Slipmat

I haven't been to a game since we beat Dundee United in the cup. At first this was due to outside factors involving work, family and bereavement, but now, although I have been free to attend the Annan and Alloa home games I just couldn't find any enthusiasm within me to go along for exactly the reason you mention above. I don't want to pay good money to watch a team playing endless square passes in front of their own penalty box trying to shitfest a 0-0 against average opposition. I want to see a team that takes the game to the opposition and puts them under pressure from the kick-off. Players putting a shift in is all well and good, but if all that effort is being spent faffing about in our own half it's not entertaining nor value for money. This is probably the longest run of games I've missed since the last few months of Naysmith's spell in charge, when again I stopped going because he was sending teams out with what appeared to be no intention of winning games, just avoid getting beaten - no matter the standard of opposition. Having a couple of token shots during a game, which are usually off target anyway, and not pressing opposing players just doesn't do it for me. Strangely in the first half dozen or so games of the season we were a relatively free-scoring team getting at least 2 per game, then Reilly was injured and from that moment on MB seems to have changed approach and not looked remotely interested in reverting to any form of attacking football, which is a strange thing to do given that since he adopted the negative approach we've fallen out of the promotion play off spots to mid table obscurity, even worrying that Annan or Edinburgh City don't somehow get their act together.

An issue here is that our youth development programme is extremely parochial in that nearly all of our youth players seem to be boys from Dumfries & Galloway, an area not exactly known for producing good footballers, who are coached by staff who, aside from Mathieson, have played at no level higher than the South of Scotland League. Very few youth players seem to progress to become first team regulars, and with the exception of Lewis Gibson* and Ross Irving*, those who have done so in recent years (Dykes, Murray, Pickard) had come through youth systems at clubs outside the region before arriving at Queens. Even the one that got away, Owen Moxon, had previously been at Carlisle United. * who could both better be described as "first team irregulars"

I'm not sure if the attendance figures quoted above are entirely accurate since our lowest league crowd this season was 945 v Kelty, in fact the only game that drew a lower number was the challenge cup game against Arbroath (786). Perhaps the above numbers account for all games (home and away), or home fans only for Palmerston matches. (This is when we need SD to be on hand to clarify matters)! That said, the decline in attendances in my opinion pales in comparison to the decline on the pitch and standards in place at the club. For example, 10 seasons ago we took Saturday's opponents, St Mirren, to a replay in the Scottish Cup with the following team: Clark; Mitchell, Durnan, Higgins, Holt; McShane, McKenna; Burns, Paton, Russell; Reilly. On the bench were Atkinson, Lyle, Carmichael, Dowie & Dzierzawski. If any of the BOD were to look at that team and compare it to the bunch of charlatans and gangsters*, or our current standing in the game and struggles to beat the likes of Kelty, Stirling and Montrose (with no disrespect meant to those clubs) could they honestly say that their overseeing of the club is becoming at best, complacent, or at worst shambolic? Indeed, based on MB's signings and managerial record, how can they possibly be content to continue in the direction we are going in with him in charge? There just seems to be a general shrugging of the shoulders and acceptance of decline with no idea or instention as to how to arrest it. Hanging onto an incompetent manager on purely on financial grounds while we flail about in lower mid table in the hope that he can somehow elevate us to fourth place in the third tier says it all about the lack of ambition or priority at top end of the club. * not in the Derek Lyle sense of the word.

Was Hutchinson deployed in a lone striker role in England?

Raggett has surely got to be packed off somewhere. Quite possibly the most pointless signing in the history of the club.

Connelly has to start for me. He's one of the few players we have still standing (assuming it hasn't been his turn to fall of a chair / down a flight of stairs this week) who can score goals, plus I think he is the sort of player who would relish and be pumped up for a win over a previous club. Can't predict the line-up other than to say the defence will likely be unchanged. Like Marvin, I have absolutely no idea what our tactics will be*. * except that they will probably be the wrong ones.

Just beat me to it!

Sounds like exactly the sort of player Bartley would want to stick on a 2+1/2 year deal. The deal clincher would be if he is made of glass and likely to miss half a season after picking up a bizarre training ground injury. Judging by our present trajectory we could well be lowland league shite ourselves before that hypothetical contract expires.

I think that nearly all Queens fans would be in agreement that the 2007/08 cup run is something that will never be topped in most of our time supporting Queens past, present or future, but in hindsight rather than getting to the final being the result of Chisholm's managerial nous there were a couple of mitigating factors that favoured us - Gretna going into administration allowed us to pick up players that were of a higher standard than had been available to us in years, it was our first season as a full-time club, and we only faced one Premier League team on the road to the final in a game where tactics pretty much went out of the window. Nobody can take it away from Chisholm that he took us to our only major final (sorry, but the Challenge Cup doesn't count for me), but in addition to his strange selections for the European ties I think we should also consider his recruitment in the summer of 2008 when it comes to rating him. Only Cammy Bell, Jamie Adams & David Weatherston cut the mustard in my opinion - Bryn Halliwell, Tom Parratt, Craig Sives, Stephen Simmons, Michael McGowan, Gerry McLaughlan, Steven Kinniburgh, the unfortunate Gary Arbuckle, Craig Barr and of course his marquee signing Stewart Kean being the others he recruited.

