Half time report

[Duke Gekantawa]

So, that’s half the season done. What are people’s thoughts?

I am reasonably content based on the players lost over the summer, who were never going to be replaced easily. A present ppg of 1.61 is better than last season’s final ppg of  1.58, the latter achieved with a better squad.

We do look good for the playoffs, though it looks very unlikely that we can better that (not that I ever thought we would in the summer).

Averaging nearly 2 goals a game scored is commendable, conceding at close to the same rate less so. The squad’s deficiencies are obvious. Hopefully we can go some way to addressing them in the coming month.

[Jaggernaut]

While the team is too often lacklustre and always definitely fragile in defence, somehow we're sitting third with a few points to spare. Got to hope that despite his positivity in pre- and post-match interviews Doolan is in fact aware of the glaring weaknesses in the team. Without good remedial action in January I'd say that a play-off spot is far from assured, and if we do manage to qualify for that phase then we'd be unlikely to do anything like last season.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

Doing better than I would've expected back in June, but like above post I think a play off place is far from certain.  Our points superiority suggests otherwise. However I find our goal difference of just +4 not exactly reassuring. 

[Stephen1876]

Agree with all of the above, particularly given we only had a few weeks to get a squad together having lost the spine of our team. We’ve had to rely on loans etc so to be comfortably third half way through is very good. That’s not to say we don’t have glaringly obvious faults but I really expected a tough season. 
 

Other big positives for me are Stanway becoming a regular, with MacKenzie and Diack getting some game time, and several key players tied down to 2025 or 2026. 

[Auld Jag]

After the disappointing way we lost out in getting promotion, i thought we could have a bit of a hangover this season as i have seen this happen with other teams. Morton being relegated the season after they finished 2nd to us in the league for example. As others have mentioned our financial problems and key players who left also put us on the back foot.

At the moment we look comfortable in 3rd but the teams below us do have games in hand, so imo we still have a lot to do to get a play off place. No more performances like last night would help.

January will be a big month with the transfer window and also with our first 2 games against the current bottom 2 in the league at home, 6 points from these 2 games would be most welcome. But we do have the memories from nearly a year ago when we had a similar scenario and lost both games, so nothing can be taken for granted.

For me if we get a play off place at the end of the season it will be job done. Anything better is a bonus.

[Barney Rubble]

Overall, happy with where we are at present, but clearly there is room for improvement both on the park (goals conceded, late game sitting off teams inviting opposition attacks) and off (several players not getting game time, so why are they here?).

Obviously you can't change the past, but in retrospect the needless loss of two points to Raith Rovers on the opening day was a serious blow given what they have achieved since.

Dundee United and Raith have clearly demonstrated they are above us on merit, and it's how we are able to respond during this window that will determine whether we are capable of mounting some kind of serious challenge to them before May. Consolidating third spot should be the immediate aim (next two games are pivotal to that) and see how we are placed to proceed after the window.

Edited December 30, 2023 by Barney Rubble

[sandy]

Happy where we are so far. 3rd is reasonably the best we can hope for this season 

[dl1971]

Lots of forum contributors were stating we may be relegation contenders, or bottom half of table, given our financial issues. That we are 3rd, 8 points above 5th place is above most reasonable expectations. Team remains frustratingly inconsistent and at times way off it. As many have said January window will determine if we get stronger or weaker. 

[thornwoodjag]

Decent results for us today. Don’t think there’s much doubt we will b in play offs. Probably in third. Rovers not winning is good as well,  let Utd win the league . 
Can see the same as last season’s play offs happening again.

[Duke Gekantawa]

Just now, dl1971 said:

Lots of forum contributors were stating we may be relegation contenders, or bottom half of table, given our financial issues. That we are 3rd, 8 points above 5th place is above most reasonable expectations. Team remains frustratingly inconsistent and at times way off it. As many have said January window will determine if we get stronger or weaker. 

Funnily enough, I would say the team is quite consistent this season, much more so than last year. We gained 14 points first quarter and 15 second quarter. We tend to beat or at least draw with the teams below us (with the odd exception naturally), but have a poor record against the top two. By contrast, last year our form was all over the place.

[laukat]

I think we are playing to expectations. The team and squad has issues and we are weaker than last season which was to be expected given the players we lost and the financial state. If this squad was playing last season we might well find ourselves towards the other end of the league. We are fortunate this season that the other teams , bar United and Raith, for a variety of reasons are weaker than last season. 

