Kingsmills

Well, it can't do any harm and, in our current situation, anything that gives us even the slightest edge is worth trying.

Enough insults traded. Can we keep this thread on topic please.......says the Mod lacking a sense of humour.

Absolutely. Lose tomorrow and we could be too far adrift before the split even happens. Win tomorrow and close that gap and restore a bit of confidence and it's game on. Ver probably, the most important game of our season.

Agreed, it is also strong evidence that our own youth system need a serious overhaul of attitude and personnel if we are ever going to be able to develop players for the senior squad on anything like a regular basis. One of the many things that needs to be looked at once this season is over.

Much as expected. If we are going to have any chance of survival it is essential that we win our remaining two home games. To do that we need every edge and advantage we can including a large and supportive home crowd. In order to encourage that backing, I believe that the club should charge £5 for adults and £2 for concessions for both matches and advertise that fact as widely as possible in the local media. I appreciate that that will lose income in the region of forty thousand pounds or so but that is very small beer compared to the reduction in income in excess of a million pounds for every season we might have to spend in the lower leagues. Every effort must be made to encourage as many people away from the Retail Park and down to East Longman.

We really have to win at Fir Park on Saturday or the post split fixtures might be largely irrelevant. They almost certainly will be if we lose.

The poster concerned never lets mere facts and statistics get in the way of a dig at the democratically elected Scottish Government even when entirely irrelevant to the topic of the thread.

Nobody has given up.....but a lot of us are fed up.

It strikes me as no more than a holding position with the real decision still to be made.

Thank you for posting that. A very useful mini table to keep an eye on and one which emphasis the absolute necessity of closing that gap at the bottom on Saturday.

Agreed, if the board feel the need to issue a statement effectively stating that it's businesses as normal that strikes me as a sure indication that it is a long way from being so.

Whatever your view of Foran there is little doubt that his loyalty is to the club. By the end of his tenure with us Hughes's only loyalty was to himself and his bank balance.

Agree that, wherever we find ourselves next season, the development system and those employed in it needs a serious overhaul. The fact that in the dozen years since we were first promoted to the top league we have only produced three players in the form of Ross, Christie and Polworth who have come remotely close to becoming first team regulars and just the one who has generated transfer income is a shocking disgrace. Surely it's not too much to ask that we have a competent and efficient youth system that produces a first team player at least every second season and generates a transfer fee more often than once in a blue moon. If our current system fails to do that then what on earth is the point in spending a six figure sum every year on it ?

Foran is not blameless by any means for the situation we are in. However, I do firmly believe that the board have failed both him and the fans by not providing him with the experienced assistance that, as a new and inexperienced manager, he requires. It is increasingly evident that, whatever else he may be doing, Brian Rice is not fulfilling that role.

This is very largely the same core squad as before. Their best was more than good enough to avoid relegation before. Whilst they can't be entirely absolved from blame, the primary fault for where we find ourselves today does not lie with the players.

I believe that I am right in thinking that, if we are relegated, we will be the first team in the history of the Premiership and the SPL before it to be demoted having taken points from every other team in the division. The problem being that far too many of those were daws and far far too few were victories.

I have no insight into what goes on behind the scenes at the club but can't help observe that when John Hughes first arrived our form and results both dipped considerably. Then Russell Latapy arrived and his presence coincided with an upturn in fortunes including, in his only full season at the club, our best ever league finish, qualifying for Europe for the only time in our history and, of course, our historic Scottish Cup win. Russell departs and is replaced by Brian Rice and our form and results worsen and have declined increasingly rapidly ever since. I don't know the answer but can't help wondering is that mere coincidence ?

I would like to think that the club does not wash it's dirty linen in public but I sincerely hope that, after the discord that was evident on Saturday, has been dealt with by a clear the air internal meeting involving directors, manager, coaches and senior players with a view to pulling in one direction to try to escape relegation. The club, no doubt, has a big decision to make but, not having made that decision in January or February at the latest, that decision needs now to wait until the end of the season so that all the focus for now is on the challenging but not impossible job at hand.

I'm not entirely convinced about that but beat Motherwell on Saturday and at least there is hope. Lose and it's pretty hopeless.

I've seen her standing in the wings for some time and now I'm hearing her clear her throat.

If the manager is indeed not listening to the assistant manager then one or the other needs to go.

Hughes was at a very low ebb in his career, was unemployed and had nobody else rushing to employ him. Kevin MacDonald is in a very different position indeed. Yes, they wouldn't let him spend money we didn't have and that he knew we didn't have when he signed his lucrative contract only a few months before.

Cue for one poster to repeat his mantra that we are doing just fine and that Barry Wilson is biased with an anti ICT agenda.

Merde

We had this discussion in January and, no doubt, will have it again at the end of the season. However, personally, I don't believe right now is the time for this debate. Rather, it's the time for pulling together and trying to dig ourselves out of this hole we find ourselves in.