laukat

First game without Lawless will be interesting. I struggle to see how we can play our usual 4-2-3-1 which hasn't worked against Raith all season when we are missing one of the key players for that system. Equally I think our recent better improvements in defence are in part due to Neilson's move into CDM. Unless O'Reilly or Williams are fit we don't really have enough central defenders to play a 3-5-2 and keep Neilson in midfield. Personally I think the answer may to play a formation similar to the Scotland team which is kind of a 3-4-2-1 and we would have the following starting 11 Mitchell McBeth-Muirhead-Ngwenya McMillan-Neilson-McInroy-Milne Robinson-Fitzpatrick Graham I think Milne is more of an attacking threat than Ngwenya so I would prefer to see Milne wide left

Declan Roche?

Not good news https://x.com/PartickThistle/status/1777345973628391789

That is a very fair point. You could see quite a few instances of times yesterday where Mitchell was shouting at his defence and organising them/ giving them a rollicking. In particular you can see Muirhead doesn't blow his top at Mitchell anywhere near as much as he does with Sneddon. I suspect that's partly because Sneddon isn't vocal enough and partly because the defence doesn't trust Sneddon as much.

Enjoyed the game yesterday. Didn't think the ref was too bad. At the time I didn't think it was a penalty but having seen the replay it is a foul. The view from Dunfermline's stand is pretty decent and being near the singing section brings a few laughs. Love the new songs the young team keep coming up with. Up until the last couple of seasons our songbook hadn't change in about 40 years, now its seems there is a new song every week and it certainly adds something. I thought we performed well and looked comfortable until the penalty. Moving McBeth to the centre of defence and putting Neilson in the midfield makes us look much harder to break down so well done to Doolan and McDonald for changing it about. Thought our starting midfield 3 were very good and that's not something that's been possible to say too often this season. Graham was outstanding and we are very lucky to have a player like him. Moving to 3-5-2 when Lawless got injured also looked like it could work but we would need Fitzpatrick to recover his form and either Williams or O'Reilly fit so we can keep Neilson in midfield. Only real sour note was the injury to Lawless. Its never a good sign when a wheelchair is required. Does anyone know what the latest is with him?

Mcbeth, Muirhead, Mitchell, Milne, Graham were all decent. MOTM for me was Robinson. Thought Stanway was poor first half but played well in the second. Thought it strange we took him off and not Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick just wasn't at the races today. McMillan and Lawless were also not great. I wonder how much of that is down to having to play in the mud as our pitch on the JHS side is just large streaks of mud and on the main stand side its looks very bobbly. ICT looked poor and I struggle to see them getting enough points to avoid the relegation playoff.

Only 4 clean sheets in 28 league games. Not won a league game or had a clean sheet since 6th January against an heavily depleted Arbroath team. 5 points from the last 24 available. Our form since January has been relegation material. For any other manager of any other club the manager would either be gone or facing serious questions about his future. Personally I would have thought if we don't win any of the next 2 the club needs to act. We face Morton next and they are on a bit of a slump with Oakley and Wilson out followed by an ICT team that are currently 2nd bottom so no real excuses for not getting results.

Couldn't make it today but glad to hear the manager changed it and well done to him for doing so. Hopefully we've turned a corner

I agree. One of the things that was apparent in Doolan's first game in charge away to Ayr is that he had a guy on the touchline with him with a tablet showing him clips of the game. I've not seen that recently so don't know if they still use it or not. Nowadays the only person I see Doolan conferring with on the touchline is McDonald.

In my opinion and I'm not his biggest fan, I thought we was pretty good from the Arbroath game to the Livi game. Since then he's went back to his norm. Either way he should be by now someone that is no longer an automatic pick. Bad enough this season had been Bannigan plus 2 others in midfield but if this season is about transition we need to we phasing him out by this point to ensure next season he's backup

I can kind of understand the theory that McBeth starting is a factor. He's doing so much defensive work that I think Bannigan and McInroy have almost become lazy defensively. Where McBeth is someway behind Docherty is he doesn't have the experience to feel confident about ordering players into position or b@llicking those not doing their job during a game. Add to that he's started 3 games and we've conceded 3 goals in each and you can see why there might be a case. However if we are rebuilding for next season he's either the type we should be building about or he's another swing and a miss on the recruitment front. So we either put a team and formation around him or drop him to return to our lightweight midfield trio that looked at best poor

