Lukemfc1

Very worrying comments about this new goalie, don't want to be all doom and gloom but that's all I have to go on. Let's give him a chance and see how he does. My suspision is that he has been brought in solely for cover rather than actually seriously competing with Samson for the number 1 jersey. Time will tell but in IMO we need someone to compete with Samson, generally his shot stopping is fine but his distrubution and control of area is terrible. In regards to Frear, his amount of assists is encouraging regardless if it is in a low standard of league. Fingers crossed he can turn out to be another Marvin Johnson rather than a Jacob Blyth. As a few have mentioned I would like to bring in a centre back to challenge the McManus/Heneghen. As well as this I want another centre midfielder in the mould of Pearson who can do a bit of running in the middle. We all love Lasely but he is over run in games time after time.

Anyone heard any whispers on this guy from Forrest Green? I thought this would be a pretty straight forward deal. Would be nice to get someone in prior to Saturday to try and give the guys a bit of a lift. To me the O'Hallaron thing seems a bit unrealistic after seeing him play on Saturday. If we can get a wide man in, another centre mid, and a goalie i would be reasonably satisfied. Another defender would be nice too but trying to be somewhat realistic

Finally calmed down after the trauma of Saturday. First of all on reflection I thought we brought a good and positive crowd who got behind the team so hats off to everyone that went. After the game I thought i was probably the most annoyed I've been for some time watching Motherwell but then I thought back to my most recent trip to Ibrox and the Celtic game at FP. These games were exactly the same in the way that we capitulated. In the first half I thought we were very average and really lucky Rangers were so bad up front. IMO we set our stall out far too defensively and struggled to make our way up the pitch. In the second half I thought we done much better and actually played some decent stuff at times. Our goal was brillantly worked and I foolishly thought after this we could have pressed on to get another. Then came the total capitulation.. For some reason we continued to sit in and stand up off Rangers in the same way we did at Ibrox earlier in the year and against Celtic in the 4-3 game. We sat in and got pushed back further and further. I appreciate McGhee brought McDonald on but at this point we also needed to bring on Ainsworth or another winger who could provide a bit of respite and more importantly an outball for the remaining 15 minutes. This has been a consistent theme when we have been in similar situations all season. The first goal to me was a culmination of the above but the second was totally unacceptable. McHugh's pass to McManus wasn't the greatest but as we all agree McManus failed to deal with it in the way that he should (booting the ball up the park) An experienced defender like him should know so much better. This isn't the first time McManus has made a total arse of things and I don't think we should pretend this is a one off. Other than individual error my overiding feelings are 1. the manager is employing the wrong tactics in these situations 2. the players are mentally weak and don't have the mentality to cope at this level of match 3. we need both a winger and a decent defender. The whole situation is a bit tedious now, this has happened multiple times this season but we continue to set out the same tactics. As I said I think we have a bigger issue with mentality in our side in that we either can't live up to big games or perhaps we don't have enough belief to see things out. Ultimately the manager needs to take blame for both of these things but I hold the players to account for the lack of seeing things through and the individual mistakes made. To be honest the reaction from McGhee was more acceptable to me as atleast he showed how much it meant rather than him trotting out with cliches like he usually does. One main point; can we please not pretend this sort of display is 1. acceptable or 2. uncommon. This exact same situation has played out several times now and we have learned nothing. By no means am I saying we should not be more defensive away from home in certain circumstances but when we get on top don't sit so deep and most importantly stand off the opposition so much. We need to do this in moderation and when we can take control of the game do it rather than sittiing in and inviting pressure. These tactics are not working for us. Our defence is not strong enough to maintain this for 90 minutes. We were not 'unlucky' on Saturday, we were masters of our own downfall 100%.

