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You mean a tranche coat.

You might need the wee coat emoji mentioning that 😉😁

Ian McCall was a good manager for us, on both occasions, in my opionion. In 40 years of watching Jags we have often crashed from one bad manager to another, from one crisis to another, always heading in the wrong direction. Derek Johnstone, Billy Lamont, Sandy Clark, Murdo MacLeod, Tommy Bryce, John McVeigh, Gerry Collins, Gerry Britton and Derek Whyte, Dick Campell, Gary Caldwell. John Lambie reversed the trend twice and is obviously a club legend. I would argue that Ian McCall is the one other person in that time who reversed the trend. Again, twice. He never completed the job like Lambie did, and is unsurprisingly (correctly) not held in the same esteem. But he stabilised the results and definitely set the foundations for the subsequent success of McMamara and Archie. And now we're moaning about sitting third in the table and arguing about whether Doolan has improved the team, just a few years after McCall took us on while desperately trying to stay in this league. It's all nuance though. If you're going to argue about whether someone is great or crap you're never going to come to a decent conclusion.

From his interview on Jagzone the manager said Lawless was back training today. Sneddon and O'Reilly both had scans so we will know fairly soon the extent of their injuries. Apart from that seems everyone else is available.

Dowds won't be playing (thankfully). Loanees can't play against their parent club.

I'm strangely optimistic. Honestly don't know why.

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?

I keep reading the term "The Jury is (still) out". I occasionally use the expression myself. But I really think when used to describe the tenure of 99% of football managers the expression is largely inappropriate. The Jury is effectively always out. Doolan has been in the job about a year now and I believe he's already scraped into the top half (top 21) managers ranked in terms of length of tenure. Wouldn't surprise me if he's nearing the current average term of management at one club (re full time clubs). So it's fair to say on relative terms Doolan is more experienced in managing the one particular club than the average manager. Of course in reality that's nonsense. He's still a rookie manager still learning the ropes. In other industries a manager would be given practical help. In football he's given a budget and that's about it. I wonder how many potentially good football managers have been lost thru this sink or swim approach. Yes, we could do with a fitness coach, a dedicated defensive coach, a contracts guru etc. Possibly thru lack of finance that's not on. Meantime Doolan just has to get on with things. We all hope he succeeds but we probably ask a lot.

You omitted that Ian McCall also got us relegated was also part of the cartel that was miles over budget and almost put our Club back into administration I’ll stick with Dools just now , who is obviously still learning but the signs are promising in terms of what he is building , giving a pathway to players like Stanway , McKenzie, Diack etc and also getting the best out of Aiden Fitzpatrick Would never have happened if Ian McCall was still around.

An utterly absurd take. McCall did credible jobs with basket cases in Clydebank & Morton, pushed Thistle for promotion with Airdrie, set Falkirk on their way to promotion, took Dundee United to a top-6 finish & a League Cup final, saved Queen of the South from relegation and built the best Ayr United side in a generation. Doolan took over McCall's side and had a purple patch in the play-offs before imploding in Dingwall. He is a rookie manager - I really want him to do well but the Jury is still out.

That’s a brave statement and far too early to make unless you havnt watched our last three games…l

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/68391816

My Dunfermline supporting pal texted to say ‘this is what it must be like to support the OF’ in regards of the refereeing. Kinda says it all.