With 15 minutes to rescue the tie Chisholm's last throw of the dice was to bring on Scott Robertson. For me, that kind of falls into the "clueless" category too.

Good post that. I get the feeling that if Bartley had peak level Rodney Marsh, Stan Bowles, Frank Worthington and Charlie George in the squad he'd move them all on and use the funds generated to re-sign Dan Pybus.

I've heard a similar rumour about a Gibson / Bartley "difference of opinion" too which bears a lot of similarity to one doing the rounds at the end of last season when Bartley wasn't playing Wilson because, according to Bartley, Wilson wasn't fit enough and Wilson believed he was and should be playing. I could all just be talk, of course, but if true and Bartley is leaving out important players because of behind the scenes issues it reeks of a manager being totally out of his depth desperately trying to stamp his authority on his players, and to use his favourite word, behaving extremely "unprofessionally". I would emphasise again though that the above could all be the result of Chinese Whispers.

With today marking the one year anniversary of Bartley's appointment - aye, thanks @Bairn in Exile for reminding us - I thought I'd check my records to confirm something I suspected to be true but was trying to convince myself wasn't. Under Bartley, Lewis Gibson has either been subbed on or off in every single game he has featured in. Prior to Bartley's arrival he played the full 90+ minutes on six occasions under either his father or Murray. McKechnie, by comparison, has been on the pitch for the full entirety of eight games already this season. Bartley clearly doesn't seem to rate Gibson. He needs to go before Gibson does. ETA - what a difference to go to Palmerston and enjoy the occasion as much as I did today

Mimnaugh, Church, Cochrane, Brydon and Houston. That's before they even begin this week's training, so it would be no surprise if another couple are crocked by next weekend.

The George Galloway debacle may even pale in comparison to the Sevco vote fiasco and the subsequent "like it or lump it, but whatever you do keep buying season tickets and replica kits" style response to fan complaints.

Well, he basically admitted in the interview that he went into the game with absolutely no intention of trying to win it. I expect he drummed that message home all week in training, so he's clearly pleased that the players followed his instructions for once. But the way Bartley talks yesterday's game was the equivalent of a match up between, say, Bayern Munich and Wigtown & Bladnoch (with no disrespect meant to either Falkirk or Wigtown). What he expected to achieve from such a negative psychological approach is anyone's guess, other than avoiding a hammering.

Alex Ferguson. According to Bartley, when he signed him: Manager Marvin Bartley said, "Alex is a highly rated player who is great on the ball. He is technically gifted and uses his speed to get past people so should fit in well with the way we want to play. Bartley was right for once. He is a perfect fit for a team that seems to have been instructed to serve up aimless dross.

And this is perhaps the most infuriating thing about the club. Four full-time clubs the division. Falkirk, after several seasons of underachievement now have a side that would hold their own in the Championship, and an experienced manager in place. Hamilton have responded to relegation by investing heavily in what on paper looks like a good squad. Cove, after a sluggish start, have pretty much got third place in their pocket which is probably exactly the minimum expectation that their board has for this season's league position. Our lot on the other hand, despite having witnessed a number of seasons of disappointment, a relegation and general underachievement which has led to us having comfortably become the worst full-time club in the country by some margin, seem content to be served up dross on the pitch and tolerate embarrassment off it (the George Galloway incident, the Gamergate interview). Managers outstay their welcome, usually by at least six months, and are replaced by rookies who don't seem to know how to fix problems that they created in the first place. As @Otis Blue has just posted, the be all and end all for the board seems to be holding onto what money the club has at all costs, even if by doing so they accelerate the decline. I have absolutely no idea what targets or ambitions the board has for the club in either the short or long term. They don't like communicating with the fans when it comes to these matters at all. So one has to assume that they are content with the way things are chugging along provided that an acceptable matchday income is accrued to keep the bank balance level.

She's probably injured.

I can only surmise that the Falkirk players were awestruck by our ability to play tiki-taka football in our own half and stood back to watch in admiration.

Bring on Walker to con the ref into giving us a free-kick?

In terms of what may happen in the second half, what would have the shorter odds? A Queens goal attempt or McClelland getting booked?

SD has chosen not to comment on the QOS threads recently but has posted on the national team one during his absence from the QOS ones. It's his prerogative if and when to post. As you say, most people know who he is, and as far as I can judge he's not one for "chucking it" just because some people disagree with his opinions.

The individuals in today's starting XI have scored a grand total of 9 league goals between them this season.

Ah... Livingston being mentioned in connection with a winding-up order. Fair makes you nostalgic for the good old days...