Ya Bezzer!

Don't think that is a fair assessment or comparison. Luke Watt hasn't played any games this season, while Dom Thomas has come on and made a difference in matches. Not every match, but certainly some and showed that he has at least a level of potential that can be developed.

Any suggestion of the game being off? It has been raining non stop for about three weeks!

I think we have failed attrociously in developing youth players over the last 5 or 6 years but other Premiership clubs haven't done much better. This season there are only 10 U21 players who have come through their clubs youth system and managed more than 5 starts in the league this season and 7 of them come from 3 clubs (and 3 of them from Kilmarnock). Half the clubs in the league don't have a single player that falls into that category - Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee, Motherwell, Ross County and St. Johnstone. Meanwhile almost 50% (47%) of all the players in the league are non Scots. That level of player development is absolutely pathetic across the board and something really needs to be done. For the record the 10 players are Callum Paterson (Hearts) 21 Liam Polworth (Inverness) 21 Craig Slater (Kilmarnock) 21 Scott Fraser (Dundee Utd) 20 Sam Nicholson (Hearts) 20 Liam Lindsay (Partick) 20 John Souttar (Dundee Utd) 19 Greg Docherty (Hamilton) 19 Mark O'Hara (Kilmarnock) 19 Greg Kiltie (Kilmarnock) 18

Looked at the weather forecast last night and knew there was no chance of the game being on. You can't play football in 40mph winds, never mind the rain, it would be a farce. Everyone can support Kilmarnock this afternoon!

If we were to beat Partick and Kilmarnock beat Dundee Utd (at Rugby Park) we would jump above both Partick and probably Inverness (away to Hearts) and put 10 points between us and Utd. On the other hand if we lost, Dundee Utd would only be 4 points behind and the bottom of the league really starts to tighten up.

I'd read more into the fact that Partick Thistle have only lost 1 match in their last 7 in the league (4-2-1). Our record is exactly the opposite (1-2-4). Our away record at Firhill is also particularly bad over recent times. If I wasn't partisan I'd be thinking about sticking this down as a home win on the coupon. However our performance on Saturday should offer some encouragement and a win, dear we dream such a thing, would take us above Thistle.

I swithered about giving it to Johnson as he came off relatively early in the match but I'm going to give him the nod.

Anyone as long as its not a Premiership team. OK, maybe not Morton!

Lasley was excellent yesterday, but obviously not 100% match fit and tired. Hammell is on a completely different level from Chalmers. The guys that constantly chirp on about both of them are in for a big shock when they aren't there anymore because as we've already seen with Baraclough's signings, the quality of player we can afford now, or even bring through the youths, is nowhere near the standard of 10 or 15 years ago. Imagine Lasley wasn't there and someone like Taylor was playing ever week, that's the not to distant future. We aren't in great shape now but I really fear for us when these guys hang up their boots. I thought the midfield worked very well yesterday. Grimshaw isn't really a great player but he'll put a foot in and that gives us a bit more grit. Johnson had a rare good match and Pearson worked well playing further forward in the diamond formation, although again he tired towards the end but remember it was very heavy conditions yesterday and the Hearts team is pretty young, very physical and probably have more in their legs than we do, so you'd kind of expect them to rally towards the end. Even psychologically with Hearts being in good form and us not so much, the tendency would be for us to fall back and defend a result.

I thought that was a red card challenge at the game. We'll see what the TV pictures show.

Playing Pearson in a diamond formation worked quite well, until the second half when he was clearly blowing out his arse.

An enjoyable match and a decent performance from us although we ran out of steam towards the end and Hearts had become the dominant side. Create a lot of chances and might have scored more. Though the keeper was suspect for both Hearts goals, very slow to come off his line for the first, not exactly convincing on crosses either. Hopefully something is done about Delgado. Disgraceful cheating towards the end of the match there.

Minging' day and feeling pretty pessimistic about our chances. I'll be there though and maybe I'll be surprised. Maybe.

Celtic match aside our last four home attendances have been v Kilmarnock 4,136 v Ross County 3,545 v Partick 3,963 v Inverness 3,659 Hearts will probably bring a decent crowd on Saturday but with poor form, winter weather and Christmas shopping and bills coming up you can't see much money coming in from the turnstiles in the immediate future. We've never been a well supported team but even recently we used to be a 4,500 - 5,000 team, these days we are 3,500 - 4,000, basically we've lost 20% of our fan base. Our recent European 'adventures', and those of other clubs, have shown that Scottish clubs can't really compete at European level any more and therefore the appeal of challenging for a European spot has been ruined when most fans know what it really amounts to is a £30 home ticket defeat to third rate opponents. No one can win the league except Celtic and the whole league has become a boring procession and as we know at the other end the relegation struggles are pretty dire when they consist of heavy defeats in dark, soulless stadiums in the freezing cold. Is it any wonder fans are drifting away? Even cup football which might just be the last remaining bright spot has only seen fans completely alienated by some of the worst performances and defeats to lower league clubs you are ever likely to see. The thing that really worries me is that most of our problems are outside our own control.

If we had 11 players with the attitude of Dougie Imrie we wouldn't be where we are. Maybe it's why Accies have consistently been better than us over the last couple of years as well. I've said it before and I'll say it again Hamilton have recruited better players than we have with a quarter of the money. Fair play to them.

I don't know if McGhee will get us out of this but I'm prepared to support him until such time as I can make a reasonable judgment. 31 defeats in 53 league matches since the beginning of season 2014/15. McGhee is responsible for 3 of those to give it some perspective.

Kilmarnock, Dundee, Inverness, Partick and Ross County all picking up at least a point this afternoon, basically all the teams we should be competing with minus Dundee Utd.

Well Robinson came on so.....

Goes back further than that.

If we lose today it will be 31 defeats from 53 league matches since the beginning of the 2014-15 season.

Inverness looked better for about 25 - 30 minutes. We need a bit of luck and a confidence boost but I don't think we are a million miles away from being at least competitive in the league. Don't think any of the teams outside the top four, maybe five, are much better than us but we sure is a big grey cloud sitting over us right now.

Not if they both gain a point. For some reason I have a feeling our away form is going to be better than our home form for the immediate future.

You can put out any formation, any team, with any instructions and any tactics but if you have basically been losing for a year and a half then it's not going to work, at least immediately. Player confidence is very low and you can see that out on the pitch. However I think we have improved on the latter stages of the Baraclough era but it's not going to be something that turns around in 3, 4 or 5 weeks. McGhee has to be given time to get us going again, not a week by week autopsy of what hasn't miraculously changed in the last 7 days. A few weeks ago we didn't even look like a rotten team, we looked like 11 rotten footballers who had never seen each other before. Now we look a lot more organized with some actual structure and team work going on. We had 16 shots on Saturday - a big improvement on recent form. The quality of the final ball, the final shot, the final cross is still lacking but I do believe we are only one step away now, a month ago we were miles away. It's not going to be easy to get to where we all want to be and everyone has to accept that there is probably still a lot of disappoints and false dawns before we actual do but the objectives need to be longer term, at the end of the season we need to look back and evaluate, but there is still a lot of football to be played before then. By all means give your views on individual matches, individual performances and so forth but also put those individual matches into a larger and more important context. This season is surely going to be about slow gains, slow improvement not a sudden transformation.

Technically correct maybe, but the referee blew his whistle for the penalty to be taken when the players involved were already in the box. At the very least the referee has to make sure all players are outside the 18 yard box before the penalty is taken. What Thomson has basically said there is "the rules only matter if the penalty is saved".

Moult for the goal.