Mr November

Given all the talk of scoring issues, there’s the man we need to fix it. Stick him in the six yard box and we’ll win the league no bother.

Not normally one to care about the strip but all that build up and it's not even a full diamond!

I think good strikers are just a rarity in football these days. Even in the Championship, near enough every club is desperate for a 15-20 goal a season striker but there just aren't many around now. It goes back to the budget chat but if teams with bigger budgets, both in our league and above, are struggling to find regular goal scorers then we're doing well to have the quality we have up there in Smith and Gallagher, even if they could do with being more clinical at the moment. I'm one of his biggest fans on here but even I find Gallagher frustrating at times but as with any good player at this level, they're always going to have weaknesses if they're playing for us. The perfect striker isn't going to end up at Airdrie given the league we're in and the wages we pay. You can take a punt on someone and it might work out but every other team in this league would take Gallagher given his scoring record and if one of our rivals had a similar player we'd be desperate for him.

On that note, going by this we’ve taken 133 shots so far this season, the most in the league, yet only 51 of them have been on target. That points to a need for better decision making in the final third but as you say, we are still scoring goals. Interestingly we also have by far the lowest number of fouls conceded. I suppose that comes with having a lot of possession but it does point to a being too soft and a general need to be a bit more streetwise at times, rather than constantly trying to play our way out of things.

I agree with this. I tend to base my expectations for the season based on budgets, as while there are exceptions having a bigger budget allows you to bring in better quality players. I could be wrong but I think Watson and Gallagher are our only part-time players, so as you say we're competing with Falkirk, Dunfermline and Queen of the South for full-time players when all of those clubs will presumably have a bigger or at least similar budget than us. Intentionally or not, it does feel like the part-time contingent has reduced each year since we went hybrid, but it's tough to bring in quality players when we're probably the lowest paying full-time club. I would assume that some of the players from last season are on increased wages too after their performances and no doubt interest from elsewhere. As you say, there are also part-time clubs who can offer more than us too, so we're in a tricky position. I think the play-off final last season was a good example of our lack of quality on the bench. Murray made some strange decisions that day but every substitution made the team weaker. To be fair, you don't expect subs to be better but there was no one to come on and change a game by offering something different. Comparing last seasons squad to this years, I'd say the only players we haven't replaced are guys like Walker, Lyons, McDonald, Ritchie etc, who were mostly there to pad out the numbers. We're definitely light at the back and up front now Salim is away and I think we lack a winger or someone of that ilk We all want out of this league and if we couldn't win the play-offs last season then I'm not sure we ever will, but ultimately when we're competing against bigger clubs with far more resources than it is difficult to do that. My concerns at the moment are mostly around how soft we are, particularly defensively, which has led to us losing a few games in quick succession. We had a few dodgy moments earlier in the season but generally got away with them but the last month shows what can happen if you're soft at the back.

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

I wasn’t there tonight so can’t comment on the performance but a defeat, conceding four goals and losing Fordyce and Frizzell, the latter in particular, is really concerning. I can’t say I expected to win but we’re just far too soft at the back at the moment. We’ve seen already that there’s no easy games in this league but we’ve got a tricky run of games coming up this month. Queen of the South, Alloa, Edinburgh and Montrose will all fancy their chances at making the top four and rightly so. They don’t play for a couple of weeks but we’d drop out of the top four based on whatever happens in the Falkirk v Alloa game as it stands. It’s really important we get a good result on Saturday and make sure those teams don’t start pulling ahead of us. We were never going to go on another run like last season but losing three league games in four, plus the Alloa cup game which I’m not too bothered about, is a concern.

Does anyone know what’s up with Ben Wylie? He hasn’t been mentioned as injured in the previews but that’s two games he’s not been on the bench. I can’t say I’m desperate for him to play, he hasn’t done much yet other than seemingly searching his own name on twitter, but we need all the options we can get at the moment.

Where’s big Afolabi when we need him?

Looks like they heard you!

This was always my main concern with appointing McCabe. It’s a massive gamble and if it goes wrong, we’re potentially losing one, possibly even two, of our best players. It’s early days, we’re still only two points off top and in general I think that he’s done well so far, but I do wonder what would happen in that situation. To be fair to McCabe, we’re still waiting on this support model the announcement seemed to promise. As @David Fernándezsays, that was more frustrating and concerning than the Edinburgh game. To go with what ostensibly was a game plan to get long balls in behind their defence and to persist with that for a full game when it clearly wasn’t working was bizarre. I’d have brought Devenny on for Jamieson and went with an extra man in the middle to try and control the game but the lack of subs, both on the bench and coming on, shows the lack of options in the squad. Were Watson, McMaster or Devenny going to change that game? I’ve been fairly supportive of McCabe’s recruitment strategy but as I said after Salim went out on loan, you do need players there to provide different options. A very tough game on Tuesday. It’s far from a must win but I’d say it’s almost must not lose, as four defeats out of five would be unheard of for this team, to paraphrase Alex Turner. Picking a team for it is tricky. I’d probably go with something like this, as I’d always start Gallagher, it’s clear we need Devenny’s running in midfield and I think Jamieson needs a rest after a very poor month. Henderson Watson - McCabe - Fordyce Ballantyne - Telfer - Devenny - Deveney Frizzell Gallagher - Smith

Other than Gallagher I think everyone who played today is full-time. Really poor performance. I thought we started the better team without creating any clear chances but seemed to fall out of it after the game was stopped for a couple of minutes about 20 minutes in. After that Kelty were the better team and they controlled the second half. I thought we were far too soft today. There seemed to be plenty of times, the goal included, where Kelty players managed to run off ours without a strong challenge. The gameplan of long balls over the top, all of which landed on Jordan Forster’s head, wasn’t exactly ideal either.

