Diamonds are Forever

Even 50% (or slightly less) of a home tie with Partick (crowd 6000+ I'd imagine) would still be a decent bonus for a club our size. But you're right not exactly a 'money spinner'. However the increase in prize money is the bigger thing, think I'm right that it increases quite significantly from 5th to 4th, nearly 100k? For us that's 2 or 3 good players next year.

96 bookings I think. The post in this thread claiming this is down to referees unwittingly treating Morton harshly due to perception is genuinely one of the most absurd posts I've seen on here. To put it in context, the average for the remaining 9 teams is 52 yellow cards. They are not far off double the league average. The other reason it's nonsense is that they only have 1 red card, if they were being treated more harshly then you'd see a relative increase in reds too, which you don't, it's the lowest in the league. I'd argue what it shows is controlled, and actually quite intelligent, aggresion. They know when to foul, when to break up play, and when to rough teams up. But they also know where the limit is and will spread bookings round the team rather than one player get a second yellow. They aren't some band of uncontrolled thugs, it's part of a game plan. A game plan which I have absolutely no issue with whatsoever, if you have a limited group of players you need to find ways to get the most out of them and that's what Imrie does, he's done a very good job there. But to deny it exists is nonsense.

Yeah looking at it if we beat Dunfermline we'd be pretty much assured of finishing ahead of Dunfermline I think. We'd be 6 points ahead and at least 9 goals ahead on GD, with 3 left to play. Dunfermline would have to get 2 wins and a draw and we'd need to lose the other 3. Morton still have a shot and have the relative gimme of Arbroath, but their other 4 matches all look very tough. If we beat Dunfermline and get another win or even a draw somewhere I'd be confident Morton won't catch us. Given all that I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a few changes on Tuesday night, even if we win on Tuesday if that comes at the expense of more fatigue to the point where we lose to Dunfermline then we're worse off. I still think we'll be very competitive with Raith but would expect the likes of McGregor, Donnell, Gal and O'Connor to start.

Our tactics away from home are now very different from at home. In the away games to Morton, Dundee Utd, Dunfermline and Ayr on 'heavy pitches' we've been much more direct. Less so against Arbroath, but that's because we've a better team than them so presumably we're still happy to outplay them. But against similar level teams we've been much more pragmatic away. Overall it's worked, our away form in the first half of the season was horrific but recently it's been much better. I think I've made the point before but for all McCabe speaks like a modern manager and not 'changing his principles' etc, he clearly does when needed, and we're better for it. At home we're still the same, which results in a mixture of excellent goals for us and comical goals against us from playing out from the back. If Morton press us high it will be a really entertaining game I think, if they sit a bit deeper it could be a boring 0-0.

We have one of the tougher run-ins I'd say with all the top 6 (minus us obviously) still to play, and no Arbroath or ICT games left. Plus we seem to be managing a few players in terms of fitness/injuries, although I'm sure everyone is. However we have our 2 biggest rivals for a play-off spot at home in Morton and Dunfermline, if we win those 2 we'd be most of the way there I think, maybe needing one other win or even just a couple of draws. Like every other Morton game this season I'd expect it to be too tight to call with 1 goal in it.

In the games McGill has played since Christmas I think he's been decent, and if he'd had a full season of fitness like last year I think he'd have really helped this year. But my concern with him is that he seems to be one of those players who just constantly picks up injuries. 2 out of his 3 seasons with us have been constantly stop/start with injuries. Obviously not blaming him for that and anyone can pick up a serious injury, but he seems more like one of those players who is going to miss various chunks of the season with different 4-6 week injuries. Feel for the guy as this would have been a big season for him after last year, but from the club's point of view it has to be a consideration in terms of getting value for money from a player. The fact he played all of last season would be enough for me to give him another shot (assuming he wanted to stay obviously), but I wouldn't be surprised if the club think otherwise.