Just watched the goals again (I don't know why I do it to myself) First one Fitzpatrick gets shown up by McAllister. That is quite an achievement Second one I don't know what Bannigan is marking he just seems to be guarding the corner of the box. McInroy doesn't follow his runner. Third one. Muirhead just lets his man run off him and Stewart has had a flap at a ball he's never getting Fourth one. Milne plays a fairless aimless pass infield when he could have sent it down the line and asked Ayr to defend it. McBeth stands on the ball, Neilson backs off too far and then Stewart has a wee lie down. Apart from McBeth standing on the ball I think I've seen these all before. McBeth and perhaps Neilson have an excuse as they are relatively inexperienced but all the others making mistakes are experienced pro's Last season Fitzpatrick looked a much better player playing in a 4-4-2 with Holt playing as an orthodox leftback. I'm not convinced the combination of Milne and Fitzpatrick works. Bannigan is after a wee purple patch reverting to his norm. Muirhead is really out of form. McInroy has ability but to me looks not fully committed. I think we really need to solidify the team so I think we should be looking at something like this for United Mitchell McMillan-Williams-Neilson-Milne Lawless-McBeth-Robinson-Ngwenya Graham-Fitzpatrick

I had no illusions that we would go up this season. To my mind this season was always about building for next season. My issues is that I see no sign that we are building for next season. We have an aging squad, recruitment has been poor and on field performances are getting worse. We would need a miraculous turnaround to be in contention next season even in a more open league. Agree we have no money to attract a new manager from another club or pay big wages for more experience thats why if Doolan goes Graham may well be worth a try. I think at this level having a manager with a chip on the shoulder that doesn't suffer fools can get you a long way. Alternatively Doolan needs to show he has that nasty/win at all costs mentality by dropping players and altering his coaching/recruitment team. I know we all think Williams can make a mistake or two and Doolan may not get on with Mitchell but what does he have to lose by playing them when he is conceding 13 goals in 4 games. How much worse would a defence with those two in it be? At the very least he would be saying to the others that your position isn't safe I'm not sure what is getting coached on the training field but last season we became a lot more solid team when Doolan took over and indeed hardly conceded any goals during the end of the season run by doing basic things like not having both fullbacks attack at the same time and by switching to 4-4-2. Having McBeth should open up other formations like 4-4-2, 4-1-3-2, 4-1-4-1 etc but we are still playing 4-2-3-1. At what point does is going to try something different to address issues that have been there since day 1 of this season? I hope Doolan can turn this around but another few games of losing 3 goals or more surely suggest its time to go

I get that none of our current 3 are of the standard of Cerny or other past favourites. I can also a reasonable debate on who's better between Sneddon and Mitchell but are we seriously suggesting that Stewart is a better choice than Mitchell? Why is the manager not playing him? If he's still not fit tell us otherwise the only things we can deduce is that manager believes Stewart to be a better goalkeeper or that he has a disagreement with Mitchell. If its the latter he needs to put it to one side and do the right thing for the team if its the former its currently looking like very poor judgement I don't think its a bad thing all 3 are out of contract in the summer. Time to move on from all of them as a club we don't need 4 goalkeepers on our books.

What on earth is going on? The Ayr side we faced tonight are by some distance not their strongest starting eleven. We have arguably our strongest outfield 11. 13 goals conceded in the last 4 games is just crazy. McCall had a bad run in October/November last season but at least he had a partial excuse of losing key players for most of that. Doolan has pretty much everyone fit. Starting the same 11 that were awful against Dunfermline is either sheer stubbornness, weak management or incompetence. Personally I think the managers weak and doesn't have the killer instinct to drop players if they don't meet the standard. Probably thought more about Stewart's confidence than he did about needing 3 points. Unless Mitchell's injury was that he lost both hands why on earth is he not starting? He's not perfect but he's the best we currently have Imrie at Morton has shown what instilling a win at all costs mentality can do. With the exception of Graham we have a a management team and group of players who are only interested in playing pretty football. Just because its Dundee United on Saturday isn't a ready made excuse for accepting defeat. Airdrie beat them tonight whilst we haven't laid a glove on them. Time is running out for Doolan. If there are no wins in the next 4 then I think its time to say enough and give Graham a go at it until the end of the season.

