From P&B (Brechin supporter)

" to be honest I can't see us losing this game against a poor East Fife team "

Make them eat their words please

So let me get this right. The hedgetrimmers are 5 points and 3 places better off than us having played a game more. Wow, what fucking world beaters.

Might as well not bother turning hadn't we?

Play how we did Sat then yes.

They've had their share of dreadful performances too.

So had Dunfermline recently.

Oh well, that's that. We've lost already.

I'll be at the Glebe Sat, hopefully we can grab a point. Brechin looked very comfortable last game.

So I take it this Brechin guy must have been correct then?

Clearly Bob. Doesn't matter who we have as manager or who the players are we are destined to be shite forever it seems.

Is it just we are not as good as we think we are or is there some deep underlying problem associated with playing for us. In a season where everything about the communication from up top has been good, it is annoying that we still find ourselves in the lower reaches of the league. Stranraer apparently have a budget of only £80,000 per season, and look how well they have done.

The blame for sorry demise is down to our director of football Brian McNeil. He is ill qualified for the position and this has led to a whole host of very costly mistakes. Before the start of the season he dumped Billy Brown (like him or loathe him his rant kept us up). He employed a youth coach as our manager (and his wee laddie). He employed a failed Hearts youth goalie coach (and dumped Westy).Between them they signed some crap players, no need to go into names.Who in their right mind would think an average youth coach would do job for East Fife!!! During the season he single handedly managed to lose the club the services of a proven goalie coach, the head youth coach, the guy who worked 5 days a week in the club shop, two safety officers, a volunteer kit man and a trainee groundsman. There has been no full time training for the pro youths for weeks / months and the lots of them have left because they were not given what was said on the tin when they started (ask some of these decent young guys and get their side of the story) and dumped the rest in the Juniors before their contract was fully up. Will we have Pro youths next season; I would have thought that was unlikely.The youth system is in meltdown, some teams have left Bayview to go to Kennoway and others are disgruntled, look at the youth website, nothing has changed since just after the beginning of the season, there is no organisation, lots of talk and excuses but that comes cheap. Lee has worked his socks off for the club and done lots of good but I cannot see how we will finish the season in the black. We kept a whole host of French players for months in Kirkcaldy, paid them and no doubt living expenses as well. Gave them transport (not bad guys but where are they now) and although he never signed, do you think Christian Nade came back and forward from Edinburgh every day for months for nothing. It was an ill conceived idea and now while I think the club has better players they will not get time to jell because every game is a need to win game and if Arbroath and / or Airdrie get a spurt on we are in trouble. I for one do not want to be in the bottom division and while I hope we are not I can see it being a strong possibility. Brian step aside and let someone in that position that is qualified to do it.

Davie Clarke.

Back on to this total crap again.
This is obviously someone very close to the club who has left the club under a cloud. I won't name names.

Take a look Brian is not director of football. He was given this title and then he asked for it to be removed as this was not what he was doing.

Yes Willie Aitchison is a friend, but it was was Brian's suggestion and not the only one. He did not bring in Kenny Aitchison to the football side he was in as a trainee sports therapist on for experience and his dad brought him in to the football side.

Westy was dumped when Brian was in Portugal with the Modern apprentices. Brian was not at all happy with his decision. Westy is a personal friend, he brought him back into the club after he was sacked previously. The next goalkeeping coach was not his decision either. He would have Westy back at the club in a heartbeat.

The manager signed the players along with the Chairman, who was acting on Willies recommendations. Brian had no input in this.

The Head of Youth resigned after an argument with the manager. The argument was to do with him not doing his job. All paperwork was being done by other staff and he was being paid to do it. On the day of the argument he let down the manager, the senior players and the youth players.

The club shop had very little, stock customers were complaining constantly. And Ian Cook resigned after he was asked to run the shop more efficiently and he refused.

The safety officer resigned as his son had his wages cut as he was not old enough to be on the security detail.

The volunteer kit men left as they did not want to work with Brian, that was their choice.

Now, the trainee groundsman also resigned. We found out why from the papers, and as a result it was clear why as he was unable to work within the football club.

The training for the Modern Apprentices is all done by the manager as is the 19's. He is in charge of all matters concerning them. Players were put out by the manager. All of the youth players have been out on loan, at one stage or another, to allow them to develop, this common practice within youth set ups. Where do you think some of our younger loan players have come from.

Yes Lee works his sock off but so does Brian. He has been working on other projects for the club, ordering stock for the shop, liaising with suppliers, as well as doing some youth stuff that should have been done by the head of Youth.

