DoonhamerDon

Comfortable away win and maybe (but probably not) Bartley will stop going on about getting to the promotion play offs and start worrying about avoiding the relegation ones. First of two massive six pointers

Surely after the season we've had so far he'll have to get sacked in the summer? Would be ridiculous to scrape an 8th place finish 20 points shy of the playoffs (clearly the minimum target) and then be allowed to just go again next year!? So yeah that's probably what our board will do

Still looking upwards are we Marvin? Two weeks time and it will be 4 pts off Annan with 8 to play. Worst FT team to ever grace the Scottish leagues.

The correlation of wage spend to finishing position is cleary documented so appears to be a backward step but I think in our case it doesnt match up. We are clearly offering the lowest FT wages in the country and attracting people to move to FT with us from PT+Other job is likely to mean a pay cut so its a very hard sell. Add in our mid-table third tier league position and we are in such a narrow market for attracting players that it becomes to our detrimant on the field. We've got to find a more financially sustainable model for where we are in the league system be that some form of hybrid or simply all part-time. How that would be made up is dependent on next year's buget and size of squad. I don't know how our budget could be carved up across FT and PT contracts but not allowing ourselves to at least entertain the option of browsing the pool of PT players seems nonsensical.

A goal! We must have had a shot

Out of interest heres the table at the half way point last year. Just beaten at home by Kelty but still 3 points better off and pretty much as close to the playoffs. 6 wins from 18 is exactly the same as this year.

So that was the assurance that Montrose absolutely was the anomaly of the season. Not sure what happened that week but I saw absolutely none of the movement, pace and passing today that was prevalent then. Conditions were dreadful to be fair but whoever thought hoofball in that wind to our strikers was going to be effective?? Created nothing of note but could have actually won it from a very close free kick in the last minutes. Stirling deserved their lead when they got it, very much started better and missed a couple of big chances second half too, Stone with an excellent save from one. But in general a very poor game of football. Most worryingly seemed like we had no discernable game plan or tactics. Just hit and hope. Thought the players would be confident after two wins but didn't appear so. Connolly first half and the odd flash from Gibson seemed our only bright spark so of course both were subbed off by Bartley. Utterly bizarre. As someone else said, the season has been so poor that coming back for a draw actually feels alright but in the context of the season and where we want to be it was very poor.

Really important game at Stirling on the weekend. Feels like a potential sliding door particularly with Annan to round out the year. A potential to end the year in touching distance of play offs or set up for a relegation battle/bottom half drudgery Very much still in the mindset of 'the Montrose game was the anomaly' particularly as that first half display was so utterly unexpected to witness. Think we might need 4 wins in a row before the optimism starts to creep in.

Yep, seems that way. Obviously no idea on figures but what price is worth giving out 3 points to each of our fellow relegation challengers before then? As said, if this isnt sorted out before January we could easily be rock bottom.

Remarkable that Bartley seems to have survived (for another week at least) such a run. 4pts from 33 in the league. Just checked our other recent sackings and all were on "not as bad" a run. Johnston, Naysmith, Fowler and MacPherson all had at least 8 points from their last 11 games. Gibson had 15 (and 18 from 12) Not suggesting those sackings were wrong at all but just staggered that BoD can allow this to continue. What is keeping him in post? It has to be cost/lack of alternative?

Dreading that the Board will wait until Christmas/New Year and we blow the 3 or 4 massive games coming up in December. I can't see a turnaround from this so we need a change ahead of the Edinburgh, Stirling, Annan run. Wait until January and we'll be rock bottom.

Well if after 15 minutes we've not conceded a goal and have 11 men on the park I'd consider that a cracking start considering how the season has gone so far Will be high scoring. At least four goals and sadly I think Falkirk will get 3 of them.

Falkirk Hamilton Cove QOS Montrose Alloa Stirling Kelty Edinburgh Annan I said Falkirk last year - surely they can't miss out again (funny as that would be) I think we'll get into the play-offs - our form since Bartley came in suggested that over a season we would have got the points needed but I'm not sure on placing - other than not winning the league. Montrose and Alloa seem solid for middle of the pack - going Mo slightly higher as they've got a striker in Hester. I'm wary of putting too much stock in league cup performances but I think Stirling will have enough to stay up and Edinburgh look to be continuing the dire form from end of last season so will be bottom two along with Annan.

