joewarkfanclub

Only heard the game on the radio, but that was a very pleasing result. Biting fingernails at the end with Kellys save, but the perfect response to a disappointing few weeks. Hopefully it will kickstart us for the run in. Fingers crossed for a favourable home draw in the next round!

They will also get in thru hospitality with various businesses taking boxes or booking corporate packages.

Efford and Tierney showed more purpose and guile in 15 minutes yesterday than the rest of the team had in the previous 45 mins. It was a shame the 4th goal came when it did as it totally killed the momentum they had created. Woolery offered absolutely nothing. He is such a frustrating player. As others have said above, he looks to have all the attributes to be successful at our level, but appears to have absolutely no idea what to do with them. Really not sure how you change that, but we have another 2 and a half years to try. As for team selection, I can only presume there must be Covid / illness /injury issues stopping Ojala getting a start. We all know he is our best defender so GA sure as shit knows that. The fact he isnt playing him and has played Carroll, McGinley and now Nirenold in there speaks volumes. However, GA doesnt want to talk about these matters, so we will just need to remain in the dark. The big question for me and for GA going forward is who can he trust? We were always gonna be up against it yesterday and the outcome, whilst depressing was not surprising. What is unacceptable though is players not busting a gut for their teamates and for the club. Celtic have the quality to carve better teams than us open, they proved that on Wednesday night. But once you get out of position you bust your arse to get back and help out. Way too many examples yesterday of that not happening. Be very interesting to see team selection against United, but for me Cornelius must be rewarded and several others should be benched, starting with Carroll, Woolery Donnelly and van Veen. Efford and Tierney must start and I would give Roberts another opportunity to see where his heads at.

Thought Deano had as good a game as any of the outfield players and deserves to keep his place on Wednesday. But it has to be Kelly who stopped it getting really embarassing.

Not much I can say in defence of that performance. We were totally outclassed in every area of the field. Was always likely to happen given the form they are in. Im not sure how we become more competetive in these fixtures, but todays tactics and formation certainly didnt work. Lets not kid ourselves that we were doing ok up until the first goal, Kelly had kept us in it up until that point and it looked only a matter of time. Carroll showed today why McGinley has been playing in front of him. Time and again he left Abada goalside of him and made no effort to track back and help McGinley. The changes made at half time did seem to give us some impetus until the 4th goal killed the game. Tierney looks to have some ability with the ball at his feet and appears to have the heart and desire to make thimgs happen. Efford looks quite direct and offered more than KVV. Woolery looked absolutely clueless up top and ambled around aimlessly as if he wasnt really sure what he should be doing. All in all, a thoroughly depressing experience. The only good news is that we dont have to face that level of opposition on Wednesday. I would expect to see wholesale changes and a much improved display.

Because of how they influence everything to do with Scottish Football. There is nothing better than being able to give one or both of them a bloody nose. The fact we havent been able to do it for so long when others have been able to is quite depressing.

How does that compare with our earnings due to league position? Cant be much in it surely?

Hopefully that will put to bed the idea that qualifying for Europe doesnt benefit the club. Much as I have enjoyed the re-introduction of group stages in the League Cup, Im getting a bit fed up seeing us play Annan, Morton, Stranraer and Edinburgh City!

You inferred he was the kit hamper carrier or the waterboy. Thats pretty personal. In your first post you accused him of using word salad. I dont want this to get into a tit for tat between you and I but this is a regular occurrence. You clearly have a lot to offer this forum, but demeaning other peoples posts because they are less knowledgeable than you isnt constructive.

You just did. And you made it personal in your first response. Thats why people get annoyed and bite.

I think you have just listed all the reasons why it wont happen. The only one that would have made it even worth considering is his football ability. Having a debate whether the latter is worth overlooking the former is normal. Griffiths could be a divisive character for sure, but Im not sure he is on the Goodwillie level?

I said it before the first game at Fir Park and I will say it again now. If ever there was a team set up for Alexanderball its Celtic. They are very good middle to front, but the centre backs can be got at, particularly from set peices. We need to be stodgy as f#ck in midfield and defence. In their faces when they have the ball and get it forward quickly into the final 3rd when we get it. If we try to play football against them they will destroy us. It might not be pretty, but it can work.

