Ya Bezzer!

I think this is going to be an important match because if we can get some confidence up we have a reasonable kind run of matches that we could take a fair few points from (Kilmarnock, Ross County, St. Mirren, Dundee Utd). Kilmarnock seem to me to be a bit like us in that they haven't got a settled midfield yet, although up front and at the back they seem decent. So far Kilmarnock have scored in three out of four games but never scored more than one in a game, same as us, while they have conceded 5 goals over 4 matches, same as us. Has a 1-1 draw all over it.

I think 'dominated' is a bit strong and I think your 70 minutes is wrong as well. For me the game started to swing when they brought on Higginbotham on 52 minutes. We were already looking shaky when Carswell (who was injured making a defensive challenge just over our 18 yard line remember) went off. The reason we got the full 3 points yesterday was because Partick don't have a penalty box striker. If Kris Boyd or Billy Mackay had been playing yesterday we'd probably wouldn't have got a clean sheet.

We missed Carswell when he went off but the tide of the match had turned before his injury.

I didn't think anyone was outstanding. About half the team was a wee bit better than the other half and in all honesty I could have given it to 4 or 5 players. Carswell and Anier didn't finish so I will rule them out for that reason. Hutchinson, Ramsden kept clean sheets, Sutton got a goal. I'll go for Ramsden.

Scary second half, we were hanging on for the last half hour or so and I'm sure many a finger nail was bitten! First half I thought Partick were quite poor and we were the better team in a half that didn't really catch fire. Second half though Partick were a different side and had us pinned back for long periods and as mentioned there was so hair raising moments. We could have made it a much easier watch if we'd taken one of the various break away changes we had, Lasley should have made it 2-0 and McFadden could have done a lot better on a number of occasions. Not a great performance but happy with 3 points, debatable if we deserved full points from the match.

Undefeated in the first seven matches last season. 3 wins, 4 draws. After that we had a bad spell of 4 defeats in 5 matches but we already had some 'points on the board' and our lowest position in the league was 8th.

You can play well, make a mistake or two and lose the match. Or you can just play poorly making many mistakes some of which are ultimately punished by the opposition. We are closer to the latter rather than the former at the moment. The four matches I've seen in the flesh (Newcastle, Nottingham, Krasnodar, Aberdeen) we've shown virtually nothing. I've also seen two live matches on television and although those performances were better, we made a number of mistakes and created very little in those matches as well. Some posters might either be hysterics or depressives with their reactions at this stage of the season but there comes a point, especially during the first round of matches in a season, when it becomes difficult for teams to get into a different gear if they have stalled over the first 7 or 8 games. We won't have a write off season if Partick beat us at the weekend but we will be one match further down a path that we really don't want to go down.

We're not playing a Partick Thistle side that's spent 10 years in the 1st division. We are playing a Partick Thistle that won the 1st division and has outplayed every team in the SPL that it's come up against so far. The team of 8 or 9 years ago has nothing to do with this one. Some of the younger posters might not have much memory of Partick Thistle at Fir Park but they have always been a bit of a bogey side for us, especially at Fir Park. On the up side though they seem to have had trouble translating dominating the play into goals, they really ought to have beaten Dundee Utd and Hearts and failed to do so. I don't think we can afford another poor performance. First of all if we do play poorly we will probably lose but more importantly I think when you have this many poor performances back to back it is very difficult to get player attitude and confidence up for games as they go into a psychological rut. We need the players to raise it for this one, otherwise that will be 8 poor performances in a row (only the fact that we beat Hibs made the performance palatable) and that does not bode well.

I'm guessing our player budget won't be the problem. We can fairly easily set a budget and stick to it. There are many other running costs though that we have less control over.

With a 4-2-3-1 I would go with the standard back four plus .....Lawson.....Lasley Anier....McFadden....Vigurs ..........Sutton I don't really go along with the idea that McFadden can't play in wide positions but he's been so poor if he is going to play I think we need to mix it up a bit and try something different, hence McFadden playing behind the main striker in a more central position. People will say Vigurs has no pace but his reputation as a footballer mostly rests on his excellent performances last season from wide left. I say we put him back in the position that's he's been used to playing with Ross County even if like Hateley before him, he likes to think of himself as a central midfielder. Anier I think could play on the right as an emergency until we get a proper right winger in at the club. He's got a bit of pace about him and I think it would be at least worthwhile to see if he could play there and increase our options. Who's to say he couldn't do on the right what Jamie Murphy used to do on the left?

