Ya Bezzer!

Lawson has been dire. Carswell had a good spell but has gone off the boil again. But the worst thing is the idea that you could play these two players as a pairing against a lower league team that were bound to defend in depth. Neither player has an ounce of creativity to them. The squad is completely unbalanced and if one or two players are missing we don't have adequate replacements. That has to go down as Stuart McCall's responsibility. I make it that we have 6 recognized midfielders in the squad, that just isn't enough for a team that plays four across the middle. We should have at least two players for each position and U20s, who should be playing the same formation as the first team, that come in and fill any gaps, when first team players are injured so we always have 22 players available except in circumstances where there are an uncommon number of injuries.

The season after the Cup win was one of the worst ever but things were different then, you could take your time and build a team over a couple of seasons. Post Bosman teams our size can't do that. I'm afraid like it or lump it it's all about the here and now in 2013.

The midfield and defence have contributed 3 goals this term. McManus and Hutchinson both scored headers from corners and of course the Ainsworth goal you mention. Here's the number of goals contributed by defenders and midfielders in SPFL games this season. Celtic 17 Dundee Utd 14 Inverness 11 Ross County 11 St. Mirren 10 Hearts 8 Aberdeen 7 Partick 7 Kilmarnock 7 Hibernian 4 St. Johnstone 4 Motherwell 3

I'm all for young players getting a chance but we can't field a team like Hearts where they are almost all youngsters. We need to have an experienced frame around the young players. What I want to see though is more young players given more chances, not picking out two or three and ignoring the rest. I absolutely believe you do not know a young players worth until he plays first team football and we have almost entire U20 teams leave the club without ever getting a sniff. That is wrong.

I agree Hutchinson will be sold now. Ainsworth should leave as I think he's been dire every time I've seen him. Anier hasn't really convinced me either but he does have 5 goals which given the paucity of our offensive play this term is something to consider. I'd probably try and keep him due to his proven ability to bag a goal or two but I think developing Moore and Erwin is also important.

After yesterday I'm gonna have to put the kids on wooden rollers to get them to this match. Football is a strange game and Celtic won't sit in, which is something we really struggle with. However if Celtic get the first goal it could be a long night. Might take my novel and get a chapter or two read!

We have a wages budget for the season that pays the playing staff. I don't think a players individual wage should have any influence on his position in the pecking order or team selection. We need to give more young players a chance. The only positive from today is that Jack Leitch came on for his debut and did more in his cameo appearance than many established players like Lawson and McFadden who were both dire. Guys like him, Moore, Erwin, Murray and others should now be introduced. Guys like Francis-Angol, Carswell and other more established young players won't be done any harm by taking a step down for a bit. It will either spur them on or prove they weren't worth a place any way. If we introduce a wider range of young players and even only one or two of them prove themselves it will have been worth it.

Not that hard to imagine.

He also made a run into the box. Clear MotM.

Not really a freak result though was it? Today's performance wasn't much different from most of those over the last two months. Only difference was we thought it was because we were playing better quality teams. Turns out it's because we are just crap.

Depends what you mean by 'outplayed'. The fact that we passed the ball side ways or backwards for large periods might mean we had more possession but I'd still say we were outplayed because they created more chances, took one of them, had a much better attitude and deserved to win the match.

Ayr were a decent team and had few players that went on to play at the very top level. Alloa we lost to on penalties after dominating the match and I don't think they played in the bottom division when we lost that match (someone can correct me if I'm wrong). Albion Rovers are close to the very bottom of league football in this country and they deserved to win the match. Their goalkeeper had one save to make in the last few minutes and that was it. I've been coming to games since 1982 and not missed many since 1986 and tonight is the worst performance and result I can remember. The only one that comes close was the Llanelli match and we had only just appointed a manager and were building a team so there were some extenuating circumstances. No excuses tonight though, it's just the very lowest result I've ever witnessed with my own eyes.

Just out of interest when did you last see us beaten and outplayed by builder and van drivers?

Goes without saying it was an abysmal performance. I don't think I've ever seen a lazier and less motivated team, not even in an end of season match and this was supposed to be a priority for the rest of the season. What was it that McCall said when we went out with a whimper against Aberdeen? It wouldn't happen again? We'd give everything in the Scottish Cup? We gave nothing today, does anyone of those players even have a bead of sweat on them tonight? I heard fans singling out players as if it was this players fault or that players fault, it was a collective abomination. Every single player out there was to blame and if as if that wasn't enough the management team did just about everything they could do to handicap our chances by putting out a pathetical first XI that could still be playing without even creating a chance. The worst ever result in 30 years plus of following this team and even though I can hardly believe what I just witnessed I shouldn't really be surprised because for the last 2 months our performances and not just been poor but absolutely pathetic, bottom of the barrel stuff. Major questions need to be asked about where we go with 6 months of meaningless season stretching ahead of us.

