DoofersDad

Good to get a home draw and it could be a lot worse than Livi. It won't be a tie they fancy but they will be favourites. They are 5th in the Premiership and are there on merit. They are a well organised and extremely hard working side. We will need to match them on those attributes and hope our flair players can unlock their defence. It should be a good game.

HT. 0-1 FT. 1-2 ICT. White Opp. Brown Crowd 842

You make more money in the transfer market if you can tie players into longer term contracts. But you can only tie them into longer contracts if you can offer them a decent wage over the period. We simply can't do that. I think we should all be well aware now of the problems caused by having players on long term, contracts where the wages being paid are no longer viable when the club's income drops drastically.

That being the case, there must be real concern about the state of the pitch. We have had a quiet couple of days weatherise but prolonged heavy rain is forecast overnight and into tomorrow. The longer range forecast suggests the next 3 or 4 weeks could be wetter than average, so if the pitch is not playable now, it begs the question of when it will be playable. I have some vague recollection of someone saying something about an aquifer?

Robbo's record of finding unheralded players and turning them into players bigger clubs want to sign is way better than his 2 predecessors. I can't be bothered with speculation about who we may or may not be looking at. If Robbo thinks they are good enough, then that's good enough for me.

I am sure the club is offering more money if we get promoted, but with our financial situation, what we can offer in the Premiership is probably less than what County and Dundee can offer in the Championship.

It's just the nature of our club. We have a small budget, we bring players in on low wages, we improve them, they move on to clubs who can afford bigger wages, we bring more players in on low wages to replace them etc, etc. What we need to get better at is moving players on whilst still under contract and getting something for them.

I'd play them for now. If we are to have any hope of getting promotion we need our strongest team in the park. If a player has signed a PCA then you would expect him to want to move in January if possible in order to start picking up the bigger wage sooner and (if moving to a Premiership club) play against the top flight clubs. It is therefore in their interests to give their all in these games to persuade the teams then have a PCA with to do what is necessary to get early release. It will be a different matter if a move is not agreed in January though. In that case, with the PCA in place, there is not the same need to impress, and whilst they may genuinely try to do the best for the club and their team mates, there will be a loss of that fighting edge. If we can get some money now for anyone who has a PCA then it's probably best to get some money for an early release. It's all conjecture at the moment but if Rooney is going to leave us then I would have thought he should be having Premiership ambitions. Rather than go to Dundee, he would be better staying here for the rest of the season and showing people what he is capable of. He shouldn't be short of offers then.

That sounds more believable. I can’t see any benefit to Celtic of making the approach as a low offer would rather give the game away as to what they may be willing to accept for Ryan. Also, my understanding is that 14% is not the figure agreed. Having said that, regardless of who is taking the initiative I would say both clubs should be happy to agree £2million at this point. That would make it clear to other clubs that they needn’t bother making offers under £20m. Whilst higher transfers could give us more, £2m is more than we could have expected when Ryan moved to Celtic so if Celtic get more than £20m then good luck to them.

Harper's impressed me when I've seen him play, but at the moment there are others just ahead of him in the pecking order. If he's going to develop then he needs game time. It will be good for him to go to Elgin and therefore good for the club in the longer term. In the short term it is a bit of a risk if we pick up injuries or suspensions in the back four, but there are midfielders who get drop back into defence if need be.

HT. 1-1 FT. 1-2 ICT. Doran Opp. Meekings Crowd 4611 Yellow. Trafford

I don't think that is what he was saying last week. It wasn't that they are not good enough, it was that their performance last week was not acceptable. In fact, he made a point of praising them for the good home performances of recent weeks and said that is what makes last weeks poor performance so disappointing. In other words, we need the players to perform consistently at the levels they have demonstrated they can perform at.

I think Storey was our best outfield player. He put in a lot of effort even if the end result often left something to be desired. It seems from the votes in the POTY poll so far that others agree. If other players who let the club down on Saturday know that their place is at risk they will maybe heed the wake up call. I actually felt Doran was OK too. Far from his best but better than most, but as captain he should have done a lot more to drive his team on to great effort.

