Mr November

Hopefully this is somewhat more entertaining than the eight games we played a couple of years ago, which QP winning promotion aside, were non-events and largely absolutely dreadful. Being the Friday night TV game, which are notoriously boring, it doesn’t bode well. This feels like a bigger game for QP but I think it’s an important one for us too. We’ve had a good start to the season but two home defeats in a row to teams below us in the table would be a really disappointing way to end the first quarter.

I was near the back of the standing bit and thought the sound was horrendous for the first couple of songs. Pushing my earplugs in further seemed to sort it out but yeah, the less guitar-led songs sounded much better to me.

I agree with this but I think the reassuring thing is that McCabe has adapted how we’ve played throughout his time. I think we’ve both said something similar before but the way McCabe talks about our style of play hasn’t changed too much since he first become manager but the style itself has evolved a lot since then. We were a lot less naive as last season went on and became more direct, in terms of getting the ball forward quicker rather than long aimless balls, and became a bit more compact defensively too. Our style has obviously changed a bit again this season to be slower and more possession based, presumably as the quick attacking style might be caught out a bit more at this level, but I’d like to think McCabe will continue to evolve things if we start regularly struggling to break teams down.

Yesterday was as bad but it could be worse, this happened a year ago today.

Didn’t realise quite how bad a start Queens were having until I looked at the table. Was very surprised to see even Cove a point ahead! As a few have mentioned, I do wonder if a hybrid is the best option for Queens now. Airdrie spent far too long in League One and for about half of that it felt like we had a decent enough budget but there was always at least one full-time team with more money in the league, a situation pretty similar to Queens now. It’s a tricky situation, you can’t really compete with Falkirk and Hamilton for every player so have to take a few gambles, alongside a reliable core, and hope they pay off. Queens could still turn things around this season but the longer you stay in this league as a full-time team, the harder it becomes to get out with decreasing budgets every year. After trying every other option we first went hybrid in 19/20. It was initially a roughly even split of full-time (a mix of experience in Fordyce, Nat Wedderburn, Ally Roy etc. and youth) and then part-time (mostly solid League One players). We gradually scaled that up until last season when I think Calum Gallagher was the only part-time player but even then, if we were completely full-time and didn’t have him we wouldn’t be in the Championship just now. I suppose it still comes back to needing a good manager and good recruitment. A lot of our success has been signing guys who weren’t really going anywhere with their careers, be that part-time or full-time, and turning them into key players for us, like McCabe, Frizzell, Easton and Watson. I wasn’t hugely impressed by Bartley’s recruitment this summer but figured he did well enough last season to justify giving him a chance. It looks like a team that lacks both experience and quality though, which is a recipe for disaster in this league.

Yeah that’s where I’m at too. A poor performance all round but equally 12 points after four games is a decent start, just need to put today behind us and build on it in the next few games. Hopefully Ballantyne is back quickly. It’s perhaps difficult coming into a game so early but I thought Megwa really struggled today, both defensively and going forward. Hopefully he improves with time. He reminded me a bit of Euan Deveney in that he’d continually stand in space on the touchline but never call for the ball, and even when players spotted him they rarely trusted him enough to pass the ball to him. I think we need to figure out a way to involve Todorov a bit more. I’ve not been hugely impressed with him so far but I also don’t think he’s a big target man like many seem to think. He wins a decent enough amount in the air but I don’t think hold up play is his game, his real strength is attacking the ball in the box from crosses or set-pieces. I thought we were crying out for him coming on after Ayr’s second and playing wide and much more aggressively today, which McStravick was starting to get a bit of joy with.

Airdrie 3-1 Ayr Dunfermline 1-1 Arbroath Inverness 2-2 Partick Thistle Queen’s Park 2-2 Morton Raith 0-1 Dundee United

I can’t say I’m too bothered what their results are but I’d imagine the reserves at least learn more from playing against a better team, including a few older players, than they did beating teams 13-0 last season.

He started at Tannadice too but obviously the midfield was a lot weaker that day. As you say though, I think he gives us great balance between McMaster sitting deeper and Frizzell driving forward. Yeah, I had thought if we can get about 12 points a quarter we should be safe without too much bother and obviously we’ve reached that already, with two very winnable home games to come this quarter. We’ll undoubtedly have tougher spells as the season goes on though. All about continuing our strong start, opening up a gap on the teams at the bottom and seeing where that takes us.

I think those are all good points that tie into a larger theme of our playing style evolving this season. Last season was often high tempo, attacking football with full backs bombing down the sides, players running forward and wide players finding gaps in between centre backs and full backs. There was a clear purpose behind it but still, generally attacking teams seemed to be the strategy. Things have changed a bit this season, right from the early cup games, with much more of a focus on patient possession, building from the back and waiting for an opportunity to present itself rather than just directly attacking all the time. I think there’s more of a need for players who can take the ball in tight spaces and keep things moving until a gap opens up this season, which McMaster and Aiken are both really good at. It might change throughout the season with form/injuries but McMaster, Aiken and Frizzell has a great balance at the moment for how we want to play.

