Goggles & Flippers

Jesus Killie are doing their best to help us out, as were St. Mirren last week beating Ross County and we can't do anything about it. Outrageously frustrating. This is a team who could have held their future in their own hands, however that has been squandered over the past 3 games.

Need to take advantage of all this pressure. Anyone at the game can confirm if Hammell is making a notable difference?

If he was able to steady the ship when he took over in the same way Locke initially did at Killie then as Ya Bezzer pointed out then things wouldn't look so desperate. Jim McIntyre took over at RC on the 14th of September. They had a woeful run under him too until, Motherwell at home. That game was a catalyst for them and potentially could be our ultimate undoing (pay-off). I did feel Ross County's run would come to an end, but way before yesterday. It was impossible for them to finish the season with 13+ wins on the bounce. It's just galling that the next fixture could have evened things up, but that all depended on getting a result on Friday. Galling when half our regular home support makes it to the last two fixtures. I've tried to stay off the Baraclough bandwagon but as chronic as we were under McCall, he did address the scoring issues ..... eventually. It's just the defensive frailties haven't and he's had the gig long enough now. Maybe we underestimate the malaise that festered at FP earlier this season, but I've seen countless new managers across many league take up post and stopped shipping goals. However I do feel a seasoned internationalist on top wedge should be leading the line much better. A lot of his signings appear now with hindsight to be a tad kneejerk and no doubt cost the club a lot of money which the WS ultimately will have to cover. While a few of them have been key to moving clear of St. Mirren, a couple less allowing us to get a higher quality player (left back) would have served us better. I can't fault his enthusiasm and positivity. Just need to see it rub off on the players. All the momentum we had built has eroded back to nothing. With Partick virtually safe now, I wonder if come the last game the commercial benefit of us over Ross County (£30k vs £1-2k) may count in our favour. Of course there is professional pride but we can't deny the league as a whole benefits from our continued presence over theirs and that won't be ignored. Question is, will it play any prominence? Integrity wise, you'd hope not. But I'm not caring much about that at present, funny how you let that slip when it's your own team.

Wouldn't mind seeing what the new benefits are for each level and how they differ from the old ones. I'm guessing they were read to be uploaded to the WS website in conjunction with this announcement? Based on what I read, not overly happy at pledging £45 a month (as I suspect that is the highest your ordinary fan could stump up) when: a) I get benefits drip-fed to me. I did suggest an alternative where a pledge to upgrade is made and sub paid in full to access them. Annual subs taken from then on. b) My £5,000 Amber commitment could be left with £0 if the WS funds are plundered to make up Les' loan repayment terms. Hopefully when the full details of the scheme are demonstrated it will address a few of these issues.

BBC are reporting the police and TV are what's delaying things. 5pm I reckon. Not outrageous to suggest they maybe should have had 3 different scenarios ready to publish so it isn't getting left to the last minute. Typical.

I didn't predict results, I gave my view on where we could end up. The reality is relegation as well as survival has not already been decided. Likewise if County lose and we win, the balance will swing the other way. I prefer to look at it that way than yours. As for if we win all 5, bugger all to do with me, save your thanks for the management and players. Because it serves us better talking about what we will definitely face than relegation which isn't anywhere near guaranteed.

Ross County had 2 and then they've won 7 out of 8. As for our win's, you can't deny we've looked much better over the past month than we have all season, not beyond us and the group of players we have to grind them out. The only thing I don't look forward to if we do face Rangers is the Daily Record double page spreads with Josh and Nicky Law facing off against each other holding up clenched fists and McCall greeting how regardless of the result how it has no positive outcome for him ....... wank rag. We'd be better served talking about how we can tackle the next few games and our opposition, what we can do to combat them and expose frailties than hypothetically second guessing what's going to happen come August.

