Kmcalpin

Seemingly Regan Charles Cook will be out for a few weeks. The extent of his injury is being assessed.

Over the decades, I've seen both halves of the gruesome twosome benefit consistently from poor officiating. No difference whatsoever between them. There's a number of reasons for that, all of which have been covered here. VAR is not at fault; its the poor officiating behind it. That won't change

Hibs are trying desperatley to land Dykes. Don't know much about young Wilson.

No recruitment department is ever going to get every transfer right. A realistic aim is to get maybe 60-75% right? Overall, our recruitment team has done well this season (Fadinger, Watt, Just, Welsh etc) and credit to them for that. Its just that I don't think Hendry fits our style of football. I wouldn't criticise them over Stama as he was signed for a previous style that we no longer play.

Agreed. Many now accept that we aren't converting good possession based football into actual goals. Our priority needs to be the strikers. I can envisage 2 or 3 players leaving, maybe 4 if Welsh moves back to Celtic. 2 or 3 incoming including a striker, central defender and left back cover. A lot will depend on which players leave. I don't think yesterday's game will influence that, albeit that we've failed to score in 4 of our last 6 games.

No, I don't think so; just being objective. Others have singled out Longelo for criticism. I don't think it was just down to him. JBA will certainly have picked up on this. If we want to improve we have to analyse our weaknesses. Yes, we played pretty well, with the exception of our finishing but that doesn't mean to say we should absolve the team of all criticism. Can we honestly sit back and say that there was nothing we could have done to prevent the goal? Was it a wonder strike that no defence would have prevented?

I might be wrong but I doubt it. I'm under the impression that a development fee is only payable if no fee is agreed.

Very true. The media is 100% complicit in this unacceptable situation and has been for decades. I can accept it from private companies as I can and do choose not to give them any money, but I am forced to fund the BBC. The media favour both halves of the gruesome twosome and had Celtic been involved, the exact same scenario would have unfolded.

But, will it be included in any review as VAR was not involved? There's no accountability. As for the goal we lost, it was a team effort. The scorer was afforded acres of space in our box. Longelo may have played a part, but only a part.

Thats correct yes. It will be a % of any profit.

Fadinger penalty claim was 100% stonewaller. Why no VAR review? A serious question for the SFA.

I'd love a Louis Moult or a Michael Higdon but I'd happily settle for a 12 goal a season striker right now. I feel sorry for Callum Hendry as folk are expecting far too much from him. He was never a prolific scorer, more of a Curtis Main type and thats down to a failure of our recruitment department. As an aside, Hale is not setting the heather on fire in the Highlands this season.

100% in agreement. Celtic are vulnerable in defence but I doubt we have the cutting edge to take advantage of that.

All very true but I wouldn't lose sleep over this result. It was always extremely likely and Rangers will finish the season well clear of us. The bottom line is that we just weren't good enough. Our lack of clinical finishers is costing us dearly but everyone knows that. I'm still very hopeful that we'll be in the mix for a top 6 finish. Tuesday evening again is a free hit. Next Saturday is more important.

Its a Cooncil coup.

As always, anything we take from this game, or next Tuesday's, will be a bonus. Although we're playing well, we shouldn't get carried away.

Not as far as I know, although he has an active interest in MFC. Has a job outside football.

Liam Gordon is now available again after illness.

Merry Christmas to one and all.

I met Stevie Kirk at our local coup this afternoon. Looking well and very pleased with our current form.

For security reasons apparently after the last Celtic fiasco.

Kofi Balmer interesting Derry City after Ross County deal went cold.

Thats a fair summary. The game turned out pretty much how I expected. Had it finished 0-0, it wouldn't have surprised me. Dundee learnt a lot from Falkirk and Dundee United and were prepared to change their normal game to nullify us. In the process they sterilised themselves. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for us, they had no control over the ballboys or groundsmen. We were always going to struggle against a team sitting in and without TJ's spark it was no surprise that we were toothless. Good leading up play but final passes going astray and a defence benefitting from good luck - far from a perfect combination. The story of our season so far. That said, we did win and deservedly so. It could easily have been 3 or 4 zero. Patience won the day though and Slatts notched the vital winner. Individually, I thought that McGinn, Welsh Fadinger and Just caught the eye. RCC just didn't cut it and perhaps Said could have been introduced earlier. A bit concerning that Gordon was nowhere to be seen - hopfully just rotation. No Balmer either. What does impress me about JBA's reign is his ability to rotate the squad wthout disrupting our gameplan. Thats quite something. We desperately need a more lethal finisher and I'm sure that'll be in JBA's shopping list in the January sales. A final word on yesterday's referee. Not a dirty game. No major errors or VAR interventions fortunately but a string of overly fussy decisions and a bit easily conned by the likes of Yogane. He didn't like his linesmen telling him what to do either - a shame really because on 3 occasions they were right and he was wrong.

Not really a former player, but Olly Whyte scored the winner for Stenhousemuir today.

Today will be a tough game, as I suspect Dundee will sit in and make life difficult for us. Still, if we play to form we should be good enough to earn a win. On this occasion we can control the ballboys and pitch watering.