The Toun Clock

OFT. It's okay the man in the bear suit with loud bangy bangy cardboard tank won't be there tomorrow, you're safe now.

Mental that your father in law is Gregory Tade

Ticket purchased. Driving to this one so no pre-match beers which may not be a good thing if we end up getting a scudding but at least I'll be able to make a quick getaway if that's the case. The last and only time I attended a derby sober at Starks it was a comfortable two nil win for the Pars, New Year 2017 I think, would bite Val McDermid's pants off for the same result. Hope the away tickets pick up a bit more, I'm sure they will but won't be anywhere near a sell out in the away end but it won't be bad come Saturday afternoon.

I was thinking this last week, it's a strange one but I personally feel it is with more togetherness. If you look at some of the individuals that were part of that squad like Lawless, Polworth and the Polish goalie, they've all went on to do well. Lawless did have good spells with us, but I was as surprised as anyone when Polworth started playing regularly for Killie under Derek McInnes. No doubt the Polish goalie plays over Deniz so perhaps weaker between the sticks. I don't think defensively it's up for debate, saying we had everyone fit then there's no way Col Donaldson and Efe Ambrose even make the bench. Obviously Edwards is still here, as is Comrie and even Yogi's favourite right back Matty Todd. Bene, Fisher, MFW, Breen, Hammy, Benjamin I think is better. Also Welch-Hayes, I think could be an improvement on Comrie over time. Nothing against Comrie at all but I think when fully settled he could offer more. The middle could be up for debate if we look at individuals but I personally think this team is better, and IIRC Dom Thomas didn't play for the last 5 or so games as it was rumoured he'd already singed a PCA with Queens Park. We still had Chalmers then, Polworth, Lawless, Dorrans who on paper sound quite good but we all know the truth. The striking options were much the same as we had last season, in fact exactly the same with Todorov, McCann, O'Hara and Wighton, although the latter went out on loan to Arbroath. Only other person was Bobby Kamwa from Leeds who didn't really play at all. I'll die on the should have kept Todorov hill, but personally I think Chris Kane is better than everyone mentioned there. That's all quite high level and just my opinion of course but I do think this squad is better and the key thing is togetherness. Would be interesting to do a side by side and analyse it.

Quite looking forward to watching us not play at home to be completely honest. After whatever happened to the pitch earlier in the year, then a high amount of home games the surface really hasn't recovered well. Not that we're passing it about like Pep's Barcelona but it has been a tottie field for the last few weeks. Mixed thoughts on the game. I can't see IM allowing Raith the chance to slip up so soon after the arse collapse at Arbroath. Raith will have had eight days to recover and we've played twice on a heavy pitch in that space of time. If we'd won on Tuesday then we'd have taken 10/12 points and have a good bit of momentum but it wasn't to be. I think McPake will bring Bene back for this one. He's been an unused sub on the bench for the past two weeks and was close to playing on Tuesday, however McPake opted to stick with the same back four that kept two consecutive clean sheets. I'd imagine he'll partner Fagan-Walcott which will allow Chris Hamilton to return to centre midfield, I'd imagine Paul Allan dropping out. Nice thought that we might start a derby game without a centre midfield, ball watching pairing of Paul Allan and Joe Chalmers. Chris Kane should return to lead the line, a big player for us now and a huge miss on Tuesday. Other than that, I can't see many other changes. Richie-Hosler made his long awaited return (for the third time) on Tuesday night but didn't get a sniff as we continued to play hoofball. I suppose he wouldn't have had much joy running down the right wing with the pitch like that. Head says Raith will be on it for this one and will secure the three points, even if a narrow win, however heart says we can win providing guys like Chris Kane are playing. I suppose a small blessing for us is that you could be without both Ashcroft and Watson. A draw wouldn't be a terrible result however I'd very much like a 1 nil Pars win, with the ball going in off Dabrowski's face after missing another routine catch.

Being back on plastic for the first time in a while might be decent, think our last game on plastic would have been Airdrie (a) in December. Hopefully our pitch get's a good wee break ahead of the Dundee Utd game a week on Friday, little bit warmer weather, sun etc would do it the world of good.

Going forward, we can't look at McCann being a striker. He's a wide player who happens to be quite physical.

Depends how old you feel on the day...

I can, because we've played almost the full season without the guys who were do dominant in that League 1 title winning season. We've turned a corner in the last couple of weeks and it's largely down to the return of guys like Matty Todd, Jakubiak and the signing of Chris Kane who didn't play last night. Might sound like sour grapes but if we didn't have the injury problems on such a huge scale this season then I think we'd be doing much better than we are, I'm not saying challenging for titles but I think we would be well in with a shout of top four. Unfortunately we've just got to take the cards we've been dealt. The result last night was disappointing but I think it was just a bad night. Missed chances, go a goal down and as soon as that happened I knew Airdrie would grind it out.

One issue we have is we often make things difficult for ourselves, decision making can be terrible, which leads to us making an arse of chances etc. When that happens the crowd start getting a bit twitchy and on the players backs. East End has always had a rather impatient set of supporters, I know a lot of teams do have this but we've always been quite quick to jump on the players backs for whatever reason. Last season was great, lost one game all season and East End was a fortress but we've not been able to mirror that this season. The injuries played a part in a mid season dip of form, no doubt and then we just got into a rut. That being said, since the Thistle game there's been a change. The effort can't really be questioned from the players and we'd picked up seven points from an available nine before last night. I'm not too downbeat on last night, Airdrie had two shots on goal and scored with both, they didn't really do much else apart from that and on another night we're two up inside five minutes. But again, we didn't take our chances, then didn't do enough to stop Airdrie taking the lead and once that happened you knew they'd see it out, every trick in the book and all that does is gets the fans frustrated and it becomes more tense for the players. Would it have been nice going into Saturday's derby with a bit of momentum taking 10 points from 12, yeah absolutely, but it was probably a wee reality check too that we're going to win and lose games before the end of the season and we'll just have to make sure we do enough to get points on the board and stay away from the drop zone.