To play 5 (or 3 if you prefer) at the back you not only need good attacking wing backs, which we don't seem to have at the moment, you also need someone who can play the 'sweeper' position which is a specialized position in itself. Do we have someone that can play this role? Because if we can't defend well in the most basic footballing formation of 2 lines of 4 then I dread to think what might happen if we complicate matters with a 3/5 at the back. Just as scoring goals isn't dependent on numbers of strikers, the same can be said of defending, it is not simply a matter of having more bodies back there. My preference would be for a 4-2-3-1 formation as I think that offers the most flexibility. Having said that formations won't win games unless players perform and right now we look to be severely lacking in team spirit, confidence and basic competency in areas such as defending high balls and passing.

I would play a 4-2-3-1. You need attacking full backs to play 3 at the back. We could do it with McKinnon and Shannon, can't do it with Ramsden and Hammell.

If I was manager Faddy wouldn't even be playing next week. He's either nowhere near fit or needs a spell on the bench to improve his attitude.

Think this could be another difficult match. I'd fully expect Inverness to be one of the better teams this season.

As I pointed out before the European tie we have 15 outfield players with any first team experience. Our squad is so thread bare we literally can't put out a second XI.

He had more than one decent save and given the performance of the rest of the team I don't think voting for Hollis is outrageous. I voted for Anier for the goal and a good start to the match but to be honest he didn't get much opportunity after that as Aberdeen dominated. Hutchinson is the only other player worth consideration.

Afraid we were pretty much outclassed by a team that was more offensive, faster and passed the ball much better. No complaints about the result in fact it could have been a really bad defeat as they crashed a couple off the bar and Hollis made a few good saves. Don't have much more to say really, it was just a deserved defeat that could have been heavier.

.......................Langfield................. Shaugnhnessy....Anderson....Reynolds....Robertson .......................Jack...................... Hayes.........Flood........Robson.......McGinn... .......................Zola...................... Aberdeen from last week. On paper looks a strong team by SPL standards. As I pointed out in my earlier post perhaps the one weakness would be the two younger players in the full back positions. Across the midfield they look quite formidable to me. Flood is a tremendous player, one of the best in the league and I think Aberdeen pulled off a real coup by signing him. Hayes and McGinn give them pace on the sides with goal threat as well and Zola from what I saw in the highlights looks like he might be a handful. Don't think it is lazy punditry, I think this will be one of the hardest matches of the season. At least looking at it on paper.

Partick are putting together a good team. If we were going to have a Partick winger though I'd rather it was Lawless but I won't go there again!

People need to cheer up and be a bit more realistic. Would people really rather have a 3rd Rnd League Cup tie than Europa League football? We've been a bit unlucky with the draws in that we drew significantly better teams but it's still a hell of a lot more exciting than playing Morton in front of 3,000 fans. For an away tie against a top Russian side tonights performance wasn't even that bad and we were two mistakes away from being the only team to win on that ground in donkeys ages. Last season is over. We are rebuilding a team and frankly the level of negativity after 3 matches is actually preposterous.

Willo Flood will be their main man. We've got to make sure he doesn't get a run of the field. It's a shame we don't have any real wingers as their full backs are probably the most vunerable areas in the team but hopefully Faddy will give Clark Robertson a rough 90 minutes!

One man's 4-5-1 is anothers 4-4-1-1 is anothers 4-4-2. The differences are neglible. Essentially it was the same set up with different players.

Who would you play a weakened team against? Kuban, away from home in an elite level knock out competition or Aberdeen, at home in a 38 round domestic competition? I'd suggest it would be a better bet to play the weaker side against Aberdeen. Also, what happens if we basically throw in the towel against Kuban, take a heavy defeat and then Aberdeen beat us at the weekend? Does he really think three rested players will make the difference at the weekend? Sometimes I do not understand Stuart McCall's mentality.

By all accounts they put in a good performance and I like the way McInnes comes across. I think he will turn them around. Some people might be getting a bit carried away tipping them as run away favourites for 2nd but I think they are stick ons for the Top Six. It would have been a tough match for us anyway what with the European situation. I'd probably take a draw from this one before hand.

Think Sutton is getting a lot of unfair criticism. Middle to front we've been poor in all the matches and any lone striker is going to struggle. He's had two chances and hit the post against Kuban and only a good save by Williams stopped him today but we have to support him and create chances. McFadden is probably the player we are looking at to unlock defenses and so far he's looked miles off the pace and isn't even carrying himself well - he looks agitated and angry.