The Brechin City Thread

[theoriginalhedge]

15 hours ago, hedgeman83 said:

15 hours ago, theoriginalhedge said:

Not with that keeper

No defantly not. Do you think that's the main problem ? The defence have no confidence in him ?

 

15 hours ago, Best Team in Angus said:

Is that how we were shit up front as well ?  Trying to remain positive but its impossible to see any positives so far

My take on things was that every time the ball came into our box in that second half it looked like the opposition were likely to score .

First half the defence were getting in tackles and we were very much in the game , but the signs were there when the odd shot did get through , McMinn fumbled them . The corner was back to last season .......no marking,  a free header and the keeper rooted to the spot. 

The second half was a bit of a shambles all round.  Edinburgh started to play a bit wider and opened up loads of spaces in the defence who were allowing the attackers more freedom to shoot  and fire in crosses  .  Almost every cross that came in , McMinn just stood on his line  and made no effort to come for the ball. 

Didn't see the second goal because the camera froze .   After pulling a quick goal back  I thought that we  might start to get back in the game but the 3rd  just knocked the stuffing out of us.  It was another  howler for the keeper. On the rare occasion he came for the cross , he mis-punched the ball , panicked and just lunged at the striker , giving away the penalty. 

That seemed to have a knock on effect all over the pitch . Passes started to fall short , players stopped tracking back  and the confidence went along with any shape or game plan we had and Edinburgh exploited it convincingly. 

 

I am hoping that when Barron returns he will start to add a bit of composure to the midfield again and start controlling things. 

Don't know how to instill confidence in the keeper though .   ( As a wee side note I  noticed  Calum Antell looked very confident yesterday , coming for crosses  and easing pressure when needed. That makes all the difference to everyone's confidence.) 

 

 

Edited October 18, 2020 by theoriginalhedge

[theoriginalhedge]

24 minutes ago, charlie king mvp said:

I’ve put money in to all the above as well and it does feel like it has been a total waste.  Somebody else said earlier they wouldn’t be putting any more money in and if there isn’t some miraculous improvement under Mark Wilson neither will I until he goes.  
 

If last season had reached its natural conclusion we all know how it would have finished.  Yet we decide to back Wilson and give him the opportunity to finish the job.  We did the same with Darren Dods and Barry Smith.  If you go back further the same thing happened with Jim Weir, he should have been sacked six months before he was as well.  The same mistakes over and over again have taken us from a comfortable league one side to the joke outfit we are now.

The problem is getting rid of managers costs a lot of money these days.  

Never an easy decision to make. 

[tamthebam]

3 hours ago, theoriginalhedge said:

 

My take on things was that every time the ball came into our box in that second half it looked like the opposition were likely to score .

First half the defence were getting in tackles and we were very much in the game , but the signs were there when the odd shot did get through , McMinn fumbled them . The corner was back to last season .......no marking,  a free header and the keeper rooted to the spot. 

The second half was a bit of a shambles all round.  Edinburgh started to play a bit wider and opened up loads of spaces in the defence who were allowing the attackers more freedom to shoot  and fire in crosses  .  Almost every cross that came in , McMinn just stood on his line  and made no effort to come for the ball. 

Didn't see the second goal because the camera froze .   After pulling a quick goal back  I thought that we  might start to get back in the game but the 3rd  just knocked the stuffing out of us.  It was another  howler for the keeper. On the rare occasion he came for the cross , he mis-punched the ball , panicked and just lunged at the striker , giving away the penalty. 

That seemed to have a knock on effect all over the pitch . Passes started to fall short , players stopped tracking back  and the confidence went along with any shape or game plan we had and Edinburgh exploited it convincingly. 

 

I am hoping that when Barron returns he will start to add a bit of composure to the midfield again and start controlling things. 

Don't know how to instill confidence in the keeper though .   ( As a wee side note I  noticed  Calum Antell looked very confident yesterday , coming for crosses  and easing pressure when needed. That makes all the difference to everyone's confidence.) 

 

 

Given the comparison you've made I was wondering who your goalie coach was and I see it's Craig Nelson who was IIRC not a bad keeper in his time.

But maybe not such a good coach.

Antell has benefitted from Edinburgh City getting Jim McQueen as goalie coach in last season and if your keeper isn't doing the basics maybe the coaching needs looked at.

[Overthehedge1]

3 hours ago, charlie king mvp said:

I’ve put money in to all the above as well and it does feel like it has been a total waste.  Somebody else said earlier they wouldn’t be putting any more money in and if there isn’t some miraculous improvement under Mark Wilson neither will I until he goes.  
 