Success this season really comes down to can Doolan fix some gaps in January that give us a chance in the playoffs and can he equally sign some players to replace the old guard (Muirhead, Bannigan) that gives us a new spine to the team that can give us a chance at promotion next season? 

Livingston look the most likely to be relegated from the premier next season. There are a few financial issues behind the scenes there so they will struggle to buy the division in the way Dundee, Dundee United and Raith have or are trying to. So next season is really make or break for Doolan. The team will be his at that stage having gone through 3 transfer windows and if he's not showing signs that he can get promotion then he probably never will.

[javeajag]

It was always going to be a challenge to overcome DU but not impossible. The last time they came down they struggled to get out the division. I find the unsubstantiated claims about Raith amusing …..does any one have any actual information that they have spent a load of cash ? None that I can see and they have half our number of season ticket holders. And let’s ignore the £500k  we received. There is no reason why we couldn’t be above Raith except in football terms they are better. I also don’t  accept the we lost 4 players excuse either. That happens to us and every team in the championship nearly every year. Just check the other teams new signings for this season.

where Dollan has been culpable is in recruitment. Hardly any of his signings have been successful and clearly there are 5/6 of them he doesn’t rate as they never play. We can’t afford to only have a preferred  squad of 16. I shudder to think of the money he’s wasted.

Getting into the play offs is not a given and if other teams win their games in hand and we stumble then it could be a struggle.

so we are under achieving with a manager who is increasingly of concern.

[MarciaBlaine]

I'm pleasantly surprised at where we've ended up, given pre-season doom and gloom.

I'm also frustrated at where we are, given how good we can be when everything clicks.

And I'm realistic about where we are, given the top 2 are demonstrably better than us.

[Duke Gekantawa]

36 minutes ago, javeajag said:

It was always going to be a challenge to overcome DU but not impossible. The last time they came down they struggled to get out the division. I find the unsubstantiated claims about Raith amusing …..does any one have any actual information that they have spent a load of cash ? None that I can see and they have half our number of season ticket holders. And let’s ignore the £500k  we received. There is no reason why we couldn’t be above Raith except in football terms they are better. I also don’t  accept the we lost 4 players excuse either. That happens to us and every team in the championship nearly every year. Just check the results other teams new signings for this season.

where Dollan has been culpable is in recruitment. Hardly any of his signings have been successful and clearly there are 5/6 of them he doesn’t rate as they never play. We can’t afford to only have a preferred  squad of 16. I shudder to think of the money he’s wasted.

Getting into the play offs is not a given and if other teams win their games in hand and we stumble then it could be a struggle.

so we are under achieving with a manager who is increasingly of concern.

It’s instructive to consider the two present Championship sides which finished above us last season as examples. They indeed lost very important players like ourselves. However, we’ve coped considerably better, being comfortably above Ayr, while QP are bottom. 

Accepting that DU have significantly greater resources, for Doolan to have us ahead of them would mean that he was overachieving (or they were seriously underperforming, which they aren’t). So I can only assume that your conclusion that Doolan is underperforming is because we are behind Raith who may or may not have similar resources. Assuming that we are both similarly resourced, the fact that Doolan, a rookie manager in his first full season, is not doing as well as a more experienced Murray his hardly that damning. Particularly as he’s still doing better than 7 out of 9 of his peers, a number of whom are also managing clubs with similar resources/budgets.

I’m not under the illusion he’s massively overachieving or anything. However, I think he’s doing better than you suggest here.

[Third Lanark]

1 hour ago, javeajag said:

It was always going to be a challenge to overcome DU but not impossible. The last time they came down they struggled to get out the division. I find the unsubstantiated claims about Raith amusing …..does any one have any actual information that they have spent a load of cash ? None that I can see and they have half our number of season ticket holders. And let’s ignore the £500k  we received. There is no reason why we couldn’t be above Raith except in football terms they are better. I also don’t  accept the we lost 4 players excuse either. That happens to us and every team in the championship nearly every year. Just check the other teams new signings for this season.

where Dollan has been culpable is in recruitment. Hardly any of his signings have been successful and clearly there are 5/6 of them he doesn’t rate as they never play. We can’t afford to only have a preferred  squad of 16. I shudder to think of the money he’s wasted.

Getting into the play offs is not a given and if other teams win their games in hand and we stumble then it could be a struggle.

so we are under achieving with a manager who is increasingly of concern.

