Kmcalpin

So where would Liam Grimshaw fit into your plans?

Hopefully Jake Hastie has come to realise, over the past few games, that he still has a lot to learn even at Scottish Premiership level. Recently teams have been doubling up on him and he's found it harder to make an impression.

Whilst Danny Johnson is no world beater he is simply not suited to our style of play ie playing as a lone striker. He's basically a penalty box poacher. Thats the bottom line. When we completely changed our style and set up after the festive season break he was left high and dry. We'll need a left back for cover and certainly do need to revamp our striking options. Winger(s) will also be required amd maybe another midfielder depending on any unwanted departures.

Pretty much this. Hibs at Easter Road was always going to be a very big ask and it seems the team knew that beforehand. Sounds as though we couldn't match Hib's fight and determination never mind football. Our lack of a decent striker is very evident. On the plus side, youngsters like Hastie and Turnbull will have hopefully learnt that they need to produce an awful lot more when marked tightly. No red cards no bad injuries so thats a plus although Gorrin's yellow card means a suspension is that little bit closer. Before today, I always thought that our real battle was with St Johnstone and Livingston and so it will prove. We have virtually secured 9th place and good chances of finishing 8th or perhaps even 7th. Finishing above Livingston and St Johnstone is not beyond us. A bonus too that Aberdeen held Livingston to a draw.

I'd be surprised if he did. Apart from his spells with us as a player and manager he's never really shown much of an interest in us despite being born and brought up locally. I read his book and it came across to me, at least, that he didn't have much time for us as he was mistreated as a player.

Seems a bit unfair to me. Still, its the SFA which is organising the game so.....

Aldred and Turnbull for me.

Pleased with this news. Would have preferred 2 years but that's also up to the player. Still, it gives us a measure of stability going forward.

Thats right. IF a player went to a club like Sevco, they would offer a ridiculously low figure, to which we would not agree. Some considerable time afterwards the issue would be remitted to some kind of official panel, who would then adjudicate. In the case of Lewis Ferguson the figure arrived at, supposedly £237,000, was between Aberdeen and Accies figures. Accies felt hard done by. IF however, a player goes to an English club then other calculations are used.

Like most others on here I haven't a clue as to Hastie's situation. However rather than deny true rumours (if that is the case) it would be better surely to have a consistent line of "No comment". By saying that no untruths are told and enquiring parties are none the wiser either way. If Hastie were to leave for another Scots club, the two sides discuss compensation based on an initial offer, no doubt around £50K. Then, if they don't agree it goes to a tribunal.

Someone from the club (Alan Burrows or Stephen Robinson) said publicly, a day or two ago, that no discussions had taken place at that time.

A good question. Its becoming increasingly clear to me, somewhat sadly, that someone somewhere isn't being honest and telling the truth to the fans.

From where we were in the POD Stand, I heard no booing of Jake Hastie, quite the opposite in fact. He received a lot of applause and support from those around me, but didn't acknowledge it when he left the field. I can understand some unrest and frustration from sections of our support over him dragging his heels signing a new deal but barracking isn't on. Given his earlier comments though he'll need to be careful not to be hoisted by his own petard. He had a reasonable game yesterday but teams are beginning to suss him out and he was a bit quieter than normal.

A remarkably easy win which I wasn't expecting. That coupled with St Johnstone's loss helped our league position. Overall a great team effort and we won the game in the first half hour or so. Thanks are also due to Accies for making the game a little bit more interesting by electing to make us play to the Knowetop end at KO. Try as I might, I can't recall the last time that we had to do that. It seems strange to say it but we didn't carry much good luck today and didn't get the break of the ball. That and poor finishing kept the score line down and had we won 6 or 7 nil Accies could not have complained. Alex Gorrin gets my MOTM award just ahead of David Turnbull. He competed well, looked comfortable on the ball and can set up attacks in other words a very good all round midfelder, something we've lacked for years. Noticed he was wearing a large ice pack on his knee at full time. Turnbull again looked very composed on the ball and his distribution was excellent. The second half was a disappointing non event but thats can happen when a team is comfortably ahead at half time. Accies changed things a bit after the break, upped their game and we took our foot off the gas and looked somewhat half hearted. Robbo was visibly disappointed at our second half display and with good reason. We did create chances on the counter attack but failed to convert any of them. Frear looked lively when he came on but his final ball was more than often poor. Apart from anything else, we will clearly need to upgrade our striking department in the summer. As an aside does anyone know about an altercation betwee an Accies player and fans outside the POD Stand after the game?

Today proved to me that Hastie has still got a lot to learn. In terms of team building I'd love to secure Gorrin, Grimshaw and Aldred on longer term deals.

A strange substitution I thought. Johnson is not cut out for the lone striker role. I assume, ostensibly like you, that he was introduced for his benefit and not the team's. Presumably to give him game time.

How is Bigi faring at Easter Road?

This.

Well, Stephen Robinson has been quoted by the BBC. I'm currently happy to take his word.

According to the BBC website Stephen Robinson is quoted as saying that no decision has been made on Jake Hastie's future. The club is giving him time to mull things over (25 minutes ago). Credit to the club for clarifying that, providing that they themselves are in the know.

Amidst all the hysteria on here, on P & B and Well fans 2 this is possibly the best and most sensible post. As things stand we simply don't know the situation as tabloid reports may just be unfounded rumours. His agent has had plenty to say, anonymously and behind the scenes of course, so they should come out and clarify matters, if only to say there's nothing to comment upon. Failing that the club should take it upon itself to issue clarification again if only to say nothing has been decided. The fans deserve better.

Agreed Yorky. I'd been going to Fir Park for decades and, initially from what I saw of him, I'd rate him as being potentially one of our most talented youngsters in perhaps 30 years, if not more. If it had been up to me I'd have given him a 4 year contract without hesitation. However, I began to have doubts when, much to the annoyance of quite a few fans, managers seemed reluctant to give him game time. When he was given game time he looked fantastic but with little or no end product. Thats why I'm not a football manager or coach. I can recall during the dark days of administration Terry Butcher addressed a meeting of fans at Fir Park and was taking "polite" pelters, as you would with him, about why he preferred Paul Quinn to a seemingly far better and much more talented Willie Kinninburgh. He replied that Quinn would go much further in the game than Kinninburgh and whilst Coach never hit the heights, big Terry was proved right. So, don't judge the club too harshly. Assessing young players is very difficult and there's much more to it than just possessing talent.

Disagree. Hastie himself was as surprised as anyone when he came back from Alloa and made such an impact in the first team. Maguire has been promising but nothing more. Turnbull very talented but untried - maybe I'll give you that one. You can't dish out long well paid contracts to every promising youngster in the youth ranks as we cimply can't afford it. We're not the Dundee United of years ago who simply threw cash at their youth set up. Look at the likes of Luke Watt and David Ferguson and Dom Thomas to name but three. If we did that our squad ranks would be filled with young 20 something players who weren't going to make it and a fair chunk of our budget would be used up. As Robbo has said recently its not all about talent its as much about attitude and you can only test that in first team football somewhere. Dom Thomas and Paul Slane