Kmcalpin

A bit premature Iain. We have to give him gametime and a chance. He's a different type of player to Jordan White. White was not a target man, by his own admission, but Smith is.

I agree with your first point. For the first goal Carroll gives his opponent too much room to concede the corner although he should feel hard done by as there was no midfield back up to him. When the corner comes in Carroll gets on the wrong side of Welsh and fails to put in a challenge at the header. For the second I agree that Crawford gives the scorer far too much room. Whether that was down to lack of confidence, laziness, disorganisation or lack of aggression I don't know. I've been critical of Campbell for the last few months and there must be questionmarks over his off the ball play yesterday once again, but he really took his goal well. A cracking finish and the best of the 3 goals by a country mile. More of that please.

In principle, I would agree with you but that's not how it should be viewed by the SFA, based on precedents. You may recall a few years ago just after Louis Laing signed for us he was red carded. He was running back neck to neck with an opponent and then either stumbled or slipped. When he hit the deck his opponent fell over him. Totally accidental. However he was red carded and the ref said that whether it was deliberate or accidental was of no relevance. He brought his opponent down end of.

If he's appointed, he won't be making many changes before Wednesday. Right now though I'll settle for a point although 3 would be nice. GA is making small changes and improvements but our midfield and defence still give me the fear. The strikers are gradually hitting form although better service would take them to the next level.

Agree 100%. A 4-3-3 set up means that our strikers have to run themselves done for 90 minutes and retreat deep into midfield when we are under pressure as the midfield, in turn, retreats into our own box. It also means our midfield is quite narrow. In our last 2 games alone our midfield has gone missing for about 60% of gametime. According to BBC stats, our posession in both of our last 2 games has been about 35%. That puts the defence under great strain. Over the summer I'd like to see our our midfield completely revamped. Donnelly's return, whenever that is, will help, but not solve the problem.

Yes and it would also help if we had a strong running midfielder to support him.

What about Barry Maguire?

I wonder who Stephen Robinson was referring to when he said that some players had signed PCAs with other clubs.

A toss up between Kelly and Cole for me, but just plumped for the former.

So our current injury list is: Carson, Fox, Dunne, Donnelly Grimshaw O'Hara, Gallagher Lawless, and possibly McGinley? That's almost a full team. No wonder our squad looks bloated. Thats the worst for a few years.

Not quite getting the full on admiration for Maguire just now. Sure, he brings some good things to the side - set pieces and crossing but he's prone to making a few blunders during games as he did last night. Once almost cost us a goal. He's still a young player and will learn but he'll have to iron out these mistakes. Due his chance though and I hope coaching will bring some solidity to his game.

Very encouraged by our strikers tonight. They have talent and all worked very hard. Cole especially has hit a rich vein of form and was a real nuisance to United tonight. My only concern is getting them to play together in the most effective way. I like Watt but he's no goalscorer, yet many chances are falling to him. We'll get there though and 2 goals tonight will help.

Jock Brown made a similar comment in the first half. Even with Polworth there is too big a gap between the midfield and strikers. When Smith won a few knock downs,for example, there was no one near enough to take advantage.The midfield as is, is unbalanced. We need a good holding midfielder, a box to box runner and a creative type. Given GA's comments post Paisley, I suspect he'll bring in Foley fairly soon to give us more experience and to prevent us from sitting too deep, when not in possession.

We made it far harder than it needed to be. Had we taken our chances United would have been dead and buried. Midfield went awol in the second half and we lacked width. To my surprise Crawford was the pick of the midfield. With his experience Foley should be able to secure a starting slot. Maguire had a few dodgy moments. Campbell wasn't himself. On the plus side, Kelly had a great game, as did Watt, Long and Cole. Smith has his limitations but will allow us to play the long ball and hold it up. I'd also like to see him get on the end of crosses in a packed box. Central defence got little help but held firm. 3 points now we can kick on.

Relief! Had United equalised we couldn't have complained, but we were denied a stonewall penalty. Great first half very poor second. The main thing is though the 3 points are ours!

Stonewall penalty.

No less than we deserve. Tha goal has been coming for a while.

Midfield needs freshened up.

We've not managed this game at all since the break.

Midfield needs to up their game here.

How as that for a dive!

Yes, we're playing quite well and deservedly 2 goals up. One or two slack moments at the back though so we shouldn't get carried away. Now the real test starts - can we manage the game?

Great finish by Long.

Like others I don't foresee many changes, unless we have more injuries or illnesses. I'd like to see a bit more of Harry Smith though , if only for the psychological effect it will have on United.

On the face of it you're right but how many midfielders and defenders will be fit to play in the coming weeks?