Fearchar

To my mind, that is Hardie's contribution: physically, he is both slow and lacks stamina. McNamara is similar, and he doesn't have the sophistication of, say, Sid. We've been losing to the teams that move faster up and down the park - and that's just about all of them in the First Division. So we can't afford more than one slow player in midfield, with, at a pinch, another up front. My inclination would be to play Hardie, because of his grit. Otherwise, we should blood as many youngsters as we can, because they are the only ones that have the pace and the stamina to drive the team out of the relegation zone. There are more than enough old heads on the park, such as Archibald and Robertson, to guide them in any case. Doolan is our only consistent scorer, while Buchanan looks useful coming on as a sub to change the kind of play and introduce more pace towards the end of games, when both sides are tiring. Here's a suggestion: Shephard Paton - McGeough - Archie/Robertson - Boyle Cairney - Rowson - Flannigan - Bannigan/Erskine Doolan - Hardie Subs: Hinchcliffe/Halliwell Buchanan Bannigan/Erskine Archie/Robertson Burns/Grehan

Well, you did hit the target in your first comment: maybe your blooter would end up in the back of the net, and we'd all realise that we'd found our missing one-goal-a-match striker.

Sehr traurig! Admin, why is there no weeping emoticon. :'(

I like the idea of getting to kick a game off - how many of us would pay to do that?

Actually, that is potentially a constructive suggestion: since Stirling Albion was involved in the incident at Forthbank, that club might accept that it's a good idea to treat visiting supporters to such a facility. Who knows - it could cause an outbreak of concern for visiting supporters' welfare in some parts of the SFL.

I agree with PGS: Doolan is a good finisher. Usually, he shoots carefully, choosing his spot. In that respect, he reminds me of Marko. In fact, he could do worse than watch some videos of Marko at work, to show him how to improve. Unlike Marko, though, he makes a huge physical effort, tracking back and even tackling when opposition forwards advance, and he adds to his game by a good sense of where to hang out to grab opportune goals, or at least to frighten defences.

It seems that this team has found its level - at least, as far as goalkeepers are concerned. It was embarrassing to see that neither our full-time goalkeeper nor his stand-in and trainer had the foresight to keep a cap with a brim ready in case the sun shone. The Stirling Albion goalkeeper was similarly unprepared, but he at least belongs to a largely part-time team. Even I carry three baseball caps in my car because of the low sun at Firhill (one for each of my sons and one for myself), but all I'm doing is watching. Funnily enough, that's what Halliwell seemed to be failing to do when the first cross sailed untouched into his net. Surely this has to be the time to blood a young, active, alert goalkeeper. Scully or Shephard - or even the fan a couple of rows behind me, who said he could have saved one of those attempts on goal today.

Spot on - unless you want your employer to "help" in choosing your union reps and the government of the day to choose your MP, your MSP and your local councillor - just in case you get it wrong about the skills required, of course.

The board, albeit with a different mix of members, agreed to allow a Trust representative to sit with them. How the Trust's representative is appointed is not a matter for the board. That doesn't preclude the board from having a quiet word of advice for the Trust, or even from offering suggestions for the qualities that might be useful in the holder of that position, but refusing to allow the Trust's appointed representative to take up his or her place is a clear breach of the existing agreement between the board and the Trust. Since the board itself does not appear to be properly constituted (with a chair and a secretary) at the moment, there might be some excuse purely on administrative grounds for not holding board meetings, and in that case, obviously, the Trust's representative could not attend, but that reflects poor organisation on the part of the current board more than any fault on the part of the Trust. If the Trust's representative is not allowed to attend board meetings, then the Trust should make a formal complaint that the existing agreement has been breached; in the absence of responsible postholders on the board, the Trust may even consider mentioning to the directors that the irregular position of the board could be pointed out to regulatory authorities. After all, the Trust, at least, is properly constituted and appoints office holders according to the rules.

Absolutely. It's not a good idea for the manager of a side playing kick-and-rush to criticise the other side for not playing attractive football, but when his own side has lost, he makes himself look very foolish too.

That's generally where he's been at his most threatening, but unfortunately, football management in Scotland being what it is, the default view is the simplistic one that left-footed players belong on the left side of the park and right-footed players belong on the right.

