The Brechin City Thread

[gm_1982]

I have absolutely no sympathy for Brechin City FC. While the SPFL saw fit to demote Hearts, Partick & Stranraer lwith a quarter of the season still to play the same body refused to offer up Brechin for the Pyramid Play-off because "the season had not been completed" ! 
A total contradiction!  But of course the Brechin Chairman was a member of the SPFL Board at the time! Smacks of a conflict of interest and SPFL cronies gathering round to save Brechin. Well this season your SPFL cronies couldn't help you and you got what you deserved. I have sympathy for fans and players but not for the institution known as Brechin City FC.  Enjoy the HL and may your stay be a long one! 

What a sad, bitter, deluded fud you are.

[FairWeatherFan]

5 minutes ago, AlanCamelonfan said:

It was enough time for the others. While we fucked about in the grade.

There was time enough for a notes of interest stage, application deadline, and had several meetings between the leagues/SFA/SJFA before all that. A Highland / Lowland split was on the cards dating back to the 2011 SFA AGM.

Licencing was fairly new that led to fear over expense. The lack of engagement by the SJFA had Juniors worried about what would happen if they got relegated. Then there was the general apathy over getting promoted to the 10 team national leagues.

None of which was helped by the SFA's approach of just taking 16 clubs so that existing leagues could continue.

[Jacksgranda]

33 minutes ago, Exiledjag said:

I have absolutely no sympathy for Brechin City FC. While the SPFL saw fit to demote Hearts, Partick & Stranraer lwith a quarter of the season still to play the same body refused to offer up Brechin for the Pyramid Play-off because "the season had not been completed" ! 

A total contradiction!  But of course the Brechin Chairman was a member of the SPFL Board at the time! Smacks of a conflict of interest and SPFL cronies gathering round to save Brechin. Well this season your SPFL cronies couldn't help you and you got what you deserved. I have sympathy for fans and players but not for the institution known as Brechin City FC.  Enjoy the HL and may your stay be a long one! 

There were no play offs last season. Bottom of SPFL 2 is a play off spot, not a relegation spot. But you know that amyway.

[Vodka Vic]

39 minutes ago, Exiledjag said:

I have absolutely no sympathy for Brechin City FC. While the SPFL saw fit to demote Hearts, Partick & Stranraer lwith a quarter of the season still to play the same body refused to offer up Brechin for the Pyramid Play-off because "the season had not been completed" ! 

A total contradiction!  But of course the Brechin Chairman was a member of the SPFL Board at the time! Smacks of a conflict of interest and SPFL cronies gathering round to save Brechin. Well this season your SPFL cronies couldn't help you and you got what you deserved. I have sympathy for fans and players but not for the institution known as Brechin City FC.  Enjoy the HL and may your stay be a long one! 

Nothing like usurping your team’s own title win by celebrating someone else’s relegation.

One of the biggest fallacies over the last year is the influence Ken Ferguson had over the SPFL decisions. What was it the conspiracy theories were when he resigned his position on the Board - that’s another stitch up so Brechin avoid the playoff . As with all conspiracy theories it had zero evidence to back it up with and turned out to be bullshit. 

[LongTimeLurker]

19 minutes ago, AlanCamelonfan said:

It was enough time for the others. While we fucked about in the grade.

EoS and SoS clubs with little or no active support in most cases had much less to lose by doing something radical and were very much in control of the process.  Tom Johnston and the SJFA have to take a large portion of the blame for how it all unfolded but EoS clubs like Spartans could have done more to make it easier for Clydebank and co to join. Anyway great to see Kelty get into the SPFL. What they did was a massive gamble and we could easily still be arguing furiously about the pyramid vs the holy grail and 100k toilet blocks if they hadn't taken the lead.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

I have absolutely no sympathy for Brechin City FC. While the SPFL saw fit to demote Hearts, Partick & Stranraer lwith a quarter of the season still to play the same body refused to offer up Brechin for the Pyramid Play-off because "the season had not been completed" ! 
A total contradiction!  But of course the Brechin Chairman was a member of the SPFL Board at the time! Smacks of a conflict of interest and SPFL cronies gathering round to save Brechin. Well this season your SPFL cronies couldn't help you and you got what you deserved. I have sympathy for fans and players but not for the institution known as Brechin City FC.  Enjoy the HL and may your stay be a long one! 

Are you actually that thick? [emoji23]

[Ranaldo Bairn]

I know this twerp is a PT fan, but the Jambos have outdone themselves with their TakE YoUr MEdiCiNE!!11!!one!! chat over the last 24 hours.

Simpletons.

[Citytillidie]

8 hours ago, Hedgecutter said:

You'd imagine that somebody with some decent knowledge of the lower league setup north of the Tay is essential for the role.  I'm not convinced that his stint at Pittodrie would have given much exposure, and any club contacts from the time will probably have long left.

