El Grew

I’ve not been a fan of the manager from the get go and if we were to lose this one, you might conclude it was time for him to go. However, playing devils advocate - unless the board has someone primed, ready and waiting in the wings would that do more damage than good, given the backing the players have been giving him publicly? We are all hoping for a much needed win but you have to admit that anything less will put the board between a rock and a hard place.

Kettlewell management pish talk: “The greatest frustration doesn’t come down to the second 45 as we showed a good reaction. We tried to deal with the conditions and the game on its merits. In the opening few minutes we were okay but our decision making process on the ball was so poor and we fell into the trap Rangers set. For us to play into that trap is the most naive thing we can do.” The opening few minutes were okay! Really? What f*cking game was he watching!? We were 1-0 down after 4 minutes and 2 down after 15! He must’ve been talking about the pre-match warm-up. The rest is just utter inane drivel. What are he and his coaching staff working on with this lot in training? Not one shot on target and we could’ve lost by 5 or 6. What was the game plan for today, if there was one? Why did it take 62 minutes to sub Paton and 85 for Slattery - both should’ve been hooked at half-time and not for the first time this season. It’s now become plain that this is a season too far for O’Donnell so why continue to play him? As I said in a previous post there is no discernible improvement in performances and for that the buck stops with Kettlewell. It’s time to pull the trigger.

Well we don’t have to wait long to find out if that’s true or not!

I wasn’t expecting us to win today but I’d hoped we’d put in a performance and make Rangers work for anything in the game. I have been expecting to see some sign of improvement in our performances and results in recent weeks as we played teams in our peer group but I can’t discern any - Livingston, Ross County x 2, Kilmarnock, St. Johnstone x 2, St. Mirren and Dundee. That’s 8 games where we’ve only managed 5 points from a possible 24. If that’s not enough to question the manager and direction of travel then I don’t know what is.

As I posted previously the chickens have well and truly come home to roost!

That’ll be that then!

At least results elsewhere today have gone in our favour with both Livingston and St. Johnstone losing.

So 🎣 🎣. Well here goes. Amateur: A person who performs a job or task but lacks sufficient experience and/or competence.

Totally agree. And that is the biggest problem at the club. It’s being run by amateurs, albeit well-meaning ones. Like you I’m still unclear as to what this all means going forward.

As the bard of Avon wrote, “there’s the rub!” Like it or lump it, Derek Adams was correct. The standard of Scottish football is dreadful and every season it just gets worse. I’ve not heard any of his fellow managers say he was wrong. Consider what Livingston manager David Martindale said when asked about it “I had a conversation with someone else who has managed at that level in England and up here and that was the same comment I got from them.” He bemoaned the fact that for financial reasons he was forced to recruit players from the English National Leagues. He made a valid point that the size of the league puts too much pressure on clubs on the relegation front with dread of the consequential financial damages and that if enlarged, clubs might be inclined to take a different approach. A culture of hiring and firing managers has led to short-term thinking and decision making as clubs become more risk-averse and this is another factor contributing to the drop in the quality of our football. On top of that factor in clubs having to play each other up to 4 times in a season and an inane splitting of the league. I think if you’re being honest, you will agree with much of this. These points have been made before and continue to be made by fans of all clubs around the country. Yet those responsible for running the game seem oblivious. The only games that interest TV are those involving the OF who get the lion’s share of TV money and argue they are so entitled, as they are the only reason there IS a TV deal. The OF don’t give a jot about Scottish football. To them, it’s only a medium, their control and domination of which, allows them access to the vast sums of money offered by European football. They are, and always have been, solely interested in preserving their hegemony over Scottish football.

I think you need to smell the coffee.

Well, who’d have thought it? Administration led us to fan ownership model. Could fan ownership model now take us back there? Possibly not, and I don’t want to be a doom merchant but these are alarming times for our football club. Consider: Public admission by CE and chairman, who are both preparing to bale out, that the club has serious funding issues. Relegation is a distinct possibility with all that entails in terms of severely reduced revenues. A gradual shrinking fanbase. A stadium that has and will continue to leach money. No chairman or CE for the foreseeable future. All this unrest and uncertainty must inevitably affect all of the employees at the club, most importantly of all, the players and management. The big question now, is how can this be fixed?

Chickens coming home to roost I’m afraid. ☹️

Battling performance against a team that’s only lost once at home and in absolutely dreadful conditions. Kudos to the players but 4 good chances passed-up. As I’ve said before draws are better than defeats but are no use in our position and will lead to usgoing down. Livingston 5 points behind us but 2 games in hand and our next 3 games: Rangers (h), Aberdeen (a) and Livingston (a).

St Mirren home league form: P8 W5 D3 L1 GF14 GA8 Our away league form: P8 W1 D3 L4 GF5 GA11 Regrettably I can only see one outcome. 😟

Do we not have a media guru that the board can employ to keep fans informed?

Maybe. But I think he’d benefit more if we had at least one midfielder that could make passes into the inside-right and inside-left channels for him to exploit his pace and strength. Sorry about the old-fashioned terminology.😉

Definitely need to keep Davor in the side now. I thought he was quite neat and tidy in everything he did and kept it simple. He seemed to have a bit of a dig and for the first time in a long time I thought him being there gave the side better shape as he provided a link from the defence to the front players. He reminded me a little of Simo Valakari.

I’ll give you Furlong and Butcher but not Casey. Personally I think Casey has been the weakest link in the defence.

I really hope so because the majority of those recruited were bomb scares!

Always glad to shed some light. 😄

Here’s our away record in the league against St. Mirren: P105; W31; D28; L46 Win = 29.5% Draw = 26.7% Lose = 43.8% Win or Draw = 56.2%

Perhaps the silence from the board is a sign they’re doing some research into who they’d appoint before they dismiss Kettlewell. But then again perhaps not!

What an utterly inane post!