Mr November

A lot of people seemed to be against Murray from the start and it took until last season for many people to come round to him. For a while every defeat led to a Murray out post. in comparison, McCabe has had a lot of goodwill, even those of us who thought it was a massive risk were generally willing to give it a go. Compare the reaction on there to what Murray got when we lost those two home games against Elgin and Montrose a few years ago. We tried that against Kelty to be fair and the midfield was completely overrun. I agree on Devenny, he had a great start to the season and we do miss his athleticism and running when he’s not playing but he’s been poor for a few weeks now. That can happen with young players but we’re relying on him as a regular with absolutely no backup, rather than a bench option who can come in and do a job or drop out of them team when he needs a break.

On the subject of his interviews, it’s a concern seeing McCabe and Fordyce talking about not being clinical enough. Yes we could have done better in front of goal today but we can’t rely on scoring three or four each week when the clowns at the back aren’t bothering to track runners or close the space.

Agree with pretty much all of this. As you say, Lyness was embarrassing for the second goal but it all stems from McCabe not clearing his lines and probably others doing similar before too. We looked good in midfield at the start of the season with a sitter (McCabe) and two runners (Devenny and Frizzell). I don’t think he’s solely to blame but since Telfer came in the balance has been way off. Whether that’s playing both him and McCabe (too similar), not playing Devenny (he’s not brilliant but adds athleticism) or playing McMaster (not terrible but barely impacts games), the energy and pressing has been nowhere near what we need. Fontaine seemed to win every header in both boxes and was calm and commanding, everything our defenders aren’t. I don’t think Edinburgh are a particularly outstanding team but they have plenty of good, experienced players with quality at both ends. There’s a lot to be said for two banks of four, keeping things simple and playing to your strengths at this level. It’s hard to see where Airdrie go from where without McCabe adjusting his principles somewhat.

Struggling to remember a bigger drop-off in performances than Fordyce this season. Most consistent defender in the league for three seasons but miles off it this season. Even when we were winning at the start of the season he was dodgy but so poor since then. Worryingly like Crighton’s performances which fell off a cliff after becoming player/coach a couple of years ago.

Clyde 1-2 Queen of the South FC Edinburgh 3-1 Airdrieonians Falkirk 2-0 Kelty Hearts Montrose 0-0 Dunfermline Athletic Peterhead 1-3 Alloa Athletic

I went along tonight and thought the same, definitely the best player on the pitch for me. He really impressed me when Falkirk beat Airdrie 2-1 last season and while he obviously fell off after that he was excellent tonight, constantly picking the ball up in good areas and looking to cause problems. The first half hour or so was by far the best I’ve seen Falkirk play since they came down, though admittedly that is usually when they’re losing to Airdrie. The tempo and movement early on was excellent and while things were a bit sluggish in the second half, the game was done by then. I did enjoy Coll Donaldson turning a goal kick into an Alloa corner though I fancied Falkirk to win the league at the start of the season and having seen both them and Dunfermline properly now (I didn’t want to read too much into the 4-0 game earlier in the season), I think it will be pretty tight but I fancy Falkirk to just edge it. I suspect we’ll see both teams start to pull away a bit over this quarter.

I’m guessing you were the same but our game was the one game I got the wrong result too

You’d assume the main reason for appointing McCabe and Fordyce was to try and keep some continuity with what we’ve steadily built up over the last few years but yeah, we’re only ever one bad season away from all of that disappearing. A full rebuild in what would undoubtedly be another very competitive League One would be far from ideal. Frizzell and Smith are certainly capable of playing in the league above and we’re probably fortunate that Smith signed a two year deal when he joined, as I’m sure Raith and other Championship teams would have been in for him this summer.

David Hutton would certainly add some aggression in there to be fair.

I also thought ATS was fine yesterday and one of our better players. He’s not a marauding wing back at this point, though I did laugh when he knocked the ball round Cawley early on and put a cross in, but he was pretty steady overall. He’s an easy target but given the low expectations around him I think he’s done alright so far. As others have said, it’s a real lack of energy in midfield at the moment that’s the biggest issue. We miss Easton’s flair and creativity at times but he also worked very hard defensively, while Agnew barely moved but was very effective at filling in the gaps and keeping us organised. Until Frizzell is back I’m honestly not sure what we do to fix the midfield. I’d be tempted to play Telfer further forward, he has ability but is nowhere near aggressive or reliable enough as the deepest midfielder.

I also thought someone like Robertson would make a massive difference to us. An experienced midfielder who does the simple thing well, knows where to be and keeps things moving.

That game at East End Park feels like a lifetime ago now, 10 points between us if you beat Clyde on Tuesday.

