Thinking a lot after today's horrific performance about where we go from here and I've come to the conclusion that relegation is what we need. Ever since we got promoted we've been steadily sneaking towards the trap door every year and we've stagnated as a club. Let's go down and completely rebuild the team and not the shop. Get rid of the deadwood of overpaid experience and give it a go with hungry young players who give a shit. It may take us 3 years to get back up but we'd go up with the ability to move onwards and upwards.
Off-field success will come with on-field success. Bums on seats don't increase because of blind promises, they happen with successful teams.
The fear is we scrape survival and are left with another season of nothingness next year.

Good post, never really thought of it like that.

Reading what you've said I tend to agree. What was dubbed the 'revolution' at the start of the season wasn't really what it was. The same old players, the same old quality of football and the same end of the table. If we manage to stay up I worry that we'd keep hold of a significant portion of these guys and we'd be in the same rut this time next year.

If we move down a division it really is crap, but perhaps that is what we need. Sacking Naysmith would be a complete and utter disaster. Regardless of where we are next season, keep him, and let him rip the core of this team apart and get rid of 80-90% of the players that really aren't cutting it.

Perhaps then we can get into this division with a core of a winning team.

Was there ever really going to be a Revolution? The club is still in the same hands as before, its just at the minute we are being ran by a guy who is living his dream by getting to attend games in the Rangers director box.
I would like to see statements of intent (who cares about a club shop and cafe) from the board rather than statements about a minority of fans, who to be fair have had to put with some horrific home performances over the last 2-3 seasons.

Going down is now a certainty either directly or via play off. However going down and just rebuilding isnt as easy as it seems. If the home fans are disaffected now imagine what it will be like after 2-3 seasons in the bottom tier. Peterhead have thrown money at there team to get out that division, so have been able to attract decent players. Would have McCalister and Rodgers over Clarke and Smith any day.

People are complaining about the standard of the football but if we go down it will only get worse. The club will be luck to sell 200 season tickets.

John Robertson only stopped the rot. When he left and the club appointed Durie and the new proxy board somehow managed to better that appointment with Aitchison the rot took hold again. Bad times ahead I fear.

Agree

Agree with Fat Doug. Relegation is the only way forward. Those that currently own (or is that lease) the club don't have the necessary funds to invest (I'm not having a go at them tho). As such it's fan and sponsorship income that will keep us going. If we get it right on the park the off field stuff will naturally follow. If we go down and are competing for the title, attendances will go up and we'll get the feel good factor back. It's hard going being progressively worse year on year. Last year we scraped the play offs, this year we're doomed. I honestly feel the best way is to re-build and come back stronger - look at Stranraer.

This season has been a farce from the off. The boardroom changes were too late and the appointment of Aitchison put us on the back foot from the off. Season ticket sales are falsely high this year and will be significantly down next year irrespective of what league we're in. In my opinion we'd get more fans with a winning team on the park and sadly, at this time, the best chance of that is in league 2. I love the ambition of being a Championship club but i hope we all from top to bottom now realise how hard this is to achieve and ultimately / sadly how far this is from being a reality.

I'm still a bit confused with regards ownership...

Who actually owns the club? I remember the interviews over summer saying Rankine etc has nothing to do with it, but then I'm pretty sure (correct me if I'm wrong?) Lee said it wasn't complete a few months ago.

Does anyone actually know? No angry responses please. Not trying to be one the folk that want to poke holes in Lee's tenure because I think it is a good thing, but I've never seena club take-over drag on for so long when what seemed like said 'takeover' had already happened.

Get real guys. Going down would be a disaster. And forget about "building" a team for the future, to come back stronger. Most players are at a club for two years maximum then move on. That is the way it works now.

Never heard so much pish in all my days.Who the fuck in their right mind would see relegation as a progressive step,utter,utter,shite.Cannae write anything else as words fuckin`fail me.

Sums fat Doug up. What an idiotic statement to make saying you want your team to get relegated as it would be for the best. Fat twat not fat doug

Fed up and Fat Doug, the club is fucked if (when) we go down. It's a truly inane argument you are putting forward. The club has become a byword for mediocrity in the past 20 years. How that will be improved in the 4th tier of the game for what would almost certainly be a lengthy stay is beyond me to be honest.

A car crash of a season, doomed from the very beginning. And I for one am angry about the whole fucking charade, and all the bullshit that has emanated these past 8 months. Some people have no doubt done well out it, but that does not include the fans, the life-long fans who once again have had to watch shite all season long.

