DoofersDad

Has returned to Bromsgrove Sporting which is the club from where he came to us. Sporting play in the Midland Football League Division 1 which is English non league level 6. Was last at some Swedish Club so he has certainly tried his luck all over the place.

That's a great accolade and he will be under some pressure to live up to the billing. I am sure he will be well advised but what concerns me is that in order to show what he is capable of, his type of "vision" player needs really good players around him who are on the same wavelength. When he came on as a sub on Saturday he got a fair bit of the ball was generally pretty ineffective. He played square balls or played the ball back but offerred little penetration - but it wasn't his fault. As discussed elsewhere, the team were not firing on all cylinders and there was precious little movement in front of him. He was continually looking up and scanning in front of him but sadly finding no players creating space to play the ball into. If other players at the club can up their game, get on Ryan's wavelength and keep moving to create exploitable space then Ryan can develop here for another season or two and put himself in the public's eye. If not, then Ryan may well be best moving on. Of course, if he does move on, being ranked in this list should seriously up his price tag. Hopefully he will be able to repay the club which has nurtured him by ensuring he is in contract when he goes so that the club benefits from a large transfer fee when the time comes.

That's interesting. It looks from the link that there is absolutely no obligation on likely Highland League champions to apply for SFL membership. There is clearly no contingency for the opportunity to be passed onto the runners up which is a real shame. It may be that in introducing the new pyramid structure there was the understandable assumption that all teams would jump at the opportunity of playing at a higher level, but if clubs are not wanting to apply for whatever reason (and Brora may well have a very good reason) then there is the danger that we will continue with the stagnation at the bottom of the SFL. Because of their Geography and their very limited catchment area, Brora may well feel that the interests of the club are best served by aiming to be the best in the Highland league and aspire to occasional cup runs. I think that is fair enough but by adopting that strategy within the current rules they could block other teams in the Highlands who could be competetive in the SFL from having the opportunity. If Brora do win the title and chose not to apply for SFL membership I certainly hope that there is a rule change to allow the HFL runners up a chance next season. I do, hoever, hope that Brora do apply for membership of the SFL and do their bit to change the Southern bias of the league structure. As Charles points out the concept of a "central belt " is a falacy, The geographical centre of Scotland is roughly the Newtonmore area and currently only 5 teams in the top 4 divisions are located north of that centre (and Aberdeen only just). If Elgin get relegated and are not replaced by a team from the North then the imbalance gets greater.

.... in which case, you are just off topic

Can I suggest a public flogging of these young scallywags at the next home game? Should help boost gate receipts. P.S. (just in case someone thinks I'm being serious)

I am glad you have noted that the manager recognises there are issues to address. His comments were honest and constructive.

Typical negative happy clapper knee jerk reaction to a question that deserves a reasoned answer. Fact is that of the 6 matches we have not won in the league this year 4 have been against teams currently in the bottom 6. In addition we went out of the league cup to a lower league side and were minutes from being knocked out of the Scottish Cup by the the team currently bottom of the premiership. So there is actually evidence that suggests supposedly weaker teams do relatively better against us. Asking why that might be is therefore not only a perfectly reasonable question, it is an important question. My own view is that the better teams rely on the strength of their quality to assert their style of play on the game. Lesser teams don't feel they can do that and feel the way to beat us us to stop us playing our game. Hence they press us hard high up the pitch and the tactic clearly worked very well for Partick at the weekend. When teams do that we find it hard to respond. It is a weakness which both County and Partick have exploited and we can expect others to do so as well. It's a weakness which needs to be addressed if we are to maintain a top 3 slot. Of course we all understand we are 2nd in the league and of course we are delighted about it. Of course we all appreciate the team is doing well - but if it was possible for the team to do even better than they currently are, would you not want that as well? I honestly think that with the squad of players at our disposal we can do even better than we are at the moment, but we will only do that if we can identify and address areas of relative weakness. The OP has identified an area of relative weakness and we should all be grateful to him for raising it..

You couldn't make it up. You have to laugh but unfortunately the comedy of it all hides a real sickness at the club that tarnishes Scottish football. The club don't want him, he doesn't want to be at the club but they are paying him £3/4million for 12 months to do a job he is sh*te at. There are far better managers at far better clubs getting paid far less than him. Most clubs are desperately short of funds and yet so much of the money that comes into the Scottish game ends up being drained away in the Ibrox cesspit.

It was interesting what Yogi was saying in one of his post match interviews about players not doing in the match what they have been doing in training. He was also talking about possibly mixing it up a bit and giving at chance to others who are champing at the bit. We can only conjecture at who might not be delivering on match days what they practise on the training ground but any change might not be the obvious ones. Indeed there may not be any changes at all and his words (which will be a lot stronger when he talks to players individually) might be intended as a spur to his preferred starting line up. Hughes also said that he needs to look at himself and reflect on whether a formation which has been successful has become too predictable. Whether there are changes or not, we need a better performance and to get back to winning ways.

