Impossible for this piece to be about anything other than the departure of Steve Paterson from North Lodge.
Personally I think he did a good job over his time there and leaves the club stronger than he found it, but that’s not the same as saying that he shouldn’t have gone (I also think it was stronger a year or so ago than it is now).
Yesterday’s display was absolutely parlous – I’m still raging at the sheer self- indulgence of the other Pele (Napier) in tantrumming his way to a red card – but it’s not normally single games or one off events that bring decisions of this magnitude: it was deeper  and longer term than that.
For most of this season a number of players seem to have taken it upon themselves to decide how much effort was or was not needed against specific teams (Cove – on a run need to graft, Huntly – a soft touch take it easy). It really looked like that and management seemed unable  to shift it – a small squad didn’t help them. They bought the players and by and large they determined the squad size. You make the bed; you lie in it.
I can also remember how close we came to winning the league a couple of years back and I celebrated with the rest when we won our first senior trophy last season after getting to the final the year before. Pele brought us these memories and I’m grateful to him for them, but the club has looked for a year or so that it is –with exceptions – in decline from there.
The parting of the ways is described as amicable and I believe that – there’s a lot of affection between the club and him. We really do wish him well.