It's not about thinking it, it's perfectly realistic we can maintain our status, either through finishing 10th or winning a 2 leg play off. I am under no illusion the size of the task but it's not pie in the sky stuff. If any player showed even a fraction of the despair spouted on here, those same people would be barracking them relentlessly from the East Stand, that is if they venture back this season. As for the valid reasons and opinion talk, I haven't seen many valid ones given other than we lost on Saturday. As for that, just geez peace, whipping out that old chestnut is the akin to someone whipping out the "nazi" line in a thread. Opinions and perception aren't like facts and reality, and shouldn't be confused. Bullshit can't be justified by adding the "opinion" caveat.

I'm just thinking if he'd been about outside Fir Park before the Odense, Celtic Cup Final, Rangers Cup Final, Icelandic mob, Greek bods and Nancy games then I would be over £150 better off. But I'd be the world's biggest fud for listening to him. I describe myself as a supporter, not a pessimist or even a realist.

So it's a shoe in it's definitely happening then? OK folks, nobody bother showing up at FP again this season, Milo says it's a lost cause. In fact if anyone would have listened we could have saved ourselves a lot of money, heartache and hassle if we just heeded his prophecy back in January.

If we win 5 games and are still in a playoff then to be fair, we deserve to be there, that's how a league system works. If County win 3 and draw 1 and lose to us then we'd still finish behind them. I think the issue for our dressing room is that every game now is squeeky bum time and to have calmness that we'll deliver a victory. Not ideal if we're all square going into the last 15 minutes. All opposition teams know that we have to push on for 3 points to will no doubt look to exploit us on counter attacks, or just park the bus. We've shown consistently over the past few years we have no answer to that (Albion Rovers, Aberdeen League Cup and Killie recently at FP). Ross County, 16 bloody points from 18, Did ye? Aye?

Jesus, just looked at his reputation score, -432 and that's with the button being removed about a month ago.

Oh right, because you are aware even if Ross County win tonight, as long as we match them apart from one week and obviously beat them at FP it's nowhere near as much a certainty as you make out. However let's not ignore the 2 legged playoff if we are unsuccessful in finishing 10th. Lot of twists yet however you seem to permeate that it's a certainty.

Feel a bit for Kerr, played well last time he turned out when he deputised for Laing after he was red carded.

For what purpose and to what end?

I think what is telling is the following facts: St. Mirren have very little about them and will certainly finish bottom. Both Motherwell and Partick Thistle have accrued the same number of points in the past 6 games. They've played tougher teams and our gap remains the same however with less opportunities to close it Ross County have managed 13 with a good chance of 16. I think their run will naturally come to an end, just hope it's not in August or September. The potential best hope for us is the two teams not covered. I didn't include them 6 weeks ago as I thought things would pan out between the bottom 4 and they were essentially safe. So I'll look at their last 6 games: Accies (2 points) currently 43, GD, -6 Celtic 0 St Mirren 0 Ross County 1 Motherwell 0 St Johnstone 1 Dundee Utd 0 Killie (2 points) currently 38, GD -8 St Johnstone 1 Motherwell 1 St Mirren 0 Ross County 0 Motherwell 0 Aberdeen 0 Accies have had a tougher run in but even Dundee Utd who have the worst form currently got a result. Killie have also stalled but from watching them I think they have more about them than Accies. What we have in our favour is that I feel both teams could feasibly only take points off of St Mirren, outside that it's a big ask based on current form. When we look at our final fixtures it will hopefully be: Killie (h) 3 (very tough but we have a score to settle over playing 45 minutes and not breaking through) Accies (a) 3 (even on the plastic pitch I have little fear) Partick (h) 1 (a lot of ex Motherwell players have a lot to prove, as do a lot of current ones after yesterday) St. Mirren (a) 3 (chronic) Ross County (h) 1 (We'll be pumped up and when you think back to the 3-2 in Dingwall they scored two wonder goals, there wasn't that much between the teams) Issue is I can't see anyone dropping points to St Mirren which puts Accies safe and us level on points with Killie. Issue is we have to get +8 goals and they have to end the 5 games -8 (or another combination equalling 16). Lot of if's and but's but our best chance still rests with overhauling Ross County. To suggest we win our home fixture is a given so we need to get a win one week they lose. Not beyond the realms of reality to match them every game bar one and tuck them away.