Be an interesting few days at the club, can’t see any of the current crop of players wanting to stay. I seen somewhere on here that Paton was Greenock based so don’t see him fancying the highland league either. Kevin tindall was mentioned on here  he’d be a decent appointment with good knowledge of the highland league if we can get him. The club need to act quick to give anyone who might be coming in the chance to build a decent squad for next season

Edited May 24, 2021 by Citytillidie

[Raith_Raver]

11 hours ago, Only coo in the village said:

I’m sure most football supporters from Kelty already support Kelty Hearts anyway or get on the old firm buses going to see the ugly sisters. We have far more things to worry about than a few people from Kelty not coming to Cowden games. In the short term  it will actually boost our pathetic home gates due to the local derby, at least until Kelty get promoted or if we are relegated. 

Yes, I'm sure there will be big interest for next season's derbies. I would also expect the fixtures to avoid being at home at the same time. Still, there will be some crowd impact on he gate, even a few dozen would make a finacial difference over a season.

[Raith_Raver]

11 hours ago, parsforlife said:

Central fife is obviously going to have a squeeze on growing new fans now.  But kelty already has their own support which is only likely to grow.   I’d think the area will have more fans overall watching spfl live football now than 2019. Yes there might be some soft Cowdenbeath fans(or more accurately interested  neutrals) who stop going to Central Park and instead go to central, park. You now have a close rivalry. I’d be quite surprised if the total through the gates in the first full unrestricted fans between the 2 clubs will be less than 2019 . 

The advent of Kelty into the league may actually boost Cowdenbeath's support - the rivalry might galvanise some of their more apathetic support into turning up.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Raith_Raver

[CALDERON]

Sad to see Brechin go down. Nice club, easy to get to and nice folk. Didn’t cover themselves in glory with the B team stuff, but I suspect the reality of HL football was starting to bite.

It was a really, really weird game.  I don’t think Kelty looked at all great, but they should have been out of sight by the time the goal did come.  They looked like a collection of good players, rather than a team , and suspect they will need to improve to make a real impact in the league.  That said, they deserved to win the tie (based on what I saw yesterday)

Brechin fought really hard, and were more in the game than I thought they would be – however there was an obvious lack of quality.  When Bobby Barr is your standout player, your in a bit of trouble.

Catch 22 for Brechin now.  Struggle to see how they compete with some of the Lowland League sides – some of these clubs will have crowds similar to Brechin and a bit of money behind them also.  However, HL provides logistical challenges.  Also, Inverurie, Fraserburgh and Buckie probably have comparable crowds – and Brora/Formartine have traditionally been well backed financially.

Feel for the fans also.  I'd imagine the HL would be a great laugh if you breezed the league for 1 season, but f*** getting stuck down there.

[Brummo]

First of all, congratulations to Kelty Hearts.

Sorry to see Brechin lose the tie and get relegated. For years Brechin were a shining example of a well run club which spent most of the last twenty odd years above the lowest "national" tier, while Montrose seemed to spend much of the same period bumping along the depths. In fact as I watched the game last night, I recalled being up in Brechin one Saturday and seeing all the cars parked near Glebe Park. It must have been when they were in the Championship (not the last time round) and it was a "big" team that was visiting and I remember feeling envious that Brechin were amongst the bigger fish, while we were perennial strugglers.

If anyone had told me back in 2015 that being relegated from the  league into the Highland League wasn't absolutely disastrous, I would have disagreed in the strongest possible terms. It certainly would have been unprecedented back then, which would have made it worse. I appreciated how some supporters of other Angus clubs came along to Links Park to show a bit of solidarity with Montrose in their fight to stay up.

The pyramid makes sense, as does sorting out the parallel universe of "Junior" football etc. I hate its fanboys who take an unhealthy interest in goading supporters of struggling clubs, like vultures circling round a wounded animal.

I do think that there will always be clubs that are anomalous vanity projects like Gretna was. It is also inevitable that ambitious clubs from larger centres of population are going to find it easier to attract financial backing from ticket sales, merchandise and businesses than those from smaller towns. It is incredibly naïve of people who think otherwise. 

Eventually the pyramid should work better, as clubs which are able to buy their way up the leagues leave the lower divisions and some kind of normality returns. 

In my opinion, the Angus clubs should be playing in the Lowland League because historically that is the area they are linked with. The Tay boundary it seems was chosen to allow a greater chance of some existing League Two clubs being relegated to the Highland League. 

Whatever league Brechin City are relegated to, it is going to be tough for them, just as it has been for the Shire and Berwick. The parachute payment amount I'd heard mentioned will help but not much. Of the two leagues, the Highland League is going to be less impacted by any kind of mass desertion from the Juniors, so Brechin could find that a slightly less difficult route to climb out from.

