Slipmat

If only...

Which is why the old business adage "speculate to accumulate" must surely come in to the equation. Alloa and Arbroath are still within touching distance, and with someone else at the helm who could at least organise the team and have more than one idea of a gameplan/formation in their repertoire we could maybe, just maybe, scramble into 8th place. Under AJ relegation looks a nailed on certainty, and should we go down I would expect home gates (assuming fans are allowed back in July) to drop to around the 700 mark, not to mention the drop in positional prize money. If taking a short term financial hit means staying in this division, it's worth the risk imo.

We have a Py-bus but it's totally unreliable and breaks down at the beginning of any movement

Send him a Plan A while you are at it

Dees should be five up here - at least. "Without A Clue" isn't supposed to be on the telly until Hogmanay... we are getting a sneak preview today by the looks of it. Taxis for Johnston & Buchanan!

AJ was still a registered player when he managed us first time around, albeit he rarely picked himself. I agree that given our finances promotion from within is the most sensible option. Dobbie & Gibson will have a good idea of the relative individual strengths and weaknesses of our current squad and if there is a good time for a fresh approach to be taken it is before a transfer window when the new boss(es) have an immediate opportunity to sign the sort of player that he/they think would be a good fit. Giving AJ more to develop players is not an option for me. Some of our summer signings seem to be getting worse week in, week out under his guidance. Letting him loose with the transfer kitty in January requires more faith than trusting a new untried manager with it. As a result of his signing policy in September we found ourselves with a bench yesterday containing a goalkeeper and six midfielders and that is with a full squad to pick from. We must have the most imbalanced squad in the country, and only one man is responsible for that.

Our record in league games in 2020 is 1 win, 4 draws and 11 defeats, and we still have our traditional new year slump to look forward to. It would be an astounding feat of managerial incompetence not to improve on that. Then again, we may appoint Michael Paton as manager at some point.

Wouldn't mind some of the Dykes money being used to pension off AJ & Clark tbh. Northfield actually made a good shout that we should try to get Gary Holt in. Last night showed once again that AJ goes into a match with a Plan A and if it isn't working he sticks to Plan A regardless.

He came in like a wrecking ball...

I still can't believe we aren't putting men on the posts to defend corners.

To be fair to Buchanan he had every right to be raging at Nortey on Saturday. If Nortey had been any further out of position during some Raith attacks when we were defending the Portland Road end he'd have been in Jessiefield.

This statement really hasn't aged well

After watching 5 games I'd rate the new signings from best to worst as follows: Shields - works hard, can beat defenders and has goals in him. Maxwell - reminds me of Marshall, good going forward. East - feel really sorry for the lad. Puts in a great shift but totally isolated and fed scraps. Ferguson - made some good saves, distribution questionable, on a hiding to nothing behind that defence. McGrory - looks like our best set piece delivery option along with Dobbie. Quite impressed with him tbh. Obileye - an absolute unit who will win most aerial duels, clearly good on the ball but often too casual and lacking concentration. Looks like he could easily be burned for pace. Nortey - looks comfortable going forward, often posted missing defensively. Clearly one of AJ's square peg for a round hole signings.. Gibson - difficult to judge given he's had to play totally out of position. Wouldn't be surprised if he was used as a stand-in GK before the season's out. Fitzpatrick - massively frustrating player to watch. Tends to try and bulldoze his way through defenders which may work 1 in 10 times and never seems to have the ball fully under control. Goss - not seen much of him but looks like he could be useful if he gets service. Not sure he's at this level yet though. McCabe - hasn't done much except take long throws. Buchanan - shouts and points a lot but is as much a bombscare as the young Brownlie was. McKee - a real disappointment given the glowing reference from Dumbarton fans - he's defnitely more of an Alan Martin than a Stephen Dobbie in that respect. Losing his man at corners has cost us goals and his set piece delivery is mince. Robinson - totally anonymous. Not sure why we signed him given the other wing options we have.

Just been looking at the league website after it's recent overhaul or should I say downgrade. It's all very flashy looking but there's next to no content on it whatsoever apart from basic results / table, and club contacts. What happened to the team line ups and scorers and weekend round ups etc? Will we ever see their like again? The whole thing seems pretty half-arsed compared to other league websites even other Pitchero ones.

I bought my ticket at around 10am... still no email though

I streamed the game from my pc to my tv with a HTML cable and had no issues whatsoever. Well done to all involved! A very professional production especially given the limited time available to get things set up. A draw was a fair result. I was very impressed how we took the game to St Mirren from the off and a two goal lead was what we deserved at half time. Goodwin must have given St Mirren a good roasting at half time because they dominated the second half but let us have possibly the best chances. The workrate of East, Fitzpatrick and Shields was phenomenal and unlike last season we appear to have no passengers. Interestingly both St Mirren and Morton have focussed their attacks down Gibson's side but I think Wullie has looked pretty solid aside from being caught out of position on occasion. Ayo's penalty was sublime! Good game. I enjoyed it.

Abdul Osman signs for National League South side Dartford

Aren't Hearts fans boycotting all away games though? Given the noise they made at the time I assume that will PPV etc too.

I may be reading too much into the squad numbers, but with Fitzpatrick taking the no 7 shirt I'm guessing that he will be played as an out and out winger once Dobbs is back to full fitness and Robinson will be used from the bench. Other than that AJ's first choice starting line up may be the same as that which has started in the recent friendlies unless McKee is preferred to McCabe. With the four reserve boys who have been training with the first team being allocated squad numbers (I assume so we can name a full quota of subs) I would hazard a guess that the only signing we may see before the Betfred would be a right back given that the number 2 jersey remains vacant.

I stand corrected! I guess that means that Lyle technically had 4 spells with us then? The initial loan from Partick and then three as a permanently signed player. I would doubt any other player has done that for Queens... unless Jamie Adams?

The first two I believe never even played for the first team. Definitely not Langfield. I think you're right about Lyle not playing for you. He was only with you for a couple of months on loan from us in the Iain Scott era (2004ish) IIRC. Scott preferred to use goal machines David McNiven, Chris Armstrong and Emilio Jaconelli before it dawned on him that Lyle was a better bet for goals.

Sensible decision from the Championship clubs given current budget uncertainties and reduced squad sizes. That said, only the SPFL clown posse could come up with different rules for different divisons.

Obileye was the stand out for me in that 45. Goss was a bit isolated up front. For a pre-season game it's been pretty decent so far.

Ferguson / trialist / Maxwell / Obileye / Buchanan / McCabe / Robinson / Pybus / Goss / Fitzpatrick / Shields Subs: Leighfield / East / Joseph / McKechnie / Gibson / McKee / Dobbie / McMahon / Douglas / Crooks

Me too. Blizzards in Airdrie?