldn't go through a whole season with that same small squad due to injuries and suspensions and the squad had to be increased.  The bulk of that £160k was used to subsidise  that along with trying to maintain an ageing stadium to an adequate standard for championship football. The  longer the season went without us winning made it increasingly difficult to attract any quality players and the ones we did sign weren't any better than the ones already there and added nothing of note to the team morale. 

 

I hope this helps explain how difficult it was  and is for part time   (and some full time ) clubs  to survive in a league  with a much higher standard than League 1.   Fair play to Dumbarton for lasting so long and also Alloa for showing a bit of form just now.   It is all about managing resources correctly .  Unfortunately we went up at the wrong time financially but I still wouldn't have refused the opportunity nevertheless. 

 

 

So it sounds like you would have struggled financially regardless. Possibly could've been extremely bad if you stayed in League 1???

 

For us, we get a guaranteed £166k

 

For comparison

 

18/19 - £120k

17/18 - £81k

16/17 - £64k

15/16 - £45k

 

That's huge

 

Also our average crowd will go from 1000 and probably double. The 4 Dundee (if they're both in the league) home games alone could have our average at around 1000

 

It's certainly great financially for us

 

Anyway back to the relegation stuff.

 

Stenny and Stranraer wins tiday

 

 

[Jan Vojáček]

9 hours ago, 1320Lichtie said:

They didn't splash any money on any good signings though? You get 160k for finishing bottom don't you? Also are Dumbarton not very restricted in how many away tickets they can sell? Sure our away end has a larger capacity than your stadium

Our away end holds 750, but against St Mirren especially we had quite a few away fans in the home end. The point is a valid one though, we couldn't take advantage of having the likes of Rangers, Hearts and Hibernian because of our capacity restriction in the same way as a club like yourself could. The extra Policing and stewarding at Rangers games especially probably cost us a fair whack too - and our home attendances dropped season-by-season as fans got fed up watching us in a relegation battle. 

Anyway, today. Depending on results Dumbarton and Stranraer could both be mathematically safe, or just one point could separate the bottom four clubs going into the final two games. My heart could not take the second outcome, so I'm hoping Forfar seriously up their game from last week, and Stevie Aitken's prodigy (#TaughtYouWellMate) combine to send Brechin and Stenny on track for a hugely dramatic final day showdown. 

[theoriginalhedge]

6 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said:

 

So it sounds like you would have struggled financially regardless. Possibly could've been extremely bad if you stayed in League 1???

 

For us, we get a guaranteed £166k

 

For comparison

 

18/19 - £120k

17/18 - £81k

16/17 - £64k

15/16 - £45k

 

That's huge

 

Also our average crowd will go from 1000 and probably double. The 4 Dundee (if they're both in the league) home games alone could have our average at around 1000

 

It's certainly great financially for us

 

Anyway back to the relegation stuff.

 

Stenny and Stranraer wins tiday

 

 

As I said it is all about managing available resources.  Arbroath obviously have a bigger fanbase and population to generate income , giving them a head start initially. Based on that , you lot should do well depending of course on how uncle Fester goes about the transfer business.  Don't get carried away with Dick's expectations though or you might be back to square one before you know it. ......................Been there , done that. 

 

As for your predictions ,  nah. 

[1320Lichtie]

As I said it is all about managing available resources.  Arbroath obviously have a bigger fanbase and population to generate income , giving them a head start initially. Based on that , you lot should do well depending of course on how uncle Fester goes about the transfer business.  Don't get carried away with Dick's expectations though or you might be back to square one before you know it. ......................Been there , done that. 
 
As for your predictions ,  nah. 

Fully expect us to finish bottom but maybe get a surprise

Know we've pumped Stenny but found them massively improved when we last played. Stranraer have a few dangerous players and a bit of experience, only really Jackson to worry about when playing you boys. Heard a rumour he could be away end of season too to a local rival

[Hedgecutter]

Even at HT, I think it's pretty safe to say that Brechin & Stenny will be taking the bottom two places with everybody else being safe now.

Stenny v East Fife,  Raith v Brechin  & a final day Stenny v Brechin epic to decide who gets that relegation playoff place at best.

Regardless of what happens next week, if we beat Stenny then we'll scrape it on goal difference.  An unlikely win at Raith would do it though.

Edited April 20, 2019 by Hedgecutter

[Boghead ranter]

My bum is 100% squeak free.