Slipmat

Of course it could be that Hewitson is in the outback awaiting his unveiling as a late arrival on "I'm A Celebrity (In My Own Mind)" in which case we may have to wait on him being evicted before he's given access to technology. If he is, even Farage could emerge from the Jungle with some credibility.

Did he not sack Naysmith by text even though they were at the same function? Maybe he hasn't even bothered checking how Queens got on yesterday yet.

Re-watching the interview, what struck me was that this is a man who has a second job in the media who should have some awareness about how to conduct himself during a post-match interview regardless of the circumstances. Instead of a making a short statement and buggering off, Marvin being Marvin can't stop talking and we get are left with the QOS version of the Kevin Keegan "Love It" and Rafa Benitez "Fact" heads gone moments to treasure. I dread to think what the players will make of it. Would love to be a fly on the wall at today's training session.

The players seem to have a lot of free time on their hands despite being "full time"

"Being a manager is a 24 hour job" Unless you've got a televised game to cover.

I'm not saying that the tweet was racially motivated indeed I'm sure it wasn't intended to be, and Bartley isn't in all likelihood the target of the tweet, but the very fact that it's only a matter of hours since he was in court facing such a charge should have made him realise that sometimes it's better to hold back and not open yourself up to any potential misunderstanding.

Can't believe he thinks he's being smart by having a public pop at a man of different ethnicity to himself a mere two days after having appeared in court on a racism charge. He may not mean it that way, but it doesn't paint a good picture.

I'm not defending Bartley by any manner of means, but Gibson: Managerial record by team and tenure Team Nat From To Record Ref. G W D L Win % Queen of the South 13 February 2022 21 December 2022 41 15 8 18 36.59 Career Total 41 15 8 18 36.59 — Bartley: Managerial record[edit] As of 11 November 2023 Team From To Record G W D L Win % Queen of the South 7 January 2023 Present 36 16 5 15 44.44 Total 36 16 5 15 44.44 At the bottom of his tweet Gibson should have typed "Just salt / facts"

It'll be a painful watch. I feel for him too, he seems like a nice guy but it is his managerial decision making that seems to be seriously wanting. I'd suggest he has two options, either to take full responsibility, hold his hands up and admit to a lengthy run of mistakes starting with recruitment, or he could throw the players under the bus with his usual talk of individual errors and failure to follow instructions. The latter approach could see him lose the dressing room completely (assuming he is still in charge) and doesn't exonerate himself as he signed most of them. For the past few weeks he's tried a mixture of both excuses but I'm not sure if that patter will wear with fans again. For all I am angry at the guy, it's not a nice situation for him to be in. It could be that having worked towards becoming a manager for 10+ years he has ended his chosen career path in less than a year.

Aye, sorry. I may have taken bad taste humour a tad too far there. I just hope the board don't read this forum and get any wild ideas.

Robbie Savage is the last person we need at this club.

Peter Grant incoming then.

Once Hewitson has got over the shock of having to pay Bartley off, I can't see him being willing to offer wages that any of your suggested names would command.

At the end of the day Billy H is going to have to fork out a fair bit of cash if Bartley is to be paid off. That, together with Hewitson being "cautious" when it comes to releasing funds from the club bank account, means he'll probably revert to type and appoint the cheapest option in terms of wage and potential compensation to any other club if said candidate is currently in employment elsewhere.

The Gibson appointment was an inevitability. I think we all knew it was going to happen, and thought that no-one could be worse than Johnston. Bartley's patter had us nearly all of us fooled - me included - I'm sorry to say. The board were probably blinded by his talk too, especially given the lack of credible candidates at the time.

"Football is a results-based business"

FFS. If anyone knows any taxi drivers, give them a call and tell them to get round to Palmy asap. Destination: tae f*ck.

Witness intimidation?

The starting eleven had better be up to the job because that bench is absolutely minging. Cochrane and Gibson must be this weeks training ground victims. I've asked it before, but what the hell are they doing in training - close combat and kick-boxing? BTW any updates would be welcome as I'm stuck at home with a mixture of lurgy and apathy today. ETA just noticed Church and logan are missing too.

This is a near to an away banker as you can get. It's being played at "The Fortress", after all. Our glorious leader doesn't even seem to know who his preferred keeper is, in fact I'd guess that the only guaranteed starters (barring myserious training ground injuries) are The Card Collector (McClelland), The Undroppable (McKechnie) and the player he wanted shot of last season (Reilly). As for the rest, it's down to Marvellous Marvin's Tremendous Tombola.

Aye, another couple of Hewitson media howlers being quoted above. If he ever lowers himself to speak to the media again he should just say "Football is a results-based business, except when the result is the thought of me having to pay off a failing manager who has more than a year left on his contract". Interesting to note that the board had ambitions and targets back in 2016. I don't think they have mentioned having either since then.

Has one of our players just won the Deluxe Draw or someone else with the same name?

Although I fully expect Bartley to be in post until the end of the season I think the only name that has been mentioned as a potential replacement who is currently available and of whom I would have any faith in is Fowler. His record managing us was better than those of Naysmith, Johnston* or Gibson, and given he has had subsequent experience specializing in recruitment - something that Johnston, Gibson and Bartley have been proven to be abysmal at - I wouldn't be averse to him being given another chance. The downside is that sometimes the football his sides played was pretty excruciating to watch. * second spell That said, whether he would consider working with the current board again is questionable given his previous harsh dismissal at the hands of the same regime.

It was interesting listening to Darren Young's post-match interview after the Stirling debacle in which he said he studied video footage of our previous game against Kelty and immediately decided to change his usual team formation to a more attack-minded one that would play in a way that, given how many mistakes our defence was likely to make, and our style of play, they would likely give the ball away if put under constant pressure. Marvin seems keen on video footage too, but no matter what he sees he generally sticks with the same formation, same personnel, and the same style of play, played at the same pedestrian tempo regardless of who we are playing. I too would hope that, rather watching repeated clips of ourselves to expose our own players' shortcomings (if a player makes an error, he will know about it without needing to see it again) he and the team would be looking at clips of the next opposition to work out what formation and tempo WE should adopt to hurt teams. If for example, he identifies that our opponents have a dodgy fullback, use that to our advantage by pitting a tricky player like Gibson up against him instead of a defensive wingback like Houston, Logan, Church or MacIntyre. It just seems to be all about us and what we do wrong rather than what mistakes we can force the opposition into making with Bartley.

This. Definitely this. Football is played on a pitch, not a tactics board. Bartley seems to be so hung up on the players following his instructions to the letter that he is actually stifling any creativity during the game. Maybe this explains why he has gone down the route of assembling what is basically an under-23s squad containing players who haven't been exposed to a variety of coaching methods. In my opinion it is almost definitely the reason why creative players like Gibson and Walker who have the ability and vision to spot a pass, create space or take a man on rather than playing the ball sideways to the nearest team-mate are getting so little game time. Bartley's interviews do reveal that he has no time for individuality or unpredictability, and that there is a bit of control freakery in his management style.