Kmcalpin

Two good posts Ya Beezer and Yorky. When we play with a lone striker like Scott, there's usually a disconnect with wingers playing wide or deep and attacking midfielders. We were creating chances from wide but there was a lack of bodies getting into the danger areas quickly to take full advantage and take the weight off Scott. Turnbull played in a deeper role. We definitely missed Gorrin as he is a good all rounder. He's someone who can compete and tackle, albeit rashly at times, but is also comfortable on the ball and can pass. We've not had such player for some years now. This type of player is a real asset for any team and means that they can support and help more specialised types. Polworth, as I understand it, is an attacking midfielder who can also play wide. Hopefully we will replace Gorrin with a like for like player, but Polworth isn't that man. Carl McHugh is a decent but limited player. On Saturday he defended reasonably well and won more than his fair share of aerial duels but his lack of pace and passing ability limited his influence. I thought he could also have been more assertive at times, especially in the closing stages, when we needed someone in the engine room to kick a few butts. All that said, there are worse players than Carl McHugh.

I don't take these awards seriously as they are very subjective and in reality are influenced by a range of factors other than ability and performance. Unfortunately Iain the fact that David Turnbull didn't win the award will have no bearing on when he leaves.

Again shocking defending. As the game entered its closing stages we began to defend deeper and deeper and paid the inevitable price. No-one was marking Magennis who had plenty of space inside our box. A last ditch but unsuccessful tackle shouldn't mask poor organisation. St Mirren were surprisingly unambitious yesterday as others have mentioned but their defence was overall more solid than ours on the day; not great but not error prone. I was also puzzled as to why Ariyibi was taken off. He didn't have a great game overall but maybe halfway into the second half he really came onto a game and annoyed the Saints defence to such an extent that they decided collectively that enough was enough began to take turns to hack him down. Was he injured or knackered?

Forgot to add that playing as a lone striker is a big ask of anyone let alone an inexperienced youngster like Scott.

Yes he was definitely a bit slow and got caught on the ball a few times but he didn't have a bad game. A draw was just about right. Our defence looked shaky all day and it was no surprise when they deservedly equalised. Again we looked vulnerable on the wings. Neither side deserved to win nor lose. Our biggest problem was that nothing stuck up front, where we looked toothless, although we did create quite a few chances. I thought that Main or Sammon might have replaced Scott for that reason round about the 70th minute mark. The substitutions did seem a bit odd and certainly didn't help, our cause. Another valuable lesson for James Scott, who showed some neat touches but was up against another big tough centre back who conned the referee. A summer in the gym beckons for young James and maybe a six month loan spell. Saint's Mullen was extremely annoying with his constant diving and he was lucky not to pick up at least one card. The referee lost control near the end much to the relief of MacKenzie who was only yellow carded. Does anyone know why we didn't have a substitute goalie on the bench? At the end of the day a decent late season workout, although it wasn't exactly scintillating stuff.

Mostly average displays but dunne gets my vote. McHugh would have done but got caught on the ball 2 or 3 times.

I wonder if the likes of Well fan Dean Cornelius or Reece MacAlear will get a seat on the bench.

Hopefully we'll see some more young players in action at some stage tomorrow or on the bench. This is the perfect time to give them a taste of first team football.

Now agree. Ariyibi says that he was pushed to the ground and this is the opinion of some Dundee fans also. In short two erroneous penalty decisions in the game which could have had serious repercussions not just for us but also for other teams in the bottom 6.

Not exactly a glowing statement is it? A bit abrupt and no thank you.

Partick and Cambridge's combined average attendance comes to about 9,100. 50 odd people represent about 0.5% of them or roughly 1 in 200. So 99.5% didn't comment on him or thought he is ok/good. Give the guy a chance and lets see what he can do.

Don't forget too that Cedric Kipre's not inconsiderable fee falls into the current financial year.

Decent post. I don't know if we are though. Its quite possible that of those "signed" so far only Polworth and Campbell will be with us.

I agree it was harsh but according to the laws of the game it was a stonewaller. Ariyibi slipped and the Dundee attacker fell over him. It doesn't matter whether its accidental or not.

Renew your season ticket Jim and it will help to bring in a better calibre of player.

Very true, but defensive work isn't all down to the 4 defenders, the midfield is involved as well.

Add to that Gorrin, Turnbull, Cadden and McHugh possibly departing it could leave us short in the middle of the park. That said, Polwarth can play wide.