Good win but wasn't there and can't comment on the performance. Will be interesting to see if Moore will keep his place against Celtic, particularly with Anier scoring. Anyway, a bit of a confidence boost for next week.

My mistake but they have dropped from 25th in the last few months.

Norwegian football is going through a fallow period at the moment, not really surprising that this will happen from time to time with countries with small populations. Even so they are miles ahead of us in the FIFA rankings and have outperformed Scotland hugely at international level over, say, the last 20 years. Their league structure is much better than ours and their game is much better financed, receiving much more sponsorship and distributing it much more fairly. The league is much more competitive than ours and local clubs are much better supported. Teams like Aalesund have a regular home support twice as big as ours from a town roughly the same size. We could learn a lot from Scandinavian football. However I think clubs should play on grass if possible, so no artificial turf at Fir Park for me, although I think it makes a lot of sense for lower league clubs who don't have the finances available for pitch upkeep.

Anier has been poor for the last month or so but to be fair so has most of the team. However I think one of our major problems over that time has been Anier's failure to form a working partnership with Sutton. Since McFadden can't run and playing him wide is not much use to anyone we might consider playing him off Sutton. Or alternatively Moore has looked sharp in his couple of appearances. I like Moore's attitude, unlike Anier of late, he wants to get into the box, he's direct and looks like he has a goalscorers instincts. We shouldn't expect too much from any of the youngster, especially a guy with a couple of sub appearances but when we've been so inept lately I don't think it does any harm to shake things up a bit and give a guy down the pecking order a chance in the first team.

I don't actually know but I'd assume there would have to be a consistent rule for all SPFL clubs and since we are all playing under one body now they could keep the pitch as it is. However this is Scottish football we are talking about...

Our wide players are dire, it's probably the weakest area in the team so why would we want to shift the focus on to them? You are right that we lack pace, skill and creativity. When that's the case changing formations is just tilting at windmills. The only way out of the current morass is 1) Current 1st team players up their performance or 2) Give other players a chance in the first team. 3) Bring in new players at Christmas. Perhaps at the elite level formations are more importance but I think at our level the importance of formations is over rated except when teams have 5 against 4 in the middle of the park and can overwhelm the midfield. Generally players take up the same positions during the course of a game.

It's not fine. Even if we are mid table we shouldn't be thinking it's "fine". We should be striving to be better. BTW my kids don't even want to go the next match after the last few performances and I don't think anyone can blame them for that! We need to attract people to the club or at least retain the fans we've got. We won't do that playing like we did against Aberdeen, St. Johnstone and Dundee Utd. We will have bad spells but the last months performances are not "fine". They are unacceptable and if we don't actually confront that they won't get any better.

I actually thought Nielsen had a decent game, in the context of a terrible performance. He made a few decent stops in the second half although I felt he was to blame for the first goal. Fraser Kerr looked much more comfortable at centre half than he did at right back. Given his build I'm not that surprised. I'll give it to Kerr.

The young player award is a lot of nonsense as you can have one young player on the field who is rank rotten who wins it by default. Also I thought it was embarrassing when the main man of the match award was announced as Vigurs and the crowd booed and jeered. We were very poor today but that is no excuse for supporters to do that.

5 home matches against Dundee Utd, 5 defeats, 5 games without a single goal scored. Worth remembering when we are slagging off the current team, the 'old favourites' didn't do much better in this particular fixture.

Yet again totally outclassed by the opposition. It's looking increasingly like a mid table finish because we sure as hell aren't one of the top teams in the league this term. The first couple of goals were absolutely shambolic. Was it to be expected with so many missing today? Perhaps but the way the whole team just gave up the ghost after the first goal was completely unprofessional. Dundee Utd completely outclassed us in every department and really we got off lightly at 4-0. Although he was badly to blame at the first goal, Nielsen actually pulled off some good saves in the second half, could easily have been 6 or 7. Our thread bare squad is taking its toll now. Outside our first XI we have very few options and I don't see any way out of his bad spell outside of the players themselves pulling their socks up but how often does that happen? Kerr was better than Cummins at centre half, Moore came on and looked dangerous but that's all the positivity you can conjure up from a performance like that. Forget the points total, there are guys stealing a wage from us right now. Time to get the finger out.