Rjc-1988

If he can genuinely talk his way out of this shambolic season that he has presided over it will take some doing . I can understand why the BOD appointed him because he had the potential to be a good appointment but unfortunately it quickly became apparent once the league season commenced post summer recruitment that we were likely to struggle badly. I think supporters of any club judge two main things when making their minds up on their Manager namely RESULTS and PERFORMANCES. Very often there is a genuine time lag in turning good positive performances into results but in all honesty can any Palmerston regular really say that performances offer any optimism whatsoever for better results? Frankly our performances are consistently poor and the only consistent thing about the results is that they mirror the uninspiring performances. People keep saying that he speaks well but my definition of a good speaker in a footballing context is someone who articulates "reality" and defines it coherently and explains what a realistic ambition level for the club is and the plan to get there. I totally accept how difficult it is to be a football manager when things are going badly but I don't get the feeling from his lengthy podcasts that our Manager really believes that he can turn things around. I just hope that we stay well clear of second bottom.

Harping back to our displays against Motherwell and Queens Park in the League Cup really grates as well. We played well against Motherwell but these early season matches are notorious for producing shocks down to the fact that players are using them in many cases as glorified friendlies. As I recall we blew a great chance to qualify by failing miserably to beat East Fife at home - a performance which is much more in keeping with what we see week after week. I honestly think the time has come for an immediate parting of the ways.We surely can’t contemplate going into next season with Bartley at the helm. As you rightly say it wouldn’t take much of a turnaround for Annan to get within striking distance of us - a close head to head for survival doesn’t bear thinking about.

First half performance was woeful- no urgency, no creativity and never remotely looked like scoring. Second half was marginally better after Mumbongo’s introduction and the goal was well worked. The logical next move would surely have been to go all out for a second goal but after a succession of needless and unfathomable substitutions we seemed to retreat into a defensive shell. Our welcoming invitation to attack us was duly accepted and the inevitable sucker punch duly arrived with the last kick of the match from a very unlikely source!! Annan within striking distance of us if they can beat us at Galabank which really shouldn’t be that difficult. There have been so many lows for us all to endure this season but we are now plumbing new depths. Credit to Edinburgh - a thoroughly deserved point. A relegation play off doesn’t bear thinking about but there is no confidence in our Manager from either players or supporters. Can only hope that our points advantage will keep us safe but I wouldn’t bank on it.

Barely believable that any team in same league could be 14/1 to beat us at their home ground. Clearly the Odds Compilers haven't actually seen us play?

Agreed - although I thought it was a more positive performance yesterday with and without the ball ……………………once again we failed to beat a mid table rival who were absolutely there for the taking. This is the problem with this squad of players - they just can’t get the job done when it matters. The last thing we want to see is Annan rallying because there is no way you could rely on our mob to win a head to head battle over the run in if “the chips were down”. Fortunately, we have Edinburgh away coming up - what could possibly go wrong.

That was a tremendous result for Annan yesterday - we haven't got remotely close to Accies this season and it highlights that there is probably a lot of fight left in Annan. Looking at the table the combination of a game in hand and a remaining home fixture against us could theoretically cut the gap to 3 points which would put us in a world of trouble. That said, our back 3 is solid and we don't look as though we will ship multiple silly goals in the way that we did earlier in the season. Our midfield is painfully short of quality and while it makes total sense to play to strengths and pick a back 3 the problem with that is that our wing backs are not strong enough or good enough to really exploit the formation and it very often ends up as a back 5. Yesterday there was a definite improvement and the more positive approach should have yielded a win but yet again we failed to beat one of our mid table rivals when we desperately needed the 3 points.