If last season had reached its natural conclusion we all know how it would have finished.  Yet we decide to back Wilson and give him the opportunity to finish the job.  We did the same with Darren Dods and Barry Smith.  If you go back further the same thing happened with Jim Weir, he should have been sacked six months before he was as well.  The same mistakes over and over again have taken us from a comfortable league one side to the joke outfit we are now.

The problem has beeN the board not backing the manager, the board have killed the club, Dodds got a decent budget the year after the great escape brought in trouten, hill,and love, He got us promoted, then couldn’t keep hill or trouten as budget got reduced,
 

went into the championship with a weaker squad than the season before,

the board realised we needed to spend money and gave Dodds a budget in January a notoriously hard window .

Why not back him after promotion knowing the gates are going to increase ?? 

then even after not winning a game for a whole season they keep Dodds on ??????  Didn’t agree with this at all!

we start season ok but don’t really have a recognised fit striker and we  sack dodds when we’re 5th in the league and bring in Barry smith,

his way of playing is completely different again the board give him a budget in a notoriously hard window, Barry smith brought real quality to the club but we didn’t address the striker shortage which inevitably caused us to get relegated we where completely toothless
 

now Barry smith is a recognised manager if your going to keep him on you need to back him, the club cut the budget again we keep 2 players. Oneil who did ok and hill our player, players player, and fans player of the year as he had another year on his contract!

there’s a great start, we tried to keep 6-8 of original squad but they move on for better money Because the club don’t back the manager, I think smith knew he wasn’t getting backed so he left

and instead of getting a recognised manager he brings in an inexperienced manager who again has his own ideas , give him a budget to bring in players in again January a notoriously hard window and if it wasn’t  for a pandemic we would be out of the professional league
 

now this season instead of learning there lesson and backing the manager with a half decent budget and having faith in him bringing in the right players they cut budget again and now we have a an extreamly young team No players of any note have signed except Paton who hasn’t set the heather alight , we may have better legs than last year but we look much weaker at the back and unable to manage a game I fear we will struggle again this season a lot more than last year 

[BB_Bino]

The league is only 1 game old but reading the comments above, you have to fear for Brechin already.

I only saw you once last season and you smashed us 4-2 and I thought at that point your season would turn around, but it obviously didn’t.

After finishing bottom last year and by all accounts looking all but down and out but surviving due to technicalities, I thought you would have taken a leaf out of Montrose and Cowdenbeath’s book and come back stronger this year, determined to never let it happen again, for the sake of your supporters I’m sad to see that hasn’t happened.

Sounds like it’s going to be another long season for you, I don’t feel sorry for the board but I do for the fans, it’s not nice going through this.

[Cowden Cowboy]

1 hour ago, Overthehedge1 said:

The problem has beeN the board not backing the manager, the board have killed the club, Dodds got a decent budget the year after the great escape brought in trouten, hill,and love, He got us promoted, then couldn’t keep hill or trouten as budget got reduced,
 

went into the championship with a weaker squad than the season before,

the board realised we needed to spend money and gave Dodds a budget in January a notoriously hard window .

Why not back him after promotion knowing the gates are going to increase ?? 

then even after not winning a game for a whole season they keep Dodds on ??????  Didn’t agree with this at all!

we start season ok but don’t really have a recognised fit striker and we  sack dodds when we’re 5th in the league and bring in Barry smith,

his way of playing is completely different again the board give him a budget in a notoriously hard window, Barry smith brought real quality to the club but we didn’t address the striker shortage which inevitably caused us to get relegated we where completely toothless
 

now Barry smith is a recognised manager if your going to keep him on you need to back him, the club cut the budget again we keep 2 players. Oneil who did ok and hill our player, players player, and fans player of the year as he had another year on his contract!

there’s a great start, we tried to keep 6-8 of original squad but they move on for better money Because the club don’t back the manager, I think smith knew he wasn’t getting backed so he left

and instead of getting a recognised manager he brings in an inexperienced manager who again has his own ideas , give him a budget to bring in players in again January a notoriously hard window and if it wasn’t  for a pandemic we would be out of the professional league
 

now this season instead of learning there lesson and backing the manager with a half decent budget and having faith in him bringing in the right players they cut budget again and now we have a an extreamly young team No players of any note have signed except Paton who hasn’t set the heather alight , we may have better legs than last year but we look much weaker at the back and unable to manage a game I fear we will struggle again this season a lot more than last year 

So your consistent solution is spend more money than you can afford? 

[citydiehard]

4 hours ago, Overthehedge1 said:

The problem has beeN the board not backing the manager, the board have killed the club, Dodds got a decent budget the year after the great escape brought in trouten, hill,and love, He got us promoted, then couldn’t keep hill or trouten as budget got reduced,
 

went into the championship with a weaker squad than the season before,

the board realised we needed to spend money and gave Dodds a budget in January a notoriously hard window .