Aye if you are not at the wind up I would be shocked if Douglas moved to us. He will be on a decent wage over there

Anyone get any recent whispers from the ticket office about how many we have sold? I'd be disappointed if we don't atleast bring 1k

Good points regarding the higher league players, I think alot of the guys you mentioned from higher up have been mainly reserve team players. Just shows you the value of first team football even at a lower level and as you said perhaps we are better taking an established player from lower down than a cast off from the top. Generally I guess what I am trying to say is recruitment seems to be only from the English lower leagues. I take on board the finance aspect of things but just find it strange that the rest of the SPFL can find value for money abroad and in Scotland. I obviously understand why we were are working in this market place. By no means am I saying we can't find good talent in the lower leagues of England I just think we should be widening the net a bit. Our transfer policy hasn't been terrible, but it has been a very mixed bag all in all. I just don't really accept the argument that we can only shop in this marketplace, Dundee, Ross County, St Johnstone etc all manage to get players in domestically and from abroad so how can we not? Why limit ourselves? To demonstrate this look at our recent transfers over the last few seasons; Craig Clay Grimsby Free 01 Jul, 2016 Lee Lucas Swansea Free 01 Jul, 2016 Carl McHugh Plymouth Free 05 Jul, 2016 Ryan Bowman Gateshead Free 31 Aug, 2016 Louis Moult Wrexham Signed 29 Jun, 2015 Wes Fletcher York Signed 01 Jul, 2015 Joe Chalmers Celtic Signed 01 Jul, 2015 Kieran Kennedy Leicester Free 16 Jul, 2015 Craig Samson Kilmarnock Signed 15 Sep, 2015 Ben Heneghan Chester Free 23 Jun, 2016 Jacob Blyth Leicester Free 23 Jun, 2016 Richard Tait Grimsby Free 23 Jun, 2016 Lionel Ainsworth Rotherham Free 16 Jun, 2014 Nathan Thomas Plymouth Free 02 Feb, 2015 Marvin Johnson Kidderminster Signed 02 Feb, 2015 Scott McDonald Millwall Signed 26 Feb, 2015 Louis Laing Nottm Forest Free 29 Jun, 2015

I am just basing this on the numerous amounts of players we have brought in recently, none of which have been from either market. I struggle to think of any in recent memory. We seem to have been recruiting primarily from the English lower leagues for some time now. I'm sure you can agree it's been a very mixed bag. For every Moult there has been a Blyth or Wes Fletcher

This is the market we would love to be in but judging by who we have bought recently I think this a non-starter. On the face of it getting someone like GMS or O'Halloran on loan has no long term gain but the impact in the short term could be pretty massive. Not a great fan of loaning players from the OF to ultimately benefit them but needs must. I'm surprised guys like O'Connell/Allan/Henderson were not looked at by us but perhaps Celtic would not be willing to split wages. The sad reality is the Old Firm have guys not even on their bench who could start in our first team. Some of the guys named could have a dramatic impact to our league position. Personally I'm worried at the market we are shopping in just now, our sole attention seems to be on picking up guys from the Conference in England. I would much rather we looked to the First Division in Scotland or widened the net abroad. Ultimately we must be working on a shoestring as per usual but I think we could do a bit better with the money we have. If we could get a goalie to compete with Samson. A pacey winger And a cental midfielder with legs I would be pretty happy. (Pearo?) I still think we don't have great depth at centre back/up front but we can get by with what we have aslong as we get no injuries. Hopefully the young boys like Maclean/Campbell can shine and push through to the first team.

Aye I totally understand this point of view, we are by no means hugely stable just now. My point against this however is that if we get shot of Moult, we COULD get relegated. Not trying to be doom and gloom but it is an increased possibility without him in our team. We aren't safe yet. And if we do get relegated the financial impact is going to be far more than 500k. We still have a year on his deal, why not keep him until the summer and reapproach things in the summer. I would be hugely surprised if there is no interest in the summer months.

At the end of the day, there is no guarantee we would get relegated if Moult leaves however it leaves us in a pretty horrendous position. Moult is one of the top scorers in the league with 9 goals, take these goals away and we would be really struggling. Take last week for example, granted he didn't have a great game but he was the guy that dug us out a hole and rescued a point for us. Moult has done this for us on a variety of occasions. I agree with the comments regarding Crystal Palace however don't forget he is only 24 and is still developing, perhaps they are looking at this as a longer term signing. In saying that, I would say the most likely scenario is a championship team comes in for him rather than Palace. The championship is a very scrappy league and isn't awash with any great quality. The kind of games played would probably play to Louis' strengths as a talented goalscorer. Regardless of this fact the transfer figure isn't going to be anything over 500k - 750k in a January window. England's superiority complex dictates this is the case unless he hits extraordinary form. I understand that our club isn't in the best financial position but if we sell Moult for 500k in January it increases our chances of relegation significantly. Denying that is foolish. We know with the club's current transfer policy if we let him go we will end up bringing in a replacement from the lower leagues in England for 50k-75k and it could be a hit or a miss. His contract is signed until June 2018, my feeling is we should reject any bids for him in January unless they are over 1m. This way we can increase our chances of finishing the league in a decent position and if he hits any sort of form will still be worth a decent amount in the summer. I think if we let Moult go for around 500k in this window we would be very foolish. It's about time our club starts to take a tougher approach.