I can just about put up with it in the 3rd tier but there is no way I'll be putting up with it in the basement league.

No matter what the real fans or apologists say, we are in deep, deep shit. A horrendous season has just got worse.
Take the Rangers game out of the equation and we have been utterly awful recently, creating hardly any chances during games.
I`m really worried that we will be relegated as the current bunch of players are being show up as clearly not up to the the task,as today`s game proved.

Some great posts on here tonight,its just a pitty the players did not show the pashion that the fans show.I,ll no go over old ground but i agree with the guys who reconned we were down before a ball was even kicked due to bad signings,management appointment etc.I cannot see where a win is coming from,and thats the worst ov it.Theres very little flair in the team,if any.I really fear for us in the years to come,if we go down,esp with this pyrimid systum about ti start next season.I think you;ll find by the season 18/19 ,highland league sides comming in ,and with the money that they can fling about,establish thereselfs in the scottish league.We however,have a guy,woman un wee lassie,who clearlly have no interest in East Fife football club.Worst thing we done was move ground to where we are now.Am sane fuckall else ,cause nay doot,i'll bi shot doon in flames.AGAIN.

It is so sad when you see smaller clubs like Alloa and Cowden doing so much better than us.
All the talk about revolution? FFS we are worse than we were this time last year, and we were pish then too.

Can't believe things are that bad that people think going down would benefit us! Relegation would be a disaster! From a neutral point of view the situation at club must be hilarious? What an embarrassment for the board when we do go down! On paper our squad actually looks decent but it's a pity we play or grass! Piss poor....

We have been absolutely hoodwinked from the off, revolution my backside. Rumours were carefully put out their IMO by McNeil and Murray about signing top players, the mad plan to go full time all designed to sell season tickets.
Once the tickets were sold none of the revolution rubbish ever materialised.

Lee has been a great communicator in his role but the decision making has been embarrassing from the start, and who actually owns the club ? Is it possibly more bluster from McNeil, Murray.
We have been trialling local junior players the past few weeks in reserve matches who are in there late to mid twenties, from the promise of SPL players to junior players, if we are going down this road I dread to think what we will be like next season in the bottom tier.
An absolute shambles from day 1.

Any revolution in football terms means absolutely nothing if the product, the performances of team on the pitch, continues to be poor. In that respect what we have been served up this season continues to be as dire as any over the past 25 years, in fact it's among the worst (and that is saying something).

I dare say we will hear the same noises in the summer about the club moving forward, Rome wasn't built in a day, off-field improvements etc, etc, but people are not going to be taken in by any more of that bullshit when we are a bog standard 4th tier outfit barely a step up from Montrose, Berwick et al.

Sluddens goals,yer posts been up fer twa oors noo,un yiv no been shot doon in flaims.Maybe the pennys starting ti drap.

Do you know what 'apologist' means mate?

You will need to brush up on your use of the English language I reckon. A revolution in football terms, surely relates to performances on the pitch, the 'product'. Football is what is played on the pitch, or am I missing something here?

Hold on a second ...... The full time thing and international players was exposed as nonsense within minutes of McNeil saying it. When asked about the size of the playing budget for this season compared to last, Murray informed us that it was smaller. He also stated that the aim was to finish 8th ...... Hardly a propaganda master plan to dupe people into buying tickets.

On the matter of shares, Murray informed us that his name was not yet on the shares but a non refundable deposit had been paid to secure them and that once it was all "sorted out" his name would be on the shares. It looks like the sorting out has taken longer than anticipated.

For some reason, the 50 players we've fielded this season have not had the success expected of them.........but that's football sometimes - Nothing is guaranteed.

As for trialing local junior players...... What's wrong with that .......worked for Dave Clarke.

I don't agree with Fat Doug that we simply accept relegation. We must fight for every point and only concede when it is impossible to do any more. However, if it does happen it must be taken as a chance to get some stability into the playing side even if it takes a couple of seasons before we move up a league.
A winning team in the bottom division will pull in more fans than a struggling Div 1 team. Most fans will enjoy watching a winning team in a lower division more than a losing team in a higher division.

In the longer term, ownership of the club is a vital issue but right at this moment the club being owned by Rankin or Twigg or Murray or the Trust is irrelevant. It's now about the players and management wanting to stay in the 1st division.