Why not back him after promotion knowing the gates are going to increase ?? 

then even after not winning a game for a whole season they keep Dodds on ??????  Didn’t agree with this at all!

we start season ok but don’t really have a recognised fit striker and we  sack dodds when we’re 5th in the league and bring in Barry smith,

his way of playing is completely different again the board give him a budget in a notoriously hard window, Barry smith brought real quality to the club but we didn’t address the striker shortage which inevitably caused us to get relegated we where completely toothless
 

now Barry smith is a recognised manager if your going to keep him on you need to back him, the club cut the budget again we keep 2 players. Oneil who did ok and hill our player, players player, and fans player of the year as he had another year on his contract!

there’s a great start, we tried to keep 6-8 of original squad but they move on for better money Because the club don’t back the manager, I think smith knew he wasn’t getting backed so he left

and instead of getting a recognised manager he brings in an inexperienced manager who again has his own ideas , give him a budget to bring in players in again January a notoriously hard window and if it wasn’t  for a pandemic we would be out of the professional league
 

now this season instead of learning there lesson and backing the manager with a half decent budget and having faith in him bringing in the right players they cut budget again and now we have a an extreamly young team No players of any note have signed except Paton who hasn’t set the heather alight , we may have better legs than last year but we look much weaker at the back and unable to manage a game I fear we will struggle again this season a lot more than last year 

I did try and warn you guys in previous seasons about the board.They don’t give a fcuk about Brechin now and we will be in the doldrums before we know it.The committee need to take a long hard look at themselves they are destroying the club just glad some of the mafia are realising it too now.

[theoriginalhedge]

4 hours ago, Overthehedge1 said:

The problem has beeN the board not backing the manager, the board have killed the club, Dodds got a decent budget the year after the great escape brought in trouten, hill,and love, He got us promoted, then couldn’t keep hill or trouten as budget got reduced,
 

went into the championship with a weaker squad than the season before,

the board realised we needed to spend money and gave Dodds a budget in January a notoriously hard window .

Why not back him after promotion knowing the gates are going to increase ?? 

then even after not winning a game for a whole season they keep Dodds on ??????  Didn’t agree with this at all!

we start season ok but don’t really have a recognised fit striker and we  sack dodds when we’re 5th in the league and bring in Barry smith,

his way of playing is completely different again the board give him a budget in a notoriously hard window, Barry smith brought real quality to the club but we didn’t address the striker shortage which inevitably caused us to get relegated we where completely toothless
 

now Barry smith is a recognised manager if your going to keep him on you need to back him, the club cut the budget again we keep 2 players. Oneil who did ok and hill our player, players player, and fans player of the year as he had another year on his contract!

there’s a great start, we tried to keep 6-8 of original squad but they move on for better money Because the club don’t back the manager, I think smith knew he wasn’t getting backed so he left

and instead of getting a recognised manager he brings in an inexperienced manager who again has his own ideas , give him a budget to bring in players in again January a notoriously hard window and if it wasn’t  for a pandemic we would be out of the professional league
 

now this season instead of learning there lesson and backing the manager with a half decent budget and having faith in him bringing in the right players they cut budget again and now we have a an extreamly young team No players of any note have signed except Paton who hasn’t set the heather alight , we may have better legs than last year but we look much weaker at the back and unable to manage a game I fear we will struggle again this season a lot more than last year 

This season he has been backed financially . The players he brought in all had a good reputation and were starting to show a bit of what they could do against Montrose , Farfar and for long spells against United.   The experienced guys he brought in last season let him down badly so I personally think trying some younger , hungrier lads this time might have been the answer. I just hope they can start to show the potential from pre -season . 

As I said earlier, I think  Barron will make a difference when he returns as he was the organiser in midfield in the earlier games and showed why he is the Scotland U19 captain . 

 

[Overthehedge1]

3 hours ago, Cowden Cowboy said:

So your consistent solution is spend more money than you can afford? 

Not at all, my point is back the manager at the start of the season so we don’t have to over pay in January and give the manager his full budget at the start of the season. This trying to strengthen in January didn’t wort I’ve now witnessed 3 years of it

[Overthehedge1]

1 minute ago, theoriginalhedge said:

This season he has been backed financially . The players he brought in all had a good reputation and were starting to show a bit of what they could do against Montrose , Farfar and for long spells against United.   The experienced guys he brought in last season let him down badly so I personally think trying some younger , hungrier lads this time might have been the answer. I just hope they can start to show the potential from pre -season . 

