CallumPar

Nah, Dylan Duncan was one of the finest loan signings in our history.

I would agree. But, as I say, the young guys will be playing with the u18s the day before. Definitely play first team players that don’t start regularly though.

I don’t think we will forfeit at all. But issue with academy players is that the u18s play on Fridays. They have a game on Friday 23rd, so it’s unlikely we’ll then play them on the Saturday too. The Friday matches are why we haven’t been naming all of the youngsters on the bench anymore, for first team games.

My opinion is kind of split. I don’t want to see a B team progress. But I’d also accept the club forfeiting, like we did last year. Our squad still won’t be massive and it would be annoying if a first team player picked up an injury in a challenge cup game against someone’s reserve squad.

To be honest, I rarely go to challenge cup games. But this is one I wouldn’t even consider going to.

Thought Edwards was excellent yeaterday. Other than his feet being on the pitch, he finally got the long throws to cause problems. He was also very good down the left hand side and caused Airdrie problems all day. He’s probably the one player recently that has kept improving year on year. His performance was a large part of the reason for Airdrie’s first half sub. Edwards had been winning the ball off him and getting past him with ease. MacDonald also played fairly well and put some good crosses into the box. Mochrie likes to drive forward from midfield, which is something we’ve missed when he hasn’t played. But he also seems to get brushed off the ball really easily and doesn’t seem to be aware of who/what’s around him. Todorov is our biggest threat up front right now. We missed O’Hara’s running when he got injured as well. He caused Airdrie more problems than McCann. Towards the end of the game, both Benedictus and Breen seemed to be struggling with knocks/injuries, which is an obvious concern. As I’ve already said, Airdrie were the best team we’ve played so far. Frizzell was very good all game and took his goal really well. It was a well designed move for the goal. Their number 9 (Gallagher?) missed a glorious chance in the second half well after some really good play. Still not convinced Gabby McGill is a footballer though. Callum Smith looked lively, without really doing much. McCabe and Fordyce did fairly well. When McCabe moved himself into a back 3, he just seemed to be in control of the whole game. Can’t be easy being player/manager, but they played well and so did the team, so it seemed to work yesterday.

He didn’t. I didn’t say he did, which is why I ignored the pointless questions. If that incident had happened after 80 mins or something, I wouldn’t be saying he cost us 2 points. But we scored a legitimate goal with almost the last kick of the ball, that would have won us the game. I don’t see how that isn’t costing us 2 points. Yes, there were other opportunities to win the game before then. We could, and should, have been more clinical (like every other week!). I’m not trying to say otherwise. But we also did score a legitimate winning goal - although, that was largely down to a goalkeeping howler. He could at least have lied and said it was disallowed for a foul throw - every Edwards long throw, he has both feet on the pitch. He was abysmal and that was far from his only bad decision. Both teams, at several points, had reasons to feel aggrieved. At no point did he seem to have any control of the game, or any authority over the players. It was really quite a spectacularly incompetent all round performance. In hindsight, it was stupid to talk about fines/suspension/docked pay. I was frustrated and should have taken time to think about it properly before posting. Everyone who called me out on that is spot on. It was nonsense. In reality, it was probably just as likely he’d mess up a big decision that cost Airdrie a goal at some point. Just so happened it was a costly error at such a late/crucial stage of the game.

If you don’t see a foul and the ball goes into the net, a referee shouldn’t be making any decision other than giving a goal. On the basis it was the 93rd minute and the score was 1-1 at the time, it’s 100% accurate that he cost us 2 points (in my opinion). I wouldn’t usually describe a referee as costing us points. But I’m struggling to see how you can argue that decision didn’t cost us 2 points? *edited to remove nonsense/stupid comments. Yeah

Ref’s admitted his mistake. Absolutely can’t be disallowing goals because he’s guessed there’s a foul in there. He cost us 2 points. edited to remove nonsense.

Overall a decent game, draw probably a fair result. Couldn’t see what the foul was at the end though? Keeper seemed to go into his own defender? Airdrie the best team we’ve played by far, but we also played our best game of the season. Also, the standard of officiating in this league is absolutely horrific. Scary that these guys are actually qualified referees. Missing really basic things every week and never have any control of the game/authority over any of the players.

Big test for us. As most have said, our results so far probably paint a fairly misleading picture of our performances. Other than Edinburgh, where we were up against 10 men for most of the game, we haven’t really played well. We’ve maybe had a few 5-10 min spells where we’ve looked good, but not much. Airdrie on the other hand seem to be playing well and will test our defence. Will be interesting to see how ambitious they are. Everyone else has sat in against us so far. If Airdrie play a more attacking brand of football, we should find more gaps when we get the ball. Unfortunately though, it’s still the same players we would be relying on to take chances/make the most of space. We’ve been so wasteful so far and we need that to change. I think all of our strikers should be capable of that, but they all seem to be suffering a bit of a hangover from Hughes’ management.

