weeyin

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.

Maybe. Or maybe it's just too difficult to play 4 in midfield if two of them are wingers. Or maybe, it's both.

I'm hoping Law was re-signed as a backup for Watt.

Don't disagree. However, I'm prepared to give Moult and Fletcher some time to get up to speed in the SPFL. Porter took a couple of months too (coming from a higher level) and he turned out OK.

#harsh

Our lack of goals from midfield has been a concern for the last few seasons.

Look at who we played at the end of last season and who we played at the start of this season. We also had some of our weakest performances when he was in the team last season. So while I agree he's an important player, I still say it's a meaningless stat.

Exactly, and we're not even through August yet. Also, for all the people (including me) who said they'd be happy with 7th or 8th this season - well that would mean losing most of our games against the top 6 candidates which is pretty much what we are doing here. I don't care who the manager is, the rot was deep after Mcalll left. The remainder of the season was all about survival, but it's going to take 2 or 3 years to rebuild ourselves out of that mess.