As I said earlier, I think  Barron will make a difference when he returns as he was the organiser in midfield in the earlier games and showed why he is the Scotland U19 captain . 

 

Where has the manager been backed? It’s a team of kids, they won’t be costing us very much if anything,  there’s a massive difference from 19s football to first team football, hopefully we get a few gems and we come good I genuinely hope we can I just don’t see it just now. Pining  our hopes on a teenager who’s still done nothing in the game is very desperate 

i do agree we needed more from experienced guys, jacko and McCord Mcgaluchlin  being the biggest let downs  Followed by McCabe , but not down to ability more down to there own fitness,! 

[theoriginalhedge]

2 minutes ago, Overthehedge1 said:

Where has the manager been backed? It’s a team of kids, they won’t be costing us very much if anything,  there’s a massive difference from 19s football to first team football, hopefully we get a few gems and we come good I genuinely hope we can I just don’t see it just now. Pining  our hopes on a teenager who’s still done nothing in the game is very desperate 

i do agree we needed more from experienced guys, jacko and McCord Mcgaluchlin  being the biggest let downs  Followed by McCabe , but not down to ability more down to there own fitness,! 

So what is your answer ? We are competing with non league clubs who are paying extortionate  wages and signing on fees for the more experienced players who would rather stay with clubs in the central belt than travel to Brechin . 

You make it sound so easy to sign experienced guys but we are hardly the most sought after choice at this moment in time. 

[Brechin City FC]

8 hours ago, theoriginalhedge said:

 

Don't know how to instill confidence in the keeper though .

 

I'm sure criticising him on a public message board will help

I know you seem to have an agenda against him at the moment and he hasn't been very good since before the Cove game last season, but I don't think he can be blamed for any of the goals yesterday.  In fact he made a couple of decent saves which at the time kept us in the game.

[theoriginalhedge]

1 minute ago, Brechin City FC said:

I'm sure criticising him on a public message board will help

I know you seem to have an agenda against him at the moment and he hasn't been very good since before the Cove game last season, but I don't think he can be blamed for any of the goals yesterday.  In fact he made a couple of decent saves which at the time kept us in the game.

I have explained my stance . There is no agenda I can assure you  just a genuine concern .  The comments criticising the manager were  far more cutting than mine .

I take it you never saw the penalty incident yesterday. That was a basic error at a time when we might have got back into the game. 

[Brechin City FC]

Just now, theoriginalhedge said:

I have explained my stance . There is no agenda I can assure you  just a genuine concern .  The comments criticising the manager were  far more cutting than mine .

I take it you never saw the penalty incident yesterday. That was a basic error at a time when we might have got back into the game. 

I'd need to see the penalty incident again, I wasn't entirely sure what happened but it looked like the whole defence was a shambles for the second half in particular. 

I just find it a bit hypocritical to say you want to instil confidence in the keeper yet pick faults at every opportunity.  I'm not denying that he has faults but people have short memories - he looked like a really good find at the start of last season and was making brilliant saves.  There's a decent keeper in there someplace and he's still a young lad.  Unfortunately we don't have time to wait for him to become consistent and get the mistakes out of his game.

[gm_1982]

I'm sure criticising him on a public message board will help [emoji106]
I know you seem to have an agenda against him at the moment and he hasn't been very good since before the Cove game last season, but I don't think he can be blamed for any of the goals yesterday.  In fact he made a couple of decent saves which at the time kept us in the game.

I agree that picking out individuals for criticism on here isn’t the answer but the reality is neither of our goalkeepers are good enough. In my opinion this should have been one our main priorities in the summer.

We were still in the game yesterday when Lewis needlessly opted to punch away a cross and not very well. This put the defence under unnecessary pressure and we end up conceding a penalty as a result.

Equally in his defence, the players in front of him aren’t protecting him enough either.

[theoriginalhedge]

1 hour ago, Brechin City FC said:

I'd need to see the penalty incident again, I wasn't entirely sure what happened but it looked like the whole defence was a shambles for the second half in particular. 

I just find it a bit hypocritical to say you want to instil confidence in the keeper yet pick faults at every opportunity.  I'm not denying that he has faults but people have short memories - he looked like a really good find at the start of last season and was making brilliant saves.  There's a decent keeper in there someplace and he's still a young lad.  Unfortunately we don't have time to wait for him to become consistent and get the mistakes out of his game.

Unfortunately we have been blessed with a long line of excellent  keepers who kept us in games when we were up against it so the likes of Lewis and Paddy are sadly on a hiding to nothing.  

