weeyin

You had to bring that up? Wasn't that when a 17 year old Pat Nevin tore us a new one? Or was he 16 at the time?

What's our record with and without Vigurs during the same period? Seems like we are pretty poor this season without him.

Do you think they were lying when they said it was minor, or that was the advice the doctors gave them? I know everyone goes into meltdown when the team hits a run of bad form, but this is getting OF-like ridiculous. We only stayed up last year by winning a play-off. I think a few people on here need to reset their expectations for this season. We need to take some time to rebuild, and we shouldn't be expecting a Top 6 finish. All the seasons we were best of the rest and people were still on here moaning I kept pointing out they should enjoy it more because there were plenty of shit seasons around the corner. This will be one of them, so you need to try and find a way to enjoy it or you'll be miserable until June.

Not that old chestnut. Now you are scraping the barrel for reason to hate the guy. Some of the greatest coaches ever show nothing on the side lines. In fact, I'd argue, that very few of the best are in the "scream and yell" category. My favourtite example is Bill Belichick at the New England Patriots. Whether you love them our hate them, the guy is coaching genius with an ourstanding track record, but look at him during a game (even in the Superbowl), and you don't get a flicker of emotion from the guy. I'd also question any professional who needs to be yelled at by the gaffer to produce a performance. My boss doesn't need to come and yell in my face every day to get to do my job.

GCHQ/NSA be damned - it's an ankle injury.

Our track record of signing people who had one good game against us in the cup is not stellar.

Just watched the highlights. Not much to say except we'd have lost that game this time last year (and McCall wouldn't have subbed anyone until the 85th minute).

Who knows? But as any manager will tell you, there is a world of difference between preparation and execution.

We did take a chance, though. We brought in Moult and Fletcher - both lower league players with a goal scoring pedigree.

For fans that can't make it to these games, I recommend holding off reading the match thread until close to full time.

Probably because they were around during the McLean Out camp.

This is the internet - you could just have made something up, and then been outraged.

Are the replacements doing OK then? Nothing to stop them putting in a good shift.

And Hearts drawing at Forfar.

Sounds like a good explanation of why we haven't been making significant changes to the team. Apparently it makes us worse. Having said that, the 2 leg defeat to Queens Park still ranks high in my "bad memories" list, so I'll still take a jammy 1 - 0 here.

I think Domino's Pizza should use this in their next marketing campaign.

It seems we already had the budget to bring in a couple of players before the Murphy money - at least from Baraclough's interviews the past few weeks. That's the easy part, though. The difficult part is finding the right quality at a price we can afford. Youngsters with potential won't meet our immediate needs, but are more affordable and fit in with the long term plan. Older, more experienced pros, are a lot more expensive and difficult to find.

True, but I think he would have been a better option than Taylor until we find a replacement. We have Marvin and Ainsworth now with some pace.

What's funny, though, is that it's a lot of the same people slagging him of now who were annointing him as our saviour during his loan period.

The alternative is to find cover. That isn't easy though. As Baraclough said in his interview today, he doesn't think there is anyone else in this league that is as good. Whether you believe that or not, it's going to be difficult to find (and afford) someone as good as Pearson who is willing to sit on the bench as cover most weeks. Still a little surprised Chalmers wasn't used in that role. Not a straight swap, but seems to be a worker and doesn't get a nose bleed crossing the half-way line.

Good news is I have never seen us lose to East Fife. Bad news is I'm not going to this game.

But we didn't sack him in June. So today, we are where we are. Instead of dealing with hypotheticals - as much fun as that can be - it's the reality that needs to be addressed. It's still early days in the grand scheme of things and I don't care who the gaffer is, we needed a lot of fixing that isn't going to happen in August. He's built his team, he's had his pre-season so now he needs some time to prove it's working. To sack him before September would be madness.

Aye, let's sack our manager before the end of August. Makes perfect sense. Let him build a squad and then bring in a new gaffer to run it - while losing the assistant too (who seems to be incredibly highly rated). That wouldn't cause any problems after a pre-season where the team has been learning Baraclough's preferred options. Would just take a few more weeks to bring in a new face. Then a few more weeks to have the new boss get his tactics into the players' heads. I say go for it. Or maybe let's have at least one full round of fixtures before sacking people. Far too many on here thought we'd just stroll back up the league and be pushing for a top half finish this year. It's like they forgot how bad we were last season and how deep the rot had become. This is not a 4 week recovery programme, people - it's going to take 2 or 3 years. That's why the new owner has a 3 year plan.

The problem with wingers tracking back is when the defence wins the ball, their only option is to square it to someone in the left or right back slot. That's why maybe 2 wingers doesn't work - as much as I wish it did. 3 mid to defend, and one winger for the out ball.

I'd be playing our first team strikers to try and get a goal or two.