The £500k investment came outside the transfer window.  Who knows if any of it is likely to be spent on players but even if some of it is then we will not see the affects of that for at least another 24 hours.  It might be that none of it is for the transfer window.  But it’s a fact that it was not there last summer when the window was open 

[dl1971]

1 hour ago, javeajag said:

It was always going to be a challenge to overcome DU but not impossible. The last time they came down they struggled to get out the division. I find the unsubstantiated claims about Raith amusing …..does any one have any actual information that they have spent a load of cash ? None that I can see and they have half our number of season ticket holders. And let’s ignore the £500k  we received. There is no reason why we couldn’t be above Raith except in football terms they are better. I also don’t  accept the we lost 4 players excuse either. That happens to us and every team in the championship nearly every year. Just check the other teams new signings for this season.

where Dollan has been culpable is in recruitment. Hardly any of his signings have been successful and clearly there are 5/6 of them he doesn’t rate as they never play. We can’t afford to only have a preferred  squad of 16. I shudder to think of the money he’s wasted.

Getting into the play offs is not a given and if other teams win their games in hand and we stumble then it could be a struggle.

so we are under achieving with a manager who is increasingly of concern.

If we are underachieving based on being behind Raith, let's have a degree of reality here. It seems to me the Raith team is one in a generation, similar to thistle teams of the past where sometimes a team just gels, due to 3 or 4 exceptional players. It happens and is alas outwith our control. That said if they have a few injuries to key players they may stumble also. Believe it or not that possibility applies to all teams, not just us. 

[Lenziejag]

It’s hard to tell how we are doing. Of the 7 teams that were in the league last season and are still in it this season,3 are much worse off points wise than at the same stage last season(QP,Ayr &Morton). ICT are 5 pts worse off and 1 place worse off. Arbroath have a couple more pts but are in the same place. Raith obviously are the big improvers. That leaves us 29 points in 3rd place with + 4 goal difference compared to 27 points in 5th with + 3 goal difference.

[javeajag]

1 hour ago, Third Lanark said:

The £500k investment came outside the transfer window.  Who knows if any of it is likely to be spent on players but even if some of it is then we will not see the affects of that for at least another 24 hours.  It might be that none of it is for the transfer window.  But it’s a fact that it was not there last summer when the window was open 

The £500k stabilised our finances and gave us a financial buffer at least that’s what the statement said.

we sold 3000 season tickets and recruited 8 players , it’s just that most of them turned out to be not very good.

[javeajag]

1 hour ago, Duke Gekantawa said:

It’s instructive to consider the two present Championship sides which finished above us last season as examples. They indeed lost very important players like ourselves. However, we’ve coped considerably better, being comfortably above Ayr, while QP are bottom. 

Accepting that DU have significantly greater resources, for Doolan to have us ahead of them would mean that he was overachieving (or they were seriously underperforming, which they aren’t). So I can only assume that your conclusion that Doolan is underperforming is because we are behind Raith who may or may not have similar resources. Assuming that we are both similarly resourced, the fact that Doolan, a rookie manager in his first full season, is not doing as well as a more experienced Murray his hardly that damning. Particularly as he’s still doing better than 7 out of 9 of his peers, a number of whom are also managing clubs with similar resources/budgets.

I’m not under the illusion he’s massively overachieving or anything. However, I think he’s doing better than you suggest here.

DU have more resources than us and eh well Raith who seem to be competing with them in a way we are not and Murray’s track record isn’t exactly stellar. Just maybe if we had recruited some decent players we might be doing better.

[Norgethistle]

We are in a bit of a transition season, stabilizing finances, bringing a new manager in, and been up against it on transfer window being a month later than our competitors due to playoff plus lack of cash.

I think top a playoff position is a good season so we are achieving, whilst some of the signings (most were loans) may not have performed that’s probably due to us scraping together a team rather than getting who we actually wanted.

United, Raith and to an extent Ayr are being cash rolled by their owners, and Queens have cash to burn but reluctant this year to overspend like last year we are probably behind these 4 and potentially Dunfermline on budgets, but hopefully we are now living within our means or getting closer to it, so being 3rd (2 places higher than this time last season) is above my expectations for this year.

Weve played great at times and poor at times, but won more than lost so generally happy with progress, hopefully in summer Doolan can get a decent transfer window, as I imagine this one will all be about moving out to move in.

The investment helps us secure our finances, cash reserves and cash flow, I don’t imagine it gives a £500k transfer window, that would be totally irresponsible. Overall I think the club is starting to move in right direction, fan base up, foundation members up, good young players coming through, and in my opinion a good young manager at the helm, who needs time.

