Biblemaster

"Right Harry, you get out there and tell them it wasn't my fault or you're dropped!"! Didn't he notice that Tommy Goss has about 5 inches on our defenders? You can't win headers if the ball's way above your head! Doesn't mention the fact that the guy trying to stop the cross coming in from the right-back position was Joel Mumbongo, so I assume that was actually part of his great plan to stop Annan from getting crosses over to the tallest striker in the world.

I can understand why there's no Official input on places like P&B, MAD etc. Skyline Drifter, although not "Official", was certainly an insider and one of the best posters on P&B in my opinion, yet was constantly receiving abuse from (a small minority) of posters. I don't know if he decided to leave or was told to, but I wouldn't have blamed him if it was his decision. I myself no longer even look on MAD after receiving what I considered to be unreasonable abuse for what I thought was a perfectly reasonable post. Albertz11, while I didn't always agree with him, he tried to keep the board going, yet some people criticised every post he made. I don't agree with everything I see posted on here, but I respect everyone's right to an opinion and have hopefully never posted a "that's a load of rubbish" reply (someone will probably dig one out now). Having said all that, I don't even bother looking at The Official Site anymore, which is were the club should be communicating with the fans!

I've been reading through the thread since the board announced they were stepping down, and a couple of things strike me : 1. I've only seen the name "Brooks Mileson" mentioned once. 2. I asked a bit back who on this board would be putting their names forward to join the new board? I've seen zero replies. Personally, I do think it was time for a change, but I'm disappointed to see the whole board go. I always got the impression that the board was actually a bit of a one man dictatorship, but the fact that Craig and Mark have decided to "back" Hewitson makes me worry that they believe he was already doing as good a job as possible and they don't want to take on what seems to me to be a thankless task. I may be wrong, but I don't believe Craig is on the board because he is a wealthy man, but because he is an extremely financially acute accountant who will not allow the finances of the club to go out of control. Mark, on the other hand, on the surface, comes from quite a wealthy family, but he appears to have used that money sensibly. I'd have liked both of them to remain on the board and still hope that their standing down is just a technical thing and that they will apply for re-election when the time comes.

Hands up everyone on this forum who will be putting themselves forward?

There's an idea. We're already nearly there, so instead of all this Dan talk, why not go "full Harkness" and the board take over team affairs. Not being serious by the way!

Think if I was Dan, I'd be looking for a pay rise!

A big difference back in Connolly 's time was there was no transfer window so he could take a punt on someone on a short term contract and if it didn't work out, bin them and try someone else. We don't have that luxury now.

It maybe didn't produce all that many Superstars but it did get us out of the lower tiers of Scottish football for the first time in years and lay the foundations for the longest run at the "higher levels" in my (not short) lifetime. Of course, going full-time also helped, to do the same again would mean taking a step "backwards" to part-time football first

What is the name of this podcast? Can't find it on BBC sounds.

Here's a scenario that I've admittedly just made up right now. Marvin and The Board sit down in June, look at League 1, and realise we aren't the biggest team in the league and aren't going to be able to buy our way out of the league this season as Falkirk are always going to be able to spend more and so attract better, finished products. So, they decide to sign young players on 2 year deals who Marvin can make better for next season and if we manage to make it to the promotion play-offs this year, great. Since we were humped at Hamilton on the 2nd December, we've actually got the 2nd best record in the league after Falkirk, so the "Marvin improve them" bit looks like it is starting to work. I'm probably talking rubbish and if I'm not I wish the board would just come out and tell us that is the aim. It does of course carry the great risk that by the time next season comes around, crowds will have dwindled to such an extent that we can't afford to compete with Arbroath or whoever, never mind "The Biggest team in Scotland Out with The Old Firm".

I mentioned this a couple of weeks back. I feel Stephen Dobbie has been very magnanimous (if that's the right word?) in interviews about never getting a Scotland cap, and yet this happened right at the peak of his powers! I suspect there are 2 reasons Dobbie was never capped: 1. Levine (I don't care how you spell his name and have no intentions of looking it up!) just didn't like flair players in general. 2. I suspect Levine remembered Dobbie when he was a little fat bstrd at Hibs and totally refused to accept his total transformation. To this day I have very little interest in the Scotland national team. I also stopped going to Queen's for around 10 years when Davie Wilson dismantled the best side I had seen (to that point) and brought in a lot of his journeyman mates. I suspect Queens are in danger of losing a lot of younger fans for a long time again if Marvin doesn't start playing a bit more positively, but I have to say, I think there have been some (very small) signs in recent weeks that he's (sometimes) getting a bit more positive.

What quality of player is going to leave another club to sign a 4 month contract with us? We'd have to be talking loans, which usually means young players, which it seems no one wants?

My memory is that we had a big tax bill outstanding and we're notorious around town for not paying our bills when this Chairman took over, but I could be mis-remembering?

I'd have to agree that Chisholm was a better coach than a manager. The McCall/Chisholm partnership was absolutely perfect, McCall must have the best contact book in Scottish lower League football, I bet there's a lot of managers out there would love to steel his phone. I remember being quite annoyed with Davie Rae at the first AGM after McCall left when he criticised him for never being on the training ground while Chisholm was there all the time and thinking it really showed that Davie didn't have a clue what "management" was! Having said that, I still wouldn't say that Chisholm was a clown !

