DA-go Par Adonis

My apologies

That wasn't in the League One season.

The playing squad might not have cost any less, though. Also, costs have spiralled in recent times.

We employ more people. When we were last in League One, the club was run by volunteers. Aside from players and coaches, I think there were only a handful of paid employees.

Losing 2 goals in the first 3 minutes could mean otherwise.

When you have a bit of influence, then new owners come in and you have less influence, it could leave you feeling disgruntled - whether it is justified or not. Just reading between the lines. I've no inside info.

Presumably, if he (or anyone for that matter) is offered a deal following several weeks of training with the first team, in front of the manager and his coaching staff, then they reckon he's worth a place in the squad. You could also argue that they are the ones best placed to judge.

The only counter to that is that he would be brought in as an option off the bench. Given that we seem to suffer from enforced changes every game this season, it could be that he is there to come on as a winger for the last quarter of the game - with a view to us changing shape. I reckon Moffat is more suited to playing out wide also, so we would have two natural wide men. You would imagine it would be on the occasions where we were chasing a game, but that's fairly likely to happen a few times between now and the end of the season. Another factor could be that McPake likes Fagan-Walcott as part of a back 4. That does seem unlikely given his inexperience, however.

Frost is pencilled in for this time next week.

'In retrospect, we shouldn't have permitted the 100-a-side water canon battle on the pitch at 1am this morning'.

Played a blinder with this one.

Summers needs to come off for his own good - and ours, if we ever want to loan anyone else from Celtic.

So they were just extremely lucky last season doing a bunch of wrong things and now it's all catching up on them? Or they got no injuries last season and following that, they decided to materially change the training and conditioning which is now leading to injuries? I'm fine with criticism - if it makes any logical sense. If you want to say that Benedictus needed to be brought back more gradually, there's some evidence to back that up. We don't know if it's true but it stands up to logic. What you're suggesting doesn't.

Then why hint that there is a systematic issue with this season's training regime?

Aye, but there were virtually no injuries last season with the same management team. You can't really ignore last year's record if you are hypothesising that they're doing something badly wrong this season.

McPake has been in charge for 66 games, across all competitions, since he was appointed. In the matches against sides currently placed below us, we've lost 2 out of 54 (W35, D17, L2). In the games against teams currently placed above us, we've won 0 out of 12 (D3, L9). Fair to say that we should be more confident about the trip to Hampden than tomorrow's derby... I think the numbers are accurate...

To help to calibrate your blood pressure, O'Boyle was at the Pars until 1994 and left under freedom of contract. Hamilton and Grant signed 2 years before then.

Inverness at home?

Patrick's tally against the other sides is similar to ours and we have a game in hand on them, so 3rd place isn't unthinkable. We'd probably need to be luckier with injuries - and them to lose a couple of crucial players for a few games. I'd say that's more important than signing anyone but I'd obviously welcome anyone that would improve the side even if everyone was available.

He's got 40 goals in around 230 career appearances, the majority of which have been off the bench to be fair. I think we can therefore surmise that he's not going to score many goals. On the flip side, he's still making a living as a professional footballer, so must bring other things to the party to still get a gig.

That's 20 points from 27 against the teams below us, and 1 from 15 against the three above us. We're very predictable. Big test next Saturday then.

We've got Benedictus, Fisher, Breen, Otoo, Hamilton and Comrie (as a RCB) all experienced at playing in a back 3. I don't know how much more cover you'd expect a Championship side to have - or how it's poor planning. We've basically got our first choice back 3 injured and can still put out a competent looking defence. If anything it's well planned given the pretty horrendous luck we've had. Also, Benedictus played every game bar one last season - and that was due to a suspension. He's also only 31 years old. It's hardly akin to signing Lewis Vaughan and pinning your attacking hopes on him being an ever-present.

Hamilton in the middle, Otoo left and Comrie on the right is fine. They're all playing in positions they've played in before. The bigger concern is the midfield and lack of cover/options off the bench.

Arbroath seem to struggle in midweek/non-weekend games - plus they are on a bad run. I found the first half was as dull as everyone else but I felt we were controlling possession quite well, with a view to running over the top of them in the 2nd half. We did much the same a bunch of times last season against the part-time teams. Fair play to the side after all the injuries too - being a goal up obviously helped - but they played with lots of freedom despite the loss of KRH, Moffat and Fisher in quick succession and adapted well to the changes. Anyway, we're now: P5, W0, D1, L4, GD-6 against the top 3. P8, W5, D2, L1, GD+8 against the bottom 6. Fair to say then, we're actually pretty consistent. The narrative that us sitting 4th is papering over cracks isn't fair either. We're not as good as the Utd, Rovers and Thistle and haven't yet managed to bridge the gap (unlucky with late goals on a couple of occasions, though). Conversely, we are pretty consistent against the array of mediocrity that makes up the rest of the league. They Ayr game being the exception, but the circumstances were also exceptional given that we hadn't played in 3 weeks.

I think the ball maybe moves in the air just before it gets to Sharp. He should still keep it out but, as said above, Cudjoe should have been prevented from passing the ball into the box in the first place. Onwards and upwards though. Inverness have picked up in recent weeks but it is potentially better that way round as everyone will be expecting a tough match. Different type of pressure - and atmosphere - when you are at home to a team of broadly the same standard but who are on a poor run results wise.