After speaking to others after the game, I think I was perhaps overly negative prior to our equaliser on Saturday. I honestly thought we were pretty poor all over even allowing for being a man down. In hindsight though 1-1 having 10 men for so long was a good result, Moult's goal has totally changed the mood around the club. Great scenes with the fans at the end, was brillant stuff and gives us a real chance to kick on after the winter break. I also really liked the players and manager showing appreciation to the fans. Prior to the goal I thought we were capable of doing a lot more. Some of the control and passing was shocking, not really a fan of blaming the pitch for this but I guess this excuse could be used. Clay and Moult must have lost the ball about 10 times between them. Make no mistake Hamilton are shocking, very physical but zero quality minus Crawford. With this being said I thought they could have scored 4 easily, this for me was an indication of how bad we were at times. Real plus for me was the inclusion of another young player in Campbell who performed well and I thought McHugh again showed his quality at times. Fingers crossed in the window we can bring in another wide man to add an extra attacking dimension. When Cadden/Ainsworth aren't on the pitch we need someone with pace as an outball to counter with. Our forward paring isn't quick enough to break against most teams.

Wow. Brillant performance by the boys, really encouraging. Blown away by Craigan's post match interview too, outstanding. The way he comes across is very encouraging. If I was 16/17 this is the sort of guy that would get me motivated.

Unsure how this fixture can be described as a shambles? Strange analysis. If this isn't a good night for football i don't know when is? Amazing night for a game and really looking forward to it. Christmas time, everyone has been paid, everyone is in the mood to get merry, alot of people off work, Friday night etc. I think we should see a signifcantly increased home gate (hopefully 400+) and Aberdeen should bring down a couple of thousand given a lot people will have already have finished on the Friday. Aberdeen are in terrible form just now, I think with a good crowd behind us we have a real chance of getting something out of this. The pressure on Del boy just now is very high.

Was hard to believe this was the same sport we watched a week prior. One of the worst games i've witnessed in a while. Killie were pretty physical at times but the constant whistling from the ref combined with low quality made for a thoroughly horrendous watch. Pretty poor to average displays all over the park really. Thought Lasley in particular was shocking, sorely missed Chrissy Caden in the midfield. I really like Maclean, encouraged by his display. Was surprised to see him come off not sure if this was injury related? In any case, Lucas seemed to add a bit of quality to proceedings but not enough to have any baring on the scoreline. Moult and Ainsworth probably should have put away their chances however overall I didn't think our performance deserved much. We are still very much part of this pack but my biggest worry is with our upcoming fixtures Saturday could have been an important 2 points dropped. Not easy fixtures coming up. If we could get 6 points out of these we would be doing well. Tue 13 19:45 A Aberdeen Aberdeen Sat 17 15.00 A St Johnstone St Johnstone Fri 23 19:45 H Aberdeen Aberdeen Wed 28 19.45 A Inverness CT Inverness CT Sat 31 13:00 A Hamilton Hamilon Accies

Which part..

Just wanting to get everyone's views regarding the upcoming transfer window and what our activity should be? As well as this i guess it seems like a good point to cast judgement over the summer acquisitions. I'm hopeful there will be some activity but won't hold my breath. Summer signings; Out - Belic, Lucas & Blyth. The jury is still out - Clay, Lucas, Bowman, McHugh & Brill Good signings - Tait & Heneghan Personally speaking I would get shot of Lucas, Belic & Blyth in January. Lucas played really well when he featured but has proven to be injury prone. I think McHugh will be a massive player for us, his performances before his injury make me think he could be the centre mid that we are all screaming for. Bowman has something to offer physically but still unsure whether he will have quality to play in this league. In terms of the general squad; Out - Thomas, Moore In - Pearson, if he is available as some have mentioned, would really add legs to our midfield. Wide player with a bit of flair Creative midfielder that can chip in, all the central midfielders we have at the moment seem to be really samey. Let's tap in to the loan market, maybe doing a bit more research than the panic loan for Belic.. As well as the above some of the younger guys breaking through could be like a new signing, see Cadden last season.

