sidofthesouth
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Posts posted by sidofthesouth
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I think those 50/50 scarfs would be a good seller for this friendly
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The results Gibson is currently getting out of a very average squad are very impressive so far - long may it last.
From the team that played tonight, Connolly, Cameron, Nditi and Cochrane will obviously improve the overall quality once they are back. Thought we might have seen wee McKechnie at some point tonight, but we can keep him up our sleeves for Morton.
Although they both worked hard, the sitters missed by Roy & Soares could have cost us the game0 -
1. Light Blue
2. Gold
3. Turquoise
4. Plain yellow
5. Patterned yellow0 -
Forward planning. Wow!
Connolly ( unlikely i know) and East next for 2 year deals please3 -
Thing is we have this managerial merry go round in Scottish Football, same old names pop up or are put forward, Wright, McIntyre, Hopkins, Duffy, McCann, Kettlewell, Grant, McGee, Chisholm, Robertson etc etc etc, most of them get a turn, last six months to a year and then jump back on the merry go round until the next job.
We really need to shut this jobs for the boys fiasco down and bring in fresh young managerial blood at our level.
Yes, its time that up and coming young coaches like Martin Rennie, Lee Bullen, Steven Glass, Dougie Imrie, Tam Courts, Sean Maloney, etc, got their chance instead of the same old faces. Wait a minute!3 -
Well how does everyone think we will line up against Arbroath. Possibly Connelly back according to the update. I would like to see us go 4-4-2. Wullie should play himself in centre midfield to give us that experience in the middle of the park is were Arbroath are strong with Low pulling the strings. Liddle, McGrory and Gordon would be fighting for the other jersey I would think. Although I would be tempted to play Gordon or Paton on the right of the 4 with Todd on the left. O'Connor had a better game against Morton but his passing is poor. Just get him to defend and clear our lines. East has done well for me at the back. But I think him and Cooper is to weak. I would possibly put Debayo in instead of Cooper die more to his physical presence. If Connelly is not fit then play either Roy/Paton upfront. Neither have had a chance in a front 2 under our previous manager.
Personally I wouldn’t have O’Connor, Liddle or Gordon in the team. I would also play Wullie back at right back. Debayo, although he has a mistake in him, is otherwise decent compared to our other defensive options so would bring him in at left back and push Cooper into left mid.
4-4-2
Rae
Gibson. Nditi. East. Debayo
Paton McGrory. Todd. Cooper
Connolly. Cameron1 -
Barry Ferguson had resigned as Alloa Manager is he on his way to QotS
He was a fantastic player but has done nothing to suggest he will be a good manager. Would rather go with the guy Peter Murphy at Annan to be honest if Wullie wants to keep playing for a bit.0 -
A compact 4-4-2 would do me for Willies first game. If Cochrane & Mackay still out ( and hopefully Connolly & Nditi available) I would go with something like:
Rae
Gibson. Nditi. East. Debayo
Paton. McGrory. Todd. Cooper
Connolly. Cameron1 -
Great timing by the Dons, sack Glass just as Alex Neil gets a permanent job down south
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Our defence gives me the fear
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I’m now confident that we’re down. Teams around us are putting up a fight and picking up points.
I agree, think we’re done. We really needed to bring in a bit of quality & experience in the January window and got neither.5 -
It wasnt so much a recommendation that we go after Griffiths specifically, more a comment about how some clubs will spend additional money when they need to try and either go up or avoid going down
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I see Falkirk have offered Leigh Griffiths £1500 per week to help with their promotion push. Thats around £25,000 til the end of the season. If only Queens had money like that lying around……
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Yes, have to agree that young O’Connor struggled tonight again. Gave away a daft penalty and I think he was at fault for their 3rd goal when he missed his header. It seems that none of our January signings have made us any better, which is a really bad omen for us staying up.
Cameron battled away well tonight and Todd and Connolly were bright in the 1st half. As others have said, Willie had to go into central defence to shore it up for the 2nd half and this made our midfield even weaker for the 2nd half.
We sneaked a point at a tough venue, but it’s depressing to think the january window has come & gone and we havent improved the squad for the run in.0 -
One of the issues for me is that the 3 guys we have brought in recently on loan are 21, 22 and 23. We were already one of the youngest squads in the league (if not the youngest) and have added no experience whatsoever. Dont know the exact figures, but i would imagine that Dunfermline team today had an average age probably 4 or 5 years older than us.
Our experiment of going with a younger squad hasnt worked. We look naive, inexperienced and are being pushed around by most teams in this league.2 -
I never said I wouldn't be fussed, I said I wouldn't be devastated. I'd rather he stayed as well but at least if he goes we'll be financially compensated (which certainly wouldn't be a bad thing in these times).
I like Cochrane as well and have defended him numerous times on here when he's been getting a rough time. I'd argue he's out most underrated player within the squad tbh. As I said earlier, I don't think it's a coincidence that our midfield has been far far worse since he's been out.
Yeah, i get all that and its all about opinions at the end of the day. I just want us to get out of that cycle of having to try and identify & sign 15 championship standard players every season - its such a gamble and we invariably end up signing 5 or 6 that aren’t up to standard0 -
Win-win for us I'd say. I wouldn't want him to go but wouldn't be devastated if he did and if he did go we would be due a nice wee price for him given he's on a 2 year deal.