It seems that every time we have a poor performance these days, questions are asked about whether we have the right manager. Personally, I have little doubt that we do. Looking at the wider picture we are still 2nd in the division and above teams with significantly bigger budgets that ours. Robbo took over when the club was in a real mess and with finance being used to pay off former managers and to pay the wages of players with premier division contracts but without the performance levels to match. He's had to bring in new players at rock bottom wages and develop a team which was not only good enough to survive in a tough Championship but good enough to move forward again and challenge for promotion. He's done that and we shouldn't under-estimate how good an achievement that is. That's not to say there aren't problems and that the team couldn't do better still. Let's face it, Saturday's performance was one of the poorest performances for many a long year. As manager, he takes responsibility for results and performances on the park, but how much was he to blame for Saturday's fiasco? Some may say that it is the manager's job to motivate the players, but how much motivating should they need? Precious little in my book. A win would have closed the gap on Utd, increased the gap between 2nd and 3rd to 6 points and avenged the 3-0 doing at Gayfield. Added to that, there were no premier division games on so we were the highest ranked team playing in Scotland so there would be a bit more media focus on our game. Also, the January transfer window is just round the corner, so if players are looking to catch the eye of a bigger club, Saturday was the perfect opportunity to impress. If the players can't motivate themselves in those circumstances then frankly there is little the manager can do. I accept that Robbo does, at times seem not to have a plan B. But sometimes when plan A is not working it doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with plan A, it might mean that the players are failing to implement it properly. I don't like managers picking on individual players for public criticism (except for a specific incident like a rash challenge for a red card) but a general criticism of the team is fair enough. They enjoy the public adulation when they do well, so they deserve some public criticism when their performance falls well below the level the paying public expect. Privately he will talk to individual players and explain to them the extent to which he feels the general criticism does or does not apply to them, and why. There is a bit of work to do following Saturday and it will be a test of Robbo's man management skills, but I have absolutely no doubts that Robbo remains the man for the job.

If only we'd known there would be a delay on the figures we could have counted the number of supporters ourselves. It would have been more exciting than watching the game.

I'm finding it hard to understand that a team that has been playing pretty well recently, who could have increased the gap between 2nd & 3rd to 6 points and who should have felt they had a point to prove after a poor 3-0 defeat earlier in the season at Arbroath, can put in such a truly awful performance. They should have been really up for this game. Instead, it looked as if most of them simply couldn't be bothered. And I don't think I can remember a game when possession has been given away so easily so often. It was like watching a 2nd rate pub side at times. It was just dreadful. Storey was probably the pick of the outfield players. He at least put in some decent effort even if the end product left a lot to be desired. The game was rather summed up for me by the incident in the first half when Storey got the ball wide right and ran virtually the width of the pitch with the ball at his feet but couldn't find a team mate to pass it to. I thought taking Doran off was a mistake - not just because I had him down to score our first goal but because he also worked quite hard and was the one player who seemed most likely to unlock the Arbroath defence. I can't criticise the team selection because it was the same players who did well against Dunfermline, but there must be some reason for such collective ineptitude. The last time we had a couple of poor performances was when the sickness bug ran through the club. As far as I know, there are no such problems just now. Let's hope this is just a one off, because unless they get back on track we will quickly slip out of the play-off places. We may be 2nd, but our points total is closer to Morton in the relegation play-off position than to Dundee Utd.

Well, to be fair, it was probably better than the 2nd half

After being turned over at Gayfield last time we met, we need a solid professional performance to get a result. It won't be easy though, Dick Campbell is tactically very astute. They are likely to sit deep and with Linn and Donnelly they have players who can hurt us on the break. An early goal is what we need but we may need to be patient. With the Dundee Derby ending all square and Ayr having a difficult game against QOS we could extend the gap between 2nd and 3rd to a healthy 6 points whist cutting the gap at the top by 2. This is the final game of the decade - and what a decade it has been! Getting a convincing win this afternoon would be a fitting way to end the decade so we can look forward to the new one with renewed confidence. I'm sure the boys will be up for it today so lets hope we can get a few more than 2,000 into the ground to cheer them on.

