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I was never in favour of VAR because I was aware that technology would never improve the standard of refereeing and administration in the Scottish game. It's still the same people, or even a further sub stratum, of people making the decisions. I don't have a problem with goal line technology and offsides but re-refereeing every decision and checking every goal is a disaster for football, especially for live spectators. The essence of the game is being torn out.

Surely the glue is the best part?

Every single manager should get at least the first two rounds of matches and that's not taking into consideration any bonus points for past endevours. Our fans need to take a cold, hard look at the reality of fan ownership. What is it you expect the club to achieve? Top 6 every season? Brilliant players, amazing football? Also there is a lot of frankly deluded moaning. Fans were moaning when Alexander got us into Europe. That's where a lot of our fan base is these days. They don't seem to enjoy supporting a town club and everything that goes along with it. And there is plenty of decisions Kettlewell has made that I don't get or flat out disagree with but so what? We are not detached in terms of points, performances, quality of squad. There are things that can be improved but for me we've mostly been competitive. If we are hitting re-start after 14-15 matches every season we are going to have a foundation and no roof on a permanent basis. And the usually suspects complaining that the rain is coming in.

I was hung over, there was drip right above my seat, our winless run continued and there was some fractious moments between the crowd, the manager and some of our senior players but you know what? I actually enjoyed the match today. Open, played at a decent pace, plenty of incident and goals. OK, the overall performance wasn't great, I actually thought Dundee deserved the win, but that doesn't look like a team that's given up to me.

Hopefully this wee game might warm ye up

Every time the undersoil heating is used it kills the grass roots so if it can be avoided by using covers it is. (As told to me by the head groundsman on Saturday)

It can work in terms of being competitive in the division and the club not going to the wall. Fans however need to manage their expectations. Just think about your own bills and then imagine you were running flood lights and undersoil heating on top of that and you might get an inkling. We are 8th right now and as close to 5th as 12th. That seems well within reasonable expectations. Of course that might change and if we continue to not get 3 points it will definitely change but right now we need to hold steady and support the players and management.

They’re already fecked anyway ☹️

He didn’t go in with studs up. He is clearly focused on the ball and attempts to sky it up the park. However, the Dundee player jumps in and gets ball before Paton and collided with Patons studs. At most a yellow i suppose I don’t know what the guidelines are that SK mentioned

Since being a sole manager he's managed 54 games and won 38%. Not brilliant but good enough for us (if sustained) This season our league our win rate is 20%. After 15 games it's no longer a throw away stat. Thats Malpas level poor and almost certainly bottom 2 if you look over the history books. Those running the club have a lot to answer for. Need for a CEO , longer term strategy, invest in youth etc. Spend money on a manager with a proven record. Example Stockports manager has over 700 games and a win record of +50% . Closer to home Ian Murray has over 300 games as a manger with a +40% win record. These are the types of managers we should be looking at. Rather than picking up someone who's been booted out for being poor elsewhere , hire someone a club actually wants to keep and who may want to step up a level.

If we do change the manager, looks like St. Brendan may be available soon. 😱

Correct.

I thought the same at the time and so did a few of the intelligensia around me in the POD and yet it wasn't mentioned on Sportscene either. As for Paton, it looked like he was focused on the high ball but a fractional late. There was no malice in the tackle and none of the 'Dee players reacted to it at the time. I may be clutching at straws but Wilkinson's goal was surprisingly well taken and he was unlucky with another two efforts so he may be finally getting up to speed. Either that or I've taken too much cough mixture.

I really think SK is on borrowed time and we are simply delaying the inevitable. Very few other clubs would retain a manager with a record of 4 points from 33. Most, though not all of us, would agree that his summer transfer dealings were poor. Why then should we expect his January dealings, if there are any, to be better? The team, not just 2 or 3 individuals, has lost form. That has to be down to the manager. He seems incapable of changing tactics or formations to turn things around and we are making the same errors month after month now. If there is to be a change then we have to do it soon, as any new appointee would want a full window to se what he could do in the market. I really cannot see a significant improvement in results in the next 2 games, or even beyond that..

On paper I agreed too, but on the field it soon became apparent that the actual formation was causing us serious problems. An out of touch Butcher was playing almost as part of a back 6, with a 2, possibly 3 man midfield and an isolated striker having to feed off long aerial balls. After an encouraging early goal, we sat back and packed our penalty box. Dundee were allowed to swarm all over us and were afforded as much time and space as they wanted. In short we were far too passive. Again we looked very narrow and Dundee took full advantage of space out wide. They knew our weaknesses. Dundee were no world beaters, but looked faster and better organised than us on the day. The team does have something though to come back a man down and snatch a late leveller, not for the first time. Our defending was abysmal and we looked disorganised. When out of possession we lost all shape. A lot of these weaknesses are down to the manager. Players who were playing well months ago are now playing poorly en masse. Thats down to the manager. All things told I reckon it was a point gained and not two lost - a sad indictment on how poorly we played. VAR spoiled today's game and provided plenty of talking points. Overall though, the ref had a good game considering he was rookie at this level. After having watched the highlights, I’m baffled as to why there was no VAR check for Dundee’s first. When the ball is lofted back in there are 3 Dundee players, including the scorer, clearly offside. Was there a very slight deflection? I can see now why Mugabi’s goal was scrutinised for fouling – maybe 50/50. Harry Paton’s red card -wrong. A yellow card, as originally awarded by the ref. He was going for the ball, which was at knee height, as was McCowan. Is it a case of who gets there first? A bizarre incident late on, when Boateng went down injured after being pulled back. He fell to the deck clutching his ankle to waste time, and was asked to leave to the field by the officials. He complied only to be blocked by Tony Docherty and pushed back on again. You couldn’t make it up.

I don't disagree we are in trouble but you are on every week with your predictions....usually predicting defeats and usually wrong scorelines. If you had a track record of getting scoreline right you'd be a rich man and we would all take you seriously...Just a bit tedious and bad for morale...we are in a fight for sure

I think we should be supporting the one we've got before we delve into a fantasy land of made up track records and abilities.

I totally get the "sack him" arguement, 4 points from 36 is sackable for 99% of clubs, however the costs and the fact the new manager inherits the same shite Kettlewell is struggling with makes the benefits of sacking him rather obscure to me.

tony docs only been in it 6 months, but a bet kettlewells first 6 months is as good as docs

Here's a thought .... could the Moderators set up a separate thread called "I wan't to b*tch about the Club, coz I could run it so much better", transfer all the comments from this thread to it and leave this thread to be for rumours (and the occasional fact) as to who we are about to sign?

The best manager in my time Tommy McLean signed loads but he was savvy enough to offload them fairly quickly.He also signed lots of gems. The transfer window makes that almost impossible nowadays so it makes it vital that as much research as possible is done before signing players.

Fuck off you tit. We've just taken a draw with 10 men. Dundee did nowt second half until Paton was sent off.