Perceived wisdom suggests that is the case, slower big guy with a wee fast guy, Coyne and Arnott, Sutton and Shearer, etc. I didn't advocate it either way. Yesterday convinced me that with Sutton, wingers are the best option. Hindsight would suggest a straight swap for Johnson with Thomas, however I think Baraclough didn't want to expose him to a potential full 90 minutes. Consequently he opted for seasoned campaigner Sutton and pushed the on form Erwin out wide. You live and learn.

Again, not at all, I'm saying that using Erwin as a winger for Sutton isn't working as he isn't capable of providing enough telling crosses of decent quality. I'd actually quite like to see Erwin and Sutton playing through the middle in a 3-5-2 with Johnson and Ainsworth supporting from midfield. It would be interesting to see how many problems two tall, strong strikers playing in tandem could cause challenging for balls in that 6 yard to penalty spot danger area. To experiment with that was something for the last 20 of the Accies or Buddies games when the victory was assured.

No I suggested a number of people on here seem to have a degree of schadenfreude especially when they can troop out the old "I told you so". Yes yesterday wasn't ideal mainly because we took a good support and that support wasn't rewarded with a result, but by no means were we entitled to one. I said nothing of the sort about Erwin. Normally a strong tall target man striker works best when he has a nippy striker partner playing off him. Higdon and Ojamaa for example. For me yesterday confirmed that Sutton works better from byline crosses than having someone like Skippy. To take greatest advantage of Sutton, the support players have to get to the corners and whip balls in. I don't think Erwin has that at present. I was concerned with the defencive frailties on Tuesday which were exploited by a better team who have been accruing as many points as us over the past month. I take no glee in that fact.

I just can't see County getting to the end of the season with another 5 games and 15 points tacked onto the 22 they've already got from 24. I do think their bubble will burst.

A lot of posters on here seemed to be blessed with the power of hindsight based prophecies coming to fruition. Sutton has scored 4 goals in just over 60 minutes total time on the park over the past 3 games. Two of those games we were in the ascendancy and the opposition are in free fall, however I certainly don't castigate Baraclough for including him in the team from the start. Sutton needs crossed balls rather than a nippy foil to be most effective. Erwin doesn't appear to have that in his arsenal yet and Ainsworth needs the everything from his morning weetabix to the weather to be just right or he's indifferent. Signs were on the wall against St. Mirren though, a couple of their corners we didn't mark adequately and I found myself those around me howling on Josh Law/Straker to cover the wide man who had acres of space at a few set pieces. The defence is still piecemeal and a decent team would have caused us issues ..... fast forward 5 days and here we have the outcome. I personally find it hard to swallow that professional footballers can function adequately or even be impressive, however when asked to move 15 yards to the left or right and perform a slightly different role they appear to go to shit. The fact is, Partick away was always going to be tough, the grand predictions on here after Tuesday nights spanking was premature, Thistle have performed as well as us pretty much in the past 6 games however over the season they've been more cohesive while we searched for consistency and confidence. It is by no means over, I can't see us not getting Killie (h), Accies (a) Partick (h), St. Mirren (a) and Ross County (h) probably in that order (I think the SPFL will schedule the Ross County game similar to last year to ensure a grandstand finish). So based on that our three hardest opponents are at home and the two teams imploding are the away fixtures. Is it definitely plausible to win the next 4 on the bounce. Nothing I've seen in recent weeks suggests otherwise. I do think there is enough grit in the team that when the return fixture is hosted at FP we'll make up for it. Today's result would have affected pride and is a wiff of smelling salts which I hope is timely.

Oh for Christ's sake ..... There were plenty of people who would have accepted Rangers in their reborn status back into the top league. The fact that under a lot of duress and pressure many people in the Scottish game didn't capitulate shows a degree of integrity. However be happy a precedent has been set and any smaller team can cite what happened with them and maybe use that to mitigate their own demise.

Sporting integrity ... no Excitement, entertainment, media exposure and cash generation ... yes Rangers being relegated to the 3rd division was the last example of sporting integrity in this country.