This “not too fussed if he leaves” opinion seems to be the norm among Queens fans. I tend to look at things in a slightly different way. I know Cochrane hasn’t yet set the heather on fire, but i would say he is definitely a championship standard player. The more championship-standard players we retain in the squad long-term, the better our chances of survival and becoming a better team will be.
I would say that the championship-standard guys currently are Rae, Gibson, Cooper, Todd, Connolly, Cochrane & McKay.
Some have shown the potential to become good championship players - McGrory, East, Paton, Max Johnston, Nditi & Cowie - so again i would be keen for the majority of them to stick around and hopefully improve.
The guys I would put into the “ not fussed if they leave” category would be Junior Soares, Roy, Liddle, Debayo, Joseph & (disappointingly) Fitzpatrick.
McKechnie, McMahon & Chima come into the “ no idea” category!
So, a very long-winded way of saying I would rather keep Cochrane.5 -
Do we even know if the board tried to get Reilly, did he want to come here, did Livingston want him to come here? Maybe not Queens' fault he went to Morton. He's now scored 3 goals in 2 games, how many blanks did he fire up til then. Morton fans were calling for him to be dropped before that.
Did u catch many of Gavins games in his 5-year spell with us?0 -
Trust wee Gavin Reilly recovering his form now, eh? Typical.
It was a no-brainer for us to sign him, given the woeful quality of our striker options and how good he was last time. I guess your season can turn on such decisions….0 -
Decent point for us
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Literally, men against boys, unfortunately.
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The Waterfront in Anstruther is good
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But there's two contributory factors at play here isn't there?
1 - To be fair to AJ - do you think that he shops around the bargain basement leagues by choice? I'm sure that given the chance he'd much rather be trying to sign the Zak Ruddens of this world, of course he would - but he's curtailed by his budget in both size and quality. So he has to be inventive as to how he gets the best out of his budget. The budget of course is set by the BOD and not by AJ. So we should criticise the BOD, simples. However, here is where reality kicks in - we don't have a large (by Championship standards) income stream, and what we did have has been hit by the pandemic - add in that poorer quality squads in recent seasons has meant a less attractive product on the pitch and you get dwindling crowds which further impact the budget - a vicious circle.
2 - The quality and ability of AJ and his team (also to be fair - a selection constrained by the BOD's budget). There will be an argument that a "special" coach with good motivational skills (all eyes on "The Bunnet" here) can get the max. out of a fairly mundane squad. However, AJ's media clips don't give the impression that he's exactly Mr Motivator behind the scenes. Reminds me of my son's coach in the Lanarkshire teenage leagues ... " aw c'moan guys, ye've goat tae dae better .... it'll no dae". Inspiring stuff.
So everything keeps coming back to budgets - surprise, surprise, it is a professional sport after all. Better budget provides a better management team (we're never going to be in the McInnes/Ross bracket) and a larger/better quality squad. No secret that the smaller clubs with the smaller budgets tend to be perennially in the dogfight at the bottom end of the table. That said, in football money doesn't guarantee success - just ask the Pars this season or Falkirk.
What's the fix? Increase the budget? Take a risk with the financial stability of the club? Ask the BOD to inject their own dosh - why should they? Find a significant outside investor a la Ross County, Q Park, Cove, Kelty etc. - not many of those around and even less with an interest in the Dumfries area; plus you run the risk of a Gretna style bubble ..... and bubbles eventually always burst with pretty bad consequences.
I can't see AJ leaving soon, I think the only hope just now is pulling some "rabbits out of the January window hat" .... which I think is the AJ/BOD strategy. Unfortunately, we don't have Dykes/Dobbie to get us through a relegation play-off this time.
Good post and some good points made. I think the BOD were also on record as saying they wanted to go with a younger squad this season, so again that may have influenced/dictated the type of player AJ was able to bring in. I think it has backfired, as we look disorganised & naive a lot of the time in this league, something that would be helped by having a better balance of experience in the squad1 -
I agree with you regarding Brynn, but it seems to be the case that AJ wants to develop our loan signings to help out their parent clubs ahead of giving our own players much needed game time. Cameron will always be picked ahead of Roy or Junior, Liddle ahead of McGrory when fit, Johnston ahead of everyone and anyone regardless of form or ability - even CR7 at his peak would struggle to get a game ahead of Johnston.
Just another example of the damage being done to the club while AJ's at the wheel.
Yes, i thought it would be a stick on that Josh Rae would have got some game time in the recent Scottish & Challenge cup games. He looked decent before his injury and I’d like AJ to prioritise him over a loan goalkeeper. Its possible Rae could be a decent keeper for us for a few years, providing some much-needed continuity. My fear would be that if he doesnt get another chance in the first team before the end of the season he will be off and that will just add to the usual merry go round nonsense of having to replace 15 players each season.3
The Queen of the South thread
in Scottish League 1 General Chatter
Posted
Your scenario is plausible. One difficulty might be that WG would find it very difficult to go back to being just a player. I suppose the way round this would be making him player/assistant manager and letting him learn from a more experienced guy for a season or two.