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Scottish Premiership Game 5: Kilmarnock (H) Saturday 09/09/17


Yabba's Turd
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A good win today and that'll give us all a boost. It was very much a game of two halves. It was nip and tuck in the first 45 and both sides could have scored although we had the bulk of the chances. Robbo perhaps put the wrong team out. The midfield was strong and combative but lacking in creativity and that showed. In short it was the wrong combination. Dunne clearly wasn't well and shouldn't have started, but robbo held his hands up to that. Still it shows that Dunne has commitment. The team seemed lop sided with Frear being badly missed. Moult too was playing out of position; on the wing or behind his midfielders. I felt a bit sorry for Cadden as he was our only real outball and boy did Killie know it. Our play was characterised by numerous stray passes.

 

To his credit, Robbo recognised our weaknesses and made cruciaI game changing substitutions with the appearance of Hammell, and Bigi. That gave us more creativity and ultimately our 2 goals. We played some decent football spurred on by an excellent Campbell who fought terrier like for 90 minutes. Bowman played well and took his goal well; Hartley looked the part and was plainly organising the defence. He may yet prove to be a crucial signing. Carson was impressive in goals; and Kipper had another great game. I thought he was unlucky to be yellow carded for wehat looked like a good tackle to me. We ran out good winners but did worryingly sat back a bit in the latter staqes.

 

A good performance but there are lessons to be learned. We were a bit exposed down the wings at times and we need to get the balance between caution and creativity right in the middle of the park. Still we look a far better team than we were last season and thinmgs are definitely looking up. There is more fight and determination in the team now and its showing. Stephen Robinson is proving to be a good manager.

Good summary as ever. I know what you are saying re midfield but given its a squad game nowadays and we have options on a strong bench I wonder whether the game plan was to win the midfield 'battle' and then push on with more creative players ie Biggi, who I am not convinced is ready for an engine room scrap. Anyways great to be debating the hows of positive results!!

 

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Good summary as ever. I know what you are saying re midfield but given its a squad game nowadays and we have options on a strong bench I wonder whether the game plan was to win the midfield 'battle' and then push on with more creative players ie Biggi, who I am not convinced is ready for an engine room scrap. Anyways great to be debating the hows of positive results!!

 

 

Maybe some truth in that. More than any other area of the team, midfield is a combination of types of player and irrespective of how well they are playing individually, the overall mix or balance is crucial. I can't remember such a strong and diverse midfield for a good number of years. Its certainly been our achilles heel in recent times. I thought that Killie were a pretty combative and streetwise bunch yesterday but we more than matched them.

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I enjoyed the result, the second half performance and SR's post match interview. He is the first manager we have had in a while who is willing and able to alter strategy within a game. He took responsibility for picking Dunne who had flu, roasted the team at half time for all the wasteful long balls, then put Bigi on to provide added creativity.

 

I think we need to keep our feet on the ground since this is a newly created squad. They will falter at times. However they are clearly an improvement on last year's side. Killie looked a class beneath us yesterday.

 

Campbell, Kipre, Hartley, Bowman and Moult were great yesterday. After he scored, Bowman showed some touches that clearly came from someone with confidence. Like many, I can't see what SR sees in Rose to give him a start each game. However with Campbell and Grimshaw around, he will have to step up or accept the role of fringe player.

 

I wonder if Tanner is in a similar position to Frear was last year. Frear looked out his depth when he first joined, but worked at developing his game. SR talks about having skilful players like Tanner in the squad, so I suspect we have still to see him reach his potential.

 

Finally - Alan Campbell. In recent years, we have looked upon young talent such as Marc Fitzpatrick, Stuart Carswell and Jack Leitch, as our great hopes for the future. Sadly, where are they now? In contrast, I have seen enough of Alan Campbell's tenacity and tackling to suggest he just might be the real thing. He reminds me of a young Lasley,

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Finally - Alan Campbell. In recent years, we have looked upon young talent such as Marc Fitzpatrick, Stuart Carswell and Jack Leitch, as our great hopes for the future. Sadly, where are they now? In contrast, I have seen enough of Alan Campbell's tenacity and tackling to suggest he just might be the real thing. He reminds me of a young Lasley,

 

Nah - more like a mobile Colin "Psycho" O'Neill - without the "Psycho" bit :wild:

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Pro's

 

Fewer seats around Fir Park help just that wee bit to help create a little more atmosphere and buzz, nothing worse than loads of free seats around you, unless you're a hermit/social retard.

 

We have a bench were everyone on it, you'd be like, "yeah ... could do a job", only a few months ago it was slim pickings. I think that adds to the excitement when we arrive at FP, there can be a combination of 20 staring line ups and formations and you'd get an "aye OK, makes sense that" from most of the support for every combo.

 

In Robinson we have (what it seems anyway) a manager willing to make immediate changes to improve things. Dunne being a prime example. However I may question why Hammell or Plummer didn't start if he was nursing an illness. Key for me is the dressing room and the cohesion where everyone seems to look out for one another and you get the impression there's a real Dunkirk spirit.

 

Hopefully the Gannon chief scout wankfest can be put to bed as if he was some sort of Arthur Daley wheeling dealing genius.