This is the thing, part of me is still in the 'happy to finish 8th' mode from pre-season. But equally, realistically I can't see us ever having a better chance of promotion (not saying it's likely, just that we may not get a better shot). We have a young manager who won't be here forever and a squad with promotion experience. We have beaten Raith 3 times and draw once this season, shared the points with Partick over 3 games, beaten St Johnstone and drawn with Ross County in 90 mins, so we aren't miles away from the standard. As I mentioned in the post above I think squad depth will/would cost us in terms of getting there and certainly getting through them though.

Don't like taking anything for granted but I think you're right. ICT would need 3 wins and a draw and for us to lose every game. Or for them to win every remaining match if we win 1 more. That's not factoring in the other teams below us who provide an extra buffer. Until it's impossible to be caught I'll not relax fully but we should have done enough. ICT do have Arbroath at home on Saturday so the table might not look quite as pretty if we don't beat Morton. Looking at the fixtures, hopefully Dundee Utd have things wrapped up with 2 games to go (probably unlikely), and QP could easily have nothing to play for by the last game, so those games might be kind to us. Regardless we have still to play the sides around us so it will be those results that decide whether we get 4th or not. A win on Saturday would be huge as a 5 point gap with 5 games to might be needed as we no longer have the relative gimme of Arbroath to play like Morton do. I have a slight concern that we may have ended up sacrificing a play-off spot with our Challenge Cup run, those extra 5 games and particularly the final have meant McStravick and McCabe are unavailable currently, and have added to the 2 periods of fixture congestion, one on February/March and one over the next 2 weeks, which seems to have taken it's toll on the squad a bit with a few players appearing to be 'half-fit' and able to play parts of games or some games. That's not a criticism however, a cup win and safety would be an excellent season. Hopefully the budget is bigger next year to allow a larger squad that can cope with the extra games that come with being a decent side.

Unsurprisingly the amount of medical qualifications I have is precisely nil, but I'd be absolutely stunned if Rae appears again this season. Going from an injury like that back to full contact professional sport is a huge step and I can't see them taking any chances for the sake of maybe playing a couple of games. I'd assume this season was written off as soon as they realised the problem and the aim was/is to get him healthy and then see about getting back to playing. Would be delighted to be wrong obviously.

I'll never be convinced that Watson is a centre back. I really like him at right back and I thought his best games this season were playing there when Megwa wasn't with us. But at centre back he is always going to make too many stupid errors. I was just saying that after Sunday when his needless lunge tackle led to the goal, and then tonight another poor decision costs us again. His mistakes seem to stem from him trying things beyond his ability level, or at least overcomplicating things, like trying to head back to the goalie rather than clear your lines, or lunging in out wide rather than stay on your feet, or passing from the back and giving it away (although in fairness that is manager led). This makes it more frustrating because he has the physical attributes to be a good defender (and has had good games there), but he's been with us long enough now to know that these semi-regular mistakes probably are always going to be there. Like I say at right back I like him and based on Megwa's performance tonight I'd have Watson out there over him, although we then don't have enough centre backs. O'Connor took his goal nicely so fair play to him for that. However his general play is so far off the standard required. Unless he has 30 yards of space to run into he cannot do anything. He gets shrugged out the way and his touch is awful when played into feet. I know we have fitness issues up front but I'm concerned if he is playing the next few weeks. Frizz shifted between being anonymous and being dreadful, and the rest weren't much better. The team have had plenty praise recently and rightly so, but losing 4/4 to that Ayr team deserves a bit of criticism. They average a point per game against everyone bar us which is relegation form, so to lose every game really is dreadful. Very disappointing night but a good chance on Tuesday to win and keep/put is in a strong position going into the last few games.

I couldn't care less about friendly results and never go to the games. But my frustration is more that we get poor friendly results while learning absolutely nothing about fringe players or players who are challenging for the first 11. I'm certainly not in the 'lets go with youth' camp and wanting to chuck a bunch of youngsters in. But surely playing different goalies is worthwhile given we know Gunn is going and will be number 1, what if he gets injured? Surely Ferguson has done enough to earn a couple of games. I've already seen Ryan Christie float around contributing nothing for 70 minutes about 40 times in his career, I don't need another. Same applies to Shankland, we all know what Dykes can and can't do, and that he is on the plane, giving Shankland 1 game away to Holland seems a bit harsh. It's like we aren't really clear what the purpose of friendlies is. We don't generally use them to integrate new players, but we also clearly don't approach them with the same competitive edge that we do qualifiers.