McCabe will get time. Our owner gave Stevie Findlay a permanent deal as manager and then allowed him to build an expensive part-time squad after a questionable end to the season and while Murray improved us every season, there were plenty of times when I'd say a majority of fans would happily have seen the back of him (the three defeats in a row after the restart in 20/21, early in 19/20 when he actually got a new deal). Appointing McCabe was a massive gamble and possibly even a panicked decision from the board but the evidence since they've been in charge suggests he'll get plenty of time. Indeed, getting rid of him early after ostensibly not backing him in the way they promised would look awful. We were outstanding last season but even if Murray was still here, we couldn't have expected to maintain quite as strong a run of form as last season. As others have alluded to before, having three other full-time teams in this league who can presumably offer better wages, as well as teams like Kelty and Edinburgh who have very experienced part-time players puts us in a tricky position. I think top four would be a relative success this season given our inexperienced management team and it should be achievable. We're still not far away but things are unravelling very quickly at the moment. We badly missed Frizzell today. I like Devenny but he's wasted as the advanced midfielder and while McMaster is ok, we badly miss his industriousness to get the ball and team up the park from a deeper position. Telfer has some nice touches but isn't anywhere near the level of player that Frizzell is. I thought that while we still had issues we looked a bit better defensively today, albeit with the side effect of having nothing up front. The first half was fairly even but as soon as Alloa scored you felt the game was done. Other than a ten minute spell when we went three at the back we really struggled to create any chances and even then we never looked like scoring on the rare occasions we did. I'd be tempted to go with a back three like that next week, given our lack of wingers it's probably the best way to fit in our best players at the moment and try to have two forwards to keep the ball up there.

I know it’s not quite as bad as that but how would the team actually look in this situation, something like this? Lyness McMaster - Watson - ATS - Deveney Telfer - Devenny McGill - Jamieson - Smith Gallagher It would be a good laugh at least. It goes to show how important keeping our key players fit will be this season, as we got very lucky with that last season.

This isn't great, is it?

I imagine Salim is on a decent full-time wage by our standards and I doubt Stranraer will be covering all of that so letting him go out on loan for financial reasons would seem odd to me. I would take Agnew back. As I posted at the weekend, we really miss having someone who just sits in front of the defence and covers the gaps there. Ideally we’d have better options to start but at worst he’d be a good player to bring on to see out games.

Alloa Athletic 1-2 Airdrieonians Dunfermline Athletic 1-0 FC Edinburgh Kelty Hearts 2-0 Clyde Montrose 1-1 Falkirk Queen of the South 3-1 Peterhead

One thing I thought when watching the game yesterday is that for all his faults, we perhaps miss an Agnew type player in midfield. We seem to play every game like we’re 3-0 up and need to score five to win the league which leaves us ridiculously open all the time. The main difference in personnel and style to last season is the lack of someone who literally just sits in front of the defence, recycles possession and doesn’t move beyond the halfway line. Yesterday looked like more of a 2 with Telfer and McMaster but even when McCabe is playing as the holding midfielder he’s a bit more aggressive. If we’re going to have the full backs bombing down the wings and so many attacking players going forward, sometimes having someone who just sits and keeps things in check isn’t a bad thing.

Agree with all of this. We’ve all posted before about how open and soft we are and as much as McCabe seems to realise this, it’s up to him to fix it. I don’t think there’s too much between ourselves and Queens really and I suppose the results in the two games so far show that. Two decent teams who on their day can dish out a real pumping but also have clear flaws. I normally think after the first quarter is a good indicator for the season but it’s still so tight and I suppose it took until the second quarter for ourselves and Cove to really get going last season. I do think we might see Falkirk and Dunfermline start to pull away over this quarter with ourselves, Queens, Edinburgh, Alloa, Montrose and maybe even Kelty fighting for the other two spots. A big month for us playing most of those teams.

By the time we hit December and suspensions kick in, the dream of Bright playing might actually become a reality.

A Wylie was on the bench for Celtic B today, presumably Ben. I wonder if we/he ended up cancelling his loan before the September window ended? No great loss in terms of ability from the small sample size we saw but we do need guys to fill out the bench. Potentially two outfield subs next week if Frizzell is indeed out for six weeks. Does anyone know who the two young guys who are always out in the warm-ups are? They’ve been there all season and were sitting with Frizzell and Rae today. I assume they’re the other two Northern Irish boys who played in the games at Broadwood but it seems bizarre nothing has ever been announced about them.

What a man.

Oh I completely agree, I just wanted to make a Peep Show joke while I could. Henderson has done fine for his age and lack of experience but there’s always a risk with young keepers that playing them through a poor run of form can dent their confidence. If Rae is going to be out for a while then an experienced keeper is definitely welcomed.

Four keepers, Rhys? Four? That’s insane.

I’m glad it’s not just me who noticed that. They’ve got more players out than we have available! I do admire Peterhead’s commitment to finding these players and just continually singing them this season. It’s a lot more interesting for an outsider than just signing another J Brown anyway.