Ya Bezzer!

I don't think County were that bad on the ball last night, it's just off the ball they were stinking. They are basically playing with a new keeper, two out of three centre halves and two sitting midfielders and I think that lack of cohesion and familiarity was probably a big problem for them. Getting two early goals is going to sink most teams and certainly teams with County's away form, last away win was in September.

And yet it's basically the same team, both back line and midfield that we had last season with a pretty good defensive record. Just shows you how much things like a bit of bad luck, confidence and the ball bouncing a certain way can influence a season. We only conceded 5 in 7 before THAT Celtic match and the confidence of the team took a massive dive and that's when the flood gates opened.

Bair had a good game last night in terms of general play but....he's a striker that missed, what, 5-6 really good chances in the match? Going forward he's probably not going to get a third of those chances in a game. It's important for the team that his finishing improves because having a striker that can put the ball in the net makes all the difference in this league. You really need to be putting away at least 1 in 3. He's made big strides forward and it's not my intention to slate the guy, I'm glad he's looking more confident, but it's one of those one's where if a different player had missed those chances they'd probably be getting a harder time about it.

Good team performance but it can't be anyone other than Spittal.

How often do you come home from Fir Park disappointed you didn't win 15-0. 🤣 I think Bair could have got 6 just on his own. We seemed to cut through Ross County every time we went forward. At times we were profligate but we also had some very well taken goals , especially Spittal's efforts. That's him on 9 for the season with two excellent assists in the last two matches. Still not 100% convinced by us defensively but that's a rare clean sheet tonight and hopefully we can build on that.

I'm happier to win on a shit pitch than lose on a great pitch. I wasn't there on Saturday but it looked OK on the highlights. I mean it's not going to look the same in January than it is in August.

Missed my first home game in ages on Saturday so I'm actually really looking forward to this. Ross County losing at home to St Johnstone puts them under a bit more pressure with three away games coming up. They have only won away once all season way back in September. For me this is pretty much a must win if we want to put distance between us and the relegation places. We've only lost twice in 10 league matches but we need to start getting 3 points and with the upcoming fixtures this is probably our best chance.

Livingston looked absolutely gubbed, the club is a shambles behind the scenes. Hard to see them finishing anywhere outside of bottom place. Dundee and Kilmarnock will be fine. St. Mirren will probably be fine, their recent form isn't great so they might get dragged into things but I think they have enough points on the board. That leaves us, St Johnstone and Ross County fighting to stay out the play off spot. Honestly all three are much of a muchness. Under Levein St Johnstone have shored up at the back but they still struggle to score. On the other hand we've scored goals but are absolutely shocking at the back. And Ross County are probably somewhere in the middle, not great at either but not desperate. They also have basically a new team and it remains to be seen how that turns out. No one is really posting great form out all these teams, so it's hard to really pick one out that's looking like they might improve. Personally I think the 2nd bottom spot might go to St Johnstone as you just can't win games without scoring. Probably going to be a bit of a nail bitter though.

Even if we could match Killie and St Mirren it doesn't mean we should. Making the smart decision doesn't necessarily mean throwing cash at players. Seems to me paying the wages for Van Veen would have been a big gamble and probably not worth it. By the way Steven Robinson was on the radio on Saturday saying St Mirren had no money. Turns out they didn't bring anyone in last night which might well confirm that.

The clubs on a 'fire the manager cycle' - Aberdeen, Hibs, ourselves haven't really solved any of their issues. It's almost as if it's done to appease the fans rather than address the real issues.

Looks like we scouted Jack Vale but looking at his height on Wikipedia. 🤣

Our transfer policy has been a shambles going back to the Robinson era. I've said it before but it seems to be 'who can we get' rather than 'what do we need'. It's been youth development that has consistently saved our ass whether it be Turnbull, Campbell, Scott, Johnston and hopefully Miller.

Not including signings since the weekend we've had 37 first team players on our books to Kilmarnock's 28. Obviously a lot of ours have been moved on but still.

Kilmarnock have had over 27,000 more fans through their turnstiles this season than we have. At 25 quid a head that's well over half a million pounds and more than enough to pay twice our wage cap.