I'm surprised they haven't done better. They have a reasonable core support for that level and have attracted some decent players over the years. It would be a real shame if they dropped out because it would leave a geographical gap. Of course, if the Rangers go bankrupt again and get thrown out, there might be no relagation

To my mind the actions of the young lads is of far less concern than the unbelievable lack of action of the stewards. Had somebody come on the pitch and intended harm to one of the players they would have had all the time in the world. If this is the level of response the stewards provide when someone enters the field of play, the club should be demanding money back from the stewarding company because they are clearly not doing what they are paid to do.

"No leadership off or on the park" With your knowledge of this maybe you can give us an insight into the managers half time talk or maybe with his lack of leadership he decided to dispense with one. Perhaps, just perhaps, a poor footballing performance on the park, will be the players fault and not the managers! I do agree with the rest of your input as indeed fielding the same team each week can be less stimulating and maybe rotation could mean that some players would come back refreshed into the team again. However it must be difficult for a manager to disrupt a team when on a good run and make no mistake this is perhaps the best run we will ever experience as our finances dwindle and the calibre of player we are able to attract reduces. When things are not going right on the park it is reasonable to expect the manager to assess what is going wrong and take actions to address it. We started off with the tactic of keeping possession at the back and then trying to play the ball up through the middle. Partick pressed us, forced us into errors and then scored two well taken goals in the first half. There was no discernable response to going behind, no discernable change at half time. Given the performance on the park I would have expected Hughes to be parked on the edge of the technical area barking out instruction and encouragement but my impression was that he was less involved pitchside than usual (no doubt those in the mainstand will have a better take on this than me). Sometimes it's just not your day and nothing seems to work. I just got the impression yesterday that we tried one thing which didn't work and there was a lack of willingness to try anything. Hughes comments after the match are also of interest here. He was very honest in saying "one on one, all over the pitch, we were second best." That being the case, why was he not doing his nut on the touchline during the game? County were another team who pressed us hard. In that game we were lucky they were not out of sight at half time but at least we changed tack at half time and took the game to them. That was the kind of tactical response we needed yesterday but it simply didn't come.

I note the following line in the BBC website report of today's game. "Marley Watkins squandered a chance with an over-precise angled shot" How on earth can something be "over-precise"? Something is either precise or it isn't. Had Marley's shot been precise he would have scored! Directly above this nonsense is a picture of Stevenson putting the ball past Brill for the first goal. The caption reads "Stevenson was alert to take advantage of Gallacher's hesitancy for the opening goal". Some of the journalists at the Beeb these days are indeed clueless.

Full marks to Partick who thoroughly deserved their victory. Even when they were four up they worked really hard and closed us down quickly whilst offering plenty of movement when in possession. It was an object lesson in how to beat us when we try to play patient possession football. The dissapointing thing was that when it was clear that Partick had the right tactics there was no plan B. There was no leadership off the park and none on it. Shinnie looked as though he was completely uninterested so perhaps it is time to "rest" him, bring in Tremarco and give the captain's arm band to Warren. Hopefully the players and the manager will know they fell well short of acceptable standards today and will pick themselves up and do better next time.

That could be said for other players i.e Daniel Devine, Nick Ross etc. Can't see Nick playing at left back TBH.

Moving Shinnie into midfield and bringing Tremarco in at left back is another option. Tremarco is a player who I feel is a little unlucky not to have had more game time.

Has Richie not publicly stated before that he fancies going over to the States to do coaching? Once he's got his badges he could well be offski. But if the club support him in getting his badges whilst he is under contract here, I am sure he can be a great asset to the club off the pitch for a couple of years even if he doesn't win a place back on the pitch.

TBH I can't see even a 100% Foran getting into the first choice starting line up these days. He would not even be a cert to be on the bench. Of course we will have spells with injuries and suspensions and that will probably give him an opportunity for a game or two but I think we've seen the last of him as a regular starter. He's been great for the club, but we are considerably stronger in midfield now and his is a little bit older. We may not be seeing a contribution from Richie on the field but should not under-estimate his contribution off it.

http://www.fifa.com/ballon-dor/puskas-award/video=2463792/index.html Watch the 10 nominated goals and vote. Some stunning goals in here!

Legend

Could well be back managing in Highland League next season. ...if he's lucky.

We won 4-2 to (temporarily) go top and the performance of the ref is getting more Collum inches than the performance of the team!

Must be something I drank

All in all I think that's a great draw. It's what the cup is all about. The non-league sides have a real chance of progressing whilst the draw guarantees several lower league sides getting in the 5th round draw and enhances the chances of a smaller side going a long way into the competition. It really is quite extraordinary that of all the Premier League sides, Kilmarnock are the one who have the lowest placed opposition with their match against the Rangers. St Mirren should hold no fears for us. The fact that they are a Premiership side means there will be no question of over-confidence or fear of embarrassment which so often does for teams playing lower league opposition. We know we have to play well to beat them so as long as we just go out there and do what we are good at, we should get the result. Just have to wait until the 5th round for Brora!

...and soon will be terrific