I also think there should be automatic relegation from League Two for the bottom club, with the second bottom facing a playoff with the loser of the HL Vs LL playoff final. That would help get more movement between the leagues and hopefully counteract a situation where one of either of the leagues consistently dominates the other.

As was said of Montrose, Brechin has no right to remain in the fourth tier because of its past, however I hope that despite a different outcome in the playoff final, Brechin too can dust themselves down and turn things around. 

Will continue to keep an eye on how Brechin, as well as the other Angus clubs are doing, as I have always done.

 

 

 

 

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

2 hours ago, Exiledjag said:

I have absolutely no sympathy for Brechin City FC. While the SPFL saw fit to demote Hearts, Partick & Stranraer lwith a quarter of the season still to play the same body refused to offer up Brechin for the Pyramid Play-off because "the season had not been completed" ! 

A total contradiction!  But of course the Brechin Chairman was a member of the SPFL Board at the time! Smacks of a conflict of interest and SPFL cronies gathering round to save Brechin. Well this season your SPFL cronies couldn't help you and you got what you deserved. I have sympathy for fans and players but not for the institution known as Brechin City FC.  Enjoy the HL and may your stay be a long one! 

Mate, you're a Big Mac away from an embolism, calm the f**k down.

[superbigal]

If Brechin think they can suddenly start recruiting players from Tayport, Lochee Utd, Broughty, Carnoustie & Banks o Dee etc,  I think they are going to have a bit of a shock.  Most of the "Junior" clubs are just getting back into training and have tied up players for next season already.  All of those juniors sides are now either officially or unofficially working towards Licenses which will allow them potential access into the Highland League. They will not be giving up players in a hurry. Probably the worst season ever to be relegated into the HL with all the other new pyramid changes in the area.

I suspect young lads from the SPFL teams on loan could play a prominent part.  Depending on current relationships I suppose.  I suspect a real struggle to get a competitive team.

Edited May 24, 2021 by superbigal

[Cowden Cowboy]

37 minutes ago, Raith_Raver said:

Yes, I'm sure there will be big interest for next season's derbies. I would also expect the fixtures to avoid being at home at the same time. Still, there will be some crowd impact on he gate, even a few dozen would make a finacial difference over a season.

There will be minimal impact on the gate - not a few dozen

[drs]

31 minutes ago, Brummo said:

Whatever league Brechin City are relegated to, it is going to be tough for them,

Why are some people gleefully posting their ignorance about Scottish football?

It isnt up for debate - Brechin alongside every Angus club fall within the Highland League catchment area. What is so hard to understand about this?

[peternapper]

11 hours ago, Hedgecutter said:

This is indeed a strong alternative and would pretty much put us alongside the other Aberdeenshire/Moray HL sides.  There's a car park on the edge of Aberdeen which often has Buckie, Keith and Turriff minibuses parked side by side, reflecting where they get their players from.

Thing with that is that we're then just competing with these teams (plus Locos, Fraserburgh, Formartine etc) over the same pool of players, and as such we'd need to be straight into poaching mode.

That would also effectively rule out recruitment from Dundee / Forfar / Arbroath who realistically won't travel to Aberdeen for midweek training.   However, I'd like to think that with a retained support we could out-finance the aforementioned HL clubs.  That combined with the relative ease of access from Aberdeen.

Of course, this is a fundamental issue that needs addressed asap if we are to have any chance of assembling a decent squad over the summer.  Nobody's going to commit to a club who's training "might be in Dundee, but might be in Aberdeen"

The main requirement for getting players to sign is cash incentives. We have not trained in Peterhead for years & now train once a week together in Dundee but have attracted players from Central belt & even had guys travelling from Dumfries they obviously were not doing it for nothing or the glory of playing league 1 or 2 football. As for trying to cherry pick players from clubs around the North East they would not come cheap, we had a few that went to Highland League clubs that could offer better deals.

[Hedgecutter]

41 minutes ago, Brummo said:

I also think there should be automatic relegation from League Two for the bottom club, with the second bottom facing a playoff with the loser of the HL Vs LL playoff final. That would help get more movement between the leagues and hopefully counteract a situation where one of either of the leagues consistently dominates the other.

That would be my preference too.  Would help make it feel like just another division rather than some rabble-filled dungeon of no-return which it seems to be perceived as being.  Pretty sure many genuinely think that half the HL comprises teams thrown together from the local pub leagues, which it certainly isn't.

Easy to say now of course.

[Bring Your Own Socks]

I’ll miss my trips to The Glebe. Just as simple as that. Always a warm welcome and hospitality. Hope the guys who make the club work keep it going. 

[GordonS]

14 hours ago, Jacksgranda said:

Don't know the attendance but Brechin were in the League Cup semi Final at Hampden against Rangers in 1957.

I don't know if the attendance figures here are at all reliable, but it says it was 28,403.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1957–58_Rangers_F.C._season