Joeboy

Seems like you log on to a thread like this far too often now. I can only echo what the rest have said.

Every centre half makes mistakes just like every forward misses chances. Craigan is by far my favourite player of our current squad and I don't think we can cope without him. Although on paper we took him off whilst losing and got a draw, the only way we can win without him if you ask me is by a "we're going to score one more than you" philosophy, which isn't good for the heart. I would be cut up to see him go but I have seen players I've liked go before i.e McFadden, Clarkson, Corrigan, and the club have moved on.

To be honest, I'm not up with retiring the jersey either. If no-one ever wears it again, there will be no one to carry it on, to remind us of the shirt which our hero wore. However, the next person to wear it has a helluva lot to live up to considering our last three were McFadden, O'Donnell and Clarkson.

The Sutton gamble definitely did, as did Craigan's on paper, as we were losing when he went off and ended up with a point. However, our defending was still shambolic at times, and you always feel more comfortable with him in there.

Basically, none of us should be surprised. McDonald is a tosser of the highest order, and gets paid a ridiculous sum to basically be inept at his job.

I've always been a fan of Lasley. In the last season of his first spell (2003/04) I thought he was absolutely tremendous. However, it has been brought up on here before that he's not imposing enough to be a defensive midfielder, not enough of a threat going forward to be an attacking player, not fast enough to play wide, so it is uncertain which role he would revel in. I think the fact he may be used less and less in this campaign is reflected in the fact that Butcher and McGhee often had the tendency to leave him out the team, and early indications show Gannon has too. Maybe they can see things we can't.

It was a bold move from Gannon but one which paid off. If it was me, I'd say Hammell was far worse, so I'd have put Reynolds at left back and hooked him. I don't think Craigan did that much wrong. I think it would be an awful move to get rid of him, and it's just a total non starter. Off the top of my head, I can only remember us beating Accies in his absence over the past few years.

I've defended Hammell often, but he is beginning to change my mind. I thought he looked dis-interested today and showed a lack of concentration. If he has someone to play there, and Dundee cough up decent money then I'd let him go. He hasn't been the same since his return, but he was always suspect defensively. In his last season (05/06) I can recall his poor positioning for costing us a lot of goals.

I said at the time he wouldn't have thought twice had McHugh been five yards further up the park. Today was a rollercoaster. Can't decide whether I am happy or not. I think this season won't do our hearts any favours. First half wasn't particularly great for either side in my opinion, I don't think we created anything due to the fact Sutton was isolated up front, and no one seemed to find him, and he didn't seem to find anyone else. I thought if Ruddy hadn't stupidly decided to punch that ball when he could easily have caught it, we wouldn't have gone one down. All credit to Jim Gannon for making those changes at half-time, although the general consensus seems that Craigan was bollocks, I didn't think he was any worse than the rest of the players. Hammell was however. Hutchinson looks as if he is a great prospect, but he will make mistakes and I don't think we can be over-reliant on him. He was badly at fault for that open goal they should have scored. However, the fact that he is a threat from set pieces is something we're not used to! In the second half, Humphrey and Murphy changed it in my opinion. They seemed to be linking up well, and Murphy looks far better through the middle, looked lost in the first half. Humphrey seems to hug the touchline and put crosses in, which we've all been crying out for. So all in all, promising performance, but promise that needs to be fulfilled.

Any idea at what time today all will be revealed?

I'd say Johnstone's team too. The bench picks itself. Looking quite forward to this now, should be a good game, reckon we'll edge it!

I'd definitely get rid of McGarry before Fitzpatrick. Neither are world beaters, but McGarry is a first division player, at best I stress, he wouldn't even stand out in a good first division team, and he isn't likely to improve. One thing Fitzpatrick does have over him is time, he could yet be honed into a useful player. To be honest, Darren Smith leaving won't be tragic, he has scored some vital goals for us in the past, but with the amount of wingers we now have, he could end up just being a burden on the wage bill.