Lee is in charge of the finances as he will tell you, Brian has never taken anything to do with them. Leaving Lee to work where his strength lies. He doesn't know anything about wages for the players.

He did not sign the French players, agree wages, give them accommodation or give them transport.

Christian Nade did come across for nothing, Brian was giving him treatments for months for his knee. He helped him arrange appointments with specialists and then get his operation. That was all at Brian's cost, quite a lot of the treatments were done in his own time. Letters were written to get him his operation again all in Brian own time and never for any cost.

Brian does not run the youths on his own. HEAD OF YOUTH might give you a clue with this. That is where you should be looking for information on this.

The teams that went to Kennoway were from JSC and nothing at all to do with the pro youth at that time.

Again we are back Brian being made scapegoat for everything by faceless people. No mention of the downward spiral that the club has been in for years, the managers that have been unsuccessful. You are choosing to pick things out and add your own fabrications.

Instead of being a keyboard warrior come down to the club and speak to Brian and Lee personally. Then once you have all the correct facts you can come on here and print a public apology.

Hiya brain's wife

I make that eight people at least who have resigned since the start of the season then Lesley, obviously signs that things were or are very wrong at the club.

I hope for everyone's sake there is a now going to be a long period of stability, though if we get relegated (a real possibility on current form) then I fear for what might happen over the summer.

Well said Lesley! I'm sure you know who this person is who keep's slating Brian. Sour grapes obviously.

I don't know Lesley or Brian, however what I do know is that without Brian we would never have had the chance of local ownership and would still be run by faceless people with no connections to the area.

Yeah there may have been some mistakes made but generally it has been very positive. On the commercial side we are much better than before, and we now have a manager in place who I believe will be very successful given time.

All I know is that despite all the hype we are just as bad if not worse than last season.
Club is becoming one big Fucking joke imho.

Whats your point? she has posted in her own name

I don't know the ins and outs but when you have big changes in an organisation (like a small football club) where there are lots of volunteers you will usually see a few people jumping ship. The club obviously relies heavily on people giving up lots of their time for free to keep things running, the world of volunteer work is filled with petty politics and bitter feuds in any organisation though. If people aren't employed for money there is a whole range of different efforts being put in, people will talk about other people not pulling their weight as much, and voluntary positions are very easy to quit as nobody is paying the rent with them. Often highly strung volunteers will take the huff and dramatically "quit" (usually so someone will beg them to come back a week down the line). All this stuff will happen regardless of who is in charge of the club, so I wouldn't look in to it too much.

Whatever Brian's title is these days, it isn't appropriate for his wife to come in a public forum and criticise the performance of people who were either volunteers or members of staff.

Willie was a big mistake and was already appointed before lee was involved. Unfortunately because that appointment was flawed, all the nade and French player nonsense occurred which was a distraction from trying to find reasonable Scottish league players.

It is fair comment that Brian brought in lee which is the single most important thing he did.

She has a right to reply to the original post surely?

What isn't appropriate is people coming on and lying to suit their own ends, sour grapes it maybe but take a look at the bigger picture. People are working hard for nothing to the improve the club for you. Count Brian and Lee as volunteers. Just because Auld Duffer may not be one of them now is no need to try and be so spiteful.

I did not critisize any of the volunteers I explained the points that Auld Duffer made. He brought up the point about Brian sacking or being instrumental in the leaving of people. All I did was let folk know the truth.

Yes Willie was a big mistake, but Brian only put him forward for the appointment, at any point he could have been rejected by the new board. He was interviewed on a few occasions. He has not been the only manager mistake in the past few years, why is Auld Duffer not criticizing the old board? Maybe because it is a bit too close to home.

She criticises the performance of a volunteer in the shop and the professionalism of the former head of youth - these individuals did not ask to be brought into a debate on a fans forum. I dare say the original poster likewise isn't perturbed at bringing individuals into the argument but if I volunteered for an organisation I would be disappointed if after leaving I was getting criticised
In such a public way. Likewise if I was an employee somewhere and left, these critical comments would potentially be a source of legal action as they can have a detrimental effect on my future employment prospects.

Auld Duffer made the points criticise him.

Moderators if you wish to delete from Auld Duffers points please do so.

Posts have been deleted for less personal attacks.

I would like to apologise for mentioning a name on here.
Moderators, Tam, Kerriann and GOF could you please delete the post from Auld Duffer down.

I don't think anything should be deleted to be honest.
All very interesting and if you play with fire...

Don't think anything should be taken down and full credit to Lesley for explaining the situation.

If people are going to throw stones then they can't go in the huff when they are called out for being wrong.

The exchange has been a good insight into the club and shows what a difficult transition is has been.

Hopefully we can move on now.

