joewarkfanclub

The above stats are certainly interesting and I certainly wouldnt argue with the fact that in games against us, Celtic get a lot more decisions than we do. However, my experience is that so do Rangers, so Im surprised at the disparity in their figures. I was always just of the opinion that the bigger crowds both clubs got swayed referees decision making during games, albeit power and influence cannot be ignored when it comes to the mindset of our officials.

You mean like we did in Serbia?

If this is true, and Ive no reason to doubt it, why would Lawless agree to that? I wouldnt. He would effectively be agreeing to no wages until January, unless of course the club have paid up his contract until January to get him out the building.

I think you can always tell how well or otherwise a player is regarded at a club by the length of the club statement when they leave. That one couldnt really have been any shorter......

I know. Who would want to play for their country and go on to represent them at a World Cup? Mental.........

David Turnbull deserves our respect. Anyone booing him is an idiot. Unless of course he scores the winner and celebrates down the East Stand side like Karl Higgingbottom. But we all know he has far too much class for that.......

Not sure where to start with this? I think its widely accepted by most on here that our recruitment up front and in defence has improved both areas of our squad. We look much more like scoring goals and much more solid at the back, hence our healthy points total. I think its also widely accepted that our midfield looks disjointed and outnumbered most weeks. So the question is clearly how we improve upon that. Given Goss was brought to the club and paraded as a cultured midfielder with good ability on the ball and a sweet left foot, its surely not unreasonable to think he might be a usefull addition in midfield and help Slattery and improve our ball retention. You dont need to be set up to dominate other teams to believe that keeping the ball when we have it is a good thing. Re the 9 for 3 spaces? Who are they? Other than the 3 that are playing and Goss who is injures we have Donnelly and Maguire who are more like for like replacements for Grimshaw and O'Hara. We have other attack minded players like Roberts or Amaluzor, but you cant class them as midfielders. Are we counting Cornelius, Crawford and Lawless who all appear to be well out of the picture? Robinson was criticised for his comments about strengthening 12-18 in the matchday squad and rightly so. If we want to keep progressing as a team we need to identify where we are weak and improve there. If the players we have are "contributing little" lets get them moved on and get better players in who can contribute. Thats how you constantly improve, no?

I thought both penalties were of the soft variety. Not sure there was any actual contact on Boyce for the first one and Slattery looked as if he just leaned into Devlin who just threw himself to the ground for the 2nd. Id have been claiming for them at our end without really expecting to get either of them.

He does seem to blow hot and cold. Not seen enough of Shields to judge whether he is good enough, but if KVV is injured or outnof form he deserves a chance to prove himself.

I would stick with Woolery as I think hebis improving and I dont think putting him on the bench would allow that development to continue. He is our player for 3 years so its in our interests to make sure he fulfills his potential. Ive no issue with Roberts. I think he probably is the more complete atricle, but he is a loan player and does provide us with an impact from the bench. The McGinley/Carroll conundrum is a difficult one. For me McGinley is the better defender, but his delivery has been poor. Carroll is generally better going forward but he regularly gets caught out of position causing him to make rash challenges. Both do an adequate job at our level. I just hope Goss is going to be the answer in midfield because thats where our issues lie. However, even if we get him fit and he does a job, we could be doing with another body in there in January to cover for him or Slattery if either are out, because all our other options are a drop in quality.

Not far away from what I would go with...... Kelly SOD Ojala Sondre Carroll Slattery O'Hara Goss Woolery Watt KVV

Missed most of the first half, so cant comment on their goals. Thought we finished the half strongly and but for a very good save from Gordon and a lack of composure from the resulting corner, we might have got one back before half time. 2nd half Hearts started the brighter. I thought their player went down very easily for the penalty, so it was nice to see it saved. That seemed to kickstart us and I thought for the rest of the half we had the better of the play and chances. A mixture of good goalkeeping, poor finishing and bad decision making stopped us from getting a foothold in the game. It would be interesting to see how Hearts would have handled it at that stage. Overall, a disappointing result, but the character of the team remained on display right to the end. We know the issues in midfield. Hopefully Goss and Sondre can both be fit for the Celtic game and we can get our strongest 11 on the pitch.

Agreed. I just quoted the Sun as the OP used them as a link to the story. Very little decent journalism around these days. Particularly in the tabloids.....

Its an article entirely manufactured round that tweet by The Sun. They dont appear to interview anyone or do any actual journalism anymore.....

I dont see Zander Clark every week so impossible to say. But by the same token, the elected member doesnt see Liam Kelly every week. He would have a point if he simply directed his fire at McLaughlin as he isnt playing every week for Rangers. But to say Clark isnt getting selected for Scotland because he plays for a provincial club is laughable given who Kelly plays for. Overall though its just a pish story from The Sun to fill pages by trawling Twitter to find anything remotely contraversial.

Tony Watt by a country mile. A few others had good games and Slattery was no doubt the pick of those, but Watt's touch, hold up play, ball retention, work rate were all first class. The finish for his goal was none too shabby either.

He has been in this vein of form for over a year. If he was challenging for a midfield berth I would agree with you, but we are really short of strikers and it would only take an injury to Adams, Dykes or Nesbitt to have him under consideration given our dearth of alternative options. Much in the same way Gallagher got into the squad, you only need to be the right guy at the right time.

He hasnt featured in our matchday squad since 21st August. His appearance at Ibrox was on the 29th August.

Beginning to wonder if his non appearance on our bench is due to discipline issues and he has just chucked it. Even Robbie Crawford has made the bench the last couple of weeks.

Not sure googleing "why is Steven Lawless a mutant" would have shed any light on the original post......

As well as a mutant? Poor guy......

Certainly an area of the team Scotland are short in. Not any worse a shout than Nesbitt on current form.

To be fair, Im not on Twitter so a bit of context might have been useful. Totally agree he shouldnt be tweeting about other teams. Thats a discipline issue Hopefully GA will deal with it.

Im not sure that Grimshaw has been poor. Grimshaw has been Grimshaw. We all know he is limited on the ball, but will run himself into the ground for the team. To progress, we need more than that. But right now, we dont appear to have many better options that are fit to play.

Really? Is this purely because he is a Rangers fan? If you want to question his football ability fair enough. But we arent a big enough or rich enough club that can afford to ignore players becausen of their personal preferences, surely? For the record, I dont see him as a first team starter.......