3 defeats in 11 with draws away to Celtic, St. Mirren, Hibs, St Johnstone twice. If we win our next two home games we are on a pretty good run. Of course we have to win them but now is hardly the time to get rid of the manager.

I think what need to do is realise season long loans are not a viable option when players can be called back on the whim of their parent club. In future we should only have 6 month loans with contingency plans for the second half of the season, whether that is a re-negotiation or bringing someone else in/promoting a youth player or whatever. But it's obvious ourselves and other clubs in Scotland had deals that were not met and have not expected to lose players when they did.

They are literally the form team in that division right now. They put 3 past Dundee Utd at Tannadice a couple of weeks ago. Definitely a potential banana skin.

The reason Nouble was being played out of position the last 5 or 6 matches is because he played all the rest up top and didn't score a goal all season. Nouble is obviously a skilled footballer but he rarely if ever scores. Bruce Anderson on the other hand. His confidence is a bit down right now, poor team creating few chances, not getting starts etc, but I think he is actually one of the better finishers in this league, at least outside the city clubs and I think it tells you something that he's still Livingston's top goal scorer this season by a distance with 6 goals.

Anyone miss VAR today? Didn't think so! 🤣

My main memory of Gent this season is him having an absolute shocker against Celtic but he was our best player today. By no means the finished article but showed some quality today.

No coincidence we looked about 100% better after Lennon Miller came on the field. He has been missed. Outside of scoring in however many seconds the first half was very, very poor. These cups ties can be tricky coming off the winter break when lower league teams have been playing regularly but even so our passing was atrocious and we just looked so, so sluggish. OK, our options are limited right now but the team set up, basically 5-4-1, at home to Alloa, just wasn't good enough. Things improved as I said when we went 4 at the back and Lennon Miller came on and showed what we've lacked during his injury. Couple of good quality goals in the second half, and created more chances but still a few question marks in key positions against better quality opposition.

Yeah but he at Fir Park he was usually high and right!

I grew up, football wise, in the Rangers-Souness era. So it seems natural to dislike Rangers more than Celtic. Indeed we had Celtic in our back pocket for long spells in the 80's and 90's. There is also the fact that Rangers were a bigoted club. Some of the younger fans probably wouldn't believe the fuss that happened when Rangers signed Mo Johnston and broke with tradition. Whether you like it or not Celtic were not a bigoted club in the same sense. I mean I don't like Celtic and the current Celtic support is really very high up on the list of the most irritatingly entitled supporter bases of all time but when you you take everything into account I think the 'culture' around Rangers to me it's quite a bit uglier. Manchester and George Square being two fairly recent examples of depravity.

Celtic fans already wrecked seats in the South Stand. Can we really afford to replace more with his shooting?

It's bloody hard running a professional football club with 5,000 supporters. Supporters don't take into consideration non football related expenses (50% of our total budget). The club isn't in financial difficulty but there are massive variables in income depending on unknowns. (league position/cup runs/transfers). Club has to make difficult budget decisions and new investment would be helpful. Explained the difficulties of appointing a new CEO. 4 targets approached but none of them came to fruition. Explained reasons behind important players leaving the club. Club has decided to put less money into communications. Pyro issue is a potential problem for the club. The managerial team is here for the long term. I generally don't get involved with behind the scenes stuff, I'm a football guy, I buy a season ticket every season, put some more money in via merchandise etc leave it to the guys in charge. I thought it was a good interview. Derek Weir seemed honest and forthright and gave a decent insight into the finances of the club and the difficulties of allotting a budget in a period of increasing costs. Think he also allayed fears that the club is in financial trouble while also explaining that it's no easy task for a club our size to invest in every area that we'd like and any additional investment would help a lot. I think you could take issue with some of the things he said. I am still to be convinced that our youth system is really linked up to our first team operation and seems rather ad hoc rather than there being a strategy in place. He also said our player in/out count wasn't anything unusual in the league but that doesn't mean it's not dysfunctional. Overall though, decent listen.