If we needed any reminder to re-focus on the league it's that Accies lost 7-0 after their cup win last season, they then got relegated by 3 points. So their over-celebration arguably cost them their place in the league (although I think GD would have killed them anyway). A win on Friday would be huge firstly because I think realistically that would be us over the finish line terms of relegation, barring a total collapse from us, and ICT and Ayr going on a big winning run. That would hopefully free us up to have a real go at top 4 with most other teams still playing under real pressure to win the league or avoid relegation.

Would have been interesting had we gone up that season. Would Murray still have moved on? Would Easton? And would the club still have turned to McCabe if Murray had left? I'd say yes and yes to the first two, not sure about the last one.

That's because it was Watson, not Fordyce. Overall I thought Watson was excellent but he'll always give you one dodgy moment a game, it was a needless tackle that probably had an element of playing to the crowd in it. I think if they hadn't scored he'd have been given at least a yellow. McCabe was also asleep when the ball was cut back, we are a better team with him in it but that's where he is exposed - quick runners running off him. On the goalie, he did what was asked of him, which wasn't very much. It may be that ultimately we 'need better' (although I don't see how anyone has seen enough to tell yet) but the bottom line is there aren't top quality goalies sitting around in March waiting on a contract offer. We need him for the rest of the season so need to do what we can to help him settle in, if that means the defenders taking a bit more responsibility for crosses for the time being I'm fine with that.

I thought TNS looked a threat early on out wide but as soon as we worked out how to stop them (20 mins in) they had nothing to offer, extremely one dimensional. And defensively in the first half they were as bad as I've seen in a long time from a professional club in terms of how easy it was to get in, literally all we did was chip nothing balls straight down the middle and we got about 4 or 5 opportunities, not sure how we only scored one. You can tell they are a side that are never tested defensively. I'm sure if they played Championship teams every week they would adapt to the level but I was unimpressed by them, we had essentially half a team missing in the 2nd half and looked comfortable, don't think our goalie had a save to make. Don't mean that to take away from what we did by the way, just a comment on them.

No idea about TNS but looking at the available sections to Airdrie it looks pretty healthy to me. Behind the goal has about 140 seats left out of half the stand (1000?), most of which I imagine will still sell. And the only sections of the lower main stand that look like they won't sell out (or near enough) are the 2 sections nearest the TNS fans which is maybe a third of the stand. I think we'll have near 3000 which is as good as we can get these days - that's pretty much what we had in the home play-off ties and at home to Hearts. I think for us to ever get higher than that it would have to be a Scottish Cup semi at Hampden.. maybe next season... Said at the time that I wanted Falkirk in the final as it would have been a cracking crowd and atmosphere. With TNS it was always going to be a bad look for the TV cameras in terms of attendance, but that's what you get when you invite them into the tournament.

Your points per game under Campbell was 1.09 points per game. Which means you'd currently be on 30 points and still bottom of the league. Obviously with a few more points than you do now but then if you factor in that Campbell would have had to deal with the amount of injuries you've had it's fair to assume that you'd have been in exactly the same position as now, if not worse. If you look at last season, Arbroath got 34 points in 8th place and were 9 points behind 7th place. I don't think you'll quite reach that total this season but you could easily end up very near it as you are 11 points away with 8 games left. Campbell's points per game this season would have had you finish on 39 points, 5 points ahead of last season. Again, if not for injuries I think McIntyre would have got near that too. The points tallies suggest that there hasn't actually been a major drop off this season and that the signs were there last season that you were already falling a long way behind 'the pack' and were bailed out by Cove and Accies being dreadful. This season they've been replaced by 2 competent sides in Airdrie and Dunfermline which has meant you've had no bail out and been cut adrift.

