Mr November

I posted similar on the match thread but decision making is Rae’s weakness. He’s as good a keeper as you’ll get at this level but he makes so may daft decisions on timing when to come out his box. I suppose he’s still very young for his position but he does need to learn from that. I would assume Dabrowski can’t play for Hibs until next season (sound the @Skyline Drifter horn) but bringing Johnson back in would be the ideal scenario. I’m sure we’ll try for that and if not bring someone else in, as I don’t think even Hutton himself wants to play.

What a laugh. I had a bit of a cold anyway but I’ve woken up sounding like Sean Dyche and keep periodically bursting out laughing thinking about last night. I’ve seen Airdrie hammer many teams this season, and was even at the 6-0 Queen’s Park v Falkirk game last season, but I’ve never seen a first half quite like that. Airdrie often have games where we start at an incredibly high tempo and are then relentless but last night wasn’t really like that, it was an even game until Devenny scored early on and then it just seemed like every time we went forward we scored. Falkirk still had plenty of the ball but just weren’t able to handle us. Indeed, the only way Donaldson and McGinn could deal with Gallagher was by kicking him after tackles. Donaldson in particular seemed very rattled, though he did look interested which is more than some of his colleagues. The second half was bizarre. To be 5-2 up in a play-off semi yet feel like you’re losing is a weird feeling. Rae’s moment of madness is why he’s at this level. As a goalkeeper he’s probably the best in the league but he makes stupid decisions worryingly often. That’s two red cards in half a season, plus the other Dunfermline game when he arguably should have been off. It felt inevitable that the resulting free-kick would go in and I did have the fear that Airdrie were about to produce the ultimate bottle job but fair play, McCabe changed a few things about and slowed the game down. The penalty at the end was vital, stops Falkirk taking any momentum into Saturday and I think everyone in the stadium knew that. Shout out to Aaron Taylor-Sinclair for his celebration after his goal. Charlie Telfer’s face after that is the happiest I’ve ever seen him, he really enjoyed that one and fair play. I watched McGlynn’s interview there and he comes across terribly. No accountability for his poor tactics which seemed problematic from the start, bringing up the anti-Falkirk penalty agenda and then in the last minute just seeming like a broken man out of ideas. I’d feel sorry for him if it wasn’t John McGlynn. I’m still not fully relaxed about Saturday. If any team can mess this up it’s Airdrie but it’s hard to see how McGlynn, who’s not exactly Mr Motivator at the best of times, turns things around and gets that team and the fans up for Saturday.

I loved McCabe and Fordyce’s reactions to their goals last night. I think we’ve all praised them a lot this season but also been critical when we’ve seen the same recurring issues. It must be hard balancing playing and managing for both of them but you can see how much it means to them.

Yeah, can’t argue with you on this. I was adamant McMaster was the right choice but fair play, McCabe showed his quality in two huge moments and also helped dropping back into defence to see out the game. I did think we lacked legs in midfield at times in the second half but he did well to bring on Stanway and Telfer to slow things down.

You’d be better off with Gavin Williamson at right back!

A repeat of August. Sensational.

I’m not as sold on him as many but I think it’s more his positioning than anything else. McCabe drops far too deep and it’s notable that our midfield are generally in a better shape with McMaster at the base. We concede fewer goals from just outside the box too, something that happened frequently in the first half of the season. McCabe is undoubtedly a better player but McMaster playing there gives the team more balance.

Oh I do agree with you, was just thinking about why they might have been voted in. I said in this thread I didn’t consider any of them for my team of the season out of principle for some of the nonsense I’ve seen this season. I suppose looking across all of the predictions on here, Benedictus and Edwards were the obvious two. Right back a bit more variable so I can see why a name like Ballantyne might stand out a bit more and Fordyce is a regular on these teams.

I do agree but Airdrie kept the most clean sheets outside of Dunfermline. Our main issue defensively is that we’re prone to having games where we’re a disaster at the back rather than being consistently poor. I don’t know when voting takes place but Fordyce and Ballantyne have both done very well over the last couple of months, so I can see why recency bias might have got them in.

Agreed. We play our best football with McMaster sitting higher up the pitch, allowing Frizzell and Devenny to push higher and find gaps. McCabe is a better footballer than McMaster and Devenny but we have a better balance with him at the back or ideally in the dugout. They played well in the second half at Falkirk last time, after we ditched the weird man marking thing we seemed to be doing in the first half with McMaster, Frizzell and Devenny following Kucheriayvi, Henderson and McGinn all over the pitch. We’re not really a team that can sit in, so I’d like to us go with energy from the start, play at a high tempo and then bring on Telfer/McCabe if we need a bit more composure on the ball.

