CallumPar

Will be a return to the back 3/5 I’d imagine. Bene in the middle of a 3 with 2 of Fisher/Breen/Murray would be fine in the championship. Even in a 4, he’d probably be ok most weeks with a more mobile partner - particularly if opponents play with 1 striker. Also got mobility of Comrie (or a new RB) and Edwards at full back and Hamilton protecting the defence. We need to strengthen the team, everyone knows that. But Benedictus will be a starter most weeks, unless he really struggles.

Thanks to you (and many others) for your kind words. I’ve actually enjoyed the threads/conversation with opposition fans on here this season. In general, there seems to be a decent bunch of people in the league 1 threads. Next week, I don’t know what to expect from this team. Usually, I’d say the champions would take their eye off the ball. No pressure, probably rotate the team a bit, so would expect a comfortable afternoon for Airdrie. But McPake’s team seems different. They’re focused on setting club records for clean sheets, unbeaten runs and points. We will rotate a bit, but guys are fighting for contracts and we have a fairly strong group of players on the bench (Todorov, MacDonald, O’Hara, McGowan). Either way, I don’t care about next week. Mission accomplished for us. Airdrie have played very well against us this season, but are quite suspect defensively. Hopefully McCabe can prove himself as a decent manager, he’s certainly made a promising start to his managerial career. If Falkirk play like they did in the first half hour v us last week, they’ll give you real problems in the playoffs. But we’ve seen that you’re also capable of blowing teams away. If you don’t come up this year, I’m sure you’ll be challenging for the title next year.

How young are you guys? KRH (I think?)

Yeah. I said earlier in the week that if you had a go and tried to attack, we’d score goals. I thought Queens were alright going forward - Wilson had a great shot that hit the post and seemed to go almost right along the line. Paton had a good chance in the second half too, which ended up straight at Mehmet. But defensively, you couldn’t cope with the movement of Todd, KRH and McCann. KRH is brilliant to watch. Unfortunately, he’s still contracted to Rangers, but he is out of contract in the summer, as it stands.

Great performance, brilliant result. Delighted for wee Kane getting his goal too. As soon as Wighton indicated it was his goal, he was straight to the NW. Some boy. Also, I don’t know what’s happened, but last few games, Lewis McCann has been unplayable.

If we don’t do it today, it’s 100% your fault. Not McPake’s, not any of the players.

That’s not what he said, or what I said though, is it? In McPake’s interview about Wighton signing a new contract, McPake seems to focus on how he believes Dundee mismanaged Wighton and weren’t fair to him by putting pressure on him when he was younger. Then he says that the managers weren’t the issue, it was the board. It just seems like he was looking for an excuse to criticise the Dundee board. I have no issue with him feeling hard done by with his sacking/feeling he has a point to prove. He’s learned from his time at Dundee and is doing a great job here. I just don’t think it was necessary to slag off the Dundee board when discussing Wighton signing a new contract here. I’d prefer we just focused on where we are now and where we can go. McPake’s absolutely entitled to discuss what he wants, I’d just rather see positivity about where we are and where he can take us, rather than negativity around a player’s spell at another club.

There’s times I understand him bringing up Dundee. But I don’t understand why it seems to happen so often. That interview is another example of that. Yes, he can mention he worked with Wighton at Dundee and knows what he’s capable of. But going on about him being mismanaged there is just odd. Genuinely not sure of the point he’s trying to make. The interview should just have been mainly about how well Wighton has played since he recovered from his knee injury and how he sees him progressing in the future. Scored crucial goals and had some real moments of quality. I’m pleased with Wighton’s performances in general and very happy with McPake’s performance so far. Should be focussing on the positives, rather than bringing up the past like that.

Good news. He was good at championship level before and is playing under a manager that rates him very highly and will be happy to build the attack around him. He’s not a physical threat, but he reads the game well, is skilful and scores goals.

Fair comment. We were decent in the first half from memory. But think Ayr had the lead from very early on in their game. Only really remember Chalmers’ own goal, which summed up his and the team’s season!

Just seen usual parts of NW sold out, section L opened now. Looks like the club are expecting a bumper crowd. Hopefully the team can get the win and encourage everyone to come back for the trophy presentation 2 weeks later. Thankfully it’s not the same manager as last year. Remember a bumper crowd turning up v QoS in the last league game. Performance was atrocious and hardly anybody turned up for the playoffs.

Had a look at the ticketing site. Reckon the north west will sell out fairly soon. Other stands all still fairly empty, but would expect a lot of tickets to be shifted in the next few days.

Think this one could ‘buck the trend’ and be an open game at East End. Queens need to go for the win. Alloa and Edinburgh both favourites for their games and Queens chasing that last playoff spot. I do believe that if they set up to attack and leave gaps for McCann (who’s been good lately), KRH and Todd, we’ll create chances. They’ll test our defence too. Paton looked good earlier in the season and would expect him to cause us problems again. I’ll go for a 2-1 home win.