Agreed - that was a game we should have won certainly on the balance of play and chances created. We had at least 5 very good chances in the first half and failed to make any count. Having three players in forward areas certainly helped and they generally pressed the ball well and kept us in Kelty territory. We petered out a bit in the second half and the game was more even. Having missed so many decent openings there was a feeling of impending doom but the sucker punch didn’t materialise thankfully. A draw was a poor result and doesn’t help us but we did create chances and had the territorial advantage which has been rare this season. Very strange team selection - we had two natural left sided defenders/wing backs in McIntyre and new signing Kilsby and yet McKechnie starts in an unfamiliar role. Not sure why we sign yet another LB/LWB and don’t play him? I don’t profess to understand the rationale behind the recruitment but it was a better overall performance and the defence was pretty secure. New striker Mumbongo distinguished himself well and certainly better than the Hamilton P and B posters suggested he would.

Yes that would be a very sensible strategy and having found our best 11 getting them to attack with the main objective of creating chances. Having done that he might just be pleasantly surprised with the outcome. I forgot to suggest that passing the ball forwards rather than backwards would also need to be an integral part of this revolutionary new strategy.

My overriding conclusion from the statement is ..............................if we are losing c.£250k per year being FT, serving up unattractive football allied to extremely poor results - the sooner we make wholesale changes to our model the better. There is no way that the status quo can continue. That said getting the next PT recruitment drive badly wrong could lead to L2 and worse. Lets hope that the current manager plays no part in the "change of direction" when it inevitably comes.

To be honest that stat is barely credible but sadly true. It's frightening how our Manager remains in total denial about the shambles that he is presiding over. Unfortunately, he knows that he has to keep up the pretence that progress is being made so that he can remain in post. The only thing that would have prompted a dismissal was a genuine fear of relegation via play off. If Annan were to win game in hand the deficit would be 8 points - gap unlikely to be overturned but by no means impossible.

That is a great post and encapsulates the position brilliantly. As you say it is very old fashioned of us all to think about results and league tables but I would also throw in some entertaining football as another decent barometer. While no supporter wants to live with endless defeats at least if the football is entertaining you can take some comfort from the fact that you have enjoyed the match day experience. While I guess it may have some relevance I am not really that interested if our defensive midfielder has drifted 10 yards out of his “patrolling zone” and not stuck rigidly to the “plan”. I am, however, expecting a FT squad of over 25 players in L1 to be able to get on the front foot and look as if we are setting out to dominate the ball, create chances and score goals. We are incidentally hopeless at all of those key success factors. Rather than waste endless amounts of time concocting futile game plans Bartley could get his players to watch what great teams do to win matches and try to replicate it as best we can at out our level.

I genuinely think Bartley considers us to be footballing dinosaurs who haven’t quite got up to speed with the way the modern game needs to be played! Just listened to another of his mind numbing podcasts. These extensive training ground game plans that are supposedly devised before the next match are certainly worth waiting for. We can barely get a shot on target in 90 minutes and have so little concerted pressure on the opposition that even corners are a rarity. We are supposedly in for an exciting time if big Joel clicks - well let’s hope so because excitement is not a word in my footballing vocabulary at present.

How long will it be before the hapless Montgomery is joining a long list of managerial failures at Easter Road. Another one who talks a great game but delivers absolutely nothing.

To the surprise of nobody - as soon as we come up against a decent outfit we fold like a cheap suit. The fact that some of our better players are benched doesn’t help.

Apologies - no offence intended but I wasn’t conscious of a great Alloa run of results. To be fair when I look at the results they look decent but not great - 8 points from last 5 games (one of them against Edinburgh). I guess I was influenced by Saturdays heavy home defeat at the hands of Falkirk.

I would agree totally with above. The quality of football in this "good run" has still been pretty uninspiring and the fixtures have been kind to us. Montrose away was excellent and some great goals Edinburgh home was very laboured and there was a spell when it went 2-1 that they looked as likely as we did Stirling away was poor although conditions were awful Annan at home by all accounts was ok after going a goal down Falkirk away was terrible and tactics were insulting to fans who made the trip. Defensively solid though. Alloa at home - by all accounts was poor against a team who are struggling since Andy Graham took over. Created virtually nothing in 90 minutes. Cove away - a clean sheet and a solid away win Clearly the results have thankfully been much better and defensively we look a lot more secure. In an attacking sense I think we are really poor and are not able to dominate the ball in midfield which makes it very hard for us to create chances. Striker(s) largely living off scraps which makes Gavin's scoring return all the more noteworthy. There really isn't any quality in the mid table ranks of League 1 and yet we struggle desperately to get wins especially at home against these teams.