Kevin Clancy yesterday had an exceptionally poor game from start to finish and could easily have affected the outcome. Very relieved that he didn't. In the first half he could easily have yellow carded Kusinga and MacGowan for persistent jersey pulling on Scott, but only once awarded a foul. Many criticise Curtis Main for preferring to wrestle rather than play football but week in week out we see big defenders resort to this, mainly without any punishment. In the first half Gorrin was yellow carded for a 50:50 challenge and whilst it was robust it was probably not as bad as his opponents one. In fact I thought we'd be awarded the foul. He has been playing on a knife edge of late and picking up yellow cards so yesterday probably wasn't a surprise. His second yellow was also debatable and whilst rash it wasn't that bad. In terms of the 95 minutes yesterday he can consider himself unlucky given what the referee missed/ignored. Late in the second half, Tait was cynically brought down just outside the box by Woods just as he was about to pull the trigger. Foul awarded but the culrpit wasn't even spoken to. A stick on straight red in my book for denial of a clear goal scoring opportunity. The penalty decision was ludicrous, as the ball was not over the by line. We were astonished that Clancy, only a few yards away, consulted the linesman who was a good 40/50 yards away and unsighted, at the insistence of Dundee players and changed his decision. Poor refereeing and officiating from start to finish. I get that referees are only human and make mistakes but standards are poor in Scotland and bedevilled by inconsistency... Over to the SFA.

A boring end of season game with nothing at stake? Not a bit of it and possibly the game of the season. As Santheman wrote "You could tell by the look on his face when we scored the 4th that he knew Turnbull had got him out of jail". I'll reserve comments on the match officials for a separate post. A cracking game and those who stayed away expecting a borefest were the losers. 7 goals, some great finishing, end to end stuff, controversial decisions, a red card and a last minute winner...what more could a fan ask for? Overall we deserved the win agianst a spirited Dundee side which carried a bit of luck on the day. Robbo got it 100% right by leaving out Hastie. Even when down to 10 men we played good football and pressed forward. The nature of the game clearly fired the players up and there was no shortage of effort. Plenty of pluses on the day: a great display by man of the moment David Turnbull; a first senior goal for James Scott; and a short but promising debut for Jamie Semple. Some great goals - a terrfic strike by Turnbull, an absolute beauty from the impressive loanee Ethan Robson and a well taken and difficult winner from the man of the moment again. Ariyibi also caught the eye. Some weaknesses too though. James Scott doesn't quite look comfortable yet in the loan striker role and he's taken a real battering two weeks in succession from the likes of Kilgallon and Kusunga but the experience will do him good and I'd like to see him play in our 3 remaining games. I wonder how many jerseys he goes through? A spell out on loan will toughen him up and he needs to work on his upper body strength. We're still suspect defensively especially on the wings and we need to get the full backs right. Tait needs to revert to the right. Gorrin's red card has been coming for some weeks now and in hindsight should have been taken off at half time. Far more positives than negatives though. We're comfortably in 8th spot with a real chance of finishing in 7th and doing so with a lot of academy graduates. David Turnbull is probably the best young prospect I've seen at Fir Park in decades and that includes Faddy and Uncle Phil. IF he continues to develop the skys the limit for him.

I would think Tanner on reduced terms with McHugh and Frear on the same ones and Main, Cadden and Gorrin on increased ones. That said I suspect that McHugh and Main will almost certainly leave.

Pretty much my view. Both will be on decent wages too.

We might well do. The management know more than we do about contract negotiations and may choose to select players who could be leaving as oppopsed to those, like Hastie, who are definitely leaving. The lad himself could be subject to some barracking from the support that other players may not be. That, also, could be a factor, as could attitude and form.

The figure is a lot less than that probably circa £4k per week. Our best offer was also considerably higher than that which has been quoted on this forum ie £800 per week. I bear Jake Hastie no ill will. He is exercising his legal right to move on and we should exercise our legal right not to select him for the remaining games. I do however feel that he led our fans up the garden path a bit with his public quote that he wanted to stay at Fir Park and hoped to sign within the next fortnight. That was before his head was turned. At the start of my career I was told to be nice to people on the way up as you may need their help on the way back down. Thats still as true as it ever was and he should heed that. I will not be barracking him if he is selected and I hope our support doesn't either.

So it would appear that no-one has actually told Robbo. Maybe the club hasn't been officially told either. Different attitude to Gary Holt.

We might well start with the same team but we have to find a way of upping the effectiveness of the wingers. Other teams have us sussed as we've seen in recent weeks. Scott to start up front with Sammon or perhaps Main on the bench. I'd like to see Jamie Semple feature at some point.