19 from 32 actually. Did you forget to include last night’s game? Agree with your post. I’ve enjoyed watching us this season. It’s not been free-flowing attacking football. But it’s a team that has been ridiculously well drilled/organised and have earned every single point they have got. The manager was tasked with getting us out of here as quickly as possible and there’s no doubt, that will be achieved. Everyone knows we need to strengthen for next season. I think McPake has shown that he knows what he’s looking for in players, so I have no doubt we’ll add quality to the squad. Also worth adding, I remember commenting in January/February that I thought we needed more players. But I pointed out that the manager/board would deserve praise if they had got it right by not spending more than required to win the league. Well, they got it right. We know we have a significant financial backing, but that’s mainly to improve facilities/academy. We may see a bit more investment in the first team next season, I don’t know. But we didn’t need more this season and got out of here without any stars/expensive signings. A lot of teams (like Falkirk) get relegated and throw money at players in a desperate attempt to get out of the league. It’s pleasing that we’ve got out of here without doing that.

If Falkirk drop any points, we win the league. They need 12/12 to have any chance of catching us.

Wighton dropped for Todorov

Have to admit, I don’t really take much note of opposition players. But guys that have impressed me this season would include: Josh Rae. Adam Frizzell Ruari Paton Callumn Morrison Rumarn Burrell. Alfie Agyeman There’ll be others and I don’t know contract situations, but I reckon they’d improve our squad based on what I’ve seen. As I’ve said previously though, we need championship experience/proven championship players.

I get what you’re saying, but I do wonder if McGowan’s fitness levels have been below McPake’s expectations. A fit McGowan can probably offer something. But he looks like his legs have completely gone. Looks knackered 5 mins after coming onto the pitch. I probably wouldn’t be too surprised either way with him. Regarding Dorrans, I believe McPake informed him that he was being stripped of the captaincy. Dorrans threw his toys out the pram and McPake said he was free to leave if he wasn’t happy about it. Player and club then agreed to rip up his contract prior to the transfer deadline.

Yep. Only a couple of months in it I think, but Comrie was an early summer signing and Edwards signed 2/3 games into the league cup campaign. Regardless, I’d like to see Comrie stay. He’s a steady RB option, proven at championship level. Would be happy to see competition come in at RB (and LB), or someone who’s capable of forcing their way into the team ahead of Comrie, but the same goes for every single position, if such a player is available and wanting to come here.

McPake hasn’t trusted him enough to give him much game time. From the limited game time he’s had, he’s looked past it. If he’s behind Chalmers, Hamilton and Todd right now and we need to strengthen anyway, I can’t see any benefit in extending his stay. Worth pointing out that one of McPake’s early moves involved terminating Dorrans’ contract, so I think he’s a bit more ruthless than he was at Dundee, when it comes to players/contracts. If Byrne were to return, that would be another player ahead of McGowan.

You must be very young. We only released Lewis Martin last summer.

I’d expect/hope we’ve offered deals to Comrie, Wighton and Breen. We need to strengthen for next season, so if players have struggled for game time this season, I can’t imagine they’re part of the plans for next season. Only possible exception would be Todorov, who I think would be more useful in the championship, where teams are less likely to sit in against us. He’s also scored massive goals for us this season. I think he’s our best striker. But it all depends on what McPake thinks of him and who else is available. Kind of in two minds about Mehmet. Would be fine with him staying, but wouldn’t be bothered if he left. Think clean sheets are largely due to the defenders. Don’t think he’s been fantastic or made saves you wouldn’t expect of a keeper. He’s not good at dealing with shots from anywhere between 15-25 yards out and he’s bad for parrying the ball back into the danger area (see second goal on Saturday) as an example. Kind of surprised we haven’t heard about a Comrie extension. He must be our longest serving player (other than youth products), seems happy and McPake seems to rate him - sure he said he tried to sign him for Dundee. He’s also proven at championship level, so would seem a no-brainer to keep him. Unless he has a better offer from elsewhere…

Not going to this, but hopefully we seal the title. Just want it sorted as soon as possible, so that the focus can shift to budgets, contract renewals and recruitment for next season. The end’s in sight now. To be fair, I can’t see Falkirk winning 4 of their last 5 games, so I think it’s done and dusted anyway. But obviously want it to be ‘official’.

Depends how you set up. If you sit deep and have no intention of attacking, we’ve been struggling to break teams down recently. But we also haven’t had Matty Todd for the last 2 home games, who has been crucial in breaking teams down all season. As for the other comments about McPake not allowing us to ease off, it may not be intentional. There’s a good chance that, once the title is secured, we will lose a couple of games. There won’t be the same intensity/desire once there’s no ‘need’ to win. But then, there’s also the argument that less pressure lets them play with more freedom, which may see us score more goals.

Caught McCann by surprise too, going by his interview on the official site!