Yes the defence lets them down at times but that is where a keeper has to come into his own. Calum Antell read the game really well yesterday. He was out claiming crosses almost as they left the foot of our forwards. His positional game was excellent and his handling was consistent.  All these traits kept his side in the game at vital times.  That's all you ask of a keeper and that is where the likes of Buzz and Nelly excelled. 

The confidence to do this comes from hard work , concentration  and a desire to learn from the mistakes made previously . Sadly for us the mistakes keep happening . Really soft goals have been conceeded at crucial times in games for the past couple of seasons  and as you say we are not  in a position to let them continue to happen. I am not as naive as to think all the goals conceeded are entirely the keeper's  fault as we have seen some horrendous defensive errors over the piece as well . 

The fact that we comment shows we still care enough to demand better . 

  I know from experience that a goalkeeper's reputation is only as good as his last performance.  It's up to Lewis and Paddy  to show they have  the work ethic and ability to turn things around. I am sure they can .

[Overthehedge1]

6 hours ago, theoriginalhedge said:

So what is your answer ? We are competing with non league clubs who are paying extortionate  wages and signing on fees for the more experienced players who would rather stay with clubs in the central belt than travel to Brechin . 

You make it sound so easy to sign experienced guys but we are hardly the most sought after choice at this moment in time. 

Pay the going rate and let the manager worry about selling the club, if we had spent in the summer instead of trying to strengthen in January  I believe we wouldn’t be in this mess, this all stems from not backing Dodds in championship season or the season we came down,
the board tried to keep money back because they knew they would sack Dodds if the were out the playoffs, fifth in league and sacked, why not just sack him ? rightly so after not winning a game in a whole season!

Give a new manager a full budget for the season at the start of the season, we can go back to the great escape season, the board took so long to appoint a manager all the best players that may have been available had been snapped up giving Dodds no time to build a team, ridiculous club management  

surly you can see this?

we’ve never had problems getting a squad together before

[theoriginalhedge]

6 hours ago, Overthehedge1 said:

Pay the going rate and let the manager worry about selling the club, if we had spent in the summer instead of trying to strengthen in January  I believe we wouldn’t be in this mess, this all stems from not backing Dodds in championship season or the season we came down,
the board tried to keep money back because they knew they would sack Dodds if the were out the playoffs, fifth in league and sacked, why not just sack him ? rightly so after not winning a game in a whole season!

Give a new manager a full budget for the season at the start of the season, we can go back to the great escape season, the board took so long to appoint a manager all the best players that may have been available had been snapped up giving Dodds no time to build a team, ridiculous club management  

surly you can see this?

we’ve never had problems getting a squad together before

We had a meeting in December to try and address the issues to attempt to halt the slide and this was where the fighting fund was set up . For you to suggest that we should have tried  nothing then is a bit preposterous given our position at that time . Yes it was a panic button but we were in a perilous situation. 

In hindsight you may have been right as the players brought in didn't help the situation due to other unsettling factors . For the club not to do something then would have been seen as them just accepting their fate. 

The money raised in such a short period of time showed that the real supporters cared and were really concerned with the way things were going. The move therefore was fully endorsed . 

As I mentioned we are hardly the most sought after club at the moment and even when we were going to the championship it was difficult as we hadn't prepared for such an eventuality as the probability of going up from 4th place after a season where we lost more games than we won were a bit ridiculous. Trying to find quality players in such a short period after the play offs therefore proved really difficult given very little preparation had been put in place . 

Thereafter, trying to entice players to come to a club on the slide , with the tag of having not won a game all season is not so easy unless you were prepared to risk bankrupting the club with ludicrous pay deals. 

It is not as easy to run a club like Brechin as you seem to think. 

[Guest The Phoenix]

2 hours ago, theoriginalhedge said:

 

It is not as easy to run a football club as you seem to think. 

FTFY 

[Cold Feet]

It always amazes me that folk have a pop at the committee, like all committees they do not always get it right and decision making for any committee is about judgment and timing. Sometimes its right, sometimes it aint.

However all those who think they can run it better and find the endless pots of money to throw at players never seem prepared to step forward at AGM's. I have been going to them for 20 odd years and cannot recall anyone putting in a challenge to the chair or any others to become part of it. So unless you are going to stick your head above the parapet I suggest you accept it and get on with it.

Well documented reasons why we have struggled financially and on the park whilst also competing with higher budgets in lower leagues in central belt. You'd have to ask them where they get there money from.

There is changes coming and if you were at the special meeting in December and the AGM you would know what these are. 

I too am fed up with the playing side and how it has panned out over the last few years. Think all part time clubs are a few poor decisions away from disaster - it is a fine line. Remember the committee have overseen the last 20 years - did you praise them when it was all going nicely?