I agree, I think MacGregor is better when pushed further up, but our injuries meant he was in central midfield with Allardice, and I think that contributed to Queens Park having the upper hand in midfield.
I’m not sure how long Welsh is out for, whilst injuries mean Carson has to be at right back. Ideally we’d have two of Allardice, Carson and Welsh in central midfield (with Hyde as back up) and MacGregor playing off Mckay but dropping back to bolster the midfield when required.
I think teams know how to play us and as we try to push the full backs up, we end up a bit exposed at times.
Once we have Deas back, and Devine and Welsh fit, I’m sure we will be much stronger, and we then have Sutherland and Walsh to come back later in the season.
In the meantime, we must sharpen up our passing game, as too often we gave the ball away tamely, with all players really guilty of it, including those regarded to have had good games.
Boyd looked lively so is worth more game time, whilst I think Delaney will come good with a more experienced defender alongside him. I like Duffy but he’s not yet the leader that Devine and Deas are, so we didn’t really have anyone marshalling the defence, and it showed at times.
Watching Queens Park’s goal again, what a gift to give away. We’d several opportunities to tackle the player but didn’t, then the shot was pretty weak but somehow landed up in the net. We should have snuffed it out in midfield rather than allowing the run.
We are already playing catch up so we don’t want to slip up at Arbroath next week and fall further off the pace.