Mr November

Giving Morgyn Neill a three year deal always seemed a bit odd as while he's a fine League One centre back, the Championship seemed a step too high. To be fair he did well last season so it's fair to say it worked out to an extent. We could do with some height and another centre back and while he might not be a perfect fit for our team of ballers, we could do a lot worse.

The match preview on the website says that Rae needs an operation on his shoulder. If he’s going to be out for much longer then I’d be on the phone to Hibs asking for Murray Johnson back.

I'd forgotten about that, it's the daftest coaching sending off I've seen since Darren Young tripped up Scott Robertson. Just such a pointless thing to do I expect we'll see a reaction from the team after the Edinburgh debacle, although that now feels like a long time ago. Normally I'd prefer to play sooner after that to get it out our system but perhaps delaying a trip to Montrose wasn't such a bad thing. Saying that, we saw last season that we struggled in most games against a rubbish Clyde team, so tomorrow could be a tough game against an improved Clyde. I was going to say at least Robert Jones isn't around to score this time but as you say, Jordan Allan will no doubt fill that role. McCabe definitely has a few tough decisions to make in terms of the first 11. Ballantyne being out is a blow but Watson is a good replacement there. I'd be very surprised if Watson, McCabe, Fordyce, Frizzell and Smith don't start but I'd say the other six places are up for grabs. Henderson did fine last week despite conceding six goals but if Josh Rae is fit again I'd start him, with Henderson limited to the late sub Jay Cantley role instead. I'd bring Deveney back in at left back but ATS is an option there or at centre back. It's perhaps a bit soon for Telfer to start but Frizzell and Devenny have worked well in midfield so far and I'd give McMaster a go in behind them. I'd go with Gallagher up top with Smith and Jamieson out wide. Jamieson has been poor in the last couple of games but Clyde seem to have struggled at left back and his pace and movement could cause them problems. Rae/Henderson Watson - McCabe - Fordyce - Deveney Devenny - McMaster - Frizzell Jamieson - Gallagher - Smith

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

Two starts last month and he’s still player of the month!

Clyde 0-2 Dunfermline FC Edinburgh 4-1 Peterhead Falkirk 2-1 Alloa Kelty 1-1 Queen of the South Montrose 1-1 Airdrie

I noticed him there at one of the home games towards the end of last season so hopefully he’s just along to watch games as the last thing this team needs is Eoghan Stokes.

I posted the other night that we had to trust McCabe’s judgement as he hadn’t really got much wrong so far, as even in games like the first Edinburgh one or up at Arbroath I felt there were plenty of positives. His interview today was baffling though and as you say, a reluctance to sit in and keep things tight (which every team has to do at some point throughout the season) is a concern. I remember his interview after the win at Cowdenbeath said going down to ten men when McMaster went off injured was a good test as you have to deal with that throughout the season, today was obviously a very different proposition but it’s something he seemed to be aware of. I think peak Murrayball was a good comparison for that second half. It was the same idea of playing with very few defenders and going for it and while Murrayball often didn’t work and isn’t really a good solution, today lacked any chaos or unpredictability. It was essentially the same style of play but with no full backs and no clear way of creating chances. Hopefully he’ll learn from it and that was just heat of the moment stuff but we’ll see over the next few weeks, as it’s still very early days.

What a way to end the unbeaten run! Even before the penalty Edinburgh looked a lot sharper today and I said earlier, we stood off them far too much and gave them a lot of space to play into. The sending off obviously changes things and while I thought it wasn’t a handball, even so that probably balances out our very fortunate decision last week. Tactically McCabe got it badly wrong. We actually came into the game a bit in the first half but the second goal right on half time killed us. His decision to come out and play a 2-5-2 in the second half was bizarre and left us really expose down the wings. Even then, most of the goals came from players being far too weak, generally Fordyce who was abysmal. We really missed Devenny’s drive in midfield, particularly with being a man down in there, and he was wasted at left back. Montrose is the last place I’d pick for our next game but it’s up to the players and management to show a big reaction. It’s an embarrassing result but hopefully one that McCabe can learn a lot from.

The strange thing about this is that Alex Henderson has probably been our best player

I was just thinking at least Stenny was usually late goals but right enough, that one was dreadful. The way McCabe likes to play does leave you open to a pumping like this if the players have an off day but so many goals have came from players standing off Edinburgh players, even the penalty came from Robertson being given loads of time and space in the box.

The new Stenhousemuir.

