Accies Game On 7th Nov

[deJaya]

It was coming from Morrison's.

 

glad to hear it

 

looked impeccably observed otherwise ... good to see

[awayoflife]

wasnt someone in our end anyway

[broony]

Poor penalty from Forbes, almost looked lazy! His first few penalties this season were right in the corner but that one was perfect height for the keeper. Hopefully give him a boot up the arse and he'll bury the next one.

[jk2205]

Topsy Turvy performance. First half thought we could of been 3 or 4 up. Second half went to pieces for most of it.

 

Strange with regards to Gannon refusing to speak to the press. He didnt really have to make the statement about a clear out and surely he's brought speculation on himself?

 

Oh well, lets do the sheep in two weeks.

[Haggischomper]

the bbc article certainly speculated that Craigan and Lasley would be involved in the clearout.

 

however .. given that when asked for names, gannon said, "I think you just need to look at the team sheet." I'm not sure it was entirely unreasonable of the BBC to speculate - and from what i've seen of gannon he hasn't seemed like one to overreact.

 

 

Completely unreasonable of them, to be honest. They are there to report facts, not contribute to gossip. Undermines Gannon's relationship with players and I think they have been bang out of order here.

[deJaya]

Completely unreasonable of them, to be honest. They are there to report facts, not contribute to gossip. Undermines Gannon's relationship with players and I think they have been bang out of order here.

 

I see your point haggis ... to be honest though I was very surprised that Gannon was so frank about this whole clearout business in the first place ... almost as if he was daring the press to speculate.

 

anyway .. still watchin the game here on alba .. looked like obrien and the duke were pretty lively in the first half and looked like a clear penalty to me.

 

spose forbes was bound to miss one sooner or later but it was a pooooor effort i'm afraid.

[steelboy]

thoughts on the game tomorrow.

 

however i hope we never play an away match in front of 800 well fans again. the support in the cup game at st mirren was pish and today people were getting on the team's back from the start of the second half.

[mon_da_well]

thoughts on the game tomorrow.

 

however i hope we never play an away match in front of 800 well fans again. the support in the cup game at st mirren was pish and today people were getting on the team's back from the start of the second half.

 

Although a lot of people talk shite (I had a 'discussion' with a fellow fan after the opening goal), they are quite entitled to do so.

 

Great finish to the game, the last half hour was end to end and I really enjoyed today. A very valuable point for us that I'd have taken before the game if offered.

 

Special mention to Chris Humphrey for his pace and crossing (bar one which was shite). Also, Fraser looked very competant and could have done nothing for either goal in my opinion.

[GazzyB]

How did Fraser get on? Did he come for many crosses/have saves to make?

[mon_da_well]

Firt goal was Jenning fault (I think) and the second was more poor defending. Ruddy wouldn't have kept any of them out. Made a few good saves and was very vocal, although Craigan seemed to ignore a shout from him at one point.

 

He didn't disappoint.

[Wellimp]

Having watched it on BBC Alba i think we could have defended the first goal better by having a man on the post.

Looked like we could have sneaked the 3 points at the end when Reynolds went close.

Says a lot when their keeper got the Man of the Match.

Cracking goal from Murphy!

[Neil]

Got to say, and that pic seems to prove it, their keeper was a mile off the line when the ball was struck.

[Wellfan1984]

Got to say, and that pic seems to prove it, their keeper was a mile off the line when the ball was struck.

 

Not to mention the encroachment offence done by three Accies defenders....

[Joeboy]

To be annoyed I was really annoyed we didn't take more than a point today. At the end of the first half we seemed to be on top of them and it was a case of when not if we scored. Forbes penalty was poor, there was a long delay between the award and the kick- which never helps. Unless Craigan was injured, the substitution was a questionable one, why not bring off a midfielder for Murphy? Part of me thinks he just gives Craigan 45 minutes here and there to keep him sweet. Especially considering we stuck with the same formation.