I think the 2nd goal is exactly the type of goal you can concede with a new keeper, everyone not really sure who is dealing with it. I think the keeper should be stepping out and claiming it but might take a few games to develop a better understanding.

McCabe is obviously trying to get McMaster game time by playing him in the home games which should be a bit easier for him, and given himself the away games to Dundee Utd, ICT and Dunfermline, I'd assume he'll play himself next week too. It's been discussed before but McMaster does a job when we are dominant and he keeps things ticking over, but the further up the levels you go the less likely you get games like that - yesterday was the closest this season and even then it was nothing like some of our hammerings last year. He needs to be stronger defensively and offer a bit more with progressive passing. Passing safe and square isn't really enough, especially when you don't have that 'destructive' side to your game either.

Obviously no idea what he's like but I hope we don't put too much expectation on him to play out from the back like Rae does, at least initially. We've had good result recently being a bit more direct and whilst those were away on heavy grass pitches I'd hope we'd keep being relatively direct tomorrow until the goalie beds in. I felt that was part of the problem the boy Henderson had last year when he came in, instead of just asking him to focus on standard goalkeeper stuff we had him as a playmaker from the back and it just caused confusion at the back.

Totally agree. Trying to find a positive there is obviously never a good time for this to happen, but the 'least bad' would have been when it did in terms of us only having 1 league in a 3 week period coming up. That gives is time to get something sorted and more time for Rae to recover (although if it's long term it will make little difference). If this had happened in the Morton game 2 weeks ago we'd have been in real bother with the amount of fixtures soon after it.

I said the same before the Dunfermline game at the start of the season when we got Clarke in, but this relying on emergency keepers is the one thing I'd be critical of McCabe for during his time with us. In hindsight the way we utilised it last season was quite funny, but the reality is not having a reasonable back-up nearly derailed the season before Christmas and being able to get keepers like Johnson and Jamieson was as much down to luck as judgement. I understand we're on a tight budget and that convincing a keeper to sign up to sit on the bench for a year isn't the easiest sell, but every other club manages it and I refuse to believe there isn't a keeper out there who is at least League 2/lower League 1 level who wouldn't sign up to be back up and play Challenge Cup and potentially step in in situations like this. It's not like we didn't have warnings last year with injuries and suspensions for Josh, surely promotion would have allowed us the budget for another keeper? I also think having a bit of competition in that position is healthy, having someone there as a viable alternative if your form drops is surely going to drive standards more than knowing that you'll be starting every week regardless. I anticipate we'll get someone in but at this stage in the season there won't be many players left to choose from. At least the chance of playing in a cup final makes it quite an attractive option and a chance for them to put themselves in the shop window.

Regardless of whether he should or shouldn't be sacked, I can't remember the last time I saw a manager perform as badly in comparison to the club's expectations and not lose his job. It's just so rare nowadays for someone underperforming that badly to not lose his job. You might understand it if Bartley had a great CV to buy him some time, or that it wasn't his players and he had the 'judge me when it's my team' excuse, but neither is the case. He must be on a tidy salary if the board are still reluctant to sack him due to the cost of a pay-off. Or they have an incredible level of faith in someone who has done nothing to earn that faith.

Interesting looking at your results. I think you've only lost 2 of the last 9 games (since we beat you on 2nd January). Defensively you are also much better than the surrounding teams. Your problem is the number of draws - 4 of the last 5 being draws. In isolation a draw is usually not bad (like ours yesterday was a good point given the context) but in a season when safety is going to be easily 40+ points drawing games over any sustained period is literally relegation form, even though it can be spun as 'unbeaten'. Wouldn't take much to turn those draws into wins and put a string of wins together though.

I thought last week's draw was a poor result (albeit QP have definitely improved) but I think this week's was a good point. Gained on Arbroath and Dunfermline and didn't lose ground on anyone else. Plus off the back of a busy schedule I think it's a lot to expect the players to put in a great performance. I think today was a case of don't lose, keep ICT at arm's length and move onto next week. I thought if we got 8 points from the run of QP, Dunfermline, ICT and Arbroath that would be a great return and we have a chance to get that next week.