Bairns are playing for places at Dumbarton

Boss Peter Houston and McDonaugh made their views known on recent performances during a post-game ‘discussion’ after Saturday’s draw with Queen of the South.

And McDonaugh said changes in the Bairns line-up is something which will be looked at ahead of Saturday’s trip to Dumbarton.

He said: “Training will be interesting. The boys are in all week so they have four days to train, to keep their place or fight for their place for Saturday so there are big decisions to be made, whether we change it, how much we change it.

“Everybody’s aware, that’s the frustrating thing.

“We’ve got an honest bunch of players there and they know when they’re not doing well enough and they know when they’re doing well.

“Sometimes when we point it out it’s just emphasising what they already know.

“There’s been a number of games recently where we just can’t put our finger on why we’ve not won the game. It’s not been individual errors that’s cost us a goal, it’s been collectively. The goals at the weekend you could pick out four or five players at each goal who could have done better.

“We know what’s gone wrong but not why. Training’s been bright. We tick all the boxes and go through the list and then you come to a game and you give the ball away so we need to sort it out.”