the_bully_wee

Can only really say "fair play" to Matchwinner for butchering the design of the jade kit as they have. Sad!

It said it all of our current "set-up" (I'm not sure exactly what to call the hopeless, disjointed rabble we are seeing at present) that Salkeld and another midfielder were often found pressing Alloa's backline rather than our front two. There were a lot of shouts claiming that Doherty is lazy or not bothered today, but the simple fact is that he's a trier who is nowhere near good enough technically. If you combined him and Rennie you'd have a half decent player but the reality is that we're so deficient that nobody can really shine in this team. The ball is consistently treated like it's an unpinned grenade, and the continued prominence of Ross Lyon just gets more and more harrowing by the week. Next season could be a similarly long one in League 2 if Hynes, Rennie and Doherty will be regulars. On Alloa: pie on a roll a great concept, but a better quality of pie is required to fulfil the undoubted potential of the dish. On the pitch, they played us off the park and were well worth their win.

QP fans would know all about having no facilities at the moment, right enough.

He's more of a meat and potatoes clogger than Grant is at least, which - if he can get back to the level he was operating at under Duffy before - is probably of more use to us in our current predicament, wherein games tend to consist entirely of Alamo-esque defensive showings. Suspect it'll end up just being a case of two sides somewhat pointlessly swapping back-up centre halves, though.

Peter Grant can no longer run, which is his big issue. He's fine with legs around him but I'd not want to come up against a quick right-sided player with him and McNiff out there.

Hope this piece of utterly immaterial ancient history makes you feel better about your Gretna tribute act, complete with heftily salaried CEO, being run like a pub team!

Anyone know when QP are turning professional?

Unquestionably. Still very funny, mind.

Is this the catalyst for the penny finally dropping and "Queen's Park" fans realising that their club has devolved into nothing more than a financially doped mercenary outpost? For their sakes, I sure do hope so!

... and CB is probably the last place we need another signing, unless Thicot can be shovelled out. With that in mind, welcome back, Alan!

Pat Scullion doing scouting work for us and recommending Rennie to Duffy

Dunfermline have done very, very well to nick a draw from that. First time seeing Clyde's new recruits today. Very impressed with Rennie (bar one cataclysmic pass) but was hoping to see more from Doherty and Salkeld. Both look like classic "hard workers" without much else to show for it.

Given the fact we've signed four players and only offloaded two jobbers in this window, it's also very fanciful to think this move hadn't been in the pipeline for a while. We have absolutely no money and are yelling timber at an alarming volume; I'd imagine any fee will be going towards covering the wages of the lads that have come in.

Extremely hard worker, quite strong despite his size, willing runner in the channels and in behind. His link-up play isn't outstanding but he runs quite well with the ball, although decision making in terms of the pass or shot is lacking a little. His work-rate is definitely his stand-out attribute but he's by no means a ringer. It'll be interesting to see how he gets on at a front-footed team that will actually "play football", hope he does well as he's been one of very few things to enjoy about this season from a Clyde perspective. Hopefully see him again next season, of course.

Did suspect we'd see one of Cunningham or Allan away given we've signed two strikers this month. Definitely weakens us but we can only wait and see how Doherty does now I guess. Better letting Allan go for a fair price now if he wanted away than clinging on to an unhappy player we'd be losing at the end of the season anyway.

https://youtu.be/N_vJMHMBzLM

Christian Doidge and Brian McQueen imo

Don't really know what the plan is as regards Duffy. I still maintain that it may not prove the worst move from what was a big old snooker if he can fudge us through a play-off, but it'd probably take a few flukes late in the window - if he can manage them - for that to be any kind of a possibility. He's obviously a vacuum of joy and thoroughly uninspiring, which only exacerbates the current malaise, but Lennon had obviously lost the plot completely and our only other realistic option was to hire someone desperate for any kind of senior gig, which would be a very interesting pool of 'talent', no doubt. It was said above that Lennon tarnished his legacy this season but personally I now look upon his time at the club with neutrality more than anything over the piece. We all, naturally, hoped that this season would mark a departure from the recruitment and fortunes of the last couple, but really it ended up just being the exact same (or worse!), only wearing fancy knickers. Big Jim coming in as a cheap free hit makes some sense, but as I said at the top, I don't know what the thinking is beyond this season. Are we actively, scrupulously trying to identify and/or make enquiries about who our next long-term manager will be, or will we wait and see how the season plays out before either scrambling to recruit the next one or lazily handing out an extension? I think the answer to that ultimately will define the wisdom in re-hiring Duffy. Speaking of extensions, another layer of fear is that we are inevitably going to haemorrhage virtually everyone from this squad. The players we'd want to keep are probably the Grants, Cuddihy, Roberts, Cunningham and Allan, possibly Duthie (if he ever plays again) and Kennedy. It's hard to imagine that the definites won't have much better offers from teams around us, never mind the sugar daddied boys further down the food chain. Another massive rebuild on a tiny budget - what can possibly go wrong? The board must carry the can for all this. It wasn't totally outwith the realms of possibility that Lennon would sign a better squad with a larger budget (you'd expect virtually anyone to do so), but there was a significant body of evidence showing that his recruitment was deeply flawed and as a result of that, willingly racking up such a large deficit over the course of the season was mental. The decision to extend his contract was, at the time, borderline with arguments for and against (one of the former being working with smaller budgets) but offering him a two-year deal alongside committing to such a big operating loss was a double-whammy of avoidable risk. On the other hand, I do feel some sympathy for the board. The club obviously isn't operating at its maximum capacity off the pitch in its current circumstances, but trying to bridge the gap to other clubs with actual assets that can generate profit is a pretty thankless task. While the board is due criticism, they've made the right move in going balls-deep on Crownpoint, which represents our only realistic hope of owning and operating a facility which affords us the income streams which are open to so many of the similarly-sized clubs outperforming us at the moment. If that falls through then we're absolutely doomed, but I'm hopeful that what looks to be a fairly robust proposal (certainly compared with the bid of the competing party) will get that over the line for us. If it does get to that stage, then they'll have to back up the strong, cogent language in the proposal with immediate actions which root us firmly in that community and put the Foundation front and centre of the club's existence. Tl;dr: a finished club - but wait, maybe hope to follow (probably not)!

Cuddihy would be a miss from midfield but getting Duthie back in at some stage and sacking off Scullion and Lyon would go a long way to helping. Making us watch that pair at full-back for 90 odd minutes this evening was an act of terrorism.

Every new configuration of eleven warm (I think, not sure if anyone's checked) bodies we put out has this strange capacity to disappoint me. You'd think the feeling would've worn off after three years of this nonsense

Anyone who wanted to own and operate the club would approach it whether it was or wasn't formally on the market. It's all well and good calling for the entirety of the board to be binned but the simple fact is we'd need folk to fill those positions and it's been clear for a long time that there is virtually nobody - connected to the club or otherwise - with the requisite interest and/or competencies to do so.

Is it possible for us to appeal the awarding of Thicot's work permit?