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If the authorities cared about the paying public, we wouldn't have plastic pitches, 6:15pm (or noon Sunday) kick-offs or Willie Collum.

Only if you stick to telling jokes cause you can’t sing

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.

Stats, all irrelevant drivel the only one that matters is the final score at 5:45pm on Saturday telling us we scored more goals than Untd, coyw.

Definitely want us to stick with the passing game. We have been infinitely more enjoyable to watch this season than last, and our points total is not that disimilar, although the last week or so has impacted that. I agree our squad is thin and we need to bolster it. We may need to take a chance on some of the youngsters between now and the next window just to see us through. I also think more pragmatism against the big 2 might have to be considered. I think we will be fine. But it has been a rough couple of weeks.

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.

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.

Firstly, we were poor yesterday. No arguments there. But the reaction from the usual suspects is unsurprisingly OTT and gives no consideration to the circumstances of the last few weeks. We have gone into a really tough run of fixtures with a threadbare squad and little ability to change things up as most of the missing personnell are in the same areas of the pitch. Our results have been poor, but yesterday was the first time I felt the performance fell well below the required standard compared to the level of the opposition. My one criticism of Hammell yesterday was that once it was obvious Goodwin had set Aberdeen up to counter our set up, he didnt go and match him up. We had the players on the bench to do it and I think it would have protected our defence a little more and given us a better platform to play from. That said, the changes he did make got us back in the game and a bad KVV miss and an inexplicable refusal to use VAR for the penalty decision are all that stood between us and a point. I also thought Tierney had a decent shout for a penalty in the first half and surprised VAR didnt look at that either. Its clear to see where our problems are and there is no hiding from them at the moment. But most of them are not of Stevie Hammells making, so we need to get behind him and the players as they are all we have at the moment. We need to try and scrape a few more points before the break and then hope we can get some players back fit and also sign a couple in the next transfer window. The time to judge Hammell is not now.

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.