Yorkiepar

😬

Wow! Fair dos to this guy. Got it absolutely spot-on. 😀

There have been some weird results in the Championship this season with plenty of unexpected outcomes favouring the unfancied team. It only takes the Jags to be having an off day and we might just squeak it. But I have to confess that this is hope triumphing over expectation. Who knows though?

You’ve nailed your colours SHP. So, apart from the usual sad list of available and often unavailable candidates that gets trotted out on such an occasion, who would you suggest could take on the job at this stage of the season and turn things around?

McPake’s been dealt a crap hand, but whoever had been in charge would have struggled in the circumstances. He deserves the rest of this season to try and turn things round. After that ………? Just like there’s no magic money tree to buy players, so, I suspect, there’s no magic manager tree to improve on our current incumbent. Beyond this season - if we survive - the Board needs to look seriously at player recruitment, though I think a lot of people are being overly and unfairly critical of the players that have been signed: as (mostly) young lads they need time to establish themselves, get bedded into a playing system and gain a bit more experience. I see longer term potential in our squad but the question arises, what is our long term future and in which league?

GG, could you do another quick edit and spell O’Halloran’s name correctly? Not picking on you, but I do think it’s disrespectful to the squad when one sees surnames spelt erroneously, and it happens a great deal; particularly on dotnet.

Well, it’s a point I suppose. And other results could have been worse. But again, it’s what might have been.

Jeeeez! Can we not manage one clean sheet?

Any particular reason for the substitution?

Agree totally. He sounds and looks totally fed up - and who could blame him. This season has been a complete nightmare. But we’re not down yet and I hope he can still turn things around - at least to win enough points to stay up. I know it’s a matter of personal opinion but I rate him highly as a manager and would be very sorry to see him go. With a new season and a clean sheet I think he could do very well.

At this stage of the season what earthly use is there in changing the management? That’s dotnet bollocks. Desperately hoping for a squeaky bum 1-0 win for the Pars.

I think that’s exactly it: we’re in a “perfect storm” situation and there is no way out in the short term. I don’t think any knee jerk fix will save our season. Fingers crossed we survive relegation but I think we may just have to put a brave face on things, accept that this season has been a disaster in so many ways ……… and hope that lessons have been learned for the future.

Disagree he’s stuck in his ways. What with the injuries and the lack of signings of experienced players he has to try to cement a gameplan with what he’s got. If he had the luxury of a large squad that he could chop and change it might be a different story. On current evidence though - unless something remarkable happens - we’re knackered and I’m afraid League 1 beckons. And I don’t think changing systems would make any difference. McPake may have made some mistakes but I believe his heart is in the right place. He must though be tearing his hair out at the hand he’s been dealt, both by lack of investment and the injuries situation.

I don’t think this is going to happen. The team we’re putting out don’t have either the experience or the collective guile to dig themselves out of a hole: that, plus heads are very definitely down at the moment.

Cards on table ………. I welcomed the investment in the Club. Without it I felt we were likely to be in the wilderness. Since then I can see that there has been some attempt to plan for the future (and it doesn’t bother me that it is reportedly over ten years) but the priorities - seemingly saving on the squad while financing the infrastructure - are definitely looking misplaced. I’ve also not minded that the Board have kept a fairly low profile and have let McPake do the talking, but he’s beginning to sound like a desperate man - that latest interview on COWS previewing today’s game was a stream of rambling gibberish. So I think it’s time for someone else to step up and let the supporters know what the grand plan actually is. Of course our injury situation hasn’t helped - who’s holding their hand up for that? It can’t all be bad luck - but I very much fear that we’re headed back down to Division 1.

I’m beginning to feel my glass-half-fullness emptying fast. This is getting serious. Definite overtones of two seasons ago now.

Bottom line must be finance. The owners seem to be flatly refusing to bankroll a short-term solution, preferring to build for a long-term future. I can sort of understand their logic and I can envisage that it could pay dividends a few years down the line but it’s a risky tactic and, the way things are going this season, could land them on their erses with relegation. Of course to be fair to them nobody could have anticipated the disruption that all these injuries have wrought; and still continue to happen. Is it purely bad luck or is there some issue with training? My concern is that McPake decides, enough is enough, and then we really will be back in the soft and smelly. Despite what some seem to think finding a sensible replacement would be no easy task. Oh wait, of course there’s Dick Campbell ………..etc.

The McFake thread was started in January by a cretin who calls himself/herself Murchadh. He/she has started similar threads for every manager since, and including, Stevie Crawford. People like him we can live without. Yet he seems to generate supportive replies. Sort of explains why I hardly ever visit THAT site any more.

Today was certainly not McPake’s finest hour - and there were certainly some baffling lineup decisions. But none of us know what the mitigating circumstances were. Fair dos, people are beginning to find the injuries excuse is wearing thin, but that has been the story of our season and it isn’t resolved yet. Also, people have such short memories it seems. A few weeks ago we were a few points off the play-off places and folk were optimistically talking about being promoted ……… but at the same time we also weren’t far off the relegation battle. The onus has shifted in the space of a few games: I have no doubt it will again. At the start of the season the less hysterical were sensibly predicting the objective to be consolidation and I’m sure that’s still the case. It’s a tight league and single results can skew the situation quite dramatically but if a few of our walking wounded can be eased back in for the next few games - Benedictus in particular - then I hope we’ll be OK. A few seasons ago our management situation was a basket case. McPake came in, steadied the ship and quickly got us moving in the right direction. I still think he’s the man for the job and that this is not the time to start forming a lynch mob.

I love the way the Club are going about things. While the keyboard warriors (and footballing experts, of course) are coming up with a predictable list of usual suspects - many of them ridiculously unaffordable - and kicking seven bells out of each other about how clever/stupid the various proposals are, the Club are quietly operating below the radar and coming up with left-field solutions and looking at the long term in the process. Inspiring.

I wasn’t at Tannadice but noted a number of the more positive footballing experts (not) on dotnet indicating that our passing was woeful. Having looked at the highlights - and I accept they are only that - I’d say that some of our passing was excellent and I’m therefore going for a 2-0 win.

Braw, lads. In adversity that’s a massive point!

Arabs have used five subs! Desperate measures?

Arbroath beginning to look doomed. Wonder how long McIntyre will be kept on?

Mad league. 8th at half-time. Now 6th.