the_bully_wee

Draw last week from a game we probably should've won, and a narrow defeat this week from a game you'd expect us to be mullered in. Trending upwards at least, even with the dead men walking.

I didn't even see the original! Clyde's chances of winning this one are somewhere between pie in the sky and utterly non existent. Peterhead played us off the park a few months back and I'd expect tomorrow's game to follow a similar trend.

You were doing well up to this bit

Maitland alluded to more senior players potentially being harder to shift; based on recent form, though, I wouldn't be too dismayed if Carswell and Forbes stuck around, albeit my preference would be for both to be replaced. Looking forward to another Barry Ferguson-esque window; it really has been too long. It'll be another challenge for McCall knitting together a whole bunch of new players mid-season, but likely one that's far easier than getting a tune out of our current gaggle of no-hopers.

If I was informed (by my mate, a fan of the parent club in question - source was named) that it was an agreed transfer and not just something he'd heard around the place, I'd happily divulge who it was. As it is, I'm not going to publicly name the club or player on the off chance there's nothing to it, or even worse it alerts other clubs to their potential availability before any deal has been concluded. There was me thinking folk would just be happy to hear we're apparently trying to can Jack Leighfield!

If it was anything like a done deal I would name names, but it looks as though the parent club would need to sort out a back-up first before letting Mr. X go. Ordinarily I wouldn't mention it at all, but it's an encouraging indication of the level of player we seem to be targeting.

Heard a rumour (and it was presented to me by a fan of the player's current club as a rumour) that we could be signing a very good keeper on loan in January.

McCall to QP

I'd say that Dumbarton's squad has a slight edge in terms of quality in the first XI and pisses over Stenhousemuir's when it comes to depth, but any advantage there is more than negated when you consider who is responsible for each. Serial loser on one side, man with serious pedigree in this division on the other. If Stenny manage to flesh out their squad a bit in January then they should canter to the title fairly easily; without that they'll need some luck with injuries and such. For Dumbarton, a 2024 implosion before being owned by Annan again in the play-off semi, as I've said previously.

It's never nice to see an ambitious project going this way!

2 year deal for Cameron Mulvanny, by the way. Just what was goateed Jim Duffy smoking in the summer?! The only consolation was how bad Stranraer also looked, but that won't count for much if we don't improve markedly and quickly ourselves.

That Rennie chance at 2-1. f**k me.

McCall should be getting right in about the Edinburgh City fire sale to sort out the full back areas - Crane and Mercer would be very good signings. Truthfully, there are about half a dozen of their players I'd be happy for us to bring in, along with a former player of theirs who seemingly has a fondness for the devil's dandruff. Kieran MacDonald is also worth a shout if he's bored of life at Gartcairn.

Nothing particularly enlightening this evening other than that there's a viable backup for Crownpoint should we not get it, albeit one that would require more work before being used. Maitland spoke really well and appears to be under absolutely no illusions about what's wrong and how to fix it; sounds like we will be as busy as we've all hoped in January.

The only thing more grim than McGachie's spell at Clyde was when he posted a picture of his dong on twitter.com. That, or being met by him projectile vomiting into a sink when I went to wash my hands ahead of Bonnyrigg's promotion play-off second leg at Central Park. A thoroughly disgusting man.

Clyde at over evens was a great price in the circumstances and I got in on the action with a handicap bet, though it was a tad fortunate to come in given the nonsense red card. Jeanfield are probably one of the better footballing sides at that level but they struggled to match Clyde's fitness after a bright start; barely had a sniff after that until they were two zip down. Don't think I've ever seen a more quintessentially pub league keeper at a semi-respectable outfit than Jeanfield's.

In the hat is all you can really say to that. Jeanfield were the polar opposite to Musselburgh which I didn't quite expect, quite a small team - the keeper was absolute patter. Absolutely pocketed the ref as well. Hopefully that gives them a wee lift ahead of a massive game next week!

Lyon has been reasonable for the most part in a defensive sense so far this season, but it's in possession where he really hurts us. Constantly hams simple balls out of play, and his ratio of blunders seems to increase the further he gets up the pitch. To his credit, he doesn't hide, but both he and Jon Craig are terrible options in their own unique ways.

