joewarkfanclub

I think Oscar deserves a start, but Nicholson is probably more like Slattery from a style/creativity point of view.

Exactly this. Diving to gain a penalty is cheating and gains an advantage for your team. I dont see the difference, but it happens all the time (including by our players).

If its not being made up on the hoof, Id love to see the regulations outlining the wording of the offence and what the penalty should be. As others have said. We have VAR now. The red card should never have been given and if they send the ref to the monitor, Slattery gets a yellow. The fact they f#cked up and we have a player with 2+2 game suspension is ridiculous. The club dealt with Slattery internally, so this just feels pretty harsh.

Bit of a strange take. You say it "should be a red card offence", I agree, only it isnt at the moment. As someone, who openly criticised Slattery at the time and was embarassed by his actions, I have no issue with him being retrospectively punished. But the punishment has to fit the crime, and shouldnt just be made up on the hoof to make an example out of someone retrospectively. If that had happened no one would really argue, but this seems unfair and OTT, so no surprise some of our fans are leaping to the defence of our player.

Id rather have Luca Ross at LB than Ewan Wilson. Decent lad, but he doesnt have what it takes for the top level or he would be smashing it out the park at Raith Rovers, and he isnt. Koutroumbis is a better RB than Sparrow and he is definitely a better LB. I get that he is the one out of contract and could be the makeweight to freshen up the squad, but you just need to look at what happened with injuries and suspensions this season to see tge value of versatile players.

The issue for me was that Kettlewell signed him and then froze him out. If he didnt fit his style, why sign him? Quite baffling behaviour.

I think you are right. I didnt really think we were in with a genuine chance of winning the title, but just talking about the possibility and thinking about whether I could handle that had me quite emotional. Saturday, I was just fully focussed on 4th place, so there was a nervousness attached to that as well. All compounded by the fact you could see Hibs were forcing us wide and instead of bringing Eythor on to attack crosses we continued to play through the middle. The Scotland games will be a welcome diversion for the next 10 days or so.

Suggestion from the Zimbabwe fans on the clubs socials that all the European based players are out in solidarity with Marshall Munetsi who has been snubbed by the current manager. No idea if there is any truth in that or not. Seems unlikely......

I think the way we play it also comes down to small margins a lot of the time. We play quite a high risk possession game where a lot of our passes are in tight areas. If thats a little bit off, as it was on Saturday, the number of turnovers is higher and it becomes more difficult to build momentum and pressure. Personnel is also important. Hibs played a narrow mid block forcing us wide. That only worked well because Longelo and Koutroumbis were both out forcing us to play Sparrow on the left. Hopefully with 2 weeks rest, Longelo back, 2 weeks more growth on the pitch and 2 weeks to work on tactical options, we will be in a better place for Falkirk.

Just one of many things he got wrong on Saturday. Dont know if it is just me, but he also comes across as quite arrogant when dealing with the players. Probably my least favourite Scottish referee, which is saying something given the very low bar!

Just certainly does appear to being singled out for "special treatment" the referees should be doing more to protect him. If they dont, guys like Said will end up getting booked or sent off trying defend their team mate. Dickinson is a really poor referee which, given the pool he swims in, is really saying something.....

It absolutely IS our selling point. But that doesnt mean we have to sell all our good players at the one time. They all signed contracts they were happy with. The club wont stand in their way, but we WILL manage the squad to ensure we remain competitive. The manager said as much the other day.

Priestman for me. Should never have been subbed as Fadinger and Watt both had off games. Hope Jens isnt doing the seniority thing. That only works up to a point.

2 week break to re-charge the batteries and think up new strategies. Just and Maswanhise being away will hamper preparations and maybe rule them out of this one, depending on how much gametime they get and flights back. Could do with Koutroumbis and Longelo being back. Falkirk losing again today keeps them off our tails, but we could do with 3 points when we are off to Tynecastle before the split.

Thought we were decent enough first half without being exceptional. The offside goal.was hard to take but the right decision and we didnt carve out any other clear cut chances. Second half, the drop off.was considerable and probably the poorest half since Falkirk at home. Thought Fadinger looked outnof sorts today, not sure if it was the mask/sun giving him problems but he wasnt his usual self. I thought subbing Priestman was a mistake as he was having a much better game and we looked worse after he went off. Too many stray passes, although Hibs press caused us problems and closed off a lot of space, which slowed us down and caused us to go backwards. Nice to get the clean sheet and maintain our unbeaten run at home, but it feels like 2 points dropped and Jens is gonna have to think up a new plan as teams have started to get organised around what we do. We may not lose many more games, but at the moment its hard to see where we win one.