The Roy Barry Fan Club

Fairly clearly aimed at Hibernian pockets -- all going into the war-chest. Hoping for queues on bridge as masses of Hibees head to Fife to see their team play on first Saturday in July -- and come back miserable (hopefully).

Tough start , but if we can get the team bedded down and playing well together in July , we could give the big spenders of the league a wee game in August. The two Dundee clubs will have the two biggest playing budgets in the League by a fair margin.

I have to agree with Secure Par -- rather like the Home kit, but I prefer a classic blue or red based kit for the away top. Of course, I'm really a classic 60's candy stripe fan -- but I guess you can't have it every year. Sponsored Owen Coyle when there was a previous black iteration. That shirt sadly died after our son wore it in hundreds of five-a-side games all over Glasgow for years. That realisation makes me feel very old indeed.

But on the upside Keyser -- my son and daughter in law have just bought a Guest House in the middle of Inverness. I can ask them to give you a discount for walking on the pitch in 2013 -- above and beyond etc etc.

Think it is one of those times when you just have to congratulate Jurgen Klopp for a great season and a great run in the competition, and try not to focus too much on the Final!

Nail on head. In my view, in the medium term, this threatens full time football outside the Premiership in Scotland.

For reasons that some of you will know, I am in a particularly good place to see the amount of effort that the Board put into running the Club. It is phenomenal -- especially from Ross McArthur. However that extends across the Board in all sorts of unheralded ways. Have they made mistakes -- certainly (and they have acknowledged that) around the two year appointment of AJ and trusting him with too big a budget that was not used well. Ross could have explained the reasons for those decisions but typically just took it on the chin as they are in the past. But they are nothing compared to the time, effort and money that they have put in. They don't get paid a bean and spend hundreds of hours every year. So when I read Mr Sherry's comments, I feel an overwhelming sense of disappointment in such a lack of judgement. This is especially the case as I know that Ross is working in a number of ways to bolster the Par's finances in ways that Mr Sherry wouldn't get close to. Of course, the unequal, and in my view unfair, distribution of TV monies in Scotland is at the root of the problem. However it is just worth reminding ourselves that this Board delivered three years of (small)l profits before this year of a large loss. No club other than Dunfermline has made a profit in the Championship for years. I have spent a fair amount of time looking at the variables in the football budget, and I can tell you that there are many risks which inevitably have to be taken if a competitive team is to be put on the park. That is the model in which the Board have to operate. Overall -- I have to say that I have cheered up reading the comments on this thread: My conclusion? Most folk are not daft -- but one or two undoubtedly are.

Ha Ha ! I'll have you know that we went of our own accord to Australia! Have to admit that it was a freebee that took us there though. (Great Great Uncle got a free land grant because he was an ex-soldier.) On the other hand, having family members transported to Oakley was altogether more traumatic............ strangely when I think of my uncle Bill Mitchell running the Greyhound Tavern about 1970, I think of those old western films where everyone hits everyone in a mass rammy. No idea why.... Anyway, the Supporters' Council on Thursday will be much more polite I am sure........... Hoping for a good turnout -- important moment for the Club.

From a brief look at other club's websites, it seems to me Dundee United were charging £22 last year, Falkirk, Partick, Inverness Caley were charging £20, DAFC, Ross County, Morton and QOS were charging £18 and Ayr and Alloa £17. Will be interesting to see how they adjust this year. Too high -- certainly -- but I blame the unequal distribution of TV monies in Scotland with the premiership clubs starving the others. It is not easy keeping full time football outside the premiership.

Buffy: I know your reporting is much appreciated by overseas fans -- one of whom is my cousin in Queensland. There are some important issues to be talked about -- hoping for a good turnout.

Nothing against AJ but I'm hoping that Raith Rovers make it through -- good for our finances and good for Fife.

The Supporters' Council will be on 16 May at 7 pm at the Purvis Suite Ross McArthur and Stevie Crawford and Greg Shields will have sessions.

Secure Par -- allow me to put your mind at rest: the Board certainly did not target the fans in order to distract from the poor play on the field. It would have taken Ross McArthur to run round EEP in the scud to have done that. The Centenary Club lifeline funds go into general expenditure and as by far the biggest item of expenditure is wages for the playing staff -- you can say that that is where it went. Other items of expenditure are not flexible -- we have to pay our PAYE tax, our VAT, our electricity bills etc etc. The only bit that we can really cut back on is the wages bill. Now you, like me, might think that some of our signings were pretty poor, but on the other hand you might think that some like Joe Thomson or Tom Beadling or Jackson Longridge were pretty good. Finally you wonder if it was a deliberate money saving exercise to save money by signing players late. The answer is firmly no. Hope that helps -- failing which do come along to the next Supporters' Council and feel free to ask some questions.

Thanks Guys: just like to thank Superally for a tremendous amount of hard work, week by week, in putting this prediction league on. If only I could have brought myself to forecast 1-0 defeats for Dunfermline over the past month...... Definitely one of the highlights for me of season 2018-19, which in many other respects has been hard to take. No-one said being a Par would be easy.....

It's the hope that kills you...... I've seen far worse Dunfermline teams over my 55 years of watching the Pars, but few, if any, that have contrived to lose so games that they should have won or in which they had the majority of chances. The home form has been particularly filled with gut-wrenching defeats from games that you go home thinking 'we should have won' -- and against generally some pretty poor sides. Today was another case in point -- just see what the Morton fans have to say on 'Pie and Bovril'. As the Sanguine one says, for a good hour DAFC had their nose in front in the game. However, if you fail to score when you are on top, then you are always vulnerable to the sucker blow. So it proved yet again. The momentum was shifting against us before Jackson Longridge was (rather harshly in my opinion) sent off. Once more our pockets have been royally picked.