DA-go Par Adonis

If Agyeman signs, I'll back-track on the prediction that anyone joining in January will be to boost the squad rather than the first XI.

Aye, I presume Fenton is the back up option for Edwards - or MacDonald, who I'm sure has played on the left before. Mahon is only 19 and has a bit of pedigree going by his career to date. He's also been with us for 3 months now, so you'd imagine if McPake wants to keep him, he sees a player who can make some sort of impact in the 2nd half of the season now that he has settled in. I'd guess it would be coming off the bench (barring injuries), but I'd imagine that being the same for anyone else who joins us in January. I can't see the likes of Tiffoney or McMullen rocking up in the window and us starting to play some sort of expansive 4-4-2.

He signed for us the day before the Peterhead game, came on with 12 minutes to go and played a part in the 2nd goal.

Any other players offer nothing for the first 45 minutes against Clyde? I wouldn't be writing him off based on that, especially when he's looked lively off the bench once or twice also.

Difficult to judge Mahon. He's looked lively in a couple of forays from the bench and was relatively poor the one time he started against Clyde - but so was everyone in the first half that day. It certainly wasn't his fault we were losing.

I thought I heard Errea were the new supplier. Might be completely mistaken though.

That would seem to make sense for both clubs and the player.

Some of the draws have been good results given what's actually transpired on the pitch e.g. Clyde, QoS. We could easily have lost both those games. We also weren't at the races in the first half against Falkirk, so although a draw was fair enough in the end, it was a decent outcome given that we could have gone more than a goal behind.

I wouldn't have wanted McGlynn anywhere near my club after what happened in January. Before that, I would have taken him as I think he's a good manager at this level, regardless of whether he was at Raith or not. Re Benedictus, my view is that he was wheeled out in front of the media as club captain. I am sure he didn't want to be there as it was a complete hospital pass. He played no part in the signing and left the club at the first available opportunity - and to their biggest rivals.

It's fair enough questioning your manager's moral compass is it not? By your argument, you could sign Goodwillie on Sunday, play him upfront at EEP and we couldn't express our disdain at the decision.

Doesn't much look like it, however...

Edit - wrong team/wrong cup final.

Falkirk lost more away goals in 35 minutes on Saturday than we have in 8 games. We're solid and set up to play to our strengths but it's not particularly route one. We are better away from home when we can counter-attack though. We can struggle at home if we have to break down a side whose intent is to sit in.

We went into the game 4 points ahead and have a side that grinds out results by keeping clean sheets. Kind of makes sense that we had a game plan which involved being extremely solid, especially given that Falkirk find a way to concede in every game they play against anyone half-decent in this league.

I don't think we'll be dishing out a hiding. We're more George Graham's Arsenal than Arsene Wengers. If we keep on churning out the clean sheets, we'll learn to love it though.

It's 6/1 for a scoring draw. You'd lose your money if it was 0-0. You could cover the 0-0 at 12/1 also, but your effective odds on any type of draw are only 3.55/1 or thereabouts.

Shields was the one that was rumoured. How realistic that is, I don't know though. Given that there's only 3 months until the next window, you would hope that there might be a Premier League player or two, who are on the fringes at the moment, that might fancy dropping down to get a dozen games under their belt. I could understand if they didn't fancy a season's long loan - unless they are at Celtic or Rangers and miles down the pecking order - but someone currently bench-warming at Motherwell or Livingston could surely see it as an opportunity to impress.

Last season was a whole different ball game to this one though - thankfully in the main. We also had one or two more threatening players in the squad, although you wouldn't have known it for the majority of the time. If I remember correctly, Thomas played well in the Thistle game. We absolutely stole the Ayr game.

That doesn't fully stack up. Yogi also signed Donaldson, who was pretty much a no-nonsense centre back too. McPake is doing really well, and Benedictus and Hamilton are great additions, but he was dealt a squad with Comrie, Breen, Edwards and MacDonald - all of whom should be able to excel at the level we're at. I was always pretty confident that he'd have us pretty well drilled defensively. The issue was always going to be scoring goals rather than keeping them out. Also, yet to see how we respond to losing the opening goal in a game. That will be a test when it happens.

I've seen some desperate lashing out after a bad defeat, but that's some pretty wild straw clutching right there.

We're 4 points ahead of Falkirk after 6 games. When that trend is repeated for the rest of the season, it equates to a 20 point gap by game 30. It's simple maths...

We won 24 points out of 30 before the play-off against Dundee United - where we were unlucky in both games. I'm not quite sure it was a natural dropping off point.

What if we're 20 points clear by then? You'll have missed all the excitement...

Aye, our fanbase like a statement from the board - to explain why what they wanted to happen hasn't happened. Then when they get a statement, they like to complain about the statement. It's all part of being a Pars fan. Having said that, the criticism was fair after their car crash of a correspondence following our first visit to Dumfries last year. However, it has been markedly better since Cook took charge.

Forest might end up regretting it if they get short of players though.