An update entitled 'The Final Furlong' was today posted on the Chairman's page on http://www.gmfc.net/. In his piece Douglas Rae talks about a few things (some of which also appeared in his column in Saturday's programme) but for me by far the most interesting was the information about the play-off situation.Rae suggests that in the eventuality we do finish 9th we will only have to play the 4th place team in Division 2 to stay up rather than play a final afterwards (I assume that in this scenario the 2nd and 3rd placed teams will play-off for the other vacant spot): "As the team are certainly improving we should be able to triumph over the 4th top team from the Second Division thereby ensuring that we would play again in the First Division next Season." This outcome depends on Gretna going out of business or being relegated to division 2 or 3 because Raydale doesn't meet the necessary criteria for 1st division level. I'm delighted to hear this as I can't see us climbing above Clyde and the heart break of losing in the play-offs again would be too much to take ( I agree with the Chairman that we should beat Brechin, Alloa or Peterhead and that Airdrie or Raith Rovers would be much harder).
I was also interested to read that following a board meeting assistant manager Derek Collins (pictured) has been given control of the youth set-up including Under 14s, 15s and 17s teams. At this stage an Under 19s team is only a possibility which, for me, is unacceptable. The under 19s is a crucial stage for the development of these players. What are they supposed to do after leaving the under 17s considering we don't have a team competing in the reserve league. Hopefully Derek convinces the chairman to run an under 19s team as I think that's what it boils down to.
The chairman also talks about recent signing Erik Paartalu. Paartalu has been very impressive in the two matches he has played so far so I was disappointed to learn that he is only contracted to the club until the end of April - meaning that if we finish 9th he wont be available for the play-offs. I hope we secure Erik on a longer deal no matter what division we are in next season.
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