What I hated most about the break up of the team of 2000 was, after he sold all those big players he came right out and bought James Okoli and Said Chiba, both of great pedigree, neither could kick their own arse. If Okoli hadn't been sent off on one of his first games, and Fat Boab hadn't stood on Said Chiba, I doubt they would be remembered.

We went something like seventy odd league games without a nil-nil draw, until BBC showed an incredibly boring 0-0 draw with Hearts on December 27th, 2003.

Administration was always going to come for us to be honest. The fact we gave Spenny and Goram 10k a week was ridiculous, not only should a club our size not be paying such fees, for me neither of them came close to meriting that wage. In the year 2000, we had to get rid of Goram, McMillan, Brannan, Spencer, McCulloch and Goodman, who were a fair proportion of what had made us challenge for third spot in 99-00. You'd think this would be a wake up call for us to tighten up financially, but this was followed by Billy Davies splashing out huge wages on terrible players like Andy Dow, Eddie Forrest, Karl Ready and Stephen Cosgrove. None of which made any contribution to the side whatsoever. To add to this once Davies had gone, Eric Black decided to splash out on many French nobodies (Franck Benhard anyone?), so our wage budget must've been sky high. I think it speaks volumes for how big our squad was and how it was loitered with many useless players, that after the nineteen players were released, we managed to field a fairly strong starting eleven in the closing two games. There is a huge difference between now and then, as these days if you took nineteen players out of any side in Scotland they wouldn't be worthwhile turning up. The following season was a rollercoaster also. The Scottish Cup run was amazing, seeing the likes of McFadden and Pearson flourish was also amazing, but if I remember correctly we went through two seperate spells of taking 1 point from 33? The little money Butcher had that season wasn't spent very wisely as of all the players he signed only Partridge and Craig at a push had any lasting effect. However the next season, with the sale of McFadden, things were looking up financially, and Butcher managed to pull us out of a hole with a few masterstroke signings such as Craigan, Marshall and McDonald.

Sometimes you need to go backwards to go forwards. As long as we aren't threatened by relegation and we play football in the correct manner, with the correct heart and attitude, and we see the young boys develop, that to me is a good season.

For me, Coach was always a leader on the pitch, maybe his off field activity suggested he shouldn't be club captain, but he was always there to gee everyone up on the park. He's always been a sound guy whenever I've met him round about Coltness, but I've heard many stories of what he behaves like with a drink.

Voted Forbes, but was equally impressed with Coke, O'Brien (who was much better at full back than before), Hutchinson and Reynolds.

Dougie's last game was against St. Johnstone at McDairmid (sp) in May of that season If I remember correctly.

The problem with a claret away strip is we'd have no-one to wear it against, other than Dundee United! Seen as we tend to wear away against Aberdeen and Hearts, and Claret would clash more. So having a claret away strip for two outings a season would hardly be worth it! I think the Claret away of Eric Black times is one of the most hacket 'Well tops I've seen! Does anyone else think the Untouchables strips looked better without the sponsor, on the photoshoot before Untouchables agreed to sponsor? Now there were two cracking strips.

I think black would be a good shout. The black one we had around 95-97 was cracking, with the two white bands either end of the amber sponsor, also loved the Skippy Sunday black effort. Still hoping one day for the blue away strip that's been talked about a few years now, and also another Dortmund effort would be nice! I don't fancy a Claret one this year though I will say!

Definitely. If we have both Hammell and Reynolds able to slot in at left back, that means two players who have played 100+ games for the club in that position, which can't be said of any other position really. Right back, centre forward and possibly another centre half should be addressed first. On the subject of Callum Davidson, I can't really see him offering too much more than Hammell anyway!

I think by that guilty conscience you may be one of said people Jay refers to!

That was my first ever 'well away top! I dread a situation on Thursday like that mob that played Rangers a few years ago, tried to swap shirts and their chairman appeared and intervened, saying they couldn't afford to lose the strips!

Terrible news. Hope he's at peace now. R.I.P Mowgli!