Who is Auld Duffer ?

Who is mr305?

I don't know who Auld Duffer is but I do know the identity of Auld Geezer who is a far more dangerous character.
Quietly and behind the scenes AG is trying to rebrand EFFC. His campaign is to change EFFC from the club with the worst nickname in Scotland to a global brand. It's more than my life is worth to say much more but I did see this evil creep in on Saturday when he wore a hat emblazoned with the new name with which he is trying to transform the club. Be aware.

We're not locally owned. Maybe Mr Duthie could give his view on this instead of posting pointless drivel. Lee Murray told us at his meeting when he took over that, "Rankine is no longer involved" I remember being elated when I read this statement on the EF Twitter account. This is clearly, at best, an untruth. It was then, and still is now. Please tell us your view on this, Alan. Do you think an actual takeover will happen? Was there ever an intention for a takeover or is Mr Murray, as good a guy as he seems to be, merely holding the reigns for the Rankine consortium?

Honestly unless you've got the balls to go and question ANYTHING about East Fife keep it shut. Certain people on here are absolutely pathetic and have such a shite life all they can do is come on here and make a fuss. These people are cowards are will never be man enough to say ANYTHING face to face and even hide behind a fake name because they would crumble if asked anything directly, stop your wining cowards! you know who you are So fuckin what who owns the club? your job is to support. The club has been left In the best hands and people still moan! Don't let these idiots tickle your pickle Lesley. set Steven in amongst them if need be

Who me?

Wouldn't hold my breath on that one. His contributions seem to be based on giving running commentaries on what other people post with an ntoc twist.
Boring useless drivel and no wonder the trust are stagnant.

Can't believe his wife is coming on to defend him instead of him coming on himself and defending the shambles he made of bringing in his friend aitchison as manager

To all you negatory posters. Keep going, keep posting your drivel, keep up with the criticism and lee and Brian will end up saying FU, we are off.

Is that what you all want? Back to the days of near bankruptcy? whatever you say, Brian and lee are trying to take us forward and have ambitions to have us at least a decent championship side. Why are you all getting so personal? I don't care who runs the show, ambitious people are notoriously difficult and sometimes not nice people. Again, i dont care as long as we reach our goals. In the background, they are not there to make friends, just succeed. So leave the personal issues aside and just get behind the team every week.

What a car crash of a thread. Moan! Moan! Moan! Brian, Lee and Gary need time, give them it or feck off.

Well said Fifey. What a depressing read. There obviously are still issues that need addressed at the club but we're beginning to look like a club that would drive anyone away. If some had their way I can't imagine anyone on earth that would want to come in and try and run East Fife for positive reasons. I hope Brian and Lee aren't taking any notice of some of the shite being spouted. I'm sure they'd both be more than happy to meet with any fan who approached them requesting a discussion on any issue too, that's the sad thing about all this.

I will reply shortly to "Let's get" and "Pete" but first a question to the administrators of this forum. Who revealed my identity ? Has my phone been tapped ? The only reason that Superman and Batman can fight evil is that nobody knows who they are. I hope you are satisfied that the steets of Methil and the posh part of Leven may never be safe again.

Pete. You rejoined AFTN in January after a year away but before that you were obviously quite angry with the AFTN Prediction League as that made up most of your posts.You can't spend all your life being angry so it's quite a relief to know you were quite happy with Collumbine's leadership and Brown's management during the second half of last season.

Let's get... That was your first post ever on AFTN so you have been quite happy right through the Danskin,Brown,Collumbine eras. Was there nothing happened during that period which was more of a concern than me posting some nonsense ?
Surely you both haven't been posting under other names.........

In the next week or so the Trust AGM will be called and at that meeting any concerns members have or any particular questions they want asked will be pursued.
We have two Trust Board members on the EFFC board so any questions you have can be asked through them or,heaven forbid, you arrange to meet Lee and tell him face to face what your concerns are.

It would be encouraging if you turned up at the AGM,explained who you are and asked your questions but I suspect we have as much chance of seeing you as Lee does.

Alternatively you can always start again and express how angry and worried you are under new names as I don't expect to see you at the AGM.

What a nugget.
Clearly touched a nerve

Good one GoF

Got to disagree on this one Pete.
I find NTOC mildly amusing in most posts.

If NtoC decides to appear at The Fringe next year, he can use that in his entry in the programme...

The Frank Skinner Show "disgustingly hilarious" - The Guardian

Eddie Izzard Live - "fiendishly funny" - The Observer

NtoC's Nonsense Night-Out - "mildly amusing in most posts" - Fadi The Fifer on AFTN

Damned by faint praise.