Diamonds are Forever
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Posts posted by Diamonds are Forever
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Hard to predict as I'm sure we'll make a few changes - whether it's through the starting 11 or subbing guys who wouldn't normally come off. Obviously all games are important but if we beat Dunfermline on Saturday we could lose every other game and still have a high chance of getting 4th so it's the priority. Telfer and Frizzell were our best players yesterday and I don't think it's a coincidence that neither started on Tuesday. Frizz in particular seems to look fatigued when he is overplayed. Would expect Lyall, Donnell and either Gal or O'Connor to come in. Maybe Gavin Gallager for McMaster too.
I could be way off and McCabe just goes with the same team as Saturday for 70 minutes and then decides whether it's worth investing them for the full 90. But I'd expect some changes.
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1 hour ago, CapitalDiamond said:
How do we define cult hero though? I’d have it for players who are loved even though their football doesn’t neccessarily merit it e.g. Wullie Wilson
Toddy’s been really good since the QP comeback. He’s more of a straight up Bulgarian Andy Smith for me!!!
Can look awkward but big, powerful, a nightmare for defences and can finish. A hero.
11 minutes ago, A Diamond For Me said:Yeah, that was some laugh.
Davie Hutton would maybe be in with a shout. Prunts, obviously.7 minutes ago, Mr November said:Hutton is a good shout. Quite funny how he seems to be disliked by fans of most of his previous clubs too, which probably adds to it.
Prunty is just a hero. Important that when McCabe inevitably moves on we keep Prunty around in some form.
I think that definition is spot on, which is why I'd say Hutton is a great shout. He wasn't bad for us, but wasn't great either, he would have been another entirely forgettable goalkeeper if it was just down to his goalkeeping ability (which is why every other club doesn't seem to remember him very fondly).
But 3 factors make him arguably cult status. His penalty save/reaction against Celtic (helped by that photograph), his 'ability' to wind up opposition fans, and more recently his appearances as a substitute goalie last year when we were milking the emergency loan system, including a penalty save against Dunfermline.
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1 hour ago, 101 said:
Playoffs aren't that great a money spinner as the SPFL take 50% (after costs) to pay for the relegation parachute payment.
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.
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45 minutes ago, rough diamond said:
Superb point blank save by Hemfrey at 2 - 0 1st half, he deserves a mention today.
Ref totally lost control of the game, couple of industrial tackles on Todorov before Broadfoot was finally booked, French getting a yellow for throwing O'Connor to the ground in front of the Ref when play had stopped summed his performance up as did Quitongo only getting a yellow for straddling I think it was Hancock on the ground in the stramash, being fair I'm certain Watson threw a right hander in there and he should've walked.
Anyway, good performance all round, Frizz and Charlie for me our stand outs.
7pts from 12 vs Morton plus the Cup win, happy with that, as for Imrie, he obviously leads by example, that's Morton now on 95 bookings and certain to breach treble figures very soon.
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.
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29 minutes ago, Aufc said:
I suspect raith will finally bury the hoodoo against us in Tuesday. Huge game for us against the pars next week. Hopefully home advantage sees us take three points.
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.
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1 hour ago, Chicken Soup said:
I’d be amazed if McCabe employed the same strategy as last time, considering how badly it went. We were on a 14(?) game unbeaten run at the time so maybe his thinking was primarily about stopping us, but with the current form of both teams he should have more confidence in their ability to outplay us this time.
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.
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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.
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9 minutes ago, cb_diamond said:
A possibly interesting angle on the whole "who will stay/go" conversation with McGill is that I'd imagine he will be one of our highest earners, given the protracted saga of him resigning in the summer. Can only assume he got a big bump to recommit for this season. Has he been value for that money? No, not at all. But only because of his horrendous luck with injuries. I actually think he's capable at this level, but for me he's very a much if he stays, ok. If he goes, ok.
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.
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1 minute ago, G_&_T said:
If Livingston and Hamilton can get to the SPL, then there's no reason Airdrie can't. After years in the third tier, it would be brilliant for the club. Early days, but if you finish in a play-off spot, then who knows? Thistle should have done it last year.
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.
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25 minutes ago, G_H said:
I think we are all but safe from relegation now which is brilliant, especially considering it's such a tight league.
It's up to the players whether they are going to kick on and push for the playoffs or rest on their laurels. We do sometimes have a habit of complacency after getting a good result, but it would be good to get into the playoffs for the extra revenue if nothing else, plus the extra prize money for higher finishing position is likely quite meaningful for our club.
The run in is
Morton (H), Raith (A), Dunfermline (H), Partick (A), Dundee Utd (H), Queens Park (A)
None of which are easy games (not that there are any in this division, as even Arbroath who looked weak last night gubbed us earlier in the season)
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.
