Ya Bezzer!

I think Aberdeen have pulled away from the rest and will finish 2nd by a distance. Therefore it's going to be a very difficult game. McLean looks to have found form again and I think Graeme Shinnie is one of the best players in the league and was a superb signing. However we should be looking for 3 points every time we run out on to Fir Park. Just need to get the sleeves rolled up and give it everything and if you do that, you'll always have a chance.

You implied that Jake Taylor shouldn't have started the match last night. Since McDonald and Taylor are probably in the same boat fitness wise, I made the general observation that if we want these players to be match sharp later in the season we need to give them game time now.

The thing about McDonald and Taylor though is, pre-season is over. If we want these guys to get fit they need to play in games. If you have a problem with us playing these guys when they aren't fit, well it was a managerial decision to bring these players in late in the day. Personally, I'm prepared to take the gamble as we know about McDonald and Taylor seems to have a pedigree.

It's too early to be calling for Baraclough's head but at the same time he's not a new manager and has a poor track record leading up to this point. We've taken 27 points from a possible 75 under Baraclough and that just isn't good enough. He can't simple be judged on this season. Also, although we have hard opening fixtures I don't think its an excuse for performing poorly. Hopefully it doesn't come to this but if we were to lose the next two and end up with 3 points from 15 I'm afraid it doesn't cut it even if we played the top five teams in the league. If you want to even get into the middle of the table you have to scrap and battle your way to points. The league starts to sort its self out after about 9 or 10 games, so the next few games are going to be very important because we don't want to go into the second half of that important period with 4 defeats on the trot. Starting Saturday we need to really knuckle down and make sure if we are beaten, a team has to really give their all to get something from us. Unfortunately that is often not the case.

The season has barely started but we really need at least 3 points from the next two matches or we could be sitting on 3 points from 15, will probably be bottom or close to bottom of the league and then we are going into the so called 'easier' games on a downer with early season confidence on the wain. I think Aberdeen have opened up a bit of a gap between themselves and the rest of the teams outside Celtic so it's going to be a tough match but we need step up our performance.

Concerning that we are still giving away poor goals and still struggling to score. Might be 1 goal in 3 matches by the end of tonight. Weren't exactly banging them in a pre-season either.

Sounds like another poor goal conceded.

That's an OG, having a goalkeeper go up for a corner and a penalty conceded. We concede way too many preventable goals. Hopefully we can step it up in the second half.

I keep saying it but Lasley was a late starter didn't play first team football until he was around the 20/21 mark. The fact that he's 35 I think is misleading in terms of his general condition. Reckon he's still got a couple of years in the tank. If you need any proof he won the MotM against Inverness, he was our best out field at the weekend and was absolutely immense against Rangers at the end of a long hard season. As for Jake Taylor, on the face of it a good signing. Has a pedigree you'd think would put him beyond a club of our means. Will be interesting to see how he does.

We need a creative midfield player who can produce a little bit of magic to break down defences and maybe even get on the score sheet himself. I don't know, maybe someone like Vigurs. Seems bizarre to me that we played Vigurs in a 4-4-2 and now we have switched to a 4-2-3-1 he's been released. Worth noting Dundee will play a similar kind of player to Vigurs, Gary Harkins, in that role this season and they are looking quite good so far.

Drum was posted missing at most of the games towards the end of last season as well. I know a lot of people are on holiday at the moment though.

Ripley and Lasley were the two best players. Hopefully Baraclough has a few transfer targets lined up who's name ends in 'ley'. I'll give my award to Ripley.

Agree. It was a second yellow all the way. The referee was poor for both teams today and made the game very bitty by constantly blowing his whistle. McDonald, by his own admission is off the pace fitness wise due to not having a pre-season. He did a good job playing deeper against Rangers so to say he can't play that position on one performance is a bit daft. He's played more games in midfield than up front in recent years, arguably at a higher level than the Scottish Premiership. Having said that I'd rather have him further forward but with Pearson out, he was the natural choice. Unfortunately his lack of sharpness showed today and he didn't exactly get much support from Lasley or Leitch who aren't forward going players. I'm sure with Pearson playing he would have found more spaces and got forward more but it was constantly down to him to drop deep and carry the ball forward. Unfortunately, outside Fletcher, none of our other three forward players were really effective and when that happens it's going to be tough to score a goal outside of a set piece.

