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The performances are only worrying if you dont put any context around them and only look at the balance sheet. Since the Dundee United game you highlighted we have played the following in the league...... Hearts (H) 0-3 - vibrant attacking performance, created a bucketload of chances and got picked off on the break. Hit the woodwork 3 times and Craig Gordon pulled off numerous saves. Should have won the game. Got mugged. Celtic (A) 1-2 - gave a good account of ourselves at a difficult venue against a very good Celtic side. Unlucky not to nick a point. Ross County (A) 0-5 - tight first half with little quality on show by either side. Dominated the 2nd half played some good football and scored 5. Hibs (A) 1-0 - tight game at another difficult venue against a side with far superior resources. Denied a stone wall penalty which VAR would have given and continued to threaten even at 1-0 and a man down. Rangers (H) 1-2 - Another tight game against opposition with far greater resources. Well in the game first half before we shot ourselves in the foot twice before regrouping and getting a goal back. Rangers hanging on at the end. Poor quality in final third prevents us ffom getting anything from the game. Aberdeen (H) 1-2 - Another tight game against opposition with far superior resources ( you might see a pattern here). Poorest first half performance out of all the above. Changes made at the break, dominate 2nd half, score a good goal then shoot ourselves in the foot again before continuing to press for an equaliser. Denied a stone wall penalty and VAR inexplicably fails to intervene. Im happy to accept our performance levels have dropped off in the last few games, but if you look at the opposition, our injuries and suspensions, there are more than enough mitigating factors.

Re our 3 penalty incidents yesterday. The first one with Tierney is difficult to tell. The contact from the stand side camera is obscured by the Aberdeen player and the camera behind the goal doesnt pick it up until after Tierney goes to ground. I thought it looked like a fair shout in real time but I can understand why VAR cant over rule the referee on that occasion. Re the handball, it is quite clear to me. I watched Sportscene last night and Shelley Kerr is saying it clearly hits his hip. Really? My eyesight must be shocking as it looks like it hits his hand to me. The question would be was it deliberate, and again thats subjective. Some will give it, some wont. Finally the Lamie incident isnt even a question. How VAR could look at that and not think that is a penalty I have no idea. Its as clear a penalty as you will see. Of course we still have to score it to get anything from the game and the form KVV was in yesterday gives no guarantees. But these are the fine margins that decide games in our league and regardless of the performance yesterday, our fans need to show a bit more understanding when it comes to their assessment of the manager.

This game and the St Johnstone for me are must come away with something games and if I see Steven"slowmo"Fletcher go passed any of our players then I am done!He could make a snail in treacle look like Usian Bolt.

It would help a lot if they had some sort of communications to allow clubs to ask questions regarding incidents and for the officials to reply. I know that could get messy but surely they could sit down for a bit and come up with some controlled system to address issues rather than just have a blanket “no response” from officials. The lack of explanation/accountability can be quite infuriating. So with VAR being new you would think they would want open dialogue to address issues/complaints/understanding of the system. Simple question, “defender clearly grabbing Lamies shirt literally almost off is back. Why was there no review or there was a review that said no foul”? Let officials or their organization respond and decide if we need to improve the VAR procedures or if cameras didn’t catch it or we saw it and decide no PK. Even just in general there needs to be a forum for dialogue between officials and clubs.

Interesting reading so many different opinions here, from hammell not knowing his best team, wanting youth player played, poor defending, nothing up front, no pace up front or at the back although some say Shields has pace, others looking for some players to be played out of their natural position, no quality, in crisis, no crisis just a few points off the top 6. Everyone is divided do we want eye bleeding football like Alexander served up or a passing game that Hammell it trying. I think we are light as a squad, i would rather see a 5-0 Ross County game and losses to others if it progresses the passing style i want to see. I would like to see some more youth players introduced as i feel they bring a freedom and are not afraid to try and display their skill , but recognise that we still need experience. Our spine is very week, our full back issues appear to be resolved, shields will never be a winger. Goss is a luxury player. With a bit of recruitment and sticking with the passing game we will be ok but we must find a player to build our team around

McGinn didn't looked great yesterday but as a mate pointed out he was often having to cover for others drifting out of position. That made him look worse than he actually was. Aberdeen weren't great but our defence was a bit shambolic and leaderless.

Even if SH was ripping into them as you put it and the players dont respond what can he do, have people forgot we are in a bit on an Injury crisis at the club just now, a paper thin squad with no cover, none of which is SH's fault, he inherited the mess. So currently we need to run with what we have and the team we had out yesterday is probably the strongest 11 we could field, maybe Cornelius in for Tierney from the start is all that he could realistically change. So we need to run with what we have until the injured players recover( maybe never in the case of Aarons and Moult) to give us more of a threat and pick up as many points as we can before January when we can hopefully strengthen the squad and get a couple of goalscorers in. So basically people need to cut SH some slack at the moment and wring their knickers out, no need for any pant wetting just yet.

personally both Goss and Slattery would be in my first eleven. I'd much rather put in an extra midfielder , preferably Cornelius and only work with 2 up front. Overall though I don't believe the formation to be the issue. It's been and still is a very tough run of fixtures and when you lose confidence it's hard to get back (just look at Liverpool/Rangers/Aston Villa etc) . We need to find a way to get a result in next few games and sometimes you just need to change for changes sake to give us something different. Hence a change in formation and win more in the midfield. We don't have the best central defence so makes sense to give them a bit more protection. (or put McGinn at Centre Half and bring back S'OD)

When Hammell was touted for the job I said that if chosen we would have to give him at least 2 seasons to learn/ build a team and that there was the potential for relegation this year. Most folk on here were still willing to go with him, yet 12 games into his tenure I’m reading a lot of negative chat about him, talk that he’s not up to the job and even the need to change manager again - FFS can some folk stop and think before posting! Yes we all see things differently and chat is good but get some perspective please - 12 league games and getting knocked out a cup quarter final by Celtic isn’t long enough to judge anyone on. Am I happy with the results or the way we have lost most games? No but at times I see enough to encourage me to believe that thing could get better, results could improve and with some luck this team should be good enough to stay in the top flight this year.

Saw that as well. The officials have made a total arse of it.

I said at the time when we signed mcginn that it would only make sense if odonnell was leaving.dont get me wrong I think mcginn has been a decent enough signing but as players they couldn't be any similar in terms of ability and were most likely paying them both good money to have one of them sitting on the bench.i would personally change to 3 at the back and move mcginn inside and have odonnell at right wing back,we need to find a way of making ourselves harder to beat,we are shooting ourselves in the foot on a weekly basis with the standard of goals were giving away.