Ya Bezzer!

The midfield was completely non existent today - that was the biggest problem. You could have fired the lot of them off at half time. And I thought Aldred was poor, Tait got a pumping and Main did his headless chicken act. In a nutshell it was our poorest performance of the season.

His goalkeeping was fine but his propensity to absolutely blooter the ball as far down the park as he could started to annoy me as the game went on.

Bigi has probably been our best regular starter this season but you'd have to be one of the great fiction writers to come up with a story to justify him getting on in the 2nd half today. Robinson was quite right to hook him, even if others could consider themselves lucky to not join him in the dressing room for the second 45. The more experienced players should be stepping up to the plate and guiding the younger players but they aren't. It's the younger players that are showing the more experienced players what to do, whether it be Turnbull against Dundee, or Maguire today, and that's unforgivable. Imagine going to your job, absolutely knocking your pan in and then realising that guys that don't bother their backsides are earning way more than you? That's our club right now. Senior players just aren't earning their wages - end of story. We've been pandering lower and lower standards for a few years now and this is the result. Bar needs raised big time and the senior members of the squad need told that pretty forcibly.

Ironic that the best player today was the one player that didn't start last week. Barry Maguire did relatively well, unlucky not to score and had a couple of bits of nice skill on the ball.

Proof football is imponderable. More or less same line up as last week, good performance, good win behind us and yet we came out and looked like we wanted away from the place asap. The most going-thru-the-motions performance you are likely to see. I'm a critic of Robinson of course, but today is on the players, especially the experienced ones. Probably Allan Campbell's worst ever performance, Grimshaw back to stealing a wage again, Tait pumped from minute 1 to 90, I could go through them but I've got a train to catch. Serious questions have to be asked about this teams appetite. Do enough to keep the status quo going and nothing more. If Robinson has any sense a big shake up is required to cure this complacency.

That'll be 4-4-2 then!

Performance befitting of the wintery gloom. Defence looks nervous, midfield is non existent and the forwards completely isolated. Keep giving away possession, don't win any second balls, high balls or tackles and we've reverted to hoofball. First half was as bad as we've been all season and Livingston could be 2 or 3 up.

It's cold, wet, dull and a desolate half hour walk back to the station. Could be one of those games!

Total horse shit that you have to buy tickets for a match played in a three quarter empty stadium. Don't they realise it's an obstruction to going? Do they want people to go to the match? The authorities couldn't give a damn about the actual fans.

Livingston haven't scored in four although Menga hasn't really contributed in terms of goals so it remains to be seen if his suspension will mean that much. On the other hand Livingston have only conceded more than one goal twice - against both halves of the OF. Apparently Livingston played quite well at Ibrox and going by the highlights they created a few chances. In all likely-hood a tight match with possibly one goal winning it.

I thought that Hammell and Lasley were the last of the 2 grand a week players. They both agreed to lower paid contracts on their last player deals.

Lukas Jutkiewicz scores for Birmingham in the derby. Seems to be doing quite well this season after a while in the wilderness.

Johnson was the match winner. Two chances, two goals.

Unexpected win, excellent result and spirited performance. Actually thought Aberdeen started the better team and created 3 or 4 chances to our zero. However Johnson's clinical double more or less ended the game. Two chances, two goals, three points and that showed the importance of having someone that can finish limited chances....something Aberdeen don't have. After that Aberdeen descended into a bit of a shambles and we took control of the match and looked very comfortable. Excellent team performance - Gilliespie did well coming in, I'm not a fan but credit to Grimshaw had an excellent match at right back, Mbulu looked a little nervous in the opening stages but settled in, Campbell is just an enormous step up from McHugh, Turnbull looks like a veteran, and a good one at that, and of course the cutting edge Johnson gave us has won us the match. Only disappointment was that at 3-0 up, Livingstone should be getting game time from the bench. Overall though very good performance, hopefully Robinson is slowly learning.

Two chances, two goals. The benefits of playing a proper striker.

3-5-2?