One of the likely causes of tiring in a game is the age of the squad. Quite a few of our regulars are over 30 (Murihead, Bannigan, Graham, Lawless, Robinson, Alston) When you compare that with 2012/13 which was probably the last time we played a fast game that ran the opposition off the park then you can see we are more reliant on older personel. Also worth noting that a team like Raith have very few over 30's which perhaps explains why they are still fresh enough to win games in the last 15 minutes. Similarly Dundee United have ran us off the park in both games and until they signed Wotherspoon they were only regularly playing 3 or 4 over 30's. It would be interesting to see how our over 30 contingent compares to other Championship teams. To my mind we are more reliant that most and that potentially means fitness late in games can be a problem but more worryingly we will need to replace the core of our squad in the not too distant future.

I think you are right regarding selection. If no Lawless its either Mackenzie on the wing or we change formation. However 3-5-2 would only really work if McMillan is fully fit so limited ways forward. Also agree regarding the result defining our season. Lose and we could be caught by Ayr never mind Morton. Win and the top 4 starts to look more of a given for both us and Morton.

Hope O'Reilly is fit. Muirhead needs a rest Also need Lawless fit as Ayr's weakness is their fullbacks. I would like to see Mitchell back and Stewart banished to another realm.

I wasn't so much thinking of the Women's team coaches for fitness but perhaps they could be on the touchline/in the stand and offer tactical advice to Doolan during a Men's match? Spotting what's going wrong and how to address it should be fairly similar in nature between both forms. Not sure what gets done by the coaching team post game but I would hope they re-watch the game and understand what the coaching team could have done differently. Bringing someone who wasn't involved with the match might offer a different assessment. Don't think this necessarily would be huge cost as you would be offering an opportunity to the Women's coaching team to gain experience. Alternative is we get an experienced ex-coach/ex-manager as a 'consultant' and pay them on a game by game basis to see what its brings.

I agree about the players fitness and that is one area that a change in the coaching team could help. I also have concerns about recruitment and in game tactics. I don't think a DoF or head of recruitment is needed or something we can afford (and please no-one say what about McCall, good or bad he's gone we move on) but perhaps we need to look again at our scouting approach However the biggest miss for me is someone to help advise Doolan during a game on how to change tactics to impact the game. We may lack fitness but there are still ways of changing formations, utilising subs and changing tactics that we don't seem to be doing. I'm not so sure McDonald is that person and part of me wonders is we have the answer with us already. We have a successful Women's team is it possible one of the coaches there could contribute something to the Men's matchday?

Not sure how you get from my question "how does he compare to McCall?" Using your tables above McCall was 10 points off 1st place when sacked. Doolan is currently 10 points off 1st place. I liked McCall but totally understood the need for change because we could see his inflexible approach to tactics, poor use of subs and we knew that he wouldn't be able to get us promotion. I would also add that he was very loyal to his coaching team and perhaps that cost him his job. Doolan came in and did a better job of managing McCall's team than McCall last season as he was tactically more flexible. However this season Doolan is showing signs he's struggling. His tactics are almost as inflexible as McCall, his subs often make things worse and recruitment is poor (although perhaps there are some mitigating circumstances on that front) So my question still stands - "It could well be the best chance of promotion for the next few years. Are we sure we have the right coaching team to make the most of that opportunity?" We don't necessarily need to remove Doolan but that shouldn't be off the table. Its entirely possible that there needs to be another voice added to the coaching staff or that McDonald or Arthur aren't what we need. Just because Doolan is a playing legend shouldn't make him or his team immune from scrutiny. Also what do we determine as success and a minimum level of performance this season for the management team? We always knew automatic promotion was off the table. I think a reasonable expectation was 3rd. If we fail to make the playoffs is that below acceptable?