It’s maybe just a positional thing. We have lots of central midfielders, Gallagher is probably the 7th choice there, whereas not as many central defenders (Cassidy) or wide players (Dunlop). When ATS is back fit I expect he’ll take Cassidy’s place on the bench.

Aiken has been excellent, very good ball-winner who can progress play and carry the ball forward. It’s not the only reason why it happened but it’s telling that he didn’t play in by far our worst performance this season. It’s still early days but he has a lot of potential. O’Connor has been more mixed. I don’t think he’s ever had a good game (not including games against League Two/Lowland League teams) when starting but he’s made a good impact coming off the bench, notably winning penalties against Dundee and Ross County and then scoring the equaliser against the latter too. He’s not ready to start every week at this level but his pace and work-rate make him a great option off the bench to run at tired defenders.

Fair play, I don’t think Morton or Raith were great but that’s two weeks in a row we’ve had hard games and have dug out a 1-0 win. We all knew last season we could blow teams away but I think we all questioned how we’d cope in tougher situations. We’ll have bad spells to come but the players, and McCabe, can take a lot of belief from the way they’ve bounced back from the Arbroath disaster.

Another huge result for Airdrie. I was very concerned when I saw Broadfoot wasn’t starting but fair play, we didn’t need him after all. It wasn’t the best game and we didn’t create too much but three points and a clean sheet is great. Ballantyne and Hancock were excellent again. Morton were exactly what I expected. Very physical, direct and played at a very high tempo. For all their fans were calling Airdrie “boring”, if they had been more patient and hadn’t rushed into everything they might not have wasted a few attacks in the first half. I think they’ll come good still, I’ve seen worse teams this season, but they need a few wins soon.

I’m sure Mohsni was arguing with Jim Lister that night too. Not the best choices!

I see Inverness are appointing a familiar face as their new assistant manager in Gary Bollan. Throwback to the time he had an argument with Bilel Mohsni

Arbroath 3-1 Inverness Ayr 0-1 Raith Rovers Dundee United 3-0 Queen’s Park Morton 1-2 Airdrie Partick Thistle 1-1 Dunfermline

I see it’s Rangers B away in the cup then. See the picture above for my thoughts.

Me irl every time I see or hear the phrase “stop the cross”

I think Albion Rovers were training on Saturday, presumably at the stadium as usual, so wonder if he just stuck around for the game like some of the Celtic B players used to? We do need another Owen Moffat type rumour so I’m all for it.

I did wonder before the season started if that could be an issue for Raith. Unless he has a clear best starting 11 Murray does like to tinker with things and move guys around. It’s hard finding the right balance though. I thought your front four yesterday lacked pace. Stanton made some great runs beyond our defence but while they’re all very good players, him, Easton and Mullin is a bit one paced. I suppose that’s where the guys on the bench can help but again, it’s about finding the best balance. I still think Raith will be absolutely fine though, they’ll finish top four.

I didn’t appreciate at the time that our goal today had 25 passes in the build up. I remember we scored a goal at East Fife a couple of years ago with 20 odd passes in the build up and that seemed quite unusual at the time. Now, scoring great goals like that is just something we know this team are capable of.

I’m not sure if it was mentioned on stream but Smith was ready to come on just before the goal, that was then delayed and Gullan and Vaughan were chucked on too.

I think that was our first win against Raith in 19 games? Ridiculous stuff. That’s what you get for breaking the Inverness hoodoo.

Huge performance from Airdrie today, mentally more than technically. It was really important to bounce back from last weeks disaster and while that game was always going to hinge on the first goal, we held our own and then strolled it after the goal. I don’t think either side had many great chances but I don’t remember ever thinking that Raith were going to score other than Stanton’s shot. It was mostly shots from distance and weird, floated crosses to the back post. We struggled to create many clear chances too but Gallagher was clinical when he got the opportunity. The first half was pretty even overall, Airdrie having the better start but Raith started to control things as the half went on. I thought the second half was pretty even too until the goal when Raith just fell out the game completely. I’m a huge proponent of Murrayball, it’s a great laugh when it works, but there wasn’t really much of a plan for it today and the forwards he brought on didn’t add anything. Easton was disappointing too, he’s wasted out wide but never offered anything when he was moved inside. Raith today reminded me a little of Murray’s 19/20 Airdrie team actually. Not quite the attacking, exciting team he’d go on to build but solid and direct with battlers in the middle, without ever being quite creative enough.