Yeah of the 15 first team outfielders we have signed, it’s probably fair to say most of them would expect to play fairly regularly. Compared to the second half of last season, we had MacDonald, Watson, McCabe, Fordyce, Kerr, Paterson, Agnew, Frizzell, Easton, S McGill, G McGill, Gallagher, Smith, Afolabi and Allan who regularly appeared, so also 15 players. If we can bring in another couple of decent loan players to add to what we currently have then we might actually be in a better position in terms of numbers contributing compared to last season. It is a small squad but the biggest difference compared to the last few years is that we don’t have guys like Paddy Pyott, Dean Ritchie or Harlain Mbayo sitting in the stand. It’s a gamble but we won’t know for a few months when injuries and suspensions start to kick in whether it was a good one or not.

We needed cover at left back, centre back and as a team lack experience and height, so I meant that his signing makes sense as he ticks all those boxes rather than he’s good at doing so. As I said, I’m not exactly expecting much from but I’d like to think given McCabe’s had a good look at him that he won’t be quite as bad as he was last season.

He was rubbish at Falkirk last season but then again, who wasn’t? I’m not expecting much from him but his experience, height and ability to cover centre back and left back is perfect for what we need. McCabe has got most things right so far so I think we have to trust his judgment. Hopefully he can convince another Antigua and Barbuda international to join, now that would be fun.

I see Fordyce has confirmed that we most likely won’t be signing anyone today, with the plan being to try and bring in a couple of loan players before the end of our loan window.

Given how many Celtic players we sign on loan, I can't wait for our loanee from Real Madrid to appear. The Spanish Armada round two.

Airdrie 2-0 Edinburgh Clyde 1-1 Alloa Kelty 0-1 Falkirk Peterhead 0-2 Montrose Queen of the South 1-1 Dunfermline

The last player I remember us paying a fee for was Jonathan Page, so maybe it’s best we don’t go down that road again…

That’s one of the biggest differences I’ve noticed with Rhys McCabe in charge at Airdrie this season. As you say, Murray is a big proponent of keeping everyone back and it can leave you stuck if the first clearance isn’t perfect, which it rarely is. This season we’ve been leaving two quick players up when defending set-pieces and it does seem to stop us being penned in as much. This is only based on substitutions but I guess Murrayball is still in full flow with just taking off defenders for attackers in the hope something happens?

When Dunfermline scored I very much had the fear that this was going to be another one of those but fair play to the players, after a few minutes of panicking they got going and McCabe changing to a 3-5-2 allowed us to dominate again for a short spell which was enough to get goal. I’m not getting too carried away yet but to be unbeaten five games having played the three full-time teams, two of them away from home, is undoubtedly an excellent start. I felt Dunfermline were the better team today but looking at these opening games, there certainly isn’t anyone who seems like they’re going to run away with the league and after being written off by a lot of people during the summer, we’re doing a good job of proving we’re still challengers.

That was a really good game overall. Two good teams for this level playing decent football and both trying to win it. Dunfermline are the best team I’ve seen us play so far this season, Queen of the South had a good second half against us but Dunfermline looked a step above them in terms of quality on the ball and organisation. Interesting seeing Dunfermline fans saying it was pretty even as other than the second half up until Todorov’s goal I thought they were the better team. Admittedly they didn’t test us too much with clear chances, we defended our box pretty well with plenty of good blocks but Edwards and MacDonald were very aggressive going forward and gave us a really tough time out wide. Airdrie looked good on the ball at times but lacked a bit of quality around the box and were quite careless in possession a few times. Our style of play is pretty high risk but it hasn’t properly cost us yet and as we’ve seen so far, when it works it’s great to watch. It was hard to see the disallowed goal from our end but I didn’t think it was a foul, so we seem to have got away with one there. Sometimes you need that luck though and we’ve had plenty of big games in recent seasons where things haven’t fallen for us. The fans on the pitch after the goal were very funny. Having played the three full-time teams, two of them away from home, I think we’ve got to be delighted with 11 points from these opening five games. With two winnable home games we should be looking to push on next month, albeit with a dreaded trip to Montrose in between.

Yeah while a draw is a decent enough result tomorrow, that only counts for something if we go on to win the home games. As much as people blame things like slow starts and individual moments, it’s clear that the one thing that’s really cost us over the last three seasons is not being able to beat the top team. Even in the Cove games, the fine margins of Neill and Fyvie’s late goals to grind out unlikely points were huge. It’s very early days of course and Dunfermline may well fall away but going up and winning tomorrow would set a real marker for the team to know we are capable of it.

Alloa 2-1 Peterhead Dunfermline 1-1 Airdrie FC Edinburgh 2-2 Clyde Falkirk 1-1 Queen of the South Montrose 2-0 Kelty

I didn’t fully appreciate it until seeing the highlights but Gallagher is so much quicker to react to Jamieson’s shot coming back off the post than every other player. Everyone else is standing watching but he gets himself in between the centre backs and is straight in as soon as he sees it’s not a goal. It’s exactly what we see from him regularly but just great instinct to know where the ball is going to end up.