Clyde_MM

Honestly, if Hamilton starts at right back for us, just hit crosses at every opportunity. You'll get your win. Your players might not even need to score the goal(s).

Lee Hamilton in the middle of defence, 10% increase in tempo on the ball and employing a gameplan that suits our striker and I'm sure we'll stop the rot here. Having said that, I look forward to Howie and McKay at centre half with us mixing it up between playing plenty neat passes to one another in front of Edinburgh's entire defence and midfield and making Jordan Allan compete for headers with two/three guys half a foot taller than him all afternoon.

Basically the same lineup for me with Grant and Cuddihy, once fit, at CM.

East Fife can tank us all they like. Stenny can win all the titles they like. Peterhead can win almost every time they play us if they like. Tell you what though. These teams will NEVER have to set up one P&B thread to discuss the football team and an entirely separate one to discuss politics of the club's board. That's the TRUE mark of a big team! We live a legacy the aforementioned eternadiddies can only dream of.

In fact right after posting I've just thought of another thing the squad needs to take on board, more from the last two weeks though. If we suffer a setback, just mentally reset. We have absolutely capitulated at the first sign of adversity two weeks on the bounce now. First week were looking completely comfortable up to that point. Second week we were well in the game and, as I said, really should have been in front.

Definitely agree about the break coming at the right time for us. Gives us a wee bit to calm the head and implement the lessons we've learned so far. For me, we have to start putting square pegs in square holes. Even if McCall thinks Hamilton is a better RB than Hynes or R. Lyon, look at the absolute state our defence got itself into at any crossed ball second half vs Bonnyrigg and all day on Saturday there. Against East Fife especially, for all they were class, the opportunities for goals 2 and 3 come from inexplicable defensive errors. We need Hamilton in there. We also need to get the ball on the deck or be playing the ball into space for runners. We do have the option to go long but only when Dunachie is on the pitch. That just isn't Allan or Connell's game and McCall seems to have forgotten Rennie is a striker. When we get the ball down, we actually do play some nice stuff. Even last Saturday, we had a few good passages of play in the first half. Final lesson, take our chances. Not sure it would have made a huge difference because East Fife were really good, but we should have taken the lead on Saturday. Week before, we should be 2/3 up by HT. Three great opportunities plus umpteen half chances before Stirling get their second and kill things the week before etc. etc. This is where I have the most sympathy with McCall because you can't ask him to account for some of the chances we're blowing week after week. We do have a good squad but we need to start playing to it's strengths.

Fingers crossed! I mind Thistle looking crap at the beginning of the League 1 covid season too and that ended up alright for them too. Murdoch has been fine but no better I'd say. Partly a mix of us being too willing to bypass midfield completely when we get the ball and playing beside Ray Grant when we don't. Both playing well enough but I think their strengths are pretty similar.

Probably be better with a single bowl

"You're crap and an absolute laughing stock (true). Not saying you're crap and a laughing stock btw"

I'll mostly leave slagging Clyde as it has been covered already and I've nothing much to add. Redfern played well. Grant was alright. Allan and Connell tried hard. Instead I want to talk about Nathan Austin. That was a 10/10 performance today. The two goals obviously but East Fife fans may not have noticed him at the second goal. He was in the ref's ear at the big hoof up the park saying its a corner if it goes out. Not sure that was even true but he knew it cost nothing to gamble there. Kinnear must have heard him because he looked up and then decided not to let the ball run, bizarrely, trying to dribble it back into his box. Austin charged him down and forced Kinnear into the handball for the free kick that led to the penalty and then the goal. Just really, really intelligent play all round, without even touching the ball.

If we're sticking with the 4231 on Saturday then I'd go Kinnear, Hynes, Hamilton, McKay, Robson, Grant, Murdoch, Redfern, Connell, Connelly, Allan. Doesn't sort the chopping and changing but Hamilton is wasted at right back and Howie looked all over the shop in the second half on Saturday. Dunachie is banned and we're playing a decent side on a surface more conducive to football so Allan coming in is a bit of a no-brainer. With any luck, he breaks this drought and he's up and running. The wings are the only position where I'm not sure. Think Redfern has earned a start after the last couple weeks. Him and Kinnear were the only two I'd give passmarks in the second half on Saturday. Leaves LS7 and Connelly battling for the LW spot. Both were useless in the second half but I though Connelly looked really dangerous in the first half and, importantly, connected well with Robson so I'd give him the nod.

To try and heal this emerging divide before Ebbo starts banging heads together, I do think we're going through a particularly acute bout of crap, game-outcome-affecting referee decisions atm. Won't last forever. Doesn't stem from bias against us.

To play devil's advocate, the angle we show in the highlights of the red is inconclusive and you won't be able to get footage from all angles at this level. That said, I don't think there's much, if any, contact. Certainly nowhere near enough for the Bonnyrigg player to hit the deck like that. Ref takes about 3 seconds to blow as well which does lead me to believe he's been swayed by the guy fannying about on the deck. We've had rotten luck with referees. Every week since the Montrose game I think there has been an incident we can point to where we should have benefitted from a penalty, red card or big offside call. Entirely down to the referees at this level being hopeless and something will go our way eventually. Any talk of ref's having it in for us is embarrassing, Old Firm nonsense. ETA: Hopefully Dunachie has actually called the ref a name, accused him of cheating etc. for the first booking. Certainly petulant and Logan will need to learn but if banging the ground in frustration and having a wee grumble, miles away from the ref, after having a 50:50 decision go against you is a yellow we're either going to see a very haphazardly applied law or loads of reds like the one at the weekend.

For me, calls for anything like a sacking are still a way off but the serious questions begin if we fail to win next week. Happy to make excuses for poor performances/outcomes, provided there's evidence of lessons being learned. So far we've had still getting up to speed vs. Forfar, turning things round second half vs. Stranraer, "just one of those days" vs. Stirling and now vs. Bonnyrigg I'd accept that we'd likely have won today if the referee wasn't utterly incompetent (we get our penalty and don't go down to 10), albeit that doesn't excuse meekly falling apart as soon as we faced adversity. I'm struggling to think of a different way to drop points and just write it off. Win next week or we have to accept that things aren't good enough.

Right, that makes more sense then. Cheers!