Aberdeen were in poor form then and struggling a bit. They have taken a major upswing since then. 4 wins on the trot, including Rangers, Kilmarnock and Hibs, with three clean sheets. The betting man would have us not scoring tomorrow and therefore getting beaten.

Although I don't think Carson has been anywhere near his form from last season (possibly due to this clot) this is still a massive blow. Need Gillespie to step up cos he's going to be tested during a tough run of fixtures.

Unlucky defeat. Hinged on the sending off of Mbulu immediately after our excellent equalizer. I didn't seen the incident so I'm not going to say the ref got it wrong but his overall performance was mince and I'd be surprised if he saw more of it than me. All things considered to be competitive against a strong Ross County side that might well win the Championship this season, with 10 men for almost half the match and missing our best player, Turnbull, it was a decent performance. For me, there is a lot of potential there.

More refereeing controversy!

Clearly missed having Turnbull in the middle today. Ross County are physically stronger and have probably been the better team but we've been strong at the back and restricted them to one real chance, a header at a set piece. While we've not been as fluent as against Sligo we've probably created more chances than Ross County. Hastie and Watson have caused problems when they have got the ball and Scott has put in an impressive shift. We are just lacking that Turnbull factor. Wouldn't mind Rehman coming on as I thought he looked more comfortable on the ball than Brown or Semple. Need to keep the ball a wee bit better or picked up more 2nd balls cos I think Ross County have had too much possession and eventually that will tell. Plus we've proved we can cause them problems with probably less possession. Just need to get on the ball that extra 5%.

It gives a chance to do something we should have done last year that Robinson neglected. We weren't going to be relegated but no young players were given first team exposure and there was no general development at all. We just kept doing the same old same old. We probably won't be relegated this season because Dundee and St. Mirren are so bad so we have until the end of the season to do what should have happened last season. If Robinson isn't willing to take that chance, someone else should. If we don't and we go into next season having made the same mistakes and waste that period were team development was possible 2019/20 might just be the year we go down. We've lucked out, we've been given a massive opportunity and still people don't want to take it.

I just think that we are in an extraordinary season when there are two teams in the league that are so bad, you can't judge Robinson on avoiding relegation. At this stage last season bottom team Partick had 11 points, 2nd bottom team Dundee had 12 points. Two seasons ago the bottom team at this stage, Partick again, had 13 points. This season the bottom team Dundee has 4 points, 2nd bottom team St. Mirren has 5 points. They are two of the worst ever top flight teams. Finishing above them should not get Robinson off the hook for an unacceptable level of performance.

Alternatively do we wait until two of the worst ever teams in the top flight drop out before we make a change? If you ask me we basically have a free pass this season because St. Mirren and Dundee are absolutely dreadful. If we wait, we might not have that safety net. Right now we have a potential 6 months of development time that we'll probably never get again at this level. As for signing players in January, there are different styles of player available. The players Robinson has brought in are mostly wedded to a style of football that isn't working and is awful to watch. It's a disgrace that the most technically advanced player in the squad is an under 20 with a handful of appearances. We barely have more than 2 or 3 players in the squad that can take a touch and play a pass with any fluidity. We need better players and they need to come from somewhere. So it has to be either the youth squad or the transfer market. We can surely find two players that can improve the squad in January. One can replace Sammon who should be sent back to Hearts.

Yeah, something is wrong when the same player is sent off three times for two yellow cards. And given that McHugh has got off with at least one further red card this season then maybe you need to start looking at the player rather than the referee. As for Thomson, the Kipre league match was nonsense and so was the Dunne one at St. Johnstone. Both were rescinded. The rest of them were either red cards or not clean cut. I maintain, for instance, that Carson handed outside his box while others here will say he didn't. There are neutrals who will maintain the league cup final was a penalty, when I think it wasn't. That's the nature of the game. What we need to do is control what we can control. We can't control the referee, the weather, the pitches, the number of matches played in a certain period or the fixture list. We can control what our players do in a match. Let's concentrate on that because right now we are making mistake, after mistake, after mistake. It's unprofessional and unless it is addressed there is only one outcome.