Four players in the PFA team of the season. Gallagher and Frizzell were obvious picks for what they bring and why they’d stand out to other players. I’m a bit surprised half of the defence is made up of our players, I suppose we did keep the most clean sheets outside of Dunfermline and were stronger defensively at the time voting presumably took place, so easy for some to miss some of the nonsense that’s been on display in certain games.

He’d be an odd choice to replace Spencer when he’s a forward than can play out wide! I’ve said before, maybe even on this thread, that Smith to Raith in the summer makes a lot of sense. Murray has signed him twice before and his best form has came under Murray, he’s exactly the kind of ridiculously hard-working wide player Murray likes. I think he lives in Cowdenbeath and has a young family, so a move to Raith seems incredibly obvious.

Pretty happy with that. Edinburgh the only real outlier, 1/2 and 4/5 the wrong way round but the right order elsewhere. I thought Falkirk would struggle to score without a top striker but looked solid defensively, whereas Dunfermline had good forwards but I wasn’t convinced by their keeper/defence. Right logic, wrong way round!

Yeah, I know you weren’t as big on McCann as most but I was very surprised MacDonald got an upwards move before him. I suppose it was a good deal for us though given we ended up getting Kyle Turner out of it. I agree though, if we needed a right back then we could do a lot worse but I suspect we’ll have more pressing issues this summer whatever league we’re in.

I wouldn’t be hugely surprised with either signing. O’Hara fits the hard working forward who can play out wide that we like, though I don’t think he’d bring the same goals as McGill or Smith. The Todorov idea was purely because of his agent, most of our signings seem to be represented by or linked to Jackie McNamara in some way. McCabe and Fordyce seem terrified of Todorov too, see panicking and changing a sub to bring on big Byrd in the 4-3 game when Todorov started getting ready, so I’m sure they’d like him as an option. I suspect he’ll get a Championship club though. We hopefully won’t need a right back, as Ballantyne is signed up and Watson will presumably still be around. I liked Kyle MacDonald at Airdrie but his performances in the play-offs last season put me off him.

I’m already terrified for this. I think a play-off between these teams has always been destined to happen after all the battles since Falkirk were relegated. Falkirk go into it as favourites and rightly so but it’s a very hard one to call, with both teams more than capable of battering the other. McCabe has a few interesting selection choices to make. I’d say Rae, Watson, Fordyce, Ballantyne, Frizzell, McGill, Gallagher and Smith all seem certainties to start. The big questions are who partners Fordyce at the back (McCabe or ATS?) and does he go with experience or energy in midfield (McCabe or McMaster, Telfer or Devenny). If ATS is fit I’d go with the latter for each option, knowing we can bring on some composure and having McCabe to see things from the dugout.

No matter who wins, this thread will break P&B next Saturday with meltdowns.

Livingston got the same points tally in 2017 and while they won the league by a slightly bigger margin, that was in a much weaker league. The Airdrie team that came third that year are miles off the team we have now. I think the perceived lack of excitement from how Dunfermline play is the main reason for it but as someone who’s suffered in this league for a long time, Dunfermline have been the most dominant for a long time. I fancy them to go up and challenge for the top four.

A very impressive season for our strikers this year. Gallagher (22), McGill (15), Smith (10) and even Jamieson (8) have all had a good return in the league, as well as a few cup goals between them too. I think Gallagher has played fewer minutes than Paton too, as well as having more assists, so hopefully that gives him the edge for top goalscorer. It’s a meaningless award for us but he seems desperate to win it. A ridiculous season for him, 30 goals/assists in the league is some going.

Poor Joe.

Poor Salim. If he can’t get a start today then he never will.

The other interesting thing with that is Hartley’s recent rebuilds have been a disaster. I think it’s fair to say our resident Cove fan wasn’t hugely enamoured with Hartley’s recruitment at Cove anyway, so it’s a massive summer ahead for him.

I’ve (half-jokingly) said this for a while. Airdrie and Falkirk, the two biggest bottlers in Scottish football, coming together to make sure Alloa get promoted.

Who wants to do this so we can sign Kyle Turner next season?

I think that’s four very worthy nominees. I wonder if the vote between Dunfermline players will be split, I reckon being up against three Cove players last year probably helped Easton stand out. I do think Gallagher is in with a chance and I’d be delighted for him it he wins it.