Having had a couple of days to calm down after Friday's omnishambles a few things are still annoying me 1. Will the club be asking for an apology from the SFA for the mistakes made by the referee and will any such apology be made public? I'm not particularly keen on going down the Sevco moanfest route but we need to stop being seen as a soft touch 2. Next season there is likely to be a more even chance of winning the league assuming Dundee United are promoted and Livingston come down. It could well be the best chance of promotion for the next few years. Are we sure we have the right coaching team to make the most of that opportunity? Doolan has been ok but I see no real signs of a team developing for a title challenge next year, instead we appear to rely heavily on aging campaigners (Muirhead, Bannigan, Graham, Lawless) or players we are at high risk of losing (McMillan) with only really Fitzpatrick and Milne signed for next year to base a team about we would need an incredibly good summer recruitment. The real question is who do we trust to do that recruitment? 3. McMillan seems to be broken. Unless he has a PCA then are Premiership clubs must be noticing his inability to complete games. Perhaps we should be trying to get him to sign an extension? Also whilst Neilson is a very good player I can't imagine he would be starting for Hearts next season or any other premiership team, should we not be asking Hearts to extend his loan or seeing if a permanent transfer is possible? 4. The real advantage if getting a proper sitting CDM like McBeth would be that you can play 2 midfielders who are more creative particularly at home. That means not playing Bannigan and going with two from McInroy, Robinson and Alston or alternatively changing formation. We lost 3 at ICT why did we start the same midfield trio? Having lots 3 again with our regular back 4 who now gets dropped to address the defensive issues?

Ref was abysmal, long time since I've seen officials so incompetent. Completely ruined a game of football. None of our players should be shaking hands with him at the end. If the Dunfermline Goalie could get out and influence the linesman why on earth weren't Doolan and McDonald doing the same? Would have been worth getting sent to the stand but we're just too nice Doolan had a shocker tonight. Picking Stewart over Mitchell was a terrible decision. At halftime taking off Lawless was presumably due to injury but playing McInroy as a winger was bizarre when he could have put a more natural winger in MacKenzie on or changed formation. Throwing on Adeloye and Diack meant we started playing a 4-1-1-4 and we looked a total shambles. Presumably McMillan was subbed for Alston because of injury but by that stage we were playing 3-1-2-4 and created nothing. The manager has a real problem with his substitutions. More often than not he's making the team worse. He also seems determined to play 2 wingers even when he doesn't have 2 wingers in a McCall-esque fashion. Serious questions about Doolan's ability to take us much further. Muirhead needs dropped. Only bright spot was McBeth. Looks a proper ball winner

If Mitchell is fit I would like to see him back in. He's not perfect and I think Sneddon is the better shot stopper but to my mind he's a more commanding keeper than Sneddon and a much better distributor of the ball. The second goal yesterday is surely on its own enough to merit Sneddon being dropped. Also think O'Reilly for Muirhead is due although I suspect didn't happen yesterday because McMillan didn't make it and changing half the defence away from home was perhaps too much change at one time. Graham has been a very good signing. The guy is just a natural leader and should be our next manager. I think we may face a dilemma in the not too distant future of sticking with Doolan or running the risk another club offers Graham a player/manager or managers post. Good to see McBeth getting a full game. If he can protect the defence it should release McInroy and Robinson to play their more natural positions.

We're now into the 3rd round of championship fixtures. In round 1 we got 14 points, round 2 15 points. That's pretty consistent and a repeat of those 2 means we finish on 58 points which is normally enough for at least 3rd place. Round 3 is a repeat of round 1 and we are 4 games in. Comparing the results of the round 1 fixtures to round 3 we have went from 6 points to 8 points we are also unbeaten in round 3. So some hope that we are improving and will increase our points total compared to round 1 & 2. We've only been beaten by 4 teams in the league (Arbroath, Airdrie, Raith and Dundee Utd x2) and only failed to beat 3 teams (ICT, Raith and Dundee United) The squad looks to have improved as both O'Reilly and McBeth provide options we didn't have before. However we don't have much cover for Lawless and Fitzpatrick which I think means if they stay fit we have a really good chance of finishing 2nd and thereafter who knows? I'd rather a playoff against County than Livi if we get that far. Martindale is a decent manager and playing a County team that has Don Cowie or their 4th manager of the season doesn't hold as much fear.