Don’t know why I’m bothering responding, given you’ve admitted to adding 20% to what you consider to be the ‘actual’ figure. But, you’re including players in our u18 squad as first team players? You’re getting really desperate here. To be fair, anyone using our website for information is going to get things wrong. We haven’t even got Martin Harty listed as a coach, despite him being contracted to the club since day 1 of preseason. Since we don’t have a reserve squad this year, they’ve just put anybody on a professional contract, or that has been named in a match day squad, in the ‘first team’ section. But 6 of them (Rennie, Beagley, Young, Tod, Sutherland, Archibald) are members of the U18 squad and McPake has said he won’t throw them into league football. Another one (Miller Fenton) is out on loan, so he won’t be able to play for us. We have 18 first team players. Including 2 who are injured fairly long term (Dorrans and Allan). We aren’t a million miles away from having a full squad in terms of numbers, but we have a lot of midfielders, a lot of strikers and not much cover anywhere else.

Tell me you have no idea what you’re talking about, without telling me you have no idea what you’re talking about.

Can still get domestic loans until the end of September, I think(?). So top flight clubs can complete squads by the end of the window, then we can take players on the fringes of their team once they’ve done that. Obviously still hoping for at least a couple of signings in the next week too.

Had a look and can’t really follow it at all. Formatting is awful, but it’s better than nothing. Robertson would be a good signing - he was certainly very highly regarded a couple of years ago. Was on loan at Cove last season, but no idea how He got on. Hopefully someone who was there can confirm the context of this?

Anyone able to provide updates from the meeting tonight? Couldn’t make it along, but will be interesting to hear what’s said

It is by choice though? I would get your argument if he wasn’t playing guys out of position, to try and shoehorn the players at the club into his preferred formation. How’s that not by choice? He’s choosing to play a formation that we don’t have the players for. We don’t have wingers, but have players capable of playing wing back, which is why we’ve looked better when we’ve played 3-5-2. I don’t understand your argument about him being forced to play 4-3-3 with no natural wingers.

Is this really an unpopular opinion? Honestly, I’d have taken him off ahead of Chalmers today and last week. Think Chalmers has improved and actually has something to offer. Todd’s reverted back to the guy that can’t make the simple passes. A lot of energy, but lacking ability. I think he’d be more effective coming off the bench against tired opponents. We have no creativity/threat from midfield. That’s why the 3-5-2 looks so much better, Edwards and MacDonald drive forward and get balls into the box. In the 4-3-3, we still rely on Edwards, who can’t push as far forward all the time, as he has more defensive duties in a back 4. Sad times when Josh Edwards is the most creative player in our starting 11.

Must be missing something, I don’t see Wighton as a particularly hard worker. O’Hara does a lot of running and can cause problems, but he doesn’t add any creativity and never looks like getting on the end of balls into the box. They both offer McCann absolutely no support in the 4-3-3, which is a large part of the reason they system doesn’t work. That would be the same if Todorov played there. Compare that to Cardle/McGill for Kelty, constantly coming inside and making sure they’re providing options for Higginbotham. Their number 22 when he came on, was the same. His first 10-15 mins on the park, he was bossing our defence, then Benedictus decided to pick him up and he was quieter.

Poor game, played by 2 poor sides, with a horrendous referee in charge. No point overreacting, we’ll have bad games and we’ll drop more points as the season goes on. Thought we might have nicked it at the end, we created enough chances to get the late winner anyway! Another clean sheet. Although, I thought Kelty were the best side, with the ball, that we’ve played so far. We still look better when we go 3-5-2. But McPake seems so reluctant to go for it from the start. We don’t have wingers, so can we stop trying to squeeze strikers in there, it’s clearly not working. Also forgot how terrible O’Hara is for being constantly offside when he’s playing through the middle.

Was a big Pars fan growing up too. He still has family that are season ticket holders at East End.

At a half empty all seated stadium, I’d agree. In the context of this Saturday’s game, absolutely not. In a packed terrace, if someone falls into people, you get a bit of a domino effect, which could result in multiple injuries. So you’re risking a health and safety disaster if you let them in. If they end up spewing, it’s all over people. Also, if they need medical assistance, it’s much harder for first aiders/help to get to them in a packed terrace. Someone being smashed makes it much more likely that they, or someone else, will need medical assistance. As I say, no problem with people having a few drinks and being tipsy/merry. But if they’re absolutely smashed, they shouldn’t be at the game. As for having to fend for themselves for 2 hours - that’s down to their ‘friends’, not police/stewards. Presumably, these ‘friends’ will have been drinking with them and let them get in that state. They would then also have to make the decision to go into the stadium without their pal, if he’s left on his own.

As others have said, this is on the T&Cs of all football tickets and has been for years. Only enforced when people are completely out of it and unable to stand/walk properly. Nobody will make any fuss about fans being tipsy/merry when entering the ground.

I’m sure he’ll get a decent reception from our fans. At least until he starts his usual antics of diving in/around the box. Then he’ll be treated like any other opponent that does the same.

No tickets left for away fans. Would imagine a decent number of away fans will now start buying tickets for the home end, if they want to go.