Joeboy

I think the fact that Clay has struggled with an 18 year old rookie (as highly rated as Campbell may be) shows that he's not up to the task. Plenty endeavour, little quality.

I think the fact that Clay has struggled with an 18 year old rookie (as highly rated as Campbell may be) shows that he's not up to the task. Plenty endeavour, little quality.

Whilst not brimming with cash, even in League Two I suspect Coventry will be offering wages on par, if not a bit higher than us.

McNulty has just signed for Coventry so that's one that can be ruled out.

I think people are unduly romanticising Ainsworth after his performance the other night. We were all aware long before Tuesday that he had those capabilities, the issue has just been him not producing them and I'm not subscribing to the "not enough game time" theory. If he was happy to accept a significantly reduced basic wage with performance incentives then I'd keep him, but him being happy to accept that kind of deal is incredibly unlikely.

Slow and lazy are two entirely different entities.

Looked on that transfermarkt site. I was sure I'd heard he had been playing as a number 10 this season and his stats seem to suggest that. 15 goals and 16 assists last season, great record, which probably leads me to think he'll move somewhere better than us, but him being at Fir Park might have something in it. On the topic of players sighted at Fir Park, I also follow Coventry down south and Chris Stokes had a photo on his instagram of him at the Ross County game the other week. The caption suggested that he was up watching "his boy" Elliott Frear but it seemed a long way to come for a game. That said, maybe the performance would have scared him off if there was anything in it. He's been out injured for a large chunk of this season, but was superb last season and would take him at either left back or centre half for us. He's been offered a new deal at Coventry, but I wonder if the drop to League Two is making him look elsewhere.

There is the idea that the club are worried about if fans were just using the voucher at the turnstile, they would lose out on gate money, as people with spares would just be handing them to anyone intending on paying at the gate. It does seem a bit weird worrying about gate money when you have this scheme going right enough. I think it would be rare that a 'Well fan going to the game tonight wouldn't be able to find a season ticket holder to get them in for free, but the process just makes it awkward for people to take it up. Can understand the club's concerns to an extent but it often seems that any scheme to try and get people to Fir Park is hard work.

Griffiths is still very much untested in my opinion, but it would be a worrying trend if we replaced our first choice keeper with our second choice keeper every season. The returning players/veterans argument is an interesting one. There's been times over the course of the season where I thought that over reliance on Hammell and Lasley was hampering us. Both have obvious physical limitations at this stage of their careers, but the fact that even at this crucial stage of the season, they are both the best available options in their area, tells me that we have failed miserably in our attempts to replace or phase them out. Bemoaning the fact that they aren't as able as they used to be is all well and good, but until we replace them with players who are better than their current ability, it is an immaterial moan.

I wouldn't be upset if we lost Heneghan. He's slow, makes poor decisions and his distribution is awful. Not that much of an upgrade on Kennedy or Laing in my opinion.

Speaking to a journo mate, he seemed to suggest that was down to the fact that there is a culture that once you have represented Scotland at one under age level, it's almost an automatic progression. This would explain how Cadden got his first cap aged 20, after a prolonged period in Motherwell's first team, while Jules was a regular before he had kicked a baw professionally. Hopefully it's something we would see change with new management, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Here we go, it's Lee Erwin's chips all over again. I'm glad you were able to sit down and assess each players drinks and what potential harm they would have on our chances of staying up. Can you tell me why you would have the players in working till six everyday? I guess you may see time off for them as a reward and granted, their performances haven't merited "rewards" as such but how do you know their schedule? A mate told me, via Andy Boles, that since Robinson came in that training has been ramped up intensity wise and let's be honest, we could have trained for 40 hours last week and Robinson still couldn't prevent Jules having that brainfart that he did. Whether you like it or not, this stage of the season will see physical and mental fatigue in our players, so why would you risk burning them out by making them train every waking hour? It would be great if we had been doing triple sessions every day and turned up to play Accies on Saturday with them having effectively managed their players and us moving about the pitch at 0 MPH. I guess when a team is playing badly, as we most definitely are, paying fans always take the self righteous angle that if they are paying their money whilst working full time hours, that the players should be going through gruelling schedules to "learn them". All sensibility goes out of the window. If we want to leave the players physically debilitated and psychologically demoralised for this relegation battle, so fans can be in their offices and building sites satisfied that the players are being worked hard, by all means have them into six. Also, our players are real people, so what effect do you think it would have on them mentally that they can't go to Costa Coffee, yes Costa Coffee, not the world buffet thing at halfords or the megabar, without facing scrutiny not only for their whereabouts, but their order. You'd think their trip was akin to Gazza with the dentist chair. Let's just treat them like prisoners and be done with it.

