MJC

It’s still early(ish) days but so far JBA hasn’t shown any evidence of good game management so far and you have just provided two clear examples of that. There is obviously time for him and us to sort that out and indeed he does have credit in the bank with the team playing some nice football (in the middle of the park mainly) but we have thrown away three consecutive wins from winning positions due to poor play at both ends and poor use of substitutions to try and ‘shut the game down’. I said this the other day, we might very well look back on our early games especially that Hearts-Kilmarnock-Dundee trio as a very, very big set of missed opportunities this season.

Yes I think I’d be pretty raging if that was given against us but it wasn’t against us so…there we are. And we’re now a point, and a goal, ahead of Kettlewell’s Killie so I’ll take that. After the frustrations of the last few games I’ll enjoy this particular positive. 😀

Feel dirty for saying this but I was pretty happy to see Celtic beat Killie with a last minute winner today. Most importantly it keeps us a point ahead of Kilmarnock but of course it also sickens Kettlewell and deprives him of a result he couldn’t get whilst with us - a home draw with Celtic. Roon ye Dracula! Stick yer paper roses up yer arse

All Cup games are must win. Unfortunately we as a team are incapable of winning games and as a club we don’t have the bottle to go to one of the bigger sides grounds and dump them out of a Cup*. I reckon 0-0 or 1-1 after 90 minutes followed by an ‘agonising/unlucky’ loss AET or on penalties. We’ll no doubt play some nice stuff in the middle of the park, miss some chances and if we do manage to score we’ll chuck one or two in for them. Whatever happens we will lose on the day. * Yes, I do know that we won 1-0 up there in the ‘91 Scottish Cup run. 34 years ago now.

I said we would draw against St.Mirren - I was right I said we would draw against Kilmarnock - I was right I said we would draw today against Dundee - and I was right again And I am saying right now we will lose to Aberdeen next week. Let’s see if I’m right again…

Bookmark this right now. We will not win at Pittodrie next week.

Possibly, but at the same time it could go the other way as well and we get weaker as teams suss us out. As it stands we are playing some good possession football but with little to no end product and are poor defensively and always look likely to concede.

Aberdeen will knock us out of the Cup next week, you can bet your tank on it. Most likely a draw in 90 minutes then an ET/pens defeat but we are not going up to Pittodrie and knocking them out of the League Cup. If we are going to win any game in the near future then it will be the League game against them at Fir Park in a fortnights time, but at this point in time it’s hard to see us winning against anyone.

That’s kind of what I mean about missed opportunities. We could and really should have put a fair bit of daylight between the likes of Rangers, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen yet we find ourselves more or less tied with them point wise. I would expect Rangers and Aberdeen to get stronger as the season goes on in fact they almost certainly will, Killie perhaps not so much but time will tell. We have blown wins now three games on the trot and as I said earlier the longer we go without getting a win the more of an issue it becomes. I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if we are still seeking our first win come November.

But is there any reason to think we can actually beat anyone?

That’s just a cop out answer. What Aberdeen, Rangers or anyone else does or doesn’t do doesn’t concern us. The facts are that we have thrown away six points in our last three games from winning positions and we are now in mid September without a win in 90 minutes to our name since the season began proper. We now have Aberdeen away in the League Cup, then Aberdeen again at home in the League then Celtic away. Looking at that run of fixtures you have got to be honest and say that we will in all likelihood win none of them. (The home game against Aberdeen is probably our best chance imo but even then you wouldn’t count on it). If that turns out to be the case then we can only look back at our start to the season and the last three games in particular as a big, big set of missed opportunities to get points on the board. It’s still early days but this is shaping up to be a very frustrating season already.

Yes that and “on another day” On another day we turn our 2nd half dominance against Rangers into a win On another day we don’t bottle a 3-0 lead at Tynecastle to be left clinging on for a draw On another day Ward doesn’t drop the ball to throw away two points against Killie On another day we could have been two, three up against Dundee but only end up drawing. I’m sorry but this “on another day” just isn’t happening for me. You can blame Ward all you like, but this team under this manager has yet to show that it is capable of winning football matches. And let me be as clear as I possibly can here. I am not for one second suggesting that the manager should be sacked or that I think that he should be. Not at all. What I am saying though that I remain far from convinced with him and this team and until we finally record a win in 90 minutes or in next weeks case progress in the League Cup then that will remain the case.

Correct. Especially when you take into account being 3-0 up with less than half an hour to go and only draw, 2-1 up with less than ten to go at home and only draw and today 1-0 up and comfortable in the first half yet fail to press home our advantage and again only draw. We could very well look back on this sequence of results and rue them as a very big missed opportunity.

Fur coat, nae knickers 🤷‍♂️

Can’t win, Won’t win.

I’m not defending Ward but that defending was fucking awful. And if you can’t defend you don’t win games.

Here we go again.

Deservedly ahead at this stage. We’ve again shown that we are capable of taking a grip of a game and dictate play albeit without being too threatening. TJ(M) is as always the one who can make the difference with the goal and we have looked fairly comfortable at the back. Welsh has strolled it so far. Long way to go yet and I think we’ll need another goal if we are to get the win.

Our main man by a country mile! Great goal

Good team on paper there, hopefully we can make it count.

The manager clearly sees something in Ward and obviously considers him his first choice. That’s fine, but he can’t keep on costing us goals and points. What I would say though in Ward’s defence is that he actually saved us a point at the death against Hearts with a fine stop from long range, something that has kind of been overlooked due to his errors in that game and more particularly against Kilmarnock.

Excellent summary of where we currently are and put it better than I ever could.

My thoughts too, we need to get a win on the board especially with a tough run of fixtures coming up. A draw today would have been okay had we managed to win either one of or both of our last two games - which we should have - but the longer we go without getting the first win the bigger the ‘monkey on the back’ becomes. Sadly though I don’t see us getting anything better than a draw.

Because we’ll get a draw at best. 🤷‍♂️

Of course I do and I have enjoyed a lot of our play so far this season and stated already that it is so much more refreshing that what we have seen in recent years where there has been virtually zero football in the team. There are positives and encouraging signs but we’ve yet to see it ‘bear fruit’ in that we have played some good stuff but failed to register a win yet and there are still question marks over the team and the manager which is perfectly reasonable and to be expected for us and especially at this stage in a new regime. I don’t see us going up to Aberdeen and getting our first win in a Cup quarter final, but hopefully it comes soon as the longer we go without getting it it becomes a bigger thing for us.