Kmcalpin

Was talking to a Dundee supporting friend today. They also lost 3-0 to County in much the same way. They had about 65% possession but couldn't penetrate the Staggies' penalty box. Their worst performance of their season to that point. County had about 3 times their amount of shots on goal.

Not expecting much as you can't turn a supertanker around quickly. I'd take a draw right now. I'm looking for an uptick in attitude though and application though.

Yes, thats hould be a priority. Sweep away the Kettlewell passive one paced approach and bring some excitement back to get the fans on their feet and some points on the board.

An nteresting left field appointment. Apparently he likes his teams to play with intensity and speed - that'll be a shock to some of the squad and coaches! Sounds good on paper. Welcome Michael.

I don't think they will decide our season. I'm writing off the Dundee United and Sevco games. The the new man's season really begins after that. A point against Dundee at home will steady the ship. I'm looking for an improvement in confidence, work rate, and organisation in the next 2 games.

Yes. I think its clear that the old regime had lost the dressing room. Hopefully a new manager will give their confidence a boost. I don't get why Casey was on the bench yesterday. OK, I now he's not our saviour, but if he's really really upset Frail & Kettlewell then just drop him altogther. If he was on the bench then he must have been in Frail's plans. The players' off the ball work rate also needs to be upped somewhat.

Absolutely. Things are very tight between 6th and 11th spot; 4 points in fact and you'd think Hearts will gradually pull away out of the dogfight. I also suspect St Johnstone will earn at least 10 points from their next 12 games.

Ah, I'd missed that. Not often I'd say it about this fixture, but thats a bit of relief. Another game with nothing at stake/free hit for the new manager to get to know his charges and implement his own ideas before a winnable home game.

Our new man is not Van Der Gaag according to Scott Burns. Any ideas? If foreign and continental it looks like a real gamble. Seemingly he'll bring in his own No 2.

Without going on ad nauseum, I thought today's performance was very Kettlewellesque. Ok, we did enjoy more possession (as we did in our first game of the league season against them). However we lacked pace, leadership, creativity and penetration. When not in possession, we were passive, didn't work hard enough, sat off them and defended too deeply. In contrast they worked far harder and closed us down quickly. They defended 40/50 yards from goal and we struggled to get anywhere near their penalty box. Offensively, we simply lumped up too many high balls to their defenders, although we did play more on the deck today. The return of Lennon Miller and Callum Slattery is to be welcomed although the latter was well off the pace and clearly not match fit. Young Miller is a great and talented prospect but he's not the type of player to get fans off their seats or light a game up. His style doesn't suit our set up. An all too familiar story. A final thought. I think the bottom 4 teams will be St Johnstone, Dundee, Ross County and ourselves although I don't know in which order. Many are worried that we'll finish up in the play off slot but I'm concerned we'll finish up in the bottom one. The one great unknown factor though is our new manager, whoever he'll be (now not likely to be Mitchell van der Gaag, according to Scott Burns). My hope is that he blows in like a hurricane, brings the winds of change and steadies our ship. If he does that, or even arrives like a gale, then that'll do me. I'm writing off next Saturday at Tannadice as a free hit. However, I'll be looking to take a point off Dundee and beat St Mirren the following week. 4 points from those 6 may seem like an impossible task but no reason why we shouldn't go for it with a new man at the helm.

This what frustrates me no end about the current (thankfully soon to be past) set up. Many of us have been saying this for weeks or even months, yet today he again starts there. Its not his fault. We say that because it just hasn't worked time after time. It's tantamount to shooting ourselves in foot needlessly.

Absolutely. The game was lost at 1.45 when the team was announced. O'Donnell was never a central defender; why was Casey benched; Sparrow is never a wing back; Slattery is nowhere near match fit; Halliday?; what had Watt done to deserve a start? We obviously set out to match County physically, which was always doomed to fail. No pace in side. No Manwhanise or Nicholson for creativity. A cautious dull pedestrian line up and thats exactly how the game unfolded.

A tad harsh. Yes, there is a lot of deadwood in our bloated squad but there are some decent players in there too. There are several problems though. The team is suffering from low confidence and secondly isn't playing for the current/old regime. Most importantly though we aren't getting the best out of what we have. Poor team selections, like today, and playing players out of position. We're no world beaters but aren't as bad as we appear to be. There's hope yet

Yes, that's the way forward. Decent guy that Stephen Frail is, he is/was part of the problem. An off the field clear out is necessary with a fresh pair of eyes. However we do need someone with a knowledge of the Premiership to support the new man until the end of the season.

Hospitality today for us so the team had better serve up a feast.

Ok thanks, that explains it.

Apologies, at the risk of appearing thick, what does this mean? It's completely over my head.

Great minds think alike or fools seldom differ. I was thinking exactly the same thing. This will be interesting. Our long running injury crisis could, of course, be a random one off.

IF true, Ketsbaia would be a risky appointment. He seems to have moved clubs fairly frequently. He doesn't seem to fit our past managerial model, but who knows?

It might be more realistic to think that the Dundee or even the St Mirren games would be achievable for having a new manager in place.

A useful update, but no mention of Seddon, Callachan or McGinn.

A brief progress update wouldn't go amiss. Just a short statement to tell us us what stage the process is at.

Whatever the precise line up, it would make sense to move SOD out of central defence, unless we've picked up more training ground injuries this week. Its not fair on the player himself to play him out of position.

Aye it was guid honest food.

I thought that we did show some improvement, but not a great deal, in terms of work rate and attitude. Celtic worked far harder than us when we had possession. By comparison we sat off them, Kettlewell style, and didn't put tackles in. Not all players gave 100%. A huge change in attitude and work rate is required for next weekend. Even allowing for injuries, I believe that the current crop is capable of upping their game considerably. They have to be motivated though and played to their strengths. A priority is to sort out our midfield and defence to make sure we're harder to play against, and to give our striker(s) more ammunition and support. They also need to be told in no uncertain terms, that a game isn't finished at half time, it lasts for 90+ minutes.