Fundamentally the football was crap to watch for many games last season, it would be dishonest to claim otherwise, however what I think we must do now is give KC the credit he deserves for turning things around.
When he took over we were aimlessly passing the ball around and losing (a lot) at the bottom of L2. We had big earners who were not interested (KVV, Taylor etc), some who needed to be moved on for various reasons (Pierre, Powell, even O'Toole), and others who were clearly past their best (Buchanan).
He's significantly reduced the wage bill, transformed the attitude of the group and got the team disciplined. His work in the recruitment department has been excellent with the likes of Adams, Goode, McCormack, Wharton etc all bringing the "winning mentality" we lacked before.
Arguably he's also won promotion with a pretty squad in a terms of strikers, with no real stand out players at this level until Morton arrived.
Lastly, whilst the curtailment of the season almost undoubtedly worked in our favour as we were losing momentum, Curle deserves great credit as of all 4 managers involved in the play offs he seems to have used the downtime the best, brought the squad up to speed the quickest and ultimately he's gained the rewards.
Well done Keith.
I can only echo what Clarkey has said above. I don't think everything was rosy throughout the season because it wasn't; at times it was dire, to be honest, but we ground out more results than we didn't and found ourselves there or there abouts when it counted (on top of which we had a brilliant cup run). The last two games (well, three really because I'd include the game we lost in this, given a modicum of luck going our way) showed that our direct style, when applied correctly, can turn us into an absolute juggernaut that crushes all in its path.
I do think we played differently in the play offs - the long ball was still there but it seemed more targeted and less of a mindless lump up the field to no one in particular. I don't know, maybe that's what we've been trying to do all season and it hasn't been coming off. Maybe the fact we had no crowd there getting on their backs when they made a mistake took the pressure off and made them less jittery and better able to control the long ball. Who knows, but whatever the reason it showed what we are capable of under Curle and at this point I'd be gutted if he didn't sign a new deal.