HT. 1-0 FT. 2-0 ICT. Doran Opp. Donnelly Crowd 2019 1st Yellow. Trafford

Garry Warren would be my choice. He was with us for 6 seasons during this last decade with over 200 appearances. He led our team by example through our most successful period and was a great ambassador both on and off the field. It is so disappointing that his time at the club ended end in the way it did. A shout also for Ross Draper. He had just under 200 appearances for us this decade. He played in that role in front of the back four where good work so often goes unnoticed. He and Garry Warren were the 2 rocks our most successful period was built around. And, yes, I know he went OTB, but we did get £100,000 for him by which time his best days were some way behind him!

For me the best moment has to be Graeme Shinnie lifting the Scottish Cup. It is one of the big 2 competitions in Scottish football and to win that and have our name in the list of champions is a wonderful achievement and something that can never be taken away. Lift the cup might have been my most memorable moment, but the final certainly wasn't the most enjoyable game! For a club the size of ours it seemed almost surreal to be going into a Scottish cup final as the clear favourites. Having done the business against Celtic in that wonderful semi-final, it was a nervy day. I remember just imagining how gutted I would feel if we lost the final to a team in the league below. I remember that as the game wore on, Falkirk looked increasingly the more likely team to win the cup, but then up popped James Vincent with that lung busting run to score the most important goal in the Club's history! Any lingering nerves were banished with the final whistle and then we could celebrate the victory as champions. An absolutely magic moment. Looking back though, it is truly remarkable that there actually are so many very special moments to look back on. We can be very proud of what this Club has achieved.

Not the greatest performance but there was a real team effort in there with Aaron Doran leading by example in Tremarco's absence. McHattie did really well at left back too. We deserved the win but twice we allowed Nesbit in on goal and again we have Mark Ridgers to thank for 2 outstanding bits of goalkeeping. It is notable that both our goals were scored by one of our back four, and whilst it is brilliant that they can pop up and score, we need our strikers to be more clinical. There are aspects of Jordan White's play that I really like, but I'm hoping that Santa brings him a pair of magic spring loaded scoring boots for Christmas. It may not be a white Christmas but perhaps it will be White New Year.

HT. 0-0 FT. 1-2 ICT. Keatings Opp. Nisbit Crowd 2204

Bear in mind that the figures presented at the AGM on Thursday are for the financial year which ended on 31st May and therefore they relate to the activity last season and not this. It is true that the operating loss last year was similar to the previous year but it is important to note that the concerns raised by the Auditors in the report for the previous year about the club operating as a going concern have been been removed this year. And since the end of the last financial year the club has been making some progress on identifying additional sources of income whilst containing costs. That indicates a significant improvement from where we were a couple of years ago. I'm afraid financial balance sheets make little sense to me, but there were a number of former club directors there on Thursday and others with experience of these things and nobody raised any concerns or felt the need too ask questions about the current financial situation. It seems to me therefore, that there is a general consensus that whilst our financial situation remains difficult, we are moving in the right direction. When he spoke, CEO Scot Gardiner was at pains to point out that the single thing that would make the biggest improvement to our finances would be a return to the Premiership and there is a focus to achieve that. However, I get the sense that whilst that might be true, there is also a pragmatism in place to ensure that we remain financially viable should we fail to regain our Premiership status.

Whatever wage he is on with Celtic, he should be in a position to double that given the way he has been playing this year. He's always been a Celtic fan so I can see him wanting stay for at least another year and win more with Celtic. Unless he suffers a serious injury then his value will only go up if he continues or even improves on his current form. One would expect he would want to move on before too long though and probably to the English Premiership were he would be up against very good teams every week and would be regularly mixing it with some of the best in the world. He has a terrific attitude to go with his talent and if he carries on the they way he is then he could well attract a price tag of well over £20 million. 10% of that would be nice!