Kmcalpin

A good post and you're right about changing social reasons. For that reason we have to attract more women to football as Hearts have successfully shown. Fans now want better facilities and not everyone wants to stand. Working patterns are changing too as you say. Money - I'm not so sure that its as important a reason as some would have us believe. Yes ticket and travel costs are far too high and they do deter some fans from attending but for many others its a case of choice. £20 is a helluva lot for a football match but not for a few bets on the horses or a few drinks at the local or at home. Men are now spending far more on clothes than they used to do. The cost of golf club membership has rocketed. Concerts don't come cheap. All of these alternatives and more are competing with football tickets. TV football too has had a huge impact. Years ago I would have read about the likes of big English teams like Bolton, Burnley or Arsenal in football publications and occasionally watched them on the box, but that was it. In recent years wall to wall coverage of the English Premiership excited young Scots fans who then saw that standard as being the norm and anything less was rubbish. In recent times that has begun to change, as English clubs have enjoyed less success in Europe and Scots fans, both young and old, have discovered that there are bigger and better clubs like Barcelona to support. So yes, social reasons are very relevant as you point out. It shows that the club must work hard to show the local community that its not just about putting a decent team on the park. Overall our attendances are low just now but Christmas is approaching and we've not been playing well. Our core support in recent years never really varies outwith 3,100 - 4,100. By way of comparison, I think a year ago we played Ross County at Fir Park and our home crowd was about 3,100.

Any word on Louis Laing's unexplained absence?

Correct. A few of our group left from Perth and travelled down the A9, M80 and M73/74. That is the way they normally travel. We commented at the time on the entire South Stand being open and could only assume that Dundee had advised us to expect well in excess of 2,000 fans. We travellled via Kincardine Bridge yesterday and it was fine although it took us a good 30-40 minutes longer.

No cause to crow at all but Inverness and Hamilton both attracted sub 3,000 crowds yesterday, as did Killie the week before. Christmas is acoming - its that time of year for shopping, nights out on the lash and monumental hangovers.

An important win for us today and it was possibly the best performance of the season. Some good football and we're gradually looking more organised although our off the ball work rate has to improve drastically. For me Lou Moult was the MOTM although young Hall had a very impressive debut. Moult has a high work rate with not a little skill. I thought too that Keith Lasley had his best game for a while although he did go missing for a longish spell in the second half, as did Pearson and Grimshaw. The two full backs had a mixed game. Hammell and especially Law looked very good on the ball but they were all too easily caught out of position in the second half. Law in particular had a rather uncomfortable time of it when the young Liverpudlian, Calder, appeared on the scene. We played some good football, especially in the first half and it would have been no injustice to go in at the interval 3 or 4 goals up. The players are also starting to look more confident. Overall a good team performance but we did lose our way a bit in the second half, especially following the substitutions. For a lengthy spell Dundee piled on the pressure after the break and it came as no surprise when they scored. 2-0 can be an awkward lead and we looked uncomfortable whilst trying to defend and soak up pressure. Still we held out until the third goal sealed it. A bit surprising to see Ben Hall make his debut as Mark McGhee hadn't mentioned him but Dylan Mackin's late, but welcome appearance from the bench, was less of a surprise. Louis Laing's absence remains a mystery. Good to see MMcG use some youth. The most disappointing aspect of the game for me was our off the ball play. We need to work a lot harder in closing opposition players down and denying them space. Dundee were given far too much space at time in spells, but in fairness Mark McGhee knows this. If we can rectify this weakness we'll be a top 6 side. In fairness though we thoroughly deserved our 3-1 win and our weakness should be viewed in that context.

OK. The competitive season will kick off say 2 weeks earlier and I assume friendlies will be played beforehand (an assumption I know). Normally these would be played midweek although in recent years we haven't played as many as 4 league cup games in a season - so that could already be 1/2/3 more games per season. Will the season finish earlier? Although there will be a 2 week break in January the displaced games will need to be squeezed in at other times in the season. So all in all the close season would probably be shorter and the season more intense given there's a 2 week break in January. In short we'll probably be playing more games (at the moment a minimum of 1 league cup game and with the new set up a minimum of 4 league cup games). The season will simply involve more stops and more condensed periods of activity.

To achieve that surely the league would involve more midweek games being scheduled to replace midweek league cup ties? If so it would be a more intense season for the players.