I don't want to turn this into Queens fans slagging each other off, as of course we all believe we should be doing better than we are doing at the moment, but it seems a lot of posters on here weren't happy with reaching The Cup Final and finishing 4th in the Championship either! We need a bit of reality about were we are at the moment after being on a downward slide for at least the last 5 seasons, much of it down to wholesale changes in the squad every year in my opinion. I just think we need to show a bit more patience.

Davie Martindale said in an interview that he always gives players he signs from the lower leagues in England a 2 year contract with an option for a 3rd year as it takes them the first year to adapt to playing and living in Scotland. While I don't by any means think Bartley has been a success, I don't think we can blame him for taking a punt on an untried player from England, it's not like we're in the market for "finished products" like Shankland! I think we need to be a bit more patient. Mind, going by the recent Chisholm posts, it would appear the Queen's fan base is a difficult audience to please!

I didn't agree with every decision he made but to call him clueless is a bit harsh. We as fans, and I include myself in this, have a habit of just thinking a manager should put his best 11 players out on the park every week and don't take "circumstances" into account i.e. is a player carrying a knock, has he got something going on in his personal life etc. Having said that, I don't think Iain McCall got the credit he deserved for putting that team together in the first place. PS. It's been a while since anyone actually voted in it, but Gordon Chisholm is rated Queens' Best Ever Manager on The Only Team in The Bible website!

Are you being ironic there or do you really think the manager who took us to the Cup Final was clueless?

Reading a topic about Lewis Gibson intertwined with a topic about Stephen Dobbie seems very appropriate, the best player I've ever seen at Palmerston and the teenager with the most potential I have ever seen! There have been at least 5 or 6 occasions when Gibson has made me feel how only Stephen Dobbie has before at Palmerston. Having said that, you've got to remember that Gibson is only 18 and I don't think has looked 100% fit this season after missing much of pre-season. I'd like to think that Bartley is protecting him rather than selfishly risk burning him out by playing him every week, however, I suspect, much like Craig Levein with Dobbie and Scotland, Marvin just doesn't like "flair players"! I do think though that Marvin may have the capacity to change his way of thinking, unlike Levein!

Dobbie being very magnanimous there (says he using a big word that he doesn't really know the meaning of but hopes it's the right one!). He himself says his best years were 2009-12 but that Scotland had lots of good players in his position, yet it was on 8th October 2010 that Craig Levein played a Scotland team with no strikers! As a man playing regularly at the top of the English Championship, of which Scotland had very few at the time, he was surely at least due a run out in a friendly! To this day, I have very little interest in the Scotland National Team, and it all stems back to this time.

It seems every time we make a mistake, the opposition scores! Surely Marvin's not suggesting nobody else in league 1 is making mistakes. The difference is that their manager's are setting up their "game plans" to allow for mistakes and have a plan b to cover for them. It seems to me Marvin wants to stick to the game plan so much, no one knows what to do when one of their teammates makes a mistake.

Don't want to turn this into a slanging match as we both obviously want the same thing, but every week on Match of The Day there's at least a couple of goals scored because of slack passes out of defence. These are players of a much higher ability than Ambrose, if the manager is going to ask him to pass the ball out from the back it has to be expected that the odd one will go astray.

While you are correct that most of the other mistakes you mention are just down to pure lack of ability, these ones I feel are because that is how the manager is asking them to play. I remember Kevin Holt telling me when he first came into the team, his instruction from Gus McPherson was to basically hoof the ball as far as he could every time he got the ball. This actually covers two things for me: 1. Kevin was doing this because that is what he was told to do, not because it was what he wanted to do. 2. The reason he was told to do this was that the old grass pitch was so poor, Gus didn't want him taking any chances. Anyone wanting to go back to grass pitches, be careful what you wish for!

Great point there, one I've often though at a game but don't think I've ever put it down in black and white!

Bear with me on this, it could turn into a bit of a ramble! I've heard from various places now (Open Goal being the one that springs to mind) that Marvin is kidding himself if he thinks League 1 players won't make mistakes. McClelland was criticised for turning his back on a shot but watching Match of The Day at the weekend I noticed various central defenders turn their backs rather than take a hit on the face (Harry McGuire in particular springs to mind, not the best example of a world class central defender but I'm sure he'd do ok at our level!). I used to play a bit of curling, not to the level Bet365 would want to cover it . Decent players would quite often ask you to draw a shot on the button and I would have to point out that they may be able to play that shot but the chances are I would miss and leave them sitting 6 and it may be better to go with the worst case scenario and just let me clatter into the stones. I actually think our current squad is probably better than League 1 standard but they are being asked to play Champions League football where inevitable mistakes are costing us dearly. I don't think Marvin will (or can) change his philosophy so it's probably best for both Marvin and the club to part ways, Marvin to go back to coaching at a higher level and us to bring in a manager who understands the limitations of players at this level. Told you it may go on a bit!