We're all aware of Hammell's limitations in his old age.....but my god I'm praying he's fit. The thought of choosing between Chalmers and Jules is like choosing which chib you'd like to be beaten up with. Sad day when you're dreaming about Francis-Angol playing left back.....

He was the year below me at school, so that would've made sense with him being a local lad. Didn't really know him personally, but he did walk about school think he had the aura of a superstar who had already made it in the game.

For anyone wanting to reassure themselves with statistics, our form against the four teams we still have to play this season is: P12 W7 D4 L1

I'd at least have him on the bench to be honest. If we start with Bowman, McDonald and Moult then we have no one on the bench able to play centre forward. 20 mins or whatever it was of McFadden on Saturday would have given us more chance to get back in the game than 20 mins of Clay.

Moult for a good finish and fantastic work-rate. Campbell made a naive error for their second, but all in I would only consider Samson and Heneghan to have been atrocious.

Personally, I'd change the shape to 4-4-2 and bring McMillan in at right back. I think the our best periods of play under Robinson have been with a back four (from 2-2 against Inverness, against St. Johnstone although we got beat and the marked improvement despite lack of chances in the second half against Partick). Bowman has been playing reasonably well in ways but I'd sacrifice him to change the shape. I'd love to see McHugh in midfield, but at the same time I'd love to see us be able to play without Heneghan and Jules, so that's a catch 22. Boyce being missing is a bonus/

Another frustrating afternoon. I wouldn't have termed Saturday as a "must win", more a "must not lose" and we couldn't even manage that. The formation definitely isn't working for me. Gaps in some places and overcrowding in others, there were times in the first half that I thought Frear was crowded out down the left hand side, with no room due to all three strikers lurking about and equally there were times in the second half when I thought our defence looked isolated....which is always going to be a drawback when your wing backs are guys who are generally attacking players. I don't know if he feels the back three has been forced upon him. He must not rate Jules, or trust McMillan the way McGhee did. I know people have said that Crags mentioned that McMillan switches off in games but it does seem a bit bizarre how often we played him on his wrong side, for us to be reluctant to play him on his correct side. I do feel sympathy for him that although our defence has been rotten all season, he has been without its two most competent members in McManus and Tait. Heneghan is showing to be really poor in the last few weeks and I don't see him being that much of an improvement or Kennedy and Laing. He's not quite at Mark O'Brien level yet but he's trying his hardest. I could understand us persisting with the error prone Samson if we had opted for a young, inexperienced keeper as backup but that highlights the poor recruitment we have had this season. Brill had played 70+ games for Inverness at this level, yet we couldn't get him fit to compete with Samson and although we've seen nothing of Griffiths, he did play nearly 30 times on loan at Cheltenham at the start of the season. His individual errors have really cost us a lot this season, albeit this being the first criminal one in a while. Small crumb of comfort that Boyce is missing on Saturday, but the way we are setup just now I think Ade Akinbiyi could score against our defence. I can see us drawing on Saturday, but in truth I'll be bricking it going to New Douglas Park on anything other than three points.

I actually rated Ripley quite highly, yeah he dropped a few clangers but show me a young keeper who hasn't. Generally speaking, he was assured in just about every aspect of the position. The flipside of us getting young keepers like that is that their loan spell with us is probably going to be where they make their mistakes and get them out of their system. We were obviously spoiled with goalkeepers in terms of Ruddy and Randolph, but if you look at what the rest of the keepers have achieved/are achieving since their departure (Hollis, Nielsen, Twardzik, Long, Samson) then it's fair to say he's doing much better. This season he's got in league one team of the year, looks set to win the golden glove (with 17 clean sheets) and even saved two penalties in a game at one point. I'd have him back in a heartbeat.

O'Ware is on double figures goals-wise, not often you see that for a centre half.

I never at any stage called for him to be dropped. He's our best option just now, but only due to the shortcomings of other options. I think we've every right to feel aggrieved that he's not performed anywhere near the standard he did last season.

Pearson ahead of Clay every time, but you're kidding yourself on if you think Pearson has performed to the best of his ability, or the standards expected, since his return.

Agreed. If it was an away game then maybe you could see why he was venting his frustration there, but it was our home game and we obviously chose to play in on an artificial surface, so his tweet is essentially criticising his employers.

Campbell looked a great addition to our midfield and would like to see him get a run there, but McDonald was man of the match for me, with Frear in second place. If used correctly, Frear could really be a positive, creative influence for us. Also thought Hammell had a good game and after some ropy games earlier in the season, he hasn't let us down for a long time in my eyes.