Would like to draw people's attention to the attitude of James McFadden in the latest press conference, absolute night and day. I get that McGhee is probably more measured by experience etc but IMO as a fan and a set of players you want to be hearing your management saying they believe they can win the game.

Not sure but listening to his interview after Hearts 'if we lose, we lose' and 'how can we fancy our chances' really doesn't fill me with hope. More of a general point when we play Celtic his attitude is really uninspiring. A more forward thinking/enthusastic manager would have a totally different outlook. We have a lot of young guys in that team who will have no fear which is a good thing in these games.

The thing that is really starting to scunner me about this fixture is McGhee's attitude beforehand. He is making the same noises as the past couple of games we have had with them. We all know that Celtic are light years ahead of us at the moment but that doesn't mean we shouldn't go in with a positive mentality in the hope that we can do something. If our manager isn't atleast positive how does he expect the players/fans to be

Openly admit I have never really taken to the hype surrounding Thomas. He has some good skills but his failure to have any sort of end product or even find another guy with a pass is there for all to see. Cadden has proven if you play well enough you can break through to this team. In my opinion we should have put him out on loan a long time ago. I would loan him out in January and if he does nothing we might as well let him move on. I am sceptical that he would even get a regular game for even some championship teams. The reality is that u20s is a BIG gap from first team competition. This is partly the reason so many managers want the reserve league back.

I thought we were excellent on Saturday, was really expecting a Partick win given their recent form. As a few have said, hats up off to McGhee, his tactics seem to work a treat. I thought up front Scott McDonald was unplayable, that's the best performance I have seen from him in a long time and he was truly a class above. Often winning balls from under the nose of defenders double his size and linked up with Moult really well. I thought the difference generally across the pitch was simply the hard work everyone put in, every ball was chased down and the pressure shown by the team was outstanding. One thing I did find strange was the lack of substitutions to forward players to kill the game when a few of them were dead on their feet. I'm no football manager but don't really understand the logic in this. Over the moon to see us in 6th place but we are still only 3 points off bottom so let's not get carried away. Especially with Hearts then Celtic in our next two games. At the moment, we seem to have two types of fans, those who do not like our manager and those who excuse him at every opportunity. Let's try and find a middle ground. Some of the happy clappers saying 'told you so' after one result is getting pretty grating to be honest. It comes across about as childish as those who slate him at every turn. Let's get behind the boys and hope this can be the start of a positive string of results.

And why must we accept inconsistent performances? Many teams find a way to blood youngsters whilst still achieving decent results. We aren't asking for mountains to be moved here. This rubbish about this being his only remit is a recent phenomena which is being used as an excuse to justify rubbish performances. We need to be sensible about things, firstly we need to look at results. Like you, I'm hopeful that the decent run of games coming up can be a turning point but I am still wary if we don't string a couple of results together we could be back to square one.

I understand why the media treated the conference with McGhee in the way that they did but I felt he should have cut them short before he did. 9 minutes of Scotland chat and a minute of so of soft ball Motherwell questions. This 'my remit is to avoid relegation and bring on young players' is an absolute cope out. Guessing this is coming from the board. I understand these points to an extent but we must strive to be far more ambitious, there is absolutely no reason why we should not expect similar finishes to recent years. Granted we should be realistic but a club without any ambition is a pretty depressing sight. Same team as against Ross County please. The only change I would consider is putting Lasley in for Clay. Other concern is the physical presence Partick have so Bowman may be an option but we can't go back to 3 up top Samson Tait Heneghan McManus McMillian Cadden Clay Lucas Ainsworth McDonald Moult Hopefully a better crowd this week after the horrendous international break

Dundee have looked a decent team on the ball any time I have seen them but they seem to be lacking cutting edge up front with the two new boys they have. Given the form I think this should be a must win, if we don't we can kiss top six etc goodbye. Same team as we fielded against Ross County please. If we play like we did in that game 3 points won't be a problem. Not the easiest place to go but Dundee are certainly not firiing on all cylinders just now. 2-0 Motherwell.

Don't necessarily disagree with that point but unfortunately theses guys are the best that we have.