I have car duty for all games - home and away. I wish my sons would hurry up and get their licences so that the Jags could affect my drinking.

Our household's analysis panel (!) thought that Grehan, who was repeatedly being held back or down by defenders earlier on, was wandering about looking lost later in the game, and that, if anything, he should have been substituted and Doolan kept on (where does he get the energy from?) when Buchanan was brought on. Grehan also missed a sitter in the first half and didn't seem able to communicate effectively with the other players (including his striking partners Doolan and Buchanan). The whole team seemed to want to retreat into a very deep-lying defensive formation, and was prepared to clear the ball from there straight to the opposition. Against a more effective attack, we'd have been punished for that. The RC style of play was poor (Scottish kick-and-rush), and they had one shot on target, as far as we can remember - and that was straight at Halliwell (who dropped it the first time, but had time to collect it again). Apart from the win, of course, the really encouraging thing was how the players seemed both organised and eager. It must be good for Erskine's confidence to nick a goal, too - especially with his right foot. Let's hope that he realises it's there for more than standing on. McNamara seemed to fade a lot in the second half, but Archie was our man of the match - mostly in defending, but also coming up the pitch to add a bit of support to midfield when the team needed to come forward.

Yes. Apart from that, that team was done after the hour mark. How many coaches do we have? We still can't put a team on the park that can last 90 minutes. We hear a lot about youngsters, but get just the occasional glimpse of them. Otherwise, it's up to yesterday's men, only the old pros can't cut it in the First Division. Dunfermline Athletic looked stronger and fitter, and they won almost every aerial ball where Willy Kinniburgh wasn't contesting for it. They broke faster - and our defence is so slow that Doolan can backtrack quicker than Paddy Boyle, for example. The most likely to score looked to be Flannigan. This is a dishevelled, disheartened mess. McCall has to sort it out or go.

Although the ref didn't have a good game, it does seem strange that Doolan should be penalised for a foul on the goalkeeper when he not only couldn't touch him (because a defender was between them) but the goalkeeper was being shielded by the defender. It looks as if the ref whistled in the belief that Doolan would foul the goalkeeper. In fact, the goalkeeper was scrambling about on the ground, and a loose ball might have ended up at Doolan's feet.

You had me worried there, that you had an Oedipal problem.

While he has improved the setup of the club, I'm afraid that he has lost his way and I doubt if he has the coaching skills to turn things around; at the same time, he is now dependent on newcomers to coaching, unlike when he had Gardner Speirs at his side, and John Henry, who obviously had the ability to step up to a higher level.

Just to point out that I used the word "confidential", and I am not on the Jags Trust board, nor do I represent it: my comment was made in the light of some years of experience in trade union negotiations.

Maybe we didn't deserve to lose - in someone's dreams. Back in the real world, we were beaten by an uninspiring QoS team that applied the effort at the right times and places to win, while our team put in a lot of effort and some good play, to no effect; we are well adrift at the foot of the division; we have been beaten by the other teams that are at risk of relegation; the confidence in the team has been dissipated. Before the manager can put anything right, he has to recognise the failures, and, sadly, there's no sign of that in the post-match comments from McCall.

For those who don't know how these matters are seen to, the Trust will have its own accurate record of the meeting, which must be kept confidential (in case it is needed for disputes about what took place).

Buchanan is a spent force: he tries to con refs by diving, and then wonders why, when he is pulled down in the box, he gets nothing for it. (The refs have all told each other, obviously.) Doolan, on the other hand, works incredibly hard and shoots on target when he gets the ball, but he's left to do this on his own with little support. Archie was taken off injured early in the game: we can't count on his return in the foreseeable future. Hodge was caught in possession time and again, when he didn't send passes to the opposition. It's time to strip the team down to the essentials - drop the fringe players like Hodge and Erskine and stop practising the fancy stuff: just passing, trapping, tackling and shooting are what's needed. If the players that see themselves as essential, such as Buchanan, aren't going to deliver, then they need to be dropped. Repeatedly losing after taking the lead indicates a lack of leadership on the park: appoint one captain and insist on him taking charge on the park.

You've been eating too many of the sweeties in your avatar again, haven't you?

To be fair, if you're counting all 5 as defenders, Chris Erskine is also one - and nobody has ever claimed that he's an accomplished defender.