Granted the players will get a short break in January to recharge their batteries but they will get several weeks less in the summer to recharge their batteries. Swings and roundabouts?

All quiet on the team news front; hopefully we haven't picked up any more injuries in the past week.

There will still be friendlies; all this means is that the close season will get even shorter. Clubs will want to generate revenue and so many such games will be open to the public. From a football perspective few managers will want to go into a competitive game against reasonably strong opposition with an unfit squad. Likewise, if a club like ours needs to make as much cash as possible from a good cup run it doesn't make sense to risk losing a game they should win through players not being match fit. In short we either move to summer football or we don't. No half baked, in between compromise please, which achieves nothing.

Exactly Cap'n. Surely it can't be down to the weather as our winter lasts longer than 2 weeks. Players needing a break? Players down south play more games than we do. Also our season is irritatingly broken up by international breaks meaning that its stop start, stop start ad nauseum. Its very worrying, very worrying indeed, that our owner expressed concern that the proposed break coincides precisely with the time of year that many clubs suffer cash flow problems. Trying to piece together the admittedly scant evidence, would suggest that this particular proposal has been included at the behest of bigger clubs like Aberdeen and Celtic. We all know how the SPFL works with endless bickering/horse trading/behind the scenes deals and compromises. Given that, I'd hazard a guess that Celtic and perhaps Aberdeen have been given this concession as a trade off for some other perhaps totally unrelated concession. Its also significant that Celtic won't be in this season's European competition much longer and could be looking to arrange a money spinning friendly. Might be totally wrong though.

I think Mark McGhee is right. Dom Thomas seems to be hitting a bit of a plateau in his development now. To move up to the next level he needs to bulk up / toughen up (which he himself admits) and to improve his final ball. Mark McGhee and his lieutenants know the lad far better than we do and you have to trust their judgement.

Have the detailed proposals been published yet? Often with these ideas the devil is in the detail.

No problem with that providing we're right.

Les Hutchison is quoted by the BBC as saying "We were not given time to review the impact of such changes on the summer transfer window, the financial impact of a two week winter break when club finances are at there weakest, the impact on pre-season player preparations for the new season and reduced player recovery time. The majority of clubs are run on very tight budgets and need time to review the financial impact of such significant changes." So who exactly took this decision? We are always told by Neil Doncaster that he and his fellow officials don't take decisions but simply implement the wishes of the clubs. Les Hutchison's comment about the financial implications of a 2 week break in January is very well made.

Teams will still want to play friendlies before entering competitive fixtures where money is at stake. The small clubs will still want to put one over the bigger boys who in turn won't want to be caught cold. It'll probably lead to a shorter close season.

I can't see the proposed group format making much of an impact. Friendlies will still have their place no doubt, especially for Celtic and Sevco.

The question is does their ambition match their talent? Very few of young players go on to better things - maybe Steven Lawless is an exception but Alan Martin's career should be a warning to those who can't wait.

Yes, of course. Never made the Inverurie due to bad weather.

Seconded Andy. I've been following the Well for over 50 years and never seen us play a Highland League team. Looking forward to it.

In general terms I'd agree with you - £5.00 would be a reasonable charge for a bog standard SPFL Premiership game, if I had my way. The problem is though that every club in the senior professional ranks charges more, as do some clubs in the lower echelons . Formartine United, for example, charge £8.00 for their normal games and so I really don't think £5.00 is anywhere near a realistic price.

Neither side should be considered to be a pushover... lets do the business on the park first. As far as Formartine's finances are concerned surely they are not sustainable. Their average gate income over a season (net of VAT) will be about £80-90k, which is just over 50% of the transfer fees paid out and mentioned. There may well be other transfer fees. Ok they will have some commercial income from a social club perhaps or advertising or sponsorship but it won't be that much. They will then have a pretty substantial wage bill for a club of their status, plus other running costs for the stadium, taxes, etc etc. they must be getting subsidised by some kind of benefactor. If that was us, much of our support would be up in arms. It would, equivalent to us forking us some £2 million on transfer fees.

Surely the SPFL isn't responsible for distributing Scottish Cup cash? If so, I'm happy to admit I'm wrong.

Didn't know that Iain. Not only that, its payable within 3 days!! In my view whats sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander. Now why can't the SFA stump up monies due to clubs within 3 days (as opposed to several months).

Maybe. It was Stewart Robertson who told me there was a 3 way split - perhaps just a rule of thumb division?