 

Dom Thomas returning to find those who replaced him are of higher quality and despite his best efforts, the decision made to allow him to leave was justified. Hope he turns good though and gets punted as we'd get a development fee.

 

Big Lee will always have a place in my heart for "that" interview and for all we know he may have been our Moult replacement if he went earlier in the summer. I'm so glad he stayed as while Erwin is impressive physically he still seems like a big daft laddie needing told what to do and where to go.

 

Ryan Bowman was excellent again ... let me stress the "again" part of that. Seems like a new quality signing maybe helped by the exit of a certain diminutive Australian.

 

We have two strikers willing to put in 110% until the final whistle, no cute antics or "conserving energy" such as Ainsworth and McDonald.

 

I'll jump on the Campbell gushing bus. If he was a striker the equivalent of his contribution to date would be about 4 goals. However he's a midfielder who's job is to harry, cajole, win and work tirelessly. Dundee Utd-esque contract extension please as a matter of urgency.

 

New turnstile plan seemed to work.

 

Con's

 

First half was insipid and dire yesterday, not helped by Killie looking for a draw ahead of a few really tough games.

 

Distribution and passing was chronic, granted primarily from one source and semi-justifiable. But as a whole there were too many basics overlooked that would be capitalised on by anyone other than relegation fodder such as Killie.

 

If we were more ruthless then yesterday coulda and shoulda have been a 4 or 5 nil dribbing for Killie.

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New turnstile plan seemed to work.

 

 

I was going to ask about this as I sit in the Cooper. Similar home support to the last home game but without the queues stretching past the Cooper so I assumed it worked well. If so, credit is due.

 

For me the noticeable difference was being able to get to the turnstiles unimpeded by a yellowjaiket

 

Take that element out of the equation and there's no need for any turnstile plan.

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Only slight negative is Rose. Sorry but he wont do. Not fit enough or strong enough.

No, I disagree. I didn't make the game yesterday, but on previous weeks he's covered the whole pitch and made up for a number of mistakes by McHugh, while also popping up at the other end of the park to support in attack. Nothing glamorous at all, and I'm not suggesting he's the lynchpin of the team, but I do think he's been really unfairly dismissed by a lot of our fans while doing an extremely effective job.

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Much of what I'd say about the game has already been well summarised by many posters.

 

One thing I did have a wry smile about our opener was another team allowing one of our midfield to charge up the middle of the park unchallenged and a goal stemming from it. How unlike us was it for us to be the beneficiary of this backing off rather than being the ones to suffer as a consequence of it.

 

Siebsbarmyarmy's old man (who sits in the row in front of us in the East Stand) spits feathers about this on a near weekly basis so it was lovely to see the roles reversed.

 

And again as has been stated the pass from Bigi, touch and finish from Bowman is actually much more intricate and executed than it appeared at first glance yesterday.

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Dom Thomas returning to find those who replaced him are of higher quality and despite his best efforts, the decision made to allow him to leave was justified. Hope he turns good though and gets punted as we'd get a development fee.

 

Big Lee will always have a place in my heart for "that" interview and for all we know he may have been our Moult replacement if he went earlier in the summer. I'm so glad he stayed as while Erwin is

 

No harm to either lad but they didn't really do much yetserday. I had no intention of booing either of them but Dom did upset a few fans with his petulant actions at a free kick in the first half. I don't recall that being part of his game at Fir Park.

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Siebsbarmyarmy's old man (who sits in the row in front of us in the East Stand) spits feathers about this on a near weekly basis so it was lovely to see the roles reversed.

 

 

Haha one of the many things he likes to harp on about.

 

All in all more encouraging signs coming out of the game from yesterday.

 

My mates a Killie fan and he was raving about Campbell's performance. I had spoken about him previously he said they are crying out for a player like him.

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I suspect Kipre might be our next big sale. He is huge and mobile. One of the highlights for me yesterday was when Killie brought on Jones the winger who ran riot for 30 minutes in the 3-1 game at the end of last season. The first time he got the ball he ran fifty yards with it from his own penalty box doing step overs on the way. Cedric stepped up took the ball off him so cleanly and strode forward and started another attack. Pure class.

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I suspect Kipre might be our next big sale. He is huge and mobile. One of the highlights for me yesterday was when Killie brought on Jones the winger who ran riot for 30 minutes in the 3-1 game at the end of last season. The first time he got the ball he ran fifty yards with it from his own penalty box doing step overs on the way. Cedric stepped up took the ball off him so cleanly and strode forward and started another attack. Pure class.

I was bent over laughing at that. It was like a scene in a movie where one guy shows off all his flash Kung Fu moves and after 2 minutes of watching this the other guy blasts him in the face with his pistol.

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It's even better live .... if you or any others can make it, around 4000 home fans the last couple games , be good to draw even another 100 or so along

It would be a 9 hour round trip for me this season. I don't love Motherwell that much.

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Surprise surprise, not a mention for Alan Campbell's performance on Sportscene analysis, absolutely shocking they could have shown some of his tackles and give him some praise, but with Thomson predicting us to be in the relegation battle at the beginning of the season I suppose I would not expect anything else!!!

Fwiw they highlighted Campbell when they covered the win against Hearts.

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