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7 hours ago, Passionate said:
Hard to disagree with anything the league is still crazy and a bad week could have us in the mire, regarding the keeper I thought we was commited and dealt with everything pretty well, I actually thought it was a great cross and header for the second goal, should he have stayed on his line, possibly.... I don't know about Rae situation but I would be surprised is he is not back on the next 2 or 3 weeks, although season will be about done by then.
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.
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3 minutes ago, Mr November said:
Agree with the comments above. I expected a bit of a bump back down to earth tonight and we certainly got that. I thought Ayr edged the first half, though we had the slightly better chances and O’Connor took his really well.
That start to the second half was abysmal though. Watson has had a great season and has barely put a foot wrong since the last game against Ayr but really poor defending for the first. I thought we looked quite panicky after that and never recovered once the second went in. The subs were odd too, I thought he might have been going full Murrayball but until we changed to a back three near the end it just seemed to be bringing attackers on yet keeping the same tactics which weren’t working. I assume McCabe had an eye on the busy schedule coming up but not sure the subs actually helped much at all. Still, good opportunity to bounce back on Tuesday night, though we’ll need to play better than we did tonight.
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.
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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.
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53 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:
Well it's back to league business and 3 games in week which will define our final league position and a win on Friday would put real pressure on the teams below us. We've been really disappointing against Ayr so far but heartening to see the McGregor, McGill were back on the bench for the cup final and that Lyall & Megwa will be back in contention to start.
Dunfermline are at Arbroath on Saturday and I would expect them to win so they could profit if we again don't turn up at Ayr.
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.
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4 minutes ago, Mr November said:
Two years ago today we were all absolutely gutted when Fraser Fyvie scored that last minute equaliser for Cove in the 1-1 draw. That’s probably the worst I’ve felt after a game and I really thought we’d missed a big opportunity that season. Funny how things work out.
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.
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6 hours ago, Jack Reed said:
Oh it's possible,think we need someone better than that, keeper had no chance with the goal,It was very unlike Fordyce going to ground think manager was going to get on to him when the boy nipped in past him,they made up for that and more ,
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.
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7 hours ago, moses1924 said:
Played well today, McStravicks goal was really well taken. As others have said this is the best couple of seasons we've had for 20+ years so enjoying it while it lasts, McCabe looks on the way to being a top manager so if we got another season of him I would be happy with that. TNS were ok but no better than we play in the Scottish Championship. I know a lot of people have questioned this competition but I still think it has value, best chance a lot of fans have of seeing a cup win.
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.
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1 hour ago, moses1924 said:
Wonder what kind of crowd there will be, given the push on social media all week to sell tickets i'm guessing fairly low, always seemed a bit optomistic to open 3 stands...
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.
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2 hours ago, SotesBornalichtie said:
I said when the Campbells left that my gut feeling was that we would be relegated, irrespective of who the new manager would be.
When McIntyre came in we had a few good results and he had the team playing good attacking football rather than the long boot it up the park and hope for the best that the Campbells played. Then followed a unprecedented series of injuries that we never recovered from. He has been forced to play makeshift sides with half fit players and players playing out of position against full time teams. Little wonder then that we are where we are.
To put all the blame for our position on McIntyre's shoulders is unjustified and my personal opinion is that he should continue as manager for the foreseeable future to give him the chance to build a team capable of pushing for promotion next season.
Realistically big name ex-players like Scott Brown, Duncan Ferguson etc have little or no interest in managing a small part time club where they cannot work with players every day.
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.
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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.
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10 hours ago, Mr November said:
I thought we really missed McCabe today for this season. With Rae out we couldn’t have the keeper as involved at the back and McMaster is a lot more conservative, so you’re left with Fordyce as the main playmaker back there which is never ideal. I’d like to see McCabe back in next week if he’s fit.
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.
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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.
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2 hours ago, Kenny_m said:
The challenge cup final is of secondary importance to Saturday’s game, obviously I’d prefer we won both but with ICT & Caley playing each other then we have a massive chance to increase the gap to 9th place and of course sneak into the top 4. Arbroath in last chance saloon and they know draws are no use to them so i expect them to more attacking than normal.
As @Mr November said, our current injuries are leaving us very short of pace and with Gal looking completely out of sorts, although he’s also had an interrupted season, it could well be Josh O’Connor coming in for his final chance. Quite honestly, if he doesn’t start this game then he never will.
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.
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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.
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Queen's Park 🕷🕸 v 🔴🔵 The Caley
in Scottish Championship General Chatter
Posted
Sure this will have been covered before, so apologies... but why were Sheridan and Welsh allowed to leave? You surely don't allow anyone to go to a direct relegation rival, even if you think they're hopeless. It's so hard to get any players in January that you're taking a seemingly needless chance that you're going to help out another team that could relegate you. Sheridan has played at a higher level his whole career and Welsh is a good player, it wasn't that unlikely that they'd both do a good job for QP for a few months.
Obviously if ICT stay up Ferguson can claim it was the right thing to do, but just seemed strange.