Broken Algorithms

I'd rather have Rudden than Gullan. Hammer came across as a lovely guy but he didn't offer enough goals, drifted out wide too often and was injury prone. Rudden hasn't been prolific but I think he's offered us more in games.

Scored the opener against Arbroath away too.

I'm sure nobody will want to mention it, but I'm sure clubs at this level would far rather keep the current set up rather than opening up the second tier. I'd be disappointed if we voted to open up the second tier and reduce games to two times a season so we can get the extra benefit of a trip to Montrose or Queen of the South. Each league will have some degree of self preservation.

We've got a very strong core of a team in place: I don't think any club would really be willing to part money to take away any of our players under contract. I think there are a few things which can be equally true right now should we stay down: -We shouldn't be expecting any downgrading in terms of our squad, and should know where we're looking to improve in certain areas. This isn't a squad where you feel that there are one or two standout players. Nor should we be worried that we're going to lose half our squad due to contracts expiring. -The league itself will likely be more of an even playing field next season. Livingston should be weaker than United, but with United we took 7 points from 4 matches. Falkirk will be an improvement on Arbroath, but we've only taken 4 points off Arbroath from 3 matches. Queens Park,if they stay up, will likely be looking at more experienced players. Dunfermline won't have their injury woes. It's unclear how Airdrie/Partick will look. -We're highly unlikely to see so many games decided by a single goal. Its also unlikely we'll see as many 90th minute winners. But you'd also expect with that we'll have more wins which are comfortable. I suspect that next season, the winner will come away with the league with a relatively low points total.

They won't be eligible to play, as I think their registrations will still he held with their clubs. No idea if Arnott is getting a game at East Kilbride but they're in the playoffs anyway.

Congratulations lads. Managed to go up an extra gear over the last few weeks and get the job done.

I think it was between that and drawing 2-2 against Arbroath. Stanton was out injured, and Dabrowski was playing injured until mid January. It's worth mentioning that over half the games this season we've played a centre midfielder at centre back. We've only lost one game against the top 3. It's all very much those last two games against Arbroath and overall against Airdrie which have cost us. Still wouldn't as such say we've bottled given there's every chance we finish with a higher point total than last season's winner.

I do believe that about Muirhead. Before the start of the season we only had Keith Watson signed as a centre back. We wouldn't have had anything in place for Euan Murray so I don't doubt we'll have tried to poach him.

I know for certain he's on more money at Partick compared to ourselves. The longer term deal will have influenced things, but he got offered more money by Partick than the did by ourselves in January. I'm not going to claim we're a charity case or that our budget won't have improved compared to last season, but we're nowhere near a situation where players won't weigh up their options. O'Reilly found himself in a position where he signed for us on a short term deal and his value grew due to circumstance. He was well within his rights to push up the money he was on. He was out the game for a wee period of time and that will have had an impact. Ashcroft had offers from other clubs both at our level and from the top flight. He was going to sign for Dunfermline but changed his mind at the last moment.

The only new addition we've had on that front since the summer has been John Potter. Everyone else was there before the new board took over. Fwiw, if the "conservatory" money was that good, Daniel O'Reilly wouldn't have left us in January.

Going to hazard a guess you didn't play over half your season playing a centre midfielder as a centre back?

Absolutely. They'll have had questions about Millen but understandably not brought them. It wouldn't offer any benefit to have them, for us or Millen. I did enjoy the Paxman-esque grilling of one person who asked "do you *really* think this squad is good enough to get promoted?" only for Potter to ask the question back to them after Murray had answered. One thing to say in credit to Niall is that he did mention he'd missed off Carol's question about the fans rep on the board. I can't recall the specifics of the answer, but it was at least good to hear it acknowledged.

There were a few moments from the Q&A watch stood out. I think it might have been beneficial to split it into a footballing Q&A and a commercial one - I was quite surprised so many of the questions involved the commercial aspects given that 3/4 of the panel played professionally but you'll always have different viewpoints. While someone might be keen in getting pet supplies in the door, I'm far more interested if we might get a chance of Lee Ashcroft rocking back up to help our backline in the playoffs. I'd have been interested to hear a bit more about their experiences as ex players and how the modern game is changing, but I'm sure there'll be other chances in the future. I think the main thing is that there's a degree of transparency from the club as AllanJM mentioned. A lot of the information was detailed in the AGM, but this offers them a bit of a chance to relay updates further. As with anything, the club will have taken quite a lot of learns from it. They've marshalled it well and answered most of the larger points without getting into "Where Ross Millen go?".