 

Their goals were both poor goals to concede, I don't think Fraser could be blamed, although he did play a horrific goal kick to Saunders which sparked a funny petty argument between two supporters beside me. Jutkiewicz had a good game and O'Brien and Humphrey were fantastic in the first half- however the full team were worse in the second. To play as shit as we did and get a draw was comforting though, had we played to the best of our ability we'd have hammered them!

[weeyin]

To be annoyed I was really annoyed

You sound quite annoyed there, mate.

[Joeboy]

Haha, after reading that over I think I'm quite tired, bed sounds like a good idea!

[claretbandonambershirt]

Overall we had a penalty saved, played against ten men and stuck to the task to gain a point when all seemed lost. So, it wasn't all that bad in the end. It would have been a very different story if we had taken the chances we had early in the game, but we didn't so we fought well to get a point away.

[DosserJoe]

Part of me thinks he just gives Craigan 45 minutes here and there to keep him sweet. Especially considering we stuck with the same formation.

 

To be fair, he changed the formation. Murphy was brought on to make the team more attacking. He just hooked the wrong man. Accies were playing 1 up front after the sending off and Gannon obviously thought he could get away with 1 centre half. It was almost like he had Saunders man marking their centre forward with Hatley as a sweeper.

 

He should have just hooked Forbes or Hatley to change it rather than Craigan. Mistake by the gaffer, but so long as he gets more right than wrong we will be fine!

[Tweed]

Nothing much to add really. Would have taken a draw at 3pm, 430pm, 440pm but round about 330pm and 435pm was wanting a win. Every now and then you get days it just doesn't quite happen and while we dug in yesterday and got the point we at least deserved we should have got more but Cerny was excellent and sometimes you just need to concede that.

[Andy_P]

To be annoyed I was really annoyed we didn't take more than a point today. At the end of the first half we seemed to be on top of them and it was a case of when not if we scored. Forbes penalty was poor, there was a long delay between the award and the kick- which never helps. Unless Craigan was injured, the substitution was a questionable one, why not bring off a midfielder for Murphy? Part of me thinks he just gives Craigan 45 minutes here and there to keep him sweet. Especially considering we stuck with the same formation.

 

I agree with much of that. We were beginning to get up a head of steam as it was when Beuzelin was sent off and we were really dominant in the last 15 minutes of the first season.

 

I didn't see the need for the change at that time myself. Ofcourse you could argue the change worked as he came on and scored but at half-time, Murphy seemed like the option for the last 20 minutes when they had tired after playing for a while with 10 men.

 

If Craigan wasn't injured then you have to question the change on a defensive level. If he wasn't injured, to remove him and make what was already an unfamiliar defensive group even more inexperienced and patched up - and also removing Hateley from the midfield - just to make some petty point or statement is pretty poor stuff.

 

Again ofcourse debatable as to whether Craigan would have helped avoid the goals but organisationally I think we would have been better at the back.

 

Ofcourse he buggered off quick sharp so at this moment in time we can only speculate as to his motives and reasons for the change.

 

Overall though its very much a case of mixed emotions. Quietly confident beforehand when I heard of the injury problems, I would have been happy with a point. Coming back twice from behind to equalise also makes me pleased to get a point. Yet at the same time it does feel a bit like an opportunity missed with the sending off and penalty.

 

I suppose when the dust settles we've gone away for a derby game, came home undefeated, have kept up the unbeaten away record in the league, sit top half after the first round of games is a more than reasonable return for our efforts thus far.

[Rammer]

Watched the game on BBC Alba and thought Jennings looked like a man possessed when he came on. Definitely looked as though he was trying to prove a point and get himself into the starting eleven for the next match. Seems as though he's lost that bit of extra weight he was carrying which can only improve his chances of starting soon.

 

Thought Reynolds was excellent as well.

[superwell87]

From what i saw on BBC Alba, i dont think we played that badly actually. Dont think Fraser had anything else to do rather than pick the ball out of his net twice. A point is better than nothing, and Cerny was terrific for Accies who kept them in the game. He was deservidly MOTM. After the first round of fixtures we have only lost one game, that to a on form Hibs side. If someone had told me that at the start of the season, espicially after the first game against Llanelli, i would have probably laughed in their face.