Not averse to the idea, but not sure he is GA's type of player, or that we could match Dundee's wages. Certainly a proven goalscorer in our league, but could we get a tune out of him?

Be nice if the training ground / academy facility were to get off the ground. At least then the money would be invested in bricks and mortar, and add as a further attraction in attracting players, not to mention further developing our own.

He is always available for the ball and is always looking for an incisive pass, rather than just playing it safe with a sideways or backwards one. I thought from 20 mins in up until he was taken off, he was the driving force for the team and encouraged others to be more adventurous with the ball. Some of our first time passing in the final 3rd was very good. Although admittedly we are still lumping it to the wide men to get us up the park far too much for my liking, but that seems to be the Alexander way, and on the whole its working for him.

Dont stop posting. You make a greater contribution to the forum than some......

My point is, I wasnt pointing the finger at you. I may not always agree with your opinions, but you rarely play the man instead of the ball!

And you opened a brand new account....

Was surprised with the team selection and an apparent move away from 4-3-3. Thought we started slowly and for the first 20 mins we struggled to get a hold of the ball. However, after that I felt we totally dominated the game. Kelly didnt have a save to make first half. Second half I thought our work rate and desire was very good. Our press worked very well, and although we didnt make best use of the ball at times, St Mirren kept coughing the ball back up to us because of it. It was utterly gutting to conceed when we did, but just as pleasing to score late on to deny them the 3 points. It was the very least we deserved. GA may not be winning many friends with our style of play. But it is effective and it is getting results.

Seems to be a few old accounts being re-activated recently that appear to be more intent on trolling other posters than adding to any debate.

I thought the 3 centre halves were very good tonight and Bevis certainly caused them problems when he went up top. Kelly had very little to do right up until the end but then pulled off 2 very good saves before they scored. But for me Slattery was our best player by a distance. I wouldnt have taken him off.

I agree with that. The manager is in charge. If he lets players undermine him, he is toast. Looks like GA isnt gonna let that happen to him.

It strikes me that, the way GA deals with the media doesnt do him any favours. He never reveals any information about injuries, and he never criticises the players individually in public or gives the media any bones to chew on. I totally respect his discipline in doing so, as he clearly feels he needs to do everything in his power to deny the opposition any advantage and to try and extract some advantage for our team. However, as a fan, I find it very frustrating as I feel a lot of our support would cut him more slack if they knew some of the issues he is having to deal with behind the scenes. As for the game, I thought we were competitive first half and played a bit more football in midfield than normal, with Slattery and Shaw showing a bit more quality in that area than we have seen of late. It was interesting in the post match interview that GA felt the need to say he would trade that for the 3 points. As much of an insight into his own thought process and tactics as we have had from him. The Kelly booking is just so typical of Scottish refereeing. Totally pedantic and unecessary when a word would have done. The first goal is a collective clusterf#ck with no one taking responsibility to clear the ball but all getting dragged towards it leaving Halliday totally unmarked. Goss looked most culpable as he had the best chance to boot it away, but in truth its badly defended as a team. I thought the turning point was Maguire going off injured. He gave a solidity that allowed Slattery and Shaw to go play, which disappeared when Goss came on. This is Maguires value to the team imho. 2nd half our press wasnt as effective and Hearts had more of the play. I still felt we looked dangerous on the counter and it would have been interesting to see how Hearts woud have responded if we could have equalised. The 2nd goal and the one that should gave resulted in a 3rd that was cleared off the line was again collectively bad defending albeit it exposed some individuals more than others. In short, we did a lot of good things, but we still have a lot to work on and Hearts still look closer to the finished article than we do at the moment.

Donnelly out. Slattery in. Shields in for Woolery. Apart from that, I dont see us changing it up mutch. If Ojala was fit, Id be tempted to play him and put Bevis to right back, but I dont see GA doing that.

Hard to choose this week as very few of our team put in a full 90 minute performance. I thought the defence, collectively, made too many mistakes. Maguire was the pick of the midfield for the simple reason he tried to keep the ball and play it on the ground. Why he got hooked for Shields is a mystery to me. I gave the award to Roberts mostly for providing the one bit of real quality on show from our side and for keeping at it for the 90 minutes despite the lack of decent service throughout.