Well it was an OG and an open goal.

Well the lesson from today was "If you don't score, the opposition probably will". Fairly even match but I thought we probably created more chances and we certainly didn't deserve to lose the match but when the game is at 0-0 late in the match that's what can happen. We started well and dominated the first 15 minutes or so but then let Dundee Utd get on the ball and lost our momentum. And that was the problem today, we only played in small patches and couldn't put down any significant spells of possession/domination. I also felt that for long spells we looked a bit flat and one paced, we didn't look like we were going up and down the gears. We weren't bad but it was all a bit predictable and therefore easier for Dundee Utd to defend. Marvin Johnson had a few touches and he should have scored when he was put through on goal with only the keeper to beat but overall he didn't do much playing on the right. Joe Chalmers looked OK, he has good feet but doesn't have the pace or attacking instinct to really look at home in a wide forward position. That made us very narrow and without much explosive play. Again, Wes Fletcher looked quite impressive in spells but he was left isolated too often and there was far too many long balls being played out from the back. Ripley has a fair hoof on him but I really hope 80 yard balls out the goalkeepers hands doesn't become a tactic. Also it was interesting to see Dundee Utd playing balls in behind Josh Law all match, obviously he had been identified as a weakness, and certainly most of the danger from Dundee Utd came down Law's side of the field, including the goal, which was a bit unlucky on Laing's part. The second goal will hopefully make the managers mind up that goalkeepers should stick to their own 18 yard box! Otherwise though Ripley looked commanding and made a couple of good saves. On the upside I thought the new boys showed some promise but on the down side I thought Jack Leitch failed to really impose himself again. With two tough matches coming up we are going to have to do better than today if we want anything out of them. We were a little bit unlucky today but at the same time we lacked a bit of edge.

At least the ball is white.

By all accounts Dundee Utd played quite well in the first half against Aberdeen and then faltered in the second half. That's the way I look at them at the moment, a team that you aren't quite sure what kind of performance you are going to get out of them. They only conceded once against what will probably be the 2nd best team in the country this year, and it was a pretty extraordinary goal, so I don't expect them to be throwing in goals, what we need to do is make sure we don't give away any cheap goals because the perception is that their forwards are struggling for confidence and they don't really have anyone up there who has been banging in goals. However we only have to think back to last season to remember the likes of Robbie Muirhead and Mario Bilate scoring against us. If we keeep it tight at the back we don't want to give them a boost with a cheap goal because the difference between a poor team and a good team in this league can come down to a little bit of confidence. 6 out of 6 would be huge with Hearts and Aberdeen coming up.

More likely McDonald would drop back into midfield IMO.

And then home fans say "why are other teams supporters getting a better deal than we are?". Away prices need all the clubs to come to some common agreement and we all know that's almost impossible.

I would have loved to be at the game yesterday but the train fare to Inverness meant it was too expensive. I went to the Ayr Utd game instead and it cost me less than the admission at Inverness. The SPFL should certainly trying to get a deal going with the train companies. Would it be a big deal to have some rail ticket discount vouchers at the back of the season ticket? You'd think it would be a worthwhile market for everyone involved if say if even a 1000 extra people get on a train on match day that otherwise would stay in the house, the bookies or the pub.

How did we line up today? Where did Chalmers play? Was Law at right back or further forward? I'd assume Chalmers at right back, Law in place of Ainsworth but I wasn't there.

17 top team appearances for Ripley. Another unknown quantity. Not long though till we find out though! Will be interesting to see if he starts ahead of Twardzik tomorrow. George Long at least had some first team experience where as Ripley is really a novice.

l'll let you know how he gets on cos I'll be at the Ayr game on Saturday.

Still never been to Inverness, would have liked to have got up for the first game of the season but sadly not. By all accounts Inverness have been playing quite well without carrying a lot of threat up front. Reckon a point would be a decent result up there but we'll need to do better at the back than we did last season and if we do that we can perhaps nullify Inverness but I'd expect the home team to have most of the ball.

Bit disappointed Jackson Irvine has joined Ross County. Could have done a job for us I think, got a bit more in his locker than the average Premiership footballer.