Kmcalpin

Agree Numpty. Ok our forwards aren’t exactly setting the heather on fire but you’re right. The service they are receiving is abysmal. It’s unfair to judge them given the lack of ammunition they’re fed. We have had no decent wingers to speak of and Polworth has been poor. Of all the areas in the team, they and Trevor Carson are the least culpable.

We should give him a chance in C&A. That said, if he was good enough why would Livingston let him leave on loan to a rival club? If he was one of their top players he'd be in their team.

Yes. That would have indicated his star was rising and we were taking a promising player from a smaller club. As it is it would seem he can’t cut it at a rival club in the same league.

Signing Crawford is strange. Not sure if thats to fill in for Donnelly, as extra cover or he’s back up for an injured Campbell. If the lad can’t get a game for Livingston why is he good enough for us? Why would Livingston loan out a good player to rivals? This move raises more questions than answers. Are our young lads not ready or good enough?

Agree with many comments. Last night was torture but we progress. Lets get this out of the way early on: the pitch was awful and maybe thats why we tried to play long high balls. Thats fine but we don't have the players to do that. The referee was awful and totally inconsistent. Coleraine's 2 penalties seemed soft but the camera angle on both was very poor and its impossible to decipher exactly what happened. They were certainly very streetwise and cynical. Neither is an excuse for our poor performance though. We played reasonably well in the first half but even then looked shaky in defence and on our right flank. Coleraine were allowed to charge up and down our right flank and fire over crosses to their heart's content. Our 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 whichever it was, was very narrow. The second halve saw a total collapse and our midfield simply capitualted and disappeared. To that extent you have to feel sorry for our defence and strikers. However the defence was poor in its own right. Thank goodness for Trevor Carson. Exceptional to save 3 penalties. Lets not forget our penalty takers (O'Donnell, Watt & O'hara) as they kept their nerves and hit the net with well taken efforts. I don't know what our problem is, but we have a good squad of players on paper with a few exceptions. I'm not convinced of Lamie or Mugabi. Is it the system we play or something off the pitch? In the main I don't blame the players. Management must take the lion's share of responsibilty for last night. We're through and a bit richer.

No contest for MOTM. Trevor has been our most consistent performer this season but last night he was outstanding.

We don't do penalties.

Who didn't see that coming?

Campbell has gone missing as well.

Get our right hand side sorted out Robbo. Midfield has gone AWOL.

So far so good and we're deservedly 2 - 0 up. Looking lively up front but we're allowing Coleraine too much space and time in midfield. They're able to sling over far too many crosses from the our right hand side.

Its our defensive midfield that is leaving gaps especially on the right.

Does anyone have a link to the live coverage? Edit: got in now thanks.

It won't be easy but we should have enough to progress. Coleraine are part time and will be a bit ring rusty, albeit that they've played some friendlies. They'll come flying out of the traps and if we weather that we should grow stronger as the game goes on.

There may also be issues with the system, I don't know. For the app to be successful in Scotland it will need about 3.8 million downloads. Thats a very ambitious but hopefully feasible target.

One failing, and its a major one in all parts of the UK is that many individuals are not participating i.e. not giving contact details to pubs and restaurants; or perhaps giving false ones. Even if they can be traced they're not answering. Also, many folk don't have sufficiently modern/hi tech phones to use the system. The apps being promoted need to involve something like 70% of the population and we're nowhere near that level of sign up.

That leaves us even lighter in midfield.

You'd imagine that Donnelly would be our defensive midfielder; O'Hara the box to box type to take over from Allan Campbell when he leaves and Liam Polworth the creative one. As we know things have gone a bit awry with Donnelly's injury. We're still short of cover. Short term though, a loan signing for Donnelly might be a relatively cheap option (plenty of options from down south you'd think). It doesn't help that our wingers are failing to perform.

Jamie Semple is an attacking midfeidler but he's injured just now I think. Then there's another midfielder in young Dean Cornelius, who is long due his chance. Thats not to say we pitch them in at the deep end and rely on them week in week out.

The funny thing is that, on paper, we have a stronger squad than last season and I still believe that. In itself though that doesn’t win games. Something doesn’t feel right but I can’t put my finger on what is amiss. In the main we have recruited some decent players but could it be the mix isn’t right. Injuries certainly haven’t helped and unfortunately most have been left sided. I think Robbo is still struggling to find the right formation to bring out the best in the squad.

I'm not in the know, but its the first I've heard of this. In the case of Dundee United, Jackie Macnamara received a modest percentage of transfer income but the external investors were entitled to virtually all of the income, amounting to several millions, in return for their "donations" to the club, when it was very heavily in debt. We are definitely not in that boat.

Allan Campbell will move on, as its part of our business model. I'm not in favour of throwing a bucket of cash at him or indeed any player. Any increase we could offer would be modest, in comparison to what he will be offered in England's leagues outwith the top division.

Campbell might well move on who knows and when he does good luck to him as he's earned a move. The comparison with Dundee United isn't at all accurate as we'll have retained transfer income within the club, as opposed to paying off staff and external "investors" with the proceeds. Anyway this is how our business model works and its successful.

The bottom line is that we won yesterday and that brought a sense of relief. So in some respects it was job done. We're also not adrift at the bottom. But, thats as far it it goes. As others have said the game was a mirror image of matches we've lost this season. Saints dominated possession (59%/41%), created/were gifted 5 chances and took none. We fashioned one, just one, chance ourselves, although Callum Davidson disagreed I believe as he would, and took it. Saints dominated midfield despite us trying to play 3-5-2, looked more committed and competitive and worked harder off the ball than we did but fortunately looked toothless in front of goal as Trevor Carson will gratefully tell you. For long spells our midfield was outfought and anonymous. Whether we tried to sit on our lead on our lead or not I don't know. We certainly missed McGinley when he went off. Saints were gifted the freedom of our left flank late on and slung over cross after cross from there. Thankfully Gallagher and Mugabe were up to the task, although the latter was a bit overly clever at times. He has stepped up to the mark though. Overall, the defence, especially Lamie looked shaky at times, but in fairness they received little support from either Campbell or O'Hara. Polworth was largely anonymous throughout and created nothing. Allan Campbell scored a lovely goal and was far better going forward than defending. I did feel sorry for strikers as they were given nothing to work with and the promised crosses into the box just didn't materialise. Credit to White for soldiering on, but I really think he should have been taken off, before he was. Our build up was slow, tiresome and very predictable. I still feel that our problems lie primarily in midfield where things just aren't happening. Hylton is injured, I think, but in any event our wingers aren't doing it. With the cash coming into the club just now I'm not in favour of spunking it on more players but I'd give Robbo a wee bit to bring in a solid defensive midfielder on loan until January. That shouldn't break the bank.

I had assumed that he added most of those minutes on to compensate for Trevor Carson’s excessive time wasting.