The Shire boss (pictured right) was in no mood for mincing his words despite having had time to calm down after last weekend's defeat at Third Division new boys Annan Athletic.

It may only be three games into the new season, and there certainly is plenty of time to get things right, but the high pre-season hopes of the faithful fans have already been bruised.

And Shire now face Forfar Athletic at Ochilview this weekend while sitting second bottom of the table.

"The display at Annan was completely unacceptable," said McInally. "What some of them have to realise is that the team gets picked on performances, not reputations.

"You can give and take a bit, but it is important that people play themselves into the team because reputation alone won't get them there.

"I know we need to start looking at a settled 11 but there certainly will be changes for Saturday's game against Forfar."

The Shire coach expects there to a bit of edge to the weekend encounter with the Angus side, who are now managed by a former Shire defender, Dick Campbell.

McInally went on: "I am sure they won't forget that we left them stranded at the bottom of the league by winning our final match of last season, so that should ensure a competitive encounter.

"I know how Dick likes to set out his team and that should make for an interesting and very close game.

"There may not be very much in it on Saturday, and that's been the pattern in all the matches we have played.

"Even at Annan, although we played very poorly we still could, and maybe should, have won the game. And in the other matches as well we could just as easily have won or lost. There doesn't seem to be any big difference between any of the teams in the league at the moment and that's the way I expect it to go on Saturday."

One bonus for McInally will be the absence of a midweek cup tie in the run up to the visit of Forfar. He believes that two games a week have been taking their toll on some of his squad.

"I looked at all the results on Saturday of the teams who played in midweek and none of them did particularly well," he explained. "At Annan, I thought there were a few who looked heavy-legged and that certainly didn't help us at all.

"Having to play midweek games on a Wednesday has given us less recovery time for the weekend. It also ruled out a normal Thursday training session.

"So, at last, this week we can bring them in on Tuesday and Thursday as we would normally do without the distraction of a game and get them properly prepared. We will find out on Saturday if that makes any difference."

McInally will be able to bring back striker Andy Rodgers to the squad after he missed the Annan match with a hamstring problem.
David King has also resumed full training but is short of match practice, although Stephen Oates remains on the sidelines.