Kmcalpin

Couldn't the SFA suspend the players who flouted the protocols? That would restore a measure of justice.

Yes Iain. We should keep a low profile though. There's no way we'd win a PR battle against St Mirren and by association, Kilmarnock.

Sadly, I don't think that will motivate the players. If we can afford it though, I'd offer the players an extra £2,000 in bonuses for these 2 games. That might work. It would be great to win both games 4-0 but that won't happen.

We will have little say in the matter. If the 2 clubs can't agree then the home side will dictate the date. We've been totally shafted. Not even any mention of token financial compensation for us. So both Killie and St Mirren flouted the rules and gain an advantage by now being able to field full strength teams against us. This will only encourage other clubs to play the system.

From what you say, and you're almost always spot on, I assume this deal has been in the pipeline for some time and so I wonder just how much influence Graham Alexander has had in bringing it to a conclusion?

Agree with that Iain. Not only are we the innocent party but we have been unfairly disadvantaged. As I've said before I've no problem with the games being played so long as Killie and St Mirren don't benefit. In other words they would have to select their teams from the players they had available to play at the time. If that includes youth players, so be it I would say to them, be careful what you wish for.

Handsome Devil on FPC wrote a very good post about the situation, far better than I could have done and he's captured the issues very well. In short he says that Kilmarnock and St Mirren's arguments will be have to be based on proportionality i.e. the punishment was totally out of line with the admitted breaches. The independent panel which originally sat and dished out the sentences seemed to take a comprehensive view with all factors considered. The 2 main issues are that: 1 Unlike normal cancellations for adverse weather, the consequences of their failings may have been very serious in that their employees could have spread the virus to other individuals in the community. Not everyone who contracts the virus is asymptomatic or has mild symptomes; and 2 The 2 clubs should not benefit, or be seen to benefit, from breaking protocols and hence the cancellation, as originally, they would have had to play with severely weakened teams against rivals. A financial penalty would not address this. In the current climate of tightening restrictions and punisments, and Scottish football being on a last warning I don't think they should expect special treatment and leniency. However its the SPFL and SFA we're dealing with, albeit through another independent panel, and sio I wouldn't bet on the outcome.

Another possible aspect to the appeals is that the Scottish Government is watching top flight football very closely just now and any action that could be seen as being soft on wrongdoers might not go down too well.

Yes, we were looking at Irvine a few years ago. Hibs however have a lot more cash to spend than we do. That said Lang's departure will have freed a wage up. Irvine was the type of player we could use in central midfield. Not everyone's Cup of tea though. Tall, streetwise, energetic, very mobile and physical with a mean streak. When Ross County beat us in Dingwall in our play off season he was a one man wrecking squad lashing out at anything in C & A. Ref never caught him once. He seemed to cover every inch of the park that day.

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My guess is that he wasn't but due to the secrecy of refereeing no-one seems to know for certain. This is a classic case where the referee could clear up the confusion instantly by explaining why he gave St Mirren the penalty. That however may involve him in admitting he was wrong. Thats not going to happen. Referees should not award a penalty if they think a foul has been committed they have to be almost certain.

Hardly an unbiased opinion, and although very dangerous to do so, I'd tend to ignore his view. Just part of the lovie PR machine.

Absolutely Allan. The problem is that just now we are limited in how we play by the players we have. An all out cavalry charge approach or trying to play open football will only result in a skelping. So, we have to play more defensively, but not too deeply. We don't have a good enough defence to do that. Our midfield also is not good enough to defend too deeply as we saw on Saturday and they badly lack pace to support our striker(s). In short we need to bolster the defence, midfield and play someone to provide an outball. Ideally we want our midfield to defend 40 yards out and make teams really break sweat to get anywhere near our penalty box but thats not going to happen in the next week or two. As you say, hopefully GA sorts this as a priority. A start would be an experienced head with a combative streak to shield our central defence and kick backsides to get other midfielders pushing forward.

Agreed but who will be our outball target?

Just watched the, admittedly very limited, highlights on BBC. Quick assessment is that our defence is still shambolic at times, allowing Saints space and time in and around our box. A better team would have punished us for these errors. The penalty? Whatever it was given for, Mugabi did nothing wrong whatsoever. I doubt that Gallagher did much either. If referees are giving penalties for that kind of thing, then we're going to see 7 or 8 per game. It'll be interesting if Madden explains his decision to the club, I don't think he is obliged to.

To be fair to him, he said on arrival, that he wasn't an old fashioned target man. We haven't had a "main striker" for some time now.

I have said before the games should be played but only if Killie and St Mirren don't benefit from the cancellations. Why should they benefit if they broke protocols? They should be asked play with the players they had available at the time of the original game.

Afteer yesterday's game I haven't changed my opinion on what we need. A central defender, a central midfielder, at least one winger and a main striker. Thats a minimum of 4 players assuming that Hastie leaves. Not fussed about Crawford - squad player at best. We'll need more if one or more if O'Donnell, Gallagher and Campbell leave. The midfield is woefully short of pace. The January window is not an easy one to bring players in and so decent quality short term loans would do me just now. The new management will, of course, have their own opinions.

As Spiderpig says, we've been defending too deeply for years, its not a recent thing. As I said above though, Graham Alexander commented on this failing and at 2.14 in his interview he says when a team does this its needs the experienced players to step up and drive things on - ours are simply not doing this. Its not laziness its either tiredness (mental/physical) or an attitude problem.

Interesting today that Derby County played their FA Cup tie without an entire first team squad and most of their Under 23s.

Never a penalty in my book. If anything Erwin lashes out at Mugabi with his foot. I'd better leave it at that. Interesting comment by the boss that when teams defend too deeply you look to the experienced players to push out and drive colleagues on. Thats just not happening.

Well he signed the contract, extension clause included. If he's as good as he thinks he is, he'll get a well deserved move in the summer and we'll get a decent fee, appropriate to a good player with 12 months left on his contract.

It could also have been zero. If Saints had scored an equaliser earlier it really would have been squeaky bum time. On another tack, Gallagher is one less game away from activating his extension clause.

IF our traditional second half slumps and late concessions are, at least in part, down to poor fitness levels, Mr Alexander is the man to sort it.

Obviously I'd rather have the 3 points than 1, but in many ways the absolutely perfect result for Graham Alexander. We get a point and move off 2nd bottom spot. Not something I'd have predicted last weekend! More importantly though this sounds like our typical performance this season for our new man to see for himself in his first game - the good and the bad. * players showing some skill * not pressing home our advantage whilst on top * some players underperforming * lack of character * lack of experience/streetwiseness * late slump * inability to see a game out * losing a silly goal