I realise the last thing we need is another small, technical midfielder but I’d have been all over this. There’s still time for us to announce a late signing before today’s game but as much as I agree with McCabe’s mantra of quality over quantity, there does need to be a balance of having enough players to cover for when we get a few injuries and suspensions.

I suppose we do have a replacement forward at the club already…

Am I right in thinking Stranraer were playing Scott Robertson as an attacker earlier this season? If so, you need Salim a lot more than we do!

This is a strange one. He’s clearly not going to be a regular starter for us so getting regular games makes sense but we’re not exactly blessed with loads of options at the moment that we can afford to let players go.

A new ground for me as well so looking forward to it, when you’ve been stuck in League One for this long anything new is welcomed. Any tips on the best places to park? I suspect we’ll go back to the team that scudded Clyde a couple of weeks ago, perhaps with a defensive reshuffle with Ballantyne coming back in for ATS or Deveney. I’d like to see McCabe back in from the start too but I reckon he might keep himself on the bench again. Kelty have had a poor start and this is a game we should be looking to win if we want to challenge, though it’s worth noting that oddly Kelty’s only points so far have came against Dunfermline and Falkirk. They certainly have plenty of good players for this level who can cause problems but if we turn up and play close to our best I fancy us to take all three points.

There's talk of Stevie Crawford going to Dundee United as Liam Fox's assistant, so Agnew as the new East Fife manager makes sense. If he does end up there then it'll be interesting to see how he gets on. It's hard to judge these things but I certainly feel a lot more confident with McCabe than I would have with Agnew.

Dunfermline Athletic 4-0 Peterhead Falkirk 3-1 Clyde Kelty Hearts 1-2 Airdrieonians Montrose 2-1 FC Edinburgh Queen of the South 1-1 Alloa Athletic

I didn't watch the game so can't comment on it but while you never want to lose, I can't say I'm bothered at all that we're out, other than missing out on a potential away trip to Wales or Northern Ireland. I think it was the right decision to rotate the squad and give others a chance, even if it seems like they didn't take them unfortunately. I saw this on Twitter earlier and it really shows how important Frizzell is to us. Just such a great player to watch, he has everything you want in a midfielder.

After today’s result in Paisley, does this mean we’re better than Celtic?

His strengths are all things we lack but I suppose the concern would be his limitations might be very exposed in our style of play. Fordyce is our only natural centre back, Watson has generally played beside him with Ballantyne now at right back but we’ve looked a bit shaky defensively so far, notably Fordyce who is far from his usual reliable self. I’m not too sure what other League One teams needs centre backs but I suspect at least a couple of teams at that level or high end League Two clubs would be after him.

I thought Deveney was poor yesterday but the one thing you can say about him is that he never hides. He’s actually quite good at winning the ball back and carrying it forward, only to them do something daft and give it away again. He’s still young and hasn’t played much senior football. He’ll have his off days but he’s generally been decent for us and even when he is struggling, he keeps going rather than shirking out of tackles and looking scared in possession. I’m very much here for Salim coming on at the end and stat padding his way through the season. I don’t think he quite fits how we play well enough to start games but his physicality and ability in the air is a great option from the bench. This does give me the fear. Fordyce is a much better defender but I always felt Sean Crighton was very solid for us until he took on a coaching role at the club as well as playing and being captain. His form fell off a cliff from there and he never really recovered. It’s a big role that might just take some adjusting to so hopefully this is just a rare blip given Fordyce has been the most consistent defender in the league since he joined.

I’m quite enjoying our new thing of beating Clyde 5-0 every season. The scoreline was a bit harsh as up until the second goal I didn’t think there was a huge amount in it. Airdrie probably shaded it and should have scored more but Clyde had a few chances before then, generally through quick counters coming from very slack play from Airdrie and Henderson made a few very good saves. It’s strange, we’ve lost 6-0 and won 5-0 in his first two games and he’s actually been one of our best players in both games. The game was finished as soon as the second goal went in and other than Smith’s finish for the third, the others were all very easy with our fairly quick forwards getting in behind a remarkably slow Clyde defence. Clyde’s team was bizarre. I laughed when I saw Peter Grant lining up at left back but having four big lumps at the back very narrow with three quick guys up top actually worked fairly well in the first half. The change to a back three didn’t really work, it mostly ended up being a back five and gave our forwards more space to run into. I haven’t seen Kelty or Peterhead yet but I do fancy Clyde to have enough to stay up ahead of both though, even if they don’t have as strong a squad as Kelty.

Both sides putting out questionable teams should at least make this quite interesting. Really not sure what to expect here. McGill might score here but even so, continually leaving out Gallagher is very odd. I’m starting to think McCabe might be @Diamond1924