I have slightly more optimism for the remainder of the season if we can keep the 3 CBs fit and available. By that I mean we might scrape a distant fourth place which would at least give us all something to hope for !!! Our wing backs are weak - Logan, Church, McIntyre have a lot to prove and Gibson is wasted in that role. If we can get Cochrane, Todd and Reilly back fully fit it gives us options further forward. I am not a fan of McKechnie so his recent exclusion is ok with me. Fifth place is flattering us because we have played more games. If we are to get 4th we need to start consistently beating our mid table rivals which we haven’t been able to do up until now. Hopefully a tight defence can be the platform for a decent run in?

Having Brydon, Efe and McLelland certainly gives us a good foundation from which to build on from the back. Tempting fate I know but with a good keeper and these three we shouldn’t really be losing too many goals in L1. We are painfully short of creativity further forward but that was a good win. We have a had a good few false dawns - it will be interesting to see if we can finally get a result against bogey team Accies next week.

Totally agree. I am away for long spells but I buy the season ticket because I know that it helps the club if they get the money up front. Even when here I find myself missing many games now (something that rarely happened) because I do not feel in tune with the Manager and his tactics. I take an instant dislike to rookie Managers who "breeze in" with some great football philosophy and give the impression that they have all it worked out and under control. When I continually hear our Manager in L1 talking about "extensive detailed game plans" I want to be sick. Yes we need to be sensible with some opposition planning but football is an instinctive game. Players have to react to situations in a split second. They cannot be programmed but in so many games the players play like chess pieces - some play as if they are only allowed to display certain characteristics, others look so confused that they don't know if it is ok for them to play a forward pass. As I said previously we now actually have a decent defensive foundation - a good GK, Ambrose, McLelland and the returning Brydon. That is a very decent defensive quartet at this level. There is no excuse for us not going all out to win games against teams in the same league and 4th place is the bare minimum that is acceptable.

I agree fully. Some fans will seemingly accept almost anything so long as the result is close and the players have worked hard. Falkirk away was dire in the sense that the Manager had created a really negative mindset for the players and despite going a goal down nothing changed. There was no urgency, no appetite to get players further forward, just more of the same. Trying to keep the score down presumably for his own personal agenda. I wasn’t at St Mirren (out of the country) but I suspect it was a carbon copy of the Falkirk game. Crazy in a cup tie where the deficit is largely irrelevant. 0-1 with 20 minutes left surely you push men forward, even stick McKay up top to try and cause a few problems. The frustrating thing is that in these two tough away games we have generally defended well. Stone is a very good GK and Efe and McLelland have been very solid. A good base from which to build on but it is totally unacceptable to offer nothing in an attacking sense. Zero shots on target is pathetic and for me unacceptable. Each to their own - some supporters are ok watching 10 men behind the ball and playing for the 0-0 but I think the majority expect a lot more. Very worrying if our Manager is not “reading the room” because when I listen to his post match assessments I am amazed at how easily pleased he is with the performances.

A support of nearly 500 is great and shows the potential. That is the positive that so many supporters care enough to travel to Paisley after such an underwhelming season.

That’s 180 minutes of “away” football where we haven’t had a shot on target. Bonnyrigg showing us today that Falkirk aren’t any great shakes. We set up as if they were Man City.

Nearly over and we haven’t had a single shot on target!!!!

Agreed - I would imagine Bartley’s tactics today will make our performance at Falkirk look quite attacking. With no out ball I would imagine it will be easy to count our forays into the St Mirren half.

I am not sure that anything could embarrass Fujitsu or the Post Office senior management for that matter.