fizoxy

Wonder if there was an appearance based clause in his contract to trigger another year? Either way, he's a solid enough player who may fare better in the wing back role if we stick with it, or at worst function as an experienced backup. With the additional subs available now, I think that changes how teams shape their squads and their bench as subs can have a greater impact now. We've seen SOD come on a few times under kettlewell as a defensive sub late in the game.

I doubt he is looking at the likes of Aberdeen for his next move, he has a chance to really make bank on the back of this season, and we will be doing the same when it comes to a fee. Maybe we can have one of those elusive bidding wars.

We get linked with Dundee players often by their ITK types, and none of them ever seem to happen. I don't see McMullan being true, but if it is, at least he can't roast us.

We're just using who we currently have the best we can to get through the rest of the season. I don't think current selections are indicative of what we will do next season. We will most likely need 2 strikers in the summer, so will be interesting to see what kettlewell goes for.

All of the bottom five (you have to include st j now since they're only a point above us) are capable of going on a 3-4 game run, like we just have, so with ten games to go, there's still a few twists and turns in store. I feel like 36 would put us in a pretty strong position, especially with our goal difference, which would mean Utd would need to pick up 17 and the other two 13. We have a chance of getting those points before the split, with the Utd six pointer and a home game against Livi. Anything from hibs or rangers would be a total bonus. Hopefully by the time we get to parkhead we don't need to be worrying too much about protecting that goal difference.

Marley watkins just scored, Utd are fucked.

2-1 Aberdeen. I 100% want Utd to go down, but I still think there are a few twists and turns in the relegation race to come.

I thought the ref let their defenders away with murder most of the game, and seemed to be more concerned with where people took throw ins from. The first county penalty claim looked a stonewaller in real time, but clearly wasn't on replay. There's nothing to say that VAR didn't check it. There's some other angles of the foul for the red that shows KVV would have been clean through and most likely would have got to the ball. Another one I would have been fine being a yellow until I saw the replay. Their defender celebrating winning the penalty like he just scored the winner in the cup final was funny. Best to wait and celebrate when you score them big diddy. It will be interesting to see how we line up against rangers, with two weeks until the game we have Blaney, Mandron and Efford all very close. I'd personally stick with what has worked so far, but having butcher in midfield is tempting.

KVV caught them out and would have been clean on goal before being taken out for the red card, then he scored two huge goals. No brainer it's KVV for me this week.

Huge three points. Bunch of total shitebags on here :-) VAR ensured justice was done on both occasions. The penalty was a huge miss by the ref, and then for the red, when you see it from the behind the goal angle, KVV was going to cut across Iacovitti and go in on goal if Baldwin hadn't taken him out. It was also a really bad tackle and the definition of a professional foul. Bringing on Cornelius gave us a bit more movement and he kept it simple. I thought we used our bench pretty well in general. Spittal is a key player for us now, but he's been better than folk have been making out most of the season. KVV really benefits from Obika being there. Both make sure the opposition back line is occupied the whole game. While I'm happy for obika to work hard and let KVV score two a game, it would be nice if he got some of his chances on target. Not complaining though, you can't argue with the difference he's made. Not really any negatives from me, it was a fairly even game with each team trading spells of dominance. County hit everything straight at Kelly, but didn't have much in the way of clear cut chances. Like last week, we found ways to shore up when the opposition threatened. Brophy looked dangerous for about 30 mins, then we switched him off. Casey and Butcher were solid again, and have to go down as some of the best January signings we've made. However, that has overshadowed the fact that Mcginn has been really good on the right side of that back 3.

Shame we don't have var for every other foul Iacovitti is getting away with.

Casey definitely got a touch on the ball for their penalty claim. Their center backs are all over obika and van Veen, and we aren't getting a sniff of anything from the ref. Obika got booked for a stray arm, then a minute later white elbowed Casey, (just as much an "accident" as obikas), and nothing. It has been fairly even, with county at least getting shots away in the box. Obika should have got that header on target at least, and I thought Max made a mistake of first timing that shot at the end of the half, had time to take a touch. Might want to rethink passing it back to their keeper from corners.

