Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[DA Baracus]

Our second game away to Inverness is a Tuesday night.

Hopefully that can somehow be changed to a Saturday.

[Cardle is Magic]

I’d play Bene even if he’s still wearing the fucking moon boot.

[Salvo Montalbano]

2 hours ago, HoBNob said:

I seen absolutely nothing from Allan to suggest he should be starting, a large part of us looking better in the second half was Aye standing off, and it led to me wanting Chalmers to still be on tbh. 

I'm struggling for a lineup for next week, everyone looked shite. 

He gets about the pitch more, Will actually shoot (one goal this season, one of the post in this game) and won't shirk out of a challenge. Chalmers slows things down too much, doesn't do the physical things and can't/won't shoot. 

[par-adise]

10 hours ago, HoBNob said:

I seen absolutely nothing from Allan to suggest he should be starting, a large part of us looking better in the second half was Aye standing off, and it led to me wanting Chalmers to still be on tbh. 

I'm struggling for a lineup for next week, everyone looked shite. 

Regardless of how well they are playing Chalmers and Allan always look for the ball. When Chalmers went off no one wanted it. The reason we were better in the second half was a lot because of Allan coming on and being comfortable taking the ball from the CBs. Not that he did huge amounts with it, but it meant someone was there to take it and get us one step up the pitch.

But aye, not sure who I'd pick for next week. 

[Stellaboz]

Time to ditch 3 at the back.

[da_no_1]

Joe Chalmers wasn't responsible for our shite first half performance. Neither was Hamilton. The manager apologised to both which says it all. 

[Cardle is Magic]

There’s a guy at the back of the Norrie who has the most consistent terrible shouts I’ve heard at a Pars game in some time.

Best one yesterday was when Wighton played a good through ball to McCann in the second half and this brain donor started complaining that Wighton wasn’t already in the middle for the cross.

[Wacky]

1 minute ago, Cardle is Magic said:

There’s a guy at the back of the Norrie who has the most consistent terrible shouts I’ve heard at a Pars game in some time.

Best one yesterday was when Wighton played a good through ball to McCann in the second half and this brain donor started complaining that Wighton wasn’t already in the middle for the cross.

It’s because of folks like him that I sit in the mortuary stand with my prawn sandwiches, tartan cover, and thermos flask.
I struggle to fight sleep nowadays, let alone some raging moron that think our players should be at EPL standards

[The Toun Clock]

Wasn’t there yesterday although did manage the second half on the stick, I dread to think what the first half was like given people have said the second half was an improvement. Curious, if Chalmers and Hamilton weren’t having bad games, why were they withdrawn after half an hour?

From what I seen in the second half, almost every pass was over hit and we just became impatient, was a certainty we wouldn’t score, just had that feeling.

Tough ask next week, especially still without Bene, KRH and Todd. Has there been any news on Andy Tod Jnr apart from that he was needing to see a specialist? He’s another one that showed some attacking promise without our main players and now even he’s out.

[Wacky]

1 hour ago, Stellaboz said:

Time to ditch 3 at the back.

Agreed, only really works if Bene is there to orchestrate 

Hopefully we can tread water, and not lose many more games until our main playmakers and captain are back in the lineup. 

Edited October 22, 2023 by Wacky

[Enigma]

Interesting to see you struggling. Most teams promoted from League One as champions tend to come up all guns blazing. Indeed, I think almost always they make top 4 the season after winning League One.
 

Is it the players? The manager? Or has the quality of League One maybe dropped off a bit? Montrose are a fairly solid League One side but there looked to be a fairly large gulf in quality between us when we played them the other week.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Enigma

[HoBNob]

1 hour ago, The Toun Clock said:

Wasn’t there yesterday although did manage the second half on the stick, I dread to think what the first half was like given people have said the second half was an improvement. Curious, if Chalmers and Hamilton weren’t having bad games, why were they withdrawn after half an hour?

From what I seen in the second half, almost every pass was over hit and we just became impatient, was a certainty we wouldn’t score, just had that feeling.

Tough ask next week, especially still without Bene, KRH and Todd. Has there been any news on Andy Tod Jnr apart from that he was needing to see a specialist? He’s another one that showed some attacking promise without our main players and now even he’s out.

We had to make changes, they were just the wrong one by the manager. Our problems IMO were the right hand side, Fisher was absolutely right to come on however it should've just been Comrie or MoH who were withdrawn, it was just quite simply a wrong sub from McPake, considering he's so good at them he's allowed to get them wrong occasionally. 

I think from his perspective he wanted Otoo into midfield? However with the Allan sub at half time we then put him back to cb. Everyone had a bad day yesterday, players and management team alike. 

16 minutes ago, Enigma said:

Interesting to see you struggling. Most teams promoted from League One as champions tend to come up all guns blazing. Indeed, I think almost always they make top 4 the season after winning League One.
 

Is it the players? The manager? Or has the quality of League One maybe dropped off a bit? Montrose are a fairly solid League One side but there looked to be a fairly large gulf in quality between us when we played them the other week.

Every year for the past decade a team promoted from League one has at least finished fifth the following season in the Championship, now if we say that top four is the aim (which it should be) then we are currently two points off 4th with a game in hand. With that I think it's a bit of a stretch to say we're struggling tbh. Inverness and Morton are struggling, the rest of the division is quite tight. 