I was quite looking forward to this after the last couple of games, but tonight has put a wee dampener on it. We played okay tonight but missed Chris Kake and didn’t take our chances. McPake’s post-match sounds like Kane was feeling fatigue after playing a lot in a short space of time hence why he missed out. He also said Bene was close to playing tonight but he had loyalty towards Hammy and Fagan-Walcott after two clean sheets in a row. Wouldn’t be shocked to see Bene start on Saturday with Hammy back in the middle of the park. Fairly simple, if Chris Kane plays then I think we could get a result. If he doesn’t then I might stay in the house. Raith will have the luxury of rest, we’ve now played twice on a heavy pitch since they lost to Arbroath on Friday.

What actually happened with the gesture? I heard a shout from the crowd when he was going off but didn’t see it?

Just listened to the managers post match. Some of the main takeaways… - Kane should be fine for Saturday, just a fatigue issue after playing on a heavy pitch on Saturday. - Bene was close to playing tonight but wanted to keep Hammy and MFW since they’ve had three positive results together including two clean sheets. Be shocked if Bene doesn’t start on Saturday now with Hammy back in the middle.

Fair play to Airdrie, deserved to win the game because they took their chances, wasn’t much in it apart from that. Felt we started fast and on another day could have been two up, Todd should have scored both chances. Big Todorov scores and after that we just played into Airdrie’s hands, hoofing the ball up the park and it was pretty aimless. I was very disappointed when we let Todorov go. I’m not happy we lost but I am glad Todorov scored on a night where we lacked any real striker presence, it was a silly move by the club and it’s backfired against them. Jakubiak is a wide man, he can’t lead the line on his own, it’s not his game. I genuinely don’t know what Lewis McCann brings to the team anymore, he’s been absolutely gash since he signed his new deal late last year and Holmes doesn’t look like he’s up to much. We so badly missed Chris Kane, praying he’s available for Saturday. Great to see Richie-Hosler back on the pitch. He didn’t have much chance to shine as by the time he came on it was just hoof ball but a great option to have. Todd getting a full 90 and some more training time under Bene’s belt. Wouldn’t be shocked to see him involved on Saturday, getting Hammy back in the middle.

I wouldn't be shocked to see Bene get 15-20 tonight. Gonna be a really tough game, dream scenario would be getting a similar lead to Saturday, maybe another to kill it and being able to make subs and giving the boys like Kane, Todd, Otoo a wee rest ahead of Saturday. I know that's unlikely of course.

I think the manager might prefer the 3-5-2 so he can put two quicker CB's either side of Bene, like Fisher and MFW. If everyone was fit, I'd have MFW ahead of Breen in the pecking order now, he looks to have settled (going to end up scoring an OG and getting sent off tonight). But aye I think we could get away with Allan coming out the starting 11, Bene going into CB and Hammy moving forward to partner Otoo in the middle of the park.

Agreed, I got the ParsTV steam on the firestick last week for the Inverness (a) game and it was a good picture.

Dabrowski would have to catch it first…

Really looking forward to this. On Thursday it'll be the anniversary of that title defining Falkirk game from last season. It would be great to have a similar scoreline to give us a bit of momentum going into the derby on Saturday.

Chris Kane is everything I hoped Wighton would turn into.

No special reason mate, I forgot he’d played for us, quite fond of him on Open Goal podcast and just went for it.

I have a feeling this was the day the North stand linesman went off injured and was replaced by a Pars fan who was just there as a punter. I think this will be a tough game but I’ve seen enough in the last couple of weeks to know a wee corner has been turned so I don’t fear it and know we can win. Seven points taken from the nine available, and a win on Tuesday would be very welcome considering we’ve got Raith away and Dundee Utd at home in the next fortnight. Not sure we’ll see any major changes to the team, I think he’ll just have Bene as part of the squad again and might give him 10 minutes if anything. I don’t expect any other injured guys being back and hopefully no injuries from yesterday. Should be a good game, absolutely love a midweek game under the lights!

I’m not one who would normally miss a derby game but I was basing my decision on going on how we were playing. Thankfully since Thistle away last weekend we’ve gained 7 points from an available nine and are certainly looking better so I’ll be there. Still a huge game at East End against Airdrie for us before our game next weekend. I’d still hold the Rovers as favourites for this one as they’ve an abundance of talented players who can cause a bit of concern. I think Raith will drop points between now and the end of the season, however I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s against the teams you maybe wouldn’t expect like we seen on Friday. This particular group of players seem to turn up well in those title chasing games with Dundee Utd and derbies with ourselves. Yesterday we had a full bench for the first time this season and had the luxury of using all substitutions with experienced players, which is massive. Bene was an unused sub so hopefully another week of full training, however not sure he’ll start. I’d love the idea as it would allow Chris Hamilton to move back into the midfield but not sure how ready Bene actually is. He may well be involved on Tuesday. Head says Raith to win with a reaction to Fridays game, heart says a tense 0-1 win with Otoo scoring.

It is indeed mate

I was shocked when he didn’t start. I was in bang on kick off so didn’t get a chance to check the Ayr team. Wasn’t until half time I had a look at their subs and realised Chalmers, McGeady and the boy who scored twice in midweek were all available, which caused a bit of worry. Could see Chalmers was being readied to come on at HT but he hardly had a sniff. Edwards was really on it yesterday and he’s hard to beat when he’s like that. They switched Chalmers over to the left up against Welch-Hayes but he didn’t have a sniff there either.