Looks like he's taking the spot that Clarkson left. I didn't personally have anyone in mind for this role, so I guess we'll see how it goes. I'm not going to worry myself about someone getting in trouble for voicing their opinion three years ago. From what I remember, a lot of people were into that at the time. Hopefully SK will appoint his assistant soon so that Clarkson can get back to his real job. It's going to be a fun few weeks with all the appointments that are pending. Hopefully we're still picking up points so that all we have to complain about is a job title or whether someone was a bad boy once.

County are as bad as the rest of us at the bottom. They horsed a Utd side that had downed tools last week, I expect this game to be closer than that one.

I'm a bit nervous, with Dundee Utd now trying to put out their bin fire, three points on Saturday would be huge for mitigating any bounce they get. I guess if comes down to how long it takes their players to appoint a new manager.

We aren't the only team losing young players, and it looks like our league has become a decent hunting ground for English and European teams. As said above, we can't force people to sign contracts.

Whatever Casey and butcher did in the second half to nullify doidge and Robinson worked a treat. They were anonymous after the break.

I don't see us just releasing shields at the end of the season, especially if he does well. We are also going to be back down to just KVV in the summer, so he might have a chance to fight for a place. Either way, we should be in no rush to make a decision. However, whether he was played out wide or through the middle, he had multiple chances right in front of goal that he made a complete arse of. If those were confidence related, then this spell at Queens park might help bring some of that back.

Bin our top scorer? Only 3 players have scored more than him in the league this year. Should we replace him with one of those well rounded goal machines that are ten a penny thesedays?

We hit shots right at their keeper. Then killie announce him as many of the match, and the free kick happened. We weren't great but deserved the point. They were dangerous for a short spell, bit we're poor with their final ball. They fell away completely after we got to grips with doidge, who was anonymous in the second half. What frustrated me was that killie were woeful at the back outside of heading high balls, and we didn't make the most of it. Still, good point and nice to turn it around on them.

Nice for slats to mention he can take free kicks. Did no one ask him until now? :-) Have no complaints at getting a point out of that, will gladly take the same next week too. That pitch is an abomination.

The academy can also produce players that will be decent for us, and perform well at our level without being superstars. Not everyone that comes through needs to be the next Turnbull. Even producing players that can give us 50+ appearances of 6/10 performances would save us on bringing in lower league joirneyment from England. As for playing the younger players, just because there's interest from elsewhere doesn't mean they are good enough to play in our first team yet. The clubs that are taking these young players have no intention of putting them in their first team any time soon, and are instead adding them to their academies. Even at that, us telling them they can play in actual games can only go so far in encouraging them to stay. When the option of increasing their income by a silly amount, as well as joining a bigger academy with facilities that are way better than ours, getting a few run outs at fir park probably won't move the needle.

That's usually the way it goes, a journo gets wind of the decision (sometimes deliberately from the club) and puts out the exclusive before the official announcement.

Don't see us moving from the back three, with it being a big part of our success in the last two games. We've been playing a 3-4-1-2 (which is really just a 352 anyway) with Spittall as the 1, and he has been good in that role, so should keep it. Unless there's injuries, or if SK wants to set up differently away from home, I'm sure we will stick with the same starting XI.

Kettlewell will have to bring in his own assistant, and potentially additional coaching staff, which will probably be negotiated as part of him taking the role. We will then need to replace him as head of development. Clarkson will go back the job he just started as academy director. We will have a pay scale for manager, so whoever comes in is going to be on that, whether it's SK or someone else, and if they manage to negotiate higher it won't be significant. If we were going to make kettlewell manager, Clarkson assistant, and not replace them in their old roles, I'd call that the cheap option, but as it stands, giving SK the job isn't much cheaper than the alternatives. He has experience of keeping county up as well, no? Plenty of teams fail at getting out of the championship despite their finances (we were a factor in one of those, against one of our best former managers too). He has the advantage of having won two games for us, so we know he can get something out of the squad. There is no guarantee we will get that from anyone else coming in, or that SK can sustain it. Good thing I'm not involved in the decision, it's a tricky one.