[Yir Elder]

What was highlighted on Alba is how many good chances we made and failed to take. Mensing's goal for me was down to Reynolds, who let Mensing run off him to win the header. The second goal was partly down to him too, but he is his own harshest critic and won't need me to tell him that!

 

Going forward I thought the Duke and Jenno were excellent, and I'd give Jenno a start against the Sheep in a fortnight. Defensively we were fine for most of the game, but a couple of moments of slackness cost us the win.

 

I'm surprised that the lack of appropriate injury time hasn't raised its head. Cerny was wasting time at every bye kick and Accies were slow at every throw in too. You could see Gannon counting the seconds a few times on Alba! Considering that both teams made 3 subs and had players treated on the field, to play 4 and a half minutes added time given all the timewasting was shocking.

 

Given there was 7 minutes against the Jambos last week there should've been a similar amount yesterday, otherwise why tell the Accies players to hurry up? He hasn't punished them in any way.

[ankles]

Really enjoyed the game.Like most people i think if we had scored the penalty then we would have coasted the game but we did well to come back level with so little time left. Sometimes the moaning of our fans is unbelievable.Facts are we've only lost one game in the league and are unbeaten away from home,we've put in some great displays and a couple of terrible ones but right now i'm looking forward to every Saturday as soon as Sunday morning appears.Long may that continue Mon The Well

[Al B]

Firstly, although im really disappointed to not have managed the win, when you look at the fact that we were without 3 of our strongest back 4, our keeper, it was an away derby match, and we were behind...to take a point is a great result in the cold light of day.

 

Added to that the fact that we've been noticeably dire in 3 league games in particular this season (hibs, st mirren, accies), and yet only lost 1...you cant really be anything but happy with that, as you're gonna have games where you're shite...everyone is.

 

The negatives for me were that, yet again, Ross Forbes seems to have this unshakeable complacency that is really gonna hold him back in his career if he doesn't do something about it. Every time he gets the ball he wants far too much time on it before deciding what to do. I also think he's been really lucky with his penalties in that keepers have been going the wrong way. People say he has the ability to put the ball wherever he wants with that left foot, but if thats the case he needs to start A - getting the ball further away from the keeper, and B - stop pumping free kicks right into the wall.

 

The people who were suggesting that the Duke may be a lot closer to the Porter replacement that some folk gave him credit for, are looking to be more correct with every passing game. In fact if he keeps progressing the way he is (and we can keep him past January), he could potentially be a better front man. Wins the ball under pressure, holds it up well, manages to bring others into play when they are available, and gets on the end of things in and around the box to finish. It seems he's able to do what Ports could...plus a little extra.

 

Was really pleased with Jenno when he came on. Always looked to me like more of a holding midfielder in his appearances so far, but was surprised to see him a few times yesterday playing the ball in to the danger area and then getting beyond the strikers looking for the return ball and an attempt at goal. With Duke's ability to hold the ball up and lay it off (as well as sutton), Jenno could get amongst the goals.

 

Murphys goal pretty much summed him up for me. He's the kinda guy that is more than capable of things like that, it's just that for some reason he seems to feel like he doesnt belong where he is, or that he doesnt believe that he's good enough...and so end up getting caught in 2 minds with what to do, not having the confidence in his own ability and therefore gets caught in posession. Anytime i've seen him just forget all that and just play football, he's produced.

 

Like most I thought our back line was more patched up than it needed to be. I'd have thought in that situation Page was a shout for right back, or even Lasley...but I dont imagine Gannon would have fancied that. I guess he was trying to use the pace of Humphrey to compensate for losing the pace of Yass. Personally i'd have kept the back 4 as solid as possible, with 2 wide midfielders powering forward when appropriate.

 

Anyway first round of fixtures over, one loss, so cant really complain. My one gripe is too many draws from not being able to kill teams off and not being clinical in front of goal...but hopefully the Duke is coming into his own and he can make the most of that in the next round of games.