Slipmat

Current contracts expire on 31 May as far as I know. If there's no news by then I guess the four who've yet to re-sign won't be doing so unless we go back to them with much improved deals to those that they have already been offered, which, judging by the Josh Rae case, I doubt they would get. It will be a true indication of the ambition of the BOD if all four were to walk given that we supposedly have money sitting doing nothing in the bank.

Really? Would you sign, say, Mark Durnan, who was good for us 8 years ago but has been a total binfire wherever he's been since?

The farcical nature of the play-offs has reared it's ugly head again as a team that finished 21 points behind the second placed club gets promoted. Maybe we only need to assemble a squad that is capable of winning less than one in three league games and finishing fourth and we're looking at a possible immediate return to the Championship

Very pleased to see McGrory re-signing. He could have done a job at another Championship club. Hopefully McKechnie can get a run of games next season, we haven't seen much of him but I think that he has shown some promise and maturity. As for the news on Joseph...

Too inconsistent for my liking.

When I was at the Partick game a month ago someone said to me that the ball seemed to bounce nearly twice as high as it would on a grass pitch. The worn patches were also looking extremely threadbare, especially in the goalmouth. I'm not sure what "tests" the pitch has to pass, but the bar must be set really low because it is an embarrassment and has been for a while. Mind you, the whole stadium has that feel of having been under attack by a combination of Putin and Monty Don - the latter using it as experiment to introduce new weeds into the UK.

Cooper & McKechnie too. Decent enough players but fitness would be a worry in both cases. Is McMahon classed as a first team squad member? Can't see Joseph having more than a bit part role if he stays (hopefully not), the question is would he be happier being a benchfiller or going part time, because I wouldn't think any other club would be daft enough to offer him a F/T deal.

That's Greenacres out of the running for the job then.

At the moment I'm more interested in who's being retained from this season's squad. Once we know that we can speculate all summer long about who else we would like to see coming in to fill certain positions. I would say though that the worrying thing for me when it does come to signing new players is the BoD stating after the AGM that they want to build a squad with more local connections - I'm not sure that there is sufficient local talent around to go down that avenue, even if we include Muirhead, Reilly and the ex-QOS contingent at Galabank.

He was subbed off in four games in his first spell, and last night was the sole occasion during his second. I'd like to think that starting him in every game he was available for could only have been due to the conditions of his loan deal, but that doesn't explain why we persisted all season with the tactic of making him the target recipient of nearly every throw in when at best all he managed to do was nod the ball into mid air on a vertical trajectory, but more often to a waiting nearby opponent. I would think that tactic turned over possession to the opposition virtually every time it was used, ie had the relative success rate of a Rhys McCabe long throw. The management teams may have been forced to select him but also seemed to be oblivious to his failings or saw a completely different player to the supporters.

Must have been using the same phoneline as the BBC reporter who namechecked Ebbie Malone on a weekly basis. Either that or they thought his full name was Ebeneezer Malone.

McQuilter and Mole are two names which have cropped up more than once already who could easily push for a place in a Queens 22. I also just remembered we had Andy Barrowman. Still sticking with my original 22... for now... ETA - Craig Reid was decent for us too. Couldn't pass the ball, but good in the tackle and versatile across the whole back line.

As the season draws to a close I would like to congratulate Niyah Joseph, Innes Cameron and Ben Liddle on their inclusion in my own personal "Worst Players I've Ever Seen In A QOS Shirt" squad. They've beaten off a lot of tough competition, but I think they deserve their places on merit. The squad currently consists of: GKs - Derrick Hoy, Rikki Fergusson, Archie McLean DFs - John Gamble, Mark Campbell, Alan Gillespie, Chris Carr, Tom McDonald, David Smyth, Stuart Hill Mids - Tony Nelson, John Pelosi, Jake Pickard, Tom Parratt, Niyah Joseph, Stephen Simmons, Ben Liddle Fwds - Emilio Jaconelli, Chris "even worse than Tam Brighton" Armstrong, John Dickson, Paul Heffernan, Innes Cameron As a disclaimer I realise that there are a vast number of players that I've probably forgotten about or was never unlucky enough to witness in action for Queens who could probably displace some of the above, and as a point of reference my first match was in 1979 and I didn't attend many games in the 1990s, but I'm welcome to suggestions from Queens fans of other fuds you think should be included. So people, who would make your own gash 22 at your club?

I think I am right in saying that AJ was still registered as a player with us when he managed us to promotion but he barely set foot on the field over the course of the season. I would have no qualms if Gibson was appointed manager, retained as a player but took a similar step back from playing every minute of every game. For me it's too much to ask to monitor how every member of the team is performing and concentrating fully on your own performance while you are on the pitch. This may be why his own form has dipped slightly over recent weeks and mistakes have crept in to his own game. I'm guessing that Gibson being Gibson he would want to play every game though. Off the top of my head the only player-managers I can recall as being successful in the role were Dalglish, Souness & Aldridge (when at Tranmere), but so much time has passed since they played I can't recall how much on-field involvement they had before retiring from the playing side of the game.

Area Controller???

The only out of contract players I hope we keep are East, McGrory and Rae, in that order. Despite our horrific goals against record Rae has been pretty solid and couldn't have done much better due to the dross he's been playing behind. McGrory and Cochrane looks to be a decent central midfield pairing, it's a pity they haven't had many chances to play together. East has had to learn on the job in the centre back role but has adapted well, and he could still do a job at left back or up front if necessary. In fact despite playing the whole season in the back line he's scored as many goals as yesterday's front two, Ruben and Cameron, have contributed between them. I'd also take Gibson as a player, but not if he's manager.

The worry is he'll rock up on loan at us next season again as we'll be playing at his level. Surely we're not being demoted to the Lowland League?

Innes Cameron managed to stop or interfere with most of our promising attacks in the games he played in. We didn't have to rely on opposing players doing something stupid like deliberately handling the ball.

I'm not having this budget being the problem talk. You just have to look down south at clubs like Brentford, Burnley or Accrington, or as has been said Arbroath in Scotland to see what can be done on relative shoestring budgets. The board said they would back AJ with funds in January to add to an already large squad, he said he wanted to bring in 4-5 players and all he managed to get was 1 regular starter who blows hot and cold, 2 bit part players, and the return of Innes Carthorse who's goalscoring record to January was poor to say the least. AJ would have been aware that 2 of the 4 would be unavailable against their parent clubs. The board made a huge blunder in giving AJ a new contract last summer, and a 2 year one at that. AJ was already at the club and knew what the budget would be, he could have turned down the contract offer and walked away if he wasn't satisfied with the board's spending plans. So for me the story of the season has, to go all mathematical on you, been "BOD + AJ = clusterfuck".

GET IN!!!!!

Aye... that's us down to 10 men.

You can see why both sides are where they are but at least they are both going for it. Ayr no.10 causing us problems. Cameron is a total haddy. I think he's managed to complete 2 passes all game. Todd and Cochrane are pretty much running the show in midfield. I just wish we had a competent striker.

Over a thousand surely. We wont fill our end, that's for sure. I seem to recall that in the last "must win" game of this magnitude - y'know, that final day of the season disaster against Partick in 2019 when we made a total c**t of it and played possibly the worst football I've ever seen at Palmy, so bad that Naysmith got sacked during the end-of-season shindig that night - there were about 2500 Queens fans present. That makes me think that given what's at stake, last night's re-ignition of the flicker of hope, and the U18s in for free offer we might get somewhere around 1500 home fans on Saturday.

Bizarre to think that the whole season now may depend on Ian McCall choosing which one out of three of his former clubs he'd like to shaft the most.