joewarkfanclub

I thought SOD had a pretty good game. No howlers that I can recall. Used the ball well for the most part and looked to be organising others in the backline. Most of the midfield struggled in the first half. But looked better in the second. Hard to pick any of them.over 90 minutes.

The only surprise about today is how surprised (and annoyed) some of our fans seem to he about the result. We havent beaten Rangers in the league for 21 years. The chances of it happening off the back of the worst run in SPL history was pretty slim. Another slow and very sloppy start by us. We are never going ro beat anyone if we dont start playing until we are 2 down. Gifting up 2 goals like we did never plays out well. Much better second half performance, but the damage had already been done by then. Onto Aberdeen. Another difficult venue, but one where we have enjoyed some success over the years, against an opponent not without their own troubles to seek. SK has 2 games to save his job and end this horrible run.

The people in Dubai dont like the Flintstones. But thats ok. The people in Abu Dhabi do......

I think he is likely to go with the same team again and use McGinn off the bench. We kept our first clean sheet in 14 games last weekend. Do you risk interfering with that if players are starting to build an understanding? Obviously Rangers will be a stiffer test than St Mirren. But I think the point still stands. I like Blaney on the left with Gent. Good to have 2 naturally left sided players there. Same with SOD and Spencer on the right. Ive also noticed at recent games that SOD is the one shouting and organising the managers instructions at everyone. Maybe thats why SK has stuck by him.

Dont disagree with that at all. It feels like we are in a sort of "holding pattern". We need to either get a few wins and put this to bed, or get to the point where enough is enough and SK has to go. This feels like death by 1000 cuts!

Ok, so no credit given. Just diversion away from the fact that SK has in fact signed one player who is quite good.

My response was in reply to a comment that we had been getting steadily worse, week by week. That clearly hasnt been the case since Ross County.

Do loans not count as signings now? Getting Mika in is quite a coup in my opinion. Theres no way we could afford to sign a player of that quality on a permanent deal.

He has had more good games than that. There was a period of 3 or 4 weeks at the start of the bad run when he was our best player.

I would agree it was looking like that and I couldnt see a way out of it for him. I thought the Ross County game was going to be the last straw. But the board stuck with him and he has arrested the direction of travel with the last few performances. My point is that doesnt change with a defeat to Rangers tomorrow. A capitulation, followed by defeats to Aberdeen and Livvy would be the end for me and should be for SK, but we are not there yet. He keeps buying himself time, and he has the players to thank for sticking with him.

Nah. You dont get to do that. You said none of his signings had contributed anything. I gave you 3. The fact that the others arguably havent is neither here nor there. But given that Obika has scored a goal amd both Bair and Shave have assists in the last few weeks, Im not even sure that argument holds up. By all means argue that his signings are not of the quality required to have us climb the league. But you cant argue that none of them have contributed. Biereth has 6 goals in 10 games!

So Spencer, Gent and Biereth havent contibuted anything? Paton isnt everyones cup of tea, but I think he has made a positive contribution too. You can debate whether SK deserves another window or not. But at least make your argumemt fact based.

Sorry. I dont see how losing to Rangers at the start of this run makes them any easier to beat this time around. We both still have the same players and our confidence isnt anywhere near as high as it was the last time around. If anything, they have improved under Clement, so it should actually he harder to beat them. The only way this came becomes a factor is if its a total capitulation and we lose by 7 or 8.

I agree re Dawes though......

Nah. Not having that. You have to take the context of who the opposition is and factor that into the equation. He hasnt been sacked at this stage and we havent beat Rangers in a league game for 20 years. So expecting SK and this team to do so at the wrong end of this run is just mental. You are more than entitled to hold the opinion that he should be gone already, but binning him for losing to Rangers is silly talk. As I said, if we get the end of the Livvy game without a win and lose to them, then that could be terminal. Also, the players havent chucked it yet and are still clearly playing for SK. What happens if we sack him before the Livvy game? What kind of preparation is that. Remember the Hamilton game under Lasley? That game is too important to be adding more turmoil into the situation.

Absolutely no chance. If he loses on Sunday, against Aberdeen away AND Livvy at home, then the pressure will be insurmountable. But there is clearly no appetite on the board to change the manager or he would have been gone after the County game.

Im not gonna sit here and say Connor Wilkinson is great. He clearly isnt. But I think he does have a decent touch and looks like he can finish. Unfortunately he has no pace or physical attributes to back that up. My biggest problem with his signing is that our tactics and playing style dont suit the kind of player he is. If all he had to do was time his run into the box and wait for it to arrive he would probably do alright and score an acceptable number of goals. But the way we are set up and the inflexibility in our squad to change it means he looks seriously out of place and out of his depth. Thats very much on the manager and the recruitment team.

Oh no! Are you saying we will never have a better chance? 😆

I blame the weather!

Always been wary about a move away from Fir Park, particularly with the recent investment in the stadium and pitch. However, the main stand is apparently in need of rennovation / replacement and we clearly dont have the money for that so we need to look at all options. I wouldnt be against a move to Ravenscraig as there is an emotional tie to the old steelworks site that would sit fine with me and if we were able to generate funds from the sale of Fir Park to build something out there that was more modern and with better facilities, then we would be mad not to look at it. Would probably need a tie in with the council, who, from what Im led to believe, havent always been that supportive, so not sure how that would play out. I would hope we could be a bit more adventurous in our design requirements though than some of the uninspiring grounds other clubs our size have gone with. Only need to look at Scandinavia to see what can be achieved.

PS For what its worth, Im not against bringing in investment from outside sources, but as others have said, it should be as a minority shareholding. The Well Society should always have 51% minimum so that any rogue investor cant sell us down the river.

For once, I actually agree with Steelboy. Our current problems dont sit with the ownership model. They are down to poor decision making over the last 3 or 4 years where we have spunked shitloads of cash on sacking managers and moving on their sub standard players. Even if we get a rich benefactor we must spend our cash wisely, otherwise we will be in hock to that benefactor. What happens when they pull the plug and want their cash back as they undoubtedly will? Regardless of who runs the club, we need to live within our means. They way to generate more cash for investment is to make good decisions, become successful on the field of play and re-invest any rewards wisely. Its only 6 years since we got to 2 cup finals in a season and since then we have developed and moved on around £5m worth of talent. Its what we did with that money that is our current problem.

I was trying the MJC reverse psychology. Every time we think we will never have a better chance we end up getting pumped!

Our average home support has been around 4k for as long as I can remember. Even in the years we finished 2nd and 3rd or further back to the mid 90s when we challenged for the title, it didnt move much. John Boyle pretty much tried everything from signing players we couldnt afford to letting kids in for free. Nothing worked. The biggest difference these days is that away supports have fallen drastically, so other than Rangers and Celtic we dont get anywhere near filling the South Stand.

I think folk are reponding to this quote in the press release...... "It has become very clear over the last few years that for the club to operate on a sustainable basis, provide the manager with a competitive player budget, meet the vastly increased cost of our other activities including having a successful Woman’s Team and maintaining a fit for purpose Stadium, Training Ground and Academy facility, that it will require significant investment; funding on a similar scale to that received by many others in the SPFL."