Rjc-1988

I obviously realise that Stone and McLelland are loanees but it is surely not certain that either will have a future at their respective clubs. If they do and they want to stay as bit part players then that is their call. My point was that we could at least express an interest in them and see if they bite. Probably unlikely but it depends on how positive the parent clubs are about their future prospects. On the ownership front let’s be honest the only assets are the ground/land and arena. The club in L1 /L2 will leak cash like there’s no tomorrow. The big question is who, if anybody, will prop it up as and when any cash that we still have gets burned?

It is very difficult to know if McLindon is to be the main man or whether he will support others. No matter what the composition of ownership is the task is a huge one. First priority is to work out our status - PT,FT or hybrid. No matter the set up Bartley has to go asap. Have seldom seen such overall condemnation of any Manager’s tenure from the supporters. As for the playing staff - very few I would keep. Stone and/or Botterill, Brydon, McLelland, Todd, Kennedy(should have been playing this season in my view), Reilly, Mimnaugh. Add in some of the more promising youngsters. No point in mentioning Lewis as his Dad will ensure that he moves out asap. Some of the other “regulars” have had endless opportunities to prove their worth and continually fail to deliver so they have to go if we can move them on. If not we’re stuck with them. Just hope new owners are presiding over a L1 outfit not a L2 outfit?

It is perhaps a bit harsh on Gibson but don't forget that Father Gibson also deployed him as a Wing Back when he was in charge. I could never understand the rationale behind that when it has been blatantly obvious that Lewis is a player that needs to be doing all his best work in opponents' final third. I guess his stats are pretty decent when you put it that way and it does highlight just how poor Bartley's decision making has been throughout his tenure. McKechnie's stats confirm just how poor his contribution has been. Add to that he tends to shoot from anywhere even when at a terrible angle and on his very weak left peg. Ferguson's contribution needs no further elaboration - it has all been said.

While I think McKechnie has been very poor all season and has had a very generous amount of game time Gibson has not delivered either. He unquestionably has more to offer than McKechnie but when he moves on to pastures new at end of season he will have to seriously up his game. I have been willing him to do well but he has had a season to forget. Easy to blame Bartley for that but this is L1 and playing against part timers predominantly. If he is the prospect that many predict he is - he should have been capable of a lot more than he has shown.

It would have been nice to see us go all out for the win that we desperately needed but my sources tell me that it was yet another horrific display from us. Created virtually nothing and relied on the sad fact that Stirling are equally as piss poor as we are. Our Manager is incapable of rallying the troops even in a crisis of this scale. i get the logical argument saying that we have possibly done enough to avoid ninth BUT I am certainly not counting Annan out of winning at Falkirk. We see crazy results every year at this time of the season and teams with nothing tangible to play suddenly become vulnerable. We have two chances of course to take care of business but it is way past the stage where I would ever pin my hopes on Bartley and his Bottlers. Falkirk may be our best bet but what a terrible admission.

His father is still a terrific player and is a huge factor in Annan’s resurgence.

Ironically it is two players who have been shunned by Bartley in recent weeks (in Gibson’s case for most of the season) that dug him and the Club out of a huge hole. We are still in a huge mess but failing to win today would have been disastrous. Don't get me wrong I don’t think young Gibson has progressed this season the way he should have BUT constantly being overlooked in favour of under-performers like McKechnie is hardly a confidence booster. Also his persistent deployment as a wing back is simply incompetent decision making. We have a make or break game today where we desperately need to create chances and score goals - he picks McKechnie ahead of Gibson.

This Comedian has had so many chances to deliver and repeated fails spectacularly. Sincerely hope the dreaded sucker punch is not about to be delivered.

McKechnie ahead of Gibson - it really is mistifying but not in the least surprising. have to hope that they are really poor otherwise we know how this will play out.

It’s frightening that effectively it all comes down to this. Failure to win will be calamitous in the extreme as we anticipate that our play off rivals will see off Edinburgh when they play them. Having the future of the Club in the hands of Bartley and his Bottlers in a “must win HOME game” gives us all the shakes. Can only hope they deliver for once.

Yes he’s very good at cajoling others but the basics of defending our box sadly are beyond him. Ambrose is a far better defender than McKay but Manager seems to be singling him out for previous mis-demeanours. Let’s be honest if we were apportioning blame for the predicament we find ourselves in Ambrose would hardly be near the top of the queue compared to some others.

Very sad to say but the match on Sat is probably the most significant and important in many years. Lose it and I think we finish 9th. Win it and it is a massive step towards safety. A draw is a mini disaster as well. With the hapless Bartley at the helm, a squad packed full of mediocrity and an in built losing mentality there is no way that we can be confident. Of course we should be seeing off a detached Edinburgh side with nothing to play for but we couldn’t beat them in the last away fixture. In the home match before that we struggled badly and only a brilliant Gibson strike turned the tide in our favour. Our embarrassing home record tells you all you need to know about the Manager and his squad but we have to hope that for once they deliver when the “chips are really down”.

McKechnie is one of the reasons that we continue to underperform week after week. He gets so much game time that is unfathomable. A wide player who has decent pace but poor touch, no tricks for a winger, no left peg and continually picks the wrong option in the final third. His delivery is so erratic.He wouldn’t be anywhere near my starting 11. Don’t even start me on Hutchinson…….

There literally can’t be any one connected with Queens who could conceivably want Bartley to be at our club one minute longer but we are somehow stuck with him. That home record for a FT club in L1 is an unmitigated disaster and an utter embarrassment to all concerned. The first half today was virtually impossible to do anything other than try and get a 0-0 and wait for the wind advantage. At 0-1 we should have been capable of at least winning the second half but failed miserably - created virtually nothing and having got back to 1-1 conceded a truly dreadful goal following a brilliant save from Stone. Bartley’s tactics are truly pathetic. He goes with a back 3 in second half and deploys McKechnie as a LWB despite him being “all right foot” and totally out of touch. I thought my day couldn’t get any worse until the Announcer names Kieran McKechnie as MOM. Honestly, you couldn’t make it up………………Todd was the only player who genuinely tried to make things happen for us but got little or no support. Bartley inexplicably shuns players who could actually give us a decent chance of getting out of this self inflicted nightmare - Ambrose, Reilly, Gibson and to a lesser extent McGuffie. Kilsby has been dreadful since joining us- he should have been hooked at HT but the fact that he was our only left footed defender saved him. We continue to “sleep walk” towards L2 - Manager and players should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

The deployment of Logan at LWB was baffling to say the least. All the "tell tale" signs were in evidence in the first half - player dis-orientated, drifting to his right, wanting to tackle with his right foot which invariably put him off balance, and ball watching rather than picking up the dangerous Smith: Tumulty combination. All the danger came from our weak left side in the first half and we were fortunate not to lose a couple of goals in that period. Haven't seen the disallowed goal back but I was astounded when it was chalked off but if linesman got that call right it was a brilliant observation. It was surprising to hear in Bartley's post match interview that Brydon had only trained for a day before the match. When McLelland got injured we had a fully fit Ambrose ready to go on. It doesn't make sense to me to risk Brydon when he is barely fit to play after yet another long term injury. Risk of a re-occurrence must be high in these circumstances, Different if he had been the only possible choice at CB. Personally, I am not getting the problem with Ambrose at all. Manager got away with it on this occasion but for me strange decision making.