Edited October 22, 2023 by HoBNob

[Enigma]

6 minutes ago, HoBNob said:

Every year for the past decade a team promoted from League one has at least finished fifth the following season in the Championship, now if we say that top four is the aim (which it should be) then we are currently two points off 4th with a game in hand. With that I think it's a bit of a stretch to say we're struggling tbh. Inverness and Morton are struggling, the rest of the division is quite tight. 

Perhaps not “struggling” as such, but against the historic precedent and looking at your squad it could be argued you are underperforming.

Worth noting that usually the team coming up from League One traditionally starts very strongly and then drops off a bit as teams figure them out, or they just lose some momentum. That doesn’t seem the case for you this season.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Enigma

[par-adise]

14 minutes ago, Enigma said:

Interesting to see you struggling. Most teams promoted from League One as champions tend to come up all guns blazing. Indeed, I think almost always they make top 4 the season after winning League One.
 

Is it the players? The manager? Or has the quality of League One maybe dropped off a bit? Montrose are a fairly solid League One side but there looked to be a fairly large gulf in quality between us when we played them the other week.

We've had a torrid time with injuries (anyone would struggle with your two best attacking players, captain, and first choice goalkeeper all out at once). I wasn't at Partick which sounded similar but yesterday was like one collective brain fart. No one could even do simple things or manage to get their positioning right at all. Don't know why that would be as it isn't really something we've seen since McPake took over. Despite a truly awful performance from us we still could have easily got a point after missing two sitters, I think Ayr only managing one against us suggests they aren't very good, so I don't think it's due to a massive gulf between the leagues. 

We have a really young squad so don't think expectations were particularly high at the start of the season. This year is more about building. 

[Enigma]

8 minutes ago, par-adise said:

We've had a torrid time with injuries (anyone would struggle with your two best attacking players, captain, and first choice goalkeeper all out at once).

Everybody gets injuries though, it’s how you deal with them. We currently have only one fit centre back and our (almost) marquee summer signing in Hamilton is out and I don’t think has been totally 100% all season. Our other natural centre forward in Gullan has also been intermittently out or struggling. Connolly was arguably our best player last season and has been out until just now. Oh and our club captain hasn’t played a game of football in well over 12 months.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Enigma

[Enigma]

10 minutes ago, par-adise said:

We have a really young squad so don't think expectations were particularly high at the start of the season. This year is more about building. 

I find it hard to believe that for a club like Dunfermline the expectation from within the club isn’t play offs as a minimum.

[Heaton]

How many came up with almost the same identical squad, singing loanees used in L1 and bringing a couple of loans. 

We didn't strengthen enough or improve on last years squad imo and the injuries are showing how weak the squad is.

[RAITHROVERS84]

26 minutes ago, Enigma said:

Everybody gets injuries though, it’s how you deal with them. We currently have only one fit centre back and our (almost) marquee summer signing in Hamilton is out and I don’t think has been totally 100% all season. Our other natural centre forward in Gullan has also been intermittently out or struggling. Connolly was arguably our best player last season and has been out until just now. Oh and our club captain hasn’t played a game of football in well over 12 months.

Hmm, the ambition for the pars will be play-offs however many of their current squad were the same guys that seen them relegated.

Although not ideal we can handle injuries to Hamilton and Gullan as we can adapt with Vaughan, Smith, Easton and Stanton. It’s at the back where we’re exposed with Watson and Corr out. 

They’ve got their standout players out so a little harsh of a comparison. 

[Salvo Montalbano]

52 minutes ago, par-adise said:

I wasn't at Partick which sounded similar but yesterday was like one collective brain fart. 

I've seen this a few times and it's totally inaccurate. The first half at Firhill was fairly even, and many would argue we had the better chances and were perhaps unlucky to go into the break 1-0 down. You can't say the same about yesterday. In the second half we started quite well v Partick but the keeper sold the jerseys for their second and we only had Moffat on the bench to change things around and our heads dropped totally when the third went in and the game petered out. 

40 minutes ago, Enigma said:

I find it hard to believe that for a club like Dunfermline the expectation from within the club isn’t play offs as a minimum.

I'd imagine the board and the majority of the supporters will have been targeting that pre season, despite some protests on here and elsewhere. After being quite inactive in the transfer window and losing Todd and Ritchie-Hosler long term, perhaps those early expectations have been tempered somewhat. Dundee Utd apart, most teams will have decent spells and poor runs, so a top 4 finish isn't beyond us but we'll need to make sure this poor run when we're without key players is the only one we have, which puts a lot of pressure on those returning players, two of whom are young themselves.

[DAFC.]

Are we struggling? Are we not one win away (with a game in hand) from being in the top 4? We’re nowhere near good enough for top 4 anyway, and a lot of our fans overestimated us too much. This season should be all about consolidation and trying to build on what we have. The last time we were in this position, we lost something like 5 of our first 6 league games, albeit the Championship was a lot better that season, and we actually had a team that underachieved. I was shot down for saying we should be realistic and manage the expectations, given we have just came up and trying to go down the youth route. I would much rather us try that than throw money at players for a 1 or 2 year contract that will just leave anyway, and still get nowhere in the league, which has been our story the whole time we have been at this level. 

It’s gone the way I expected it to, but we have been fairly soft and all over the place the last two games, which is obviously concerning. We really do miss Bene and Todd. It is great having Mehmet and others back, but those two are the big ones we miss the most. We rely on Bene so much to keep our defensive shape and Todd on changing a game in our favour.