RiG

Won't be much of a hurdle to navigate given Arbroath are already in the SPFL

That was grim. After a decent opening 15 - 20 minutes from Queens, during which they probably should have scored at least once, we started to get on top and looked like ending the first half the stronger side. Queens main attacking plan seemed to be trying to slide the ball in behind our CBs for Connelly to latch on to and we got a glimpse of this when Paton (I think) burst through and looked set to round Ridgers but fortunately a well timed challenge snuffed out this threat. Deas had a couple of decent chances which fell to him at the left edge of the box but your CB filling in at left back probably doesn't have the greatest shooting boots in the world and it showed as he snatched at both efforts. Walsh had a good chance to score as well but I think he tried to be too cute and attempted to shoot back across Rae in goal instead of sending a shot away from him. The opening goal looked miles offside but that was probably because there was one Queens player standing ahead of Connelly before he raced clear to round Ridgers and, eventually, put the ball into the net. At the time I thought he was offside but folk watching on the stream said he was played onside by Broadfoot. Still annoying given we had a taste of this minutes before with the aforementioned Paton chance. In the second half and Devine made a desperate challenge to stop a second Queens goal throwing himself in front of a goal bound shot from a few yards out. A bit of route one got us level with a long thump downfield by Ridgers and it looked like Gibson got in a right state trying to decide if he was going to clear the ball or not and Mckay took it off him to bundle in the equaliser. Sutherland had a good chance to get the second goal for us but seemed to take forever to actually get his shot away and a Queens defender did well to deflect the effort behind for a corner. The second for ICT did come eventually with Mckay flicking the ball on for Walsh who got in behind the defence and finished well across Rae. But only a few minutes later Queens were back level and no one seemed to know what exactly had happened with Roy turning hom a cross whilst in an offside position. At the game I could only think that the ball had come off an ICT player so Roy couldn't therefore be offside and from what I've read it seems the ball was actually played to him by Carson so the goal, sadly, stood. An absolutely gutting result with Arbroath winning and other sides around us faltering. Queens looked decent in spells but seemed a bit of a mess at the back and it's frustrating that we couldn't take advantage of this as I felt we had enough chances to put the game to bed. That said I still think we were very poor again and whilst the likes of Mckay and McAlear turned in good performances we need more from the likes of Walsh (although he did score today) and we also need some fresh faces in quickly to try and give the squad a lift.

Shane Sutherland has been served with a Notice of Complaint regarding historic gambling offences so I expect we might see him missing for a few games. Coupled with the Allardice injury and the other departures from the squad we are in need of some serious reinforcements this month.

This would be a massive blow if Deas does move on. Arguably our best CB and easily our best LB as well.

Get that referee to officiate an Old Firm game. Just for funsies.

Danny MacKay signs for Killie on loan until the end of the season.

Delighted but also disappointed that my Taylor Swift shopping habits don't throw up more adverts for her latest albums.

Where would Allardice fit in here?

That was an atrocious performance. I didn't even see the equaliser as I decided thawing out was more important than watching another five minutes of that dross. Turns out I missed the most exciting part of the game! Far too many players off form at the minute. Maybe Deas, McAlear, Allardice and Mckay get pass marks. The rest of the guys were well below where we need to be at if we are to sustain a title challenge or at least maintain our spot in the playoffs. Harper and Walsh created precious little of note although their roles did change when we move to 3 at the back at the start o the second half and both defended well but we desperately needed them to create more of note for the likes of Mckay who was living of little to no service. I cannot agree with some earlier comments that Duku and Sutherland did well. I thought they were both really poor and I am surprised that Jamieson continues to be overlooked for both of them. The move to 3-4-3 did seem to lead to a slightly more improved performance in the second half but I felt that Walsh and Harper became too preoccupied with having to defend and weren't able to create anything of note down the flanks. For the most part we seemed content launching long balls towards Mckay, Duku and Sutherland. The latter two almost never won a header and Mckay was absolutely dominated by the excellent Berra, Musonda and Benedictus. A big difference between the sides was the Raith back three were able to find their midfield and forwards with well struck passes along the ground whereas we seemed panicked by the fact we were losing and thumped aimless balls forward with little reward. With Gardyne and McDonald moved on in the last couple of days we desperately need reinforcements in the wide areas and after unimpressive showings again from Sutherland and Duku I wouldn't be against additional competition for the strikers and perhaps looking at moving one of them on. Duku just doesn't seem to offer anything in this side for me. That we appeared to have scored with our first shot on target a few minutes from the end is incredibly concerning.

Raith's 22 was Ethan Ross ex of Aberdeen. Do you mean number 20 Williamson?

Looks like he is heading to Edinburgh City.

A 2 and a half year deal with Montrose! Maybe we will come up against him in the future!

Allegedly sleeping with a team mates partner is in no way comparable to battering a woman with a shoe. One is a criminal offence the other is not (albeit it's not exactly stand up behaviour).

We can't just release someone because we fancy it. This isn't Football Manager. The club will have tried to work something out between Carson and Gardyne, clearly it hasn't worked, maybe something else has happened behind the scenes that we aren't aware of and as a result the club have decided to move one of them on. Getting an agreement that works for all parties won't happen overnight, especially if one of the parties doesn't agree to what is being proposed, so perhaps it's not that surprising that it hasn't happened quickly. Anyway, it's done now and we now need to take whatever monies may be left in the budget and seek to improve the squad as our rivals are already getting reinforcements in for their own title / promotion pushes.

Given it seems he is set to sign for Montrose I suspect it is unlikely we will be playing against him any time soon.

I was making a light hearted dig at the poster who suggested a few weeks back that Carson was the one who would be leaving the club...

Fully expecting news of David Carson leaving the club to be breaking any day now...

Fairly sure he's already "matched" so no need to keep browsing Tinder. Allegedly anyway.

Always happy to promote #content. When the system was crashing there were around 380 folk watching. Not exactly a robust system if a few hundred folk logging on causes it to fall apart. Even our Pixellot system was bett....nah I couldn't bring myself to seriously finish that

There over 1,000 watching because the Vimeo link quickly got shared round social media so a load of people got to watch it for free.

Arbroath have redirected folk to Vimeo...

Streaming worked okay for the first 10 minutes then I got punted onto a random Arbroath v Saint Johnstone game and it's now died. Website totally down. Already asked for my money back.

Could you visit a friend who may also be watching the game or use your phone as a WiFi hotspot?

Perhaps announced before they had officially confirmed it? Anyway, whatever happened it's the 22 January. Hopefully we can go...

I could have sworn I saw this announced yesterday but could find no trace of it. I think my brain has turned into a roast potato.