[jagfox]

As a season where we came into it in a state of financial distress the club has moved to make us more resilient in that sphere.

That has been stabilised thanks to hard work off field and the crowds have been decent this year.

On the playing side we lost 4 key players and had to go for some untried players or ones with injury issues and filled out the squad with loans.

We have also extended the contracts of some of our remaining potential assets and important players.

The recruitment has been hit and miss. Neilson has been good. Wasiri Williams has come onto a game. Robinson has spent most time unavailable as has McGinley. Same with Ngwenya.

McInroy and Alston have shown up well at times but also been found missing at other times, even in the same game.

McDonald isn't cutting the mustard and Adeloye is going that way after some decent cameos and goals. Williamson has faded out the picture too and is rumoured to be off to Hamilton.

 Ben Stanway has done very well in his first real tilt at first team football. 

Results determine where you are and the league table is a fair reflection of where we are, on the field. Way ahead and more consistent than the bottom 7 and behind the top 2.

Disappointed with performances against Dundee Utd, with Friday being even worse than the 5-0 pumping.

The Raith games were disappointing in that we should have won both but they have this penchant for late goals.

I'm confident of at least third as not anyone rising from the mediocre mire below. I feel United will edge out to win the league from Rovers. There is a chance we could get closer to Raith as they've hit a relative wobbly period but that is a big ask. Raith may well add to their squad or at least not lose any key players. They have had large investment, increased their season tickets and average over 4000 at home games.

The management need to make 2 or 3 additions in January. A defensive midfield in the Doc mould. Another winger and a central defender. Possibly another striker unless Tomi can pull up his socks in the New Year.

It is still a period of transition for the club, management and the squad but we are doing pretty well, I would say. We will look to improve and build up momentum,  going into the playoffs.

TL;DR Half time report.

Club B+

Recruitment C-

Performance B

Management B

Overall B

Edited December 31, 2023 by jagfox

[lady-isobel-barnett]

We (and Ross County) were also handicapped by not knowing our league status till June. Raith for instance had a full month's start over us regarding signings re-signings etc. In fact longer than that as we had then still to await offers to a few existing players to either accept or decline. Many players Doolan may have earmarked for signing would be long gone, signed to other clubs. Kris has said so much for instance with regard to a defensive mid and a left sided centreback. The rumour that we were interested in Mulgrew to fill the latter was likely true, as I doubt there were any other suitable candidates remaining. The kinda desperate loan signing of McGinley further evidence.

Given the relative time restrictions we were under I'm not over critical re Doolan's signings. I don't believe we significantly profited from the play offs. So it's not that we had extra money to burn. In fact we all now know just how little we had in the kitty anyway. Being third in the league, if not to be celebrated is I believe something to be appreciated.

[Woodstock Jag]

14 hours ago, javeajag said:

The £500k stabilised our finances and gave us a financial buffer at least that’s what the statement said.

So that we don't run out of cash mid-way through the season (as we would have done with a totally emptied margin of safety). Not so that we can start spending lots of money on new football players.

[Third Lanark]

2 hours ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

We (and Ross County) were also handicapped by not knowing our league status till June. Raith for instance had a full month's start over us regarding signings re-signings etc. In fact longer than that as we had then still to await offers to a few existing players to either accept or decline. Many players Doolan may have earmarked for signing would be long gone, signed to other clubs. Kris has said so much for instance with regard to a defensive mid and a left sided centreback. The rumour that we were interested in Mulgrew to fill the latter was likely true, as I doubt there were any other suitable candidates remaining. The kinda desperate loan signing of McGinley further evidence.

Given the relative time restrictions we were under I'm not over critical re Doolan's signings. I don't believe we significantly profited from the play offs. So it's not that we had extra money to burn. In fact we all now know just how little we had in the kitty anyway. Being third in the league, if not to be celebrated is I believe something to be appreciated.

I suppose Airdrie to an extent we’re hampered with not knowing what division we were in though not to the same extent as us.

Generally happy with how things are progressing.  Mistakes have been made and recruitment was not particularly good although there were factors in that.  However starting in 24 hours Doolan has a chance to show he has learned the mistakes he made over the summer in terms of recruitment 

[Auld Jag]

As well as the other things that has been mentioned that hampered Doolan for the last transfer window, it was his first one as a manager. Many more experienced managers have had poor transfer windows.