GLF 62: Del reckons things will turn out well in the end.
The Ship Has Been Steadied
Having written in the last issue that we needed to calm down and give Malpas more time to get things right,the temptation to come across as rather smug this time is high indeed.Perhaps if I hadn't gone on a massive rant elsewhere calling for him to be sacked after the pathetic showing at Dundee United my gloating would have more credibility.I even had to deal with the somewhat surreal experience of having my own article quoted back to me on the other side of the argument!I guess if anything,it proves the point again about how short-term fans are and it shows how easy it is to lose the heid.Truly wise are those fans that can remain calm when five points adrift in the middle of October.
Anyway, it now seems we have turned a corner, of sorts.Whether this lasts or not remains to be seen but I have my doubts.I'm actually writing this between the Killie cup loss and the Aberdeen league game so by the time of publication we'll have played another two (tough) matches.The outcome of those may well decide the future course for our season.A couple of wins–even four points–from decent teams would propel us further towards mid-table and would prove that we are capable of coping in the league.But two losses will mean it's looking grim.Dundee United must improve, if only because they can't get any worse, under Levein and Dunfermline still have a lot of players to come back from injury.Anthony Stokes seems to be capable of keeping Falkirk up single-handed (regardless of his Christmas departure at the rate he's going) and St Mirren are, quite frankly, better than us.
There is no point in throwing in the towel yet as we still have a very good chance of staying up but there is equally no cause to bury our heads in the sand either.We are going to be in for a very long and very hard winter with no guarantee of things being better next spring.The sooner everyone accepts this, stops moaning about the players and gets behind the club the better.Everyone knows there are people in our squad who are simply not good enough and I won't waste time by listing them again here.But they themselves will know as much as anyone that they are struggling and abusing them at the games will not help the cause .We are all in this together and getting behind the players and management is surely more likely to help than hinder.
The next months are going to be difficult and what also needs to be remembered is that there is not necessarily going to be a quick fix.Sacking Malpas would only mean a new manager will come in and need just as long again to build his own side.We have seen through the evidence of our own club that when a manager struggles originally but is given time to make his mistakes and build his side (McLean, Butcher) that great progress can be made.There is not going to be any massive cash injection next summer that will enable us to change the side dramatically so our only path to success is through patient building and stability.
Every one of us will have made mistakes in a new job and none of us would expect to be sacked for it after three months.Instead we would expect understanding from our colleagues,continuing respect from our family/friends and encouragement from the boss.Malpas should be no different and we need to stick with him until at least this time next year.
In the space of one issue I've already extended his time limit by 10 months so I guess I'm now in the Malpas camp.After all,if we ever need reminding of the problems about changing manager every month,just look at Dundee United..…Craig Levein will no doubt be on the verge of the sack by the time our next issue comes out!
Derek Wilson
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