joewarkfanclub

Didnt watch the game yesterday as I was travelling, but listened to it on Sportsound and was quite deflated at full time especially after reading some comments on here. Watched the entire 90 minutes back this morning dispassionately obviously knowing the result, and Im a lot less disheartened than I was. Now, I will put a disclaimer on this, as some will no doubt pounce on the my happy clappy nature. I get that results have been poor, I get that we are in a relegation battle and that things are tense. I get that we have deficiencies in our squad and that fans are concerned over the lack of changes in tactics, team selection etc that some suggest show the manager is out of his depth. That may all be correct, but hear me out. Hibs are a bigger club than us with a far superior budget, better players and should be beating our so called shitey team quite comfortably. But they are not and didnt. We were never out of that game yesterday. I actually enjoyed our play better in the first half when most observers felt we were poor. But I felt we played better football, created better chances than Hibs and should have gone in level. Second half, yes we had more possession and created some good chances and scores 2 good goals. But it was a more direct approach, dare I say Alexanderesque! Other than the 3 goals they scored, which were all self inflicted due to poor communication and poor decision making by our defenders, I dont remember Kelly having a save to make. That tells me that there IS work being done on the teaining pitch. It IS working a lot of the time, but certain players are either switching off or having a brain fart and costing us goals. The bit between the ears cant be coached and Hammell cant be blamed for that. Its down to personal responsibility. The only way players will get better at these things is with consistency of approach. Alexander was slaughtered for his "tombola selection" yet Hammell has chosen what he thinks his best 11 are and is trying to get some consistency that way. The comments about Sheilds retaining his place are justified. He has had a lot of gametime and doesnt seem to be improving (albeit played out of position) and the amount of persoanl abuse he is getting isnt going to help his confidence. He could do with some protection feom the manager. Overall, I am obviously concerned about our position, but I dont see us as certainties for the drop at all. Look at the run we have been on and yet Kilmarnock, Dundee United and Ross County are all just as bad as we are and 2 of them have the "experienced heads" that many on here are calling for. Hasnt done them much good. Back Hammell. Back the team. We can still do this.

Oh its definitely important for a club our size to be maximising the bang for our buck in the transfer market and no doubting the importance of the position. Its just impossible to have an opinion on it with so many unknown variables.

Without seeing how much work is done behind the scenes and how many of the recommendations are taken up, not to mention how successful the negotiating team are, its impossible to say. What I do know is that its imperative he has a good January and that the manager and the board get their bit right as well.

Ooft! 3 good 45 mins! Bring him home! 😄

Maybe we would have won the league and gotten to a European Cup Semi Final against the Italian claret & amber! 🧡❤️🧡

Oh come now! He also had a good 45 mins at Ibrox that time!

Like I said before, it wasnt the losing to Sligo that got me. That can happen in early season as you rightly point out. It was the manner of the defeat. We were outfought, outclassed and well beaten twice. It wasnt even close. Had we huffed and puffed in the first game and drawn or had a bucketload of spurned chances in the second game having changed tactics and gone out to a dodgy penalty or something, he might have survived. But he played the same negative way in both games and just waited for us to be beaten without lifting a finger. He lost me that night and Im usually the last to turn.

Definitely need at least a draw. Cant allow Hibs the luxury of opening up a gap and feeling safer. Keep the pressure on them and make sure we beat Ross County. We have other favourable fixtures (St Mirren double header) where we should also be looking to pick up points.

Theres a lot of merit in your post. I agreed with it at the time and I still agree with it now. However, the thing you ignored then and ignore now is the back to back defeats against Sligo. It wasnt just losing those games, it was the manner in which we lost them and the fact that, having seen the way the home game panned out the manager made no adjustments in the second game and played exactly the same way. No one can survive that. Also, its not clear the board DID sack Alexander. If they are to be believed he came to them to discuss the situation. They maybe didnt fight very hard to keep him, but we dont know that for sure. Point is even if we did can Alexander, we cant make the same mistake again. Changing manager again now without backing him in the window would firstly be unfair imho. But also it starts to send out the message that we ate a club who dont give managers time. Thats not a good look when the time comes to actually change things.

I take your point. But that wasnt the baggage I was referring to.......

Football ability wise I dont think there is any doubt Griffiths would be worth a punt. However, I fear he has too much baggage to bring with him to fit our "Community Club" image........

If we are talking anybody it has to be Ancellotti. If he couldnt keep us up no one could and Im pretty sure he has some good contacts!

We obviously are. I had shamefully forgotten TC but agree he is up there. I also loved Dougie Arnott. His partnership with the Cobra was fantastic. Probably not good enough to be considered a GOAT, but his attitude and workrate were first class!

Despite never having seen a decent game against them, our record is actually very good. I fancy us for a low scoring draw......

Off the players Ive seen........ Joe Wark Bobby Graham Wullie P. Coop McFadden probably deserve to be considered. I think it depends what your criteria for GOAT is? Is it simply the best player ever to have played for us, or does longevity and success come into it? My favourite player as a kid was Wullie P. But as I got older I came to appreciate that Joe's value to the club had been greater over a longer period. Cooper is the probably the best Ive seen in terms of sheer skill and we probably wouldnt have won the Cup in 91 without his winning mentality. But as others have said, If you know the clubs history, certain players names stand out for a reason and you dont need to have seen them play to consider them. Ferguson, McFadyen, Ferrier, Paton, Quinn and St John would all be worthy contenders. Interesting debate.......

Mine too. Always a bitter sweet day.

For some reason, I got up today expecting to listen to Off the Ball, followed by an afternoon of Sportsound! No idea what Im going to do now given its absolutely pishing outside!

Merry Xmas fellow Dossers fae the Shire! 2022 has been pretty stinking. 2023 cant be as bad. Surely..........

Dont see us getting anything from this one on our current run of form. Rangers havent been great recently, but they have managed to grind out results and have home advantage here. If we get out of it with a 2-0 reverse we will have done well.

Precisely my point......

It never did Andy Goram any harm, or McGregor for that matter. I would prefer a keeper who could command his area but its not essential as long as the defence know he isnt coming and are capable of dealing with it.

Didnt see the game tonight, but at 2-0 up against 10 men we really should be seeing this game out. I get the negativity around the result, and the failure to win the game needs to be shared between the players on the pitch and the manager for not having the capacity and where with all to hold onto what we had. We did control the game and score 2 goals against 11 men before it all went south. But we need to stop snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and we need to do it now.

Really dont see us getting any more than another 2 players in over and above the one we have already. Whether they will even improve our options or just give us more back up is up for debate.

Any streams now Hesgoal has gone down the tubes?

More than just a football club......