Fixtures are out https://spfl.co.uk/league/league-one/fixtures Alloa (H) opening day, then Edinburgh (A) and Annan (H) Seems a reasonable opening few fixtures but after last year's shambolic opener I'm not going to take anything for granted at all.

New signing coming at 4pm!

This time last year we had signed up Reilly, Dave McKay, Max Currie, Quitongo, Stuart Morrison and Wilson for our assault on league one. Given how most of those turned out I'm very happy to give MB some more time to get it right!

Delighted to get Cochrane signed up again and on a two year deal. Definitely someone that looked better and more settled after MBs arrival. Think it always helps with other signings later in the summer if players have choices and they see good players committing to the QoS 'project' "Doonhammers" is a massive bug bear of mine. Not forgivable as a spelling mistake just plain ignorance!

This killed some time for me over the weekend. 1 player from each of the last eleven years to form a best XI. You only get the player from that particular year though so no picking based on what they went on to do. Picking a player from each year is simple enough but trying to shape it into an actual team more challenging.

41 appearances he somehow managed this season! Only Paton played more. Incredible.

Won't be missing any of those released - but slightly suprised it isnt a bit longer. Assume Quitongo will be told he's gone once Clyde's play-offs are finished. I'm assuming all those not contracted but not on those list we are offering terms to of some degree. Hopefully at a lower level in some cases which will probably lead to more departures over the summer. I know nothing of the budget or what clubs pay players (can always ask Greenacres though ) but recruitment and spreading our budget appropriately across a group of Key Players, Good squad players and backups/reserves is something Gibson got very wrong. Happy to retain some more of last season's squad if on terms that allow us to pay a bit more for the higher quality ones. Its that 'can I get equal or better quality for the money being paid' question and in some cases its just a no Don't envy Bartley with the job and its a massive summer of recruitment to get that balance right, but I have faith.

Definite end of season feel to the interest around this game - understandable with both teams practically (if not mathematically) out of the play-off running. Last week appeared to be the reminder (I was going to say reality check but I think we were all reasonably grounded around the unexpected-ness of our upturn in form) that our squad still needs a major overhaul for next season. However, there are clear signs that Bartley can get performances and results out of sub-par players and in theory this would get easier with his own players in this summer. He's improved the squad in the key areas with the players he brought in in January but the summer is a big test and of course its not as simple as just "getting better players" - every club is in the same boat trying to upgrade on what they have. As we said before this run had us flirting with the pay-offs, lets end the season in as strong a position as we can. Hoping for a reaction to last week but there is the possibility for a drab 0-0 with both teams minds firmly on the beach.

Airdrieonians 2 Dunfermline Athletic 2 Alloa Athletic 1 Falkirk 1 FC Edinburgh 1 Kelty Hearts 1 Peterhead 0 Clyde 2 Queen of the South 2 Montrose 1

Pretty much what I'm counting on. If Alloa get points from Dunfermline/Falkirk then they will make playoffs and fair enough. Alloa are benefiting by having a much stronger start to the season being the team ahead with points on the board while we have been playing catch-up (pretty successfully over the last few months tbf) But it means we potentially lose out when rivals play the "stronger" teams at a time in the season when as you say they aren't fighting for everything the way they were back in Autumn. Ultimately I think we started our great run of form just a week or two too late.

I don't think it's quite at the stage of must win. I'd probably take a draw if offered one now. We need to win at least three of our last four and one of those will have to be Dunfermline or Airdrie away. We could win all four and still not make it, Alloa are still in the driving seat for the playoffs and as said it's hard to tell the motivation for teams with nothing to play for over the last four games. If we can end the weekend less than 6 points behind Alloa I'd be reasonably happy with that.

First time I've seen the Marvin revolution live and absolutely delighted to see we've now decided to defend cross balls by heading them away. Didn't know you could do that? Clear intent to keep the ball on the deck great to see. Was a very up and down game as has been said. Went in at half time feeling lucky to be two up but also thinking could have been out of sight. Second half more backs to the wall but Back three were excellent standing up to the endless crosses - a totally understandable if slightly one-dimensional tactic by Alloa - and what can be said about Kev. Two ridiculous saves at the end to keep us in it. Was a very frantic last 20 minutes to say the least.