Glad the EFTV production value is high enough that we're offered multiple angles of each blunder. Truly unforgivable stuff.

Saturday's loss just means we will be lifting the trophy in mid-April rather than the start of it. Fine by me, I'm a patient boy.

Going to slap in a freedom of information request for the contents of McCall's little notebook from yesterday. Bet it's a list of names with red crosses or hangman doodles.

The positives: That's the worst I've seen us all season; it's kind of ideal that McCall has seen the maximal dire extent of the task that lies in wait as soon as was possible McCall's switch to a back 3 definitely improved us in the earlier stages of the second half before the clown car tendencies resurfaced The negatives: Literally everything else Once again I walk away unable to fault the application and endeavour of the majority of the players, but the lack of quality was laid excruciatingly bare today by a very ordinary East Fife side. Long balls into their right channel reaping great rewards - McDonald must have been thanking his lucky stars within a quarter of an hour. As has been said, I thought Hynes was the only one to walk away with any sort of credit over the piece and he was extremely wasteful in possession himself - probably not helped by having a human tug boat ahead of him for much of the game, and occasionally a young man who appears to have been born offside (seriously, wtf?). Scullion found a few nice passes in the second half and probably gets a bit of benefit of the doubt with him just coming back from an injury, but it's impossible to look at the rest and think anyone deserves any kind of credit there. Who could've foreseen that a 'keeper from Albion Rovers (via a spell as a back-up at whatever Edinburgh are calling themselves now) would be clown shoes material? Who could've foreseen that Neil Parry (dodgy enough by the end of last season to be released, initially) would also not suddenly come back alive in League Two? Ross Lyon - no words. The drop-off in Dunachie has been frightening and leaves me wondering whether he was just overperforming in the early stages of the season, or if he's been left bereft of confidence by the state of what's around him. In the immediacy of what's around him, there's Peter Grant, inexplicably handed a two-year deal on the watch of a teammate and former manager who bombed him out of the picture last season. Grant is actually a bit of a sad case, because you can see he still possesses his defensive and organisational instincts, but that his body is completely failing him; there was an instance in the first half where he was caught wrong side of his man - the ensuing fulsome attempt to recover would've been comfortably outpaced by Bryan Cranston's speedwalking in Malcolm in the Middle. Speaking of bodies failing people, there's Ross Forbes, signed by Duffy for his underling who wanted a "high-energy" team; no beef with Forbes himself, who genuinely knocks his pan in, it's just that his pan is absolutely tiny - I find it hard to hate players like that, ones who are just completely done. Carswell, a lesser degree of the aforementioned pair. I also have no words for this "Ji Stevenson" character, while King is clearly a highlights reel of a player with little interest in being at Clyde in our current predicament. Every week, Imrie's decision to loan out such an evidently talented boy becomes easier to understand. Rennie tried as he always does, but too often had the ball hopelessly shelled at him with no real prospect of us working off of him. He's one of few I wouldn't be too hard on today. I don't even have the energy after all that to try and assess the subs, who were all hopeless in their own ways. The one saving grace in amongst all this is that we've got one of the best candidates we possibly could have to try and turn this around; I'm sure a few of the current crop will turn things around on his watch (remember how competent Callum Home quickly became under Danny Lennon?!), which will leave him less work to do in January, but it'll still be a hell of a lot - and if we don't start picking up results soon, it'll be a bloody hard sell. Better hope that warchest is bursting at the seams, and that a few WoSL sides fancy taking on piss poor senior cast-offs as 'names'. At the very least, it'll be an entertaining six months ahead.

I'd be subbing Leighfield just to humiliate him here. If that was Parry offering that between the sticks today he'd need to be under police protection this evening. ETA: I would then be releasing him and many others as soon as this evening and as late as after Monday's training session, if possible. The worst ever.

Pay peanuts and get monkeys, "Judge". It's only fair that our Ian is well compensated for what's about to unfold - we gave Danny Lennon a frightening wage considering what we were getting in return.