Jump to content

Walking Down The Halbeath Road


Recommended Posts

Injuries are just a disaster tbh. We only had a small chance of competing for Top 4 at full strength and some fan expectations will have to be seriously dialled back. Squad is small anyway and we are missing our entire spine.

Thought MOH looked good at Tannadice but was not impressive at all vs Raith. Maybe he won’t work out but seems folk are writing him off to an extent already, which is wild.

If Breen isn’t available either tomorrow then really have no choice but to go back four, unless you played Fisher, Otoo and Hamilton? Allen could then sit beside Chalmers in midfield.

I’d quite like to see McCann partnered with Jakubiak, even though I find the Wighton disrespect a little OTT at times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Chubbychops said:

Yeah, left Jakubiak out due to thinking he wasn't ready to start. O'Halloran has been very poor from what I've seen. Apparently was the same for the 9 games games played for Cove Rangers last season. 

He was subbed before half time when we cuffed Cove 6-1 last season. Really pish. Ineffective in the Derby as well considering you’s had plenty of the ball.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Ayrpar said:

Dread to think where we will be at then of first round of games - bottom two ? 

I would be lying if I said I hadn't thought about us ending up fighting down there. 

I think we have recruited a couple too many young players and lacking a couple established players who know this league. Bene's injury is a fine example, where we're left with no experienced centre halves because of one injury. Chalmers is the only experiened midfielder, he gets an injury it will be the same. 

I think it was great getting Matty Todd, KRH and Otoo signed up but I thought after that , there would be some older players to suppliment that. Not having Andy Tod  and Taylor Sutherland on the bench. Personally think they need to go out on loan and gain experience in the lower leagues first. 

I'm not writing us off as relegation candidates yet. I have a lot of confidence in the management teams ability and if they think this group is good enough to compete at this level then great. It's still very early and these boys talent may well be at a level that supersedes having older players with experience. I just have a nagging feeling that we have misjudged our recruitment slightly by not bringing in another couple older heads in defence and midfield. 

 

 

Edited by Chubbychops
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aye, I agree with @Chubbychopstbh. Like when we were rumoured to be in for Murray folk were saying that we didn't need another experienced centre half. But that would have allowed for injuries, allowed Otoo to play in midfield, would have meant not having to play our first choice centre halves in the Challenge Cup, etc. Thought Byrne or McInroy could have been brought into midfield and we've had to rely on Allan, Andy Tod etc where they've been a little overrun in some games. These are guys who were clearly available and would be in our ballpark wages wise so it's not like we couldn't have got these guys in. Don't know if it's our relative good luck with injuries or how far ahead of Falkirm we finished or what but think we've placed a bit too much faith in guys who did well last season and hoped the younger guys could plug any gaps we had. 

@DA Baracus, we've played the team at the bottom and got a late equaliser... I'd guess you're meaning Arbroath and Ayr? Thought Ayr were OK in spells last night actually and had they scored at 1-0 when they had a lot of possession and Sneddon made some good saves for Thistle then maybe they'd have got something. Certainly won't be a pushover.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess that's the difficulty of being a manager, when there is a chance to get KRH and Otoo in permanently, club like ours are usually going to put alot of cash into doing that on the hope that they continue to progress and impress and leave for a decent fee in a year or 2.

Balancing that budget with say bringing in Murray over Otoo I think long term is the wrong decision however long term planning has to account for not getting relegated.

McPake seems to prefer a smaller squad and I think that could be the undoing rather than who he has brought in although maybe having someone like McGowan would have been enough to bring a calmness to the centre of the pitch. 

Also not great to have first choice keeper and defender out at the same time but not sure many clubs can afford to mitigate against that level of bad luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any team with their 4 best players from the previous season missing through injury is going to struggle so will definitely cut them a lot of slack  if things do start getting a bit hairy but on the face of if I don't think we've recruited particularly well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Ludo*1 said:

Having Jakubiak as your main man up top would just be asking for trouble. Needs to be the number 10 or out wide as part of a trio of attackers to be most effective.

Full strength he would be part of a front 3/4 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Cardle is Magic said:

We have now conceded just 25 goals in 41 league games under McPake.

Genuinely excellent record. Never looked like increasing that figure today at all. Pleased with our performance. Never thought I’d see a back 3 with O’Halloran at RWB, but thought he did everything that could be expected of him today, along with all other players involved.

Summers and McCann were both really dangerous for us, constantly getting into space in good areas. Some of the movement and play from Summers was truly excellent to watch, but McCann’s goals (particularly that sublime free kick) mean that he’s my man of the match. Great run and then pass from Summers for the first goal too.

Sharp didn’t have much to do, but dealt with everything no bother. Back 3 were solid. Edwards and O’Halloran at wing back did well. Hamilton was decent and Chalmers was his usual self.

Jakubiak looked decent enough when he came on and Moffat had an excellent run through 2/3 players and looked like he might have scored late on. A lot of positives today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...