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CaleyTennis, if you start a thread you can expect people to pass comment or ask you to clarify what you are saying. If you carefully read what you have written, you might understand why people are responding as they are. You start by saying that the issue is "with a small number of players who just aren't good enough to play for us", but later say that part of the solution "means selling our best players". Presumably players who are not good enough to play for us need to be off-loaded, so that would leave us with a middling group of players who, in your opinion are good enough to play for us but are not the best players. In that context, it is perfectly reasonable to expect you to clarify who you feel we should keep and who you think we should off-load. Personally, I think it is a good idea to try to keep our best players. I also don't think there is an "issue". Given where we were financially pre-Covid, the management team and the players have done a great job to get us where we are. Of course there have been games where we have underperformed, but on balance, we've done pretty well to sit 3rd in the table with just a couple of games to go. We may not be where we want to be, but we are heading in the right direction. If some people started supporting the club rather than constantly criticising it, we might be a little closer to where we want to be.

Carson was at right back. He was mostly fine there but, like you, I feel he should be in midfield. At the very least we should have an actual RB in the squad to give us an option there. Right now we've got a CM or a CB both filling in at RB and it's just stupid. Why we haven't signed a RB since Rooney left is beyond me.

You could tell that Queens were the side with something to play for whereas we looked to be in holiday mode already (or at least resting before the playoffs mode). That annoys me as I'd like to see us try and build some momentum going into the playoff games. Clearly we don't have the strength and depth to rotate any great number of players, The likes of Hardy and Samuels don't really show enough to warrant them being played ahead of Mckay if we ever need to get anything from a game. Queens were rarely troubled save for the goal and a wonderful Chalmers strike that sailed just wide of the post in the second half. They could and should have scored more if Cameron could finish a chance. He must have passed up about 2 maybe 3 great chances to score but the big pudding fluffed every single one of them. Hard to pick out too many good points from the game so I'll go for meeting Ruairi ("nutrition is a load of shite") Paton and Euan East in McDonalds after the game. We didn't really recognise them so when one of my pals asked "Who are you?" East replied with "I'm the guy that scored the winner against you lot tonight" which I thought was a decent retort

So, let me get this right. Some of our players aren't good enough. Your solution is to sell our best players!

Its so easy to manage a team in Football Manager ... the real world - not so much! The reality is that you are dealing with personalities, conflicts, real world stuff ... and employees (players) who will have a good day at the office or a bad one, just like us. Throw in a business operating on a shoestring, and an entire industry operating in a fishbowl, that has a customer base with very strong opinions based on emotions and tribalism, where today's heroes are tomorrow's villains and once again next week's heroes, and its literally impossible to please everyone, or at times, anyone. You don't just throw out the baby with the bath water. There may be a few players who will or need to move on come the end of the season, but moving on an entire team of players is neither practical or sensible. Quite apart from the fact that we cant force players who are in contract out the door, nor can we necessarily afford to terminate contracts, replacing all of these players with youngsters is also at best risky, and at worst disastrous. While I believe in the mantra that if you are good enough, you are old enough, the simple fact is that younger players are neither physically or mentally prepared to play 40+ games in a season and I very much doubt we have 18 youngsters ready to make the step up to first team + subs bench. The best managers have traditionally had a blend of youth and experience and rotated those youngsters in and out of their sides so they gain experience but don't get burned out so that then means you may need 25 of a squad to rotate the 11+7 matchday squad ... we do not have that.

Match Highlights from Queen of the South

If you ever write a book on football management, I’d buy it!

Enjoyed last night......from a social point of view. Queens came out of the traps fast and had at least 3 good chances prior to their opening goal. After Chalmers response the game settled into mediocrity and the conversation flowed. Subjects swung from World Cups 74 and 78; Chatlie Watts and his influence; the location of Mantis' jacket (now reunited) and of course, that old chestnut, mountain ranges in the north of Greece. I see nothing wrong with driving through the night to have a blether with some old pals. If you want to know what happened on the pitch........sorry.

That's what happens when we don't play in pink.

I posted this on the Facebook page and felt it was relevant here too. I've come to the conclusion tonight that the issue isn't with the management (don't dare criticise me Rig or Highland Capital!!), its with a small number of players who just aren't good enough to play for us, it's time they had a hard look at themselves and started improving if they want to stay at the club. It's a well known phrase in football that no player is irreplaceable so I'd quite happily let these players go and either replace them with youngsters (I've said numerous times that some are capable of the step up to the first team) or with affordable players out of contract at other clubs. Imho we need to look at Dundee Utd who at the start of this season and especially in January started signing quality players rather than quantity and look at them now. Now I know that means selling our best players in order to get in the said quality players but imho we need to start rebuilding the squad anyway so it's about time Mr Gardiner started to back the manager in the transfer market because its now about time we got out this league, we've been in it far too long which is unacceptable in itself. Rant over .

I didn't see the game, but was wondering if Dodds played Carson at right back again? If he did, did he not learn anything from Friday night? When he restored Carson to the midfield we started to get a hold of the game and got the result. I am a great believer in winning the midfield first and foremost and building the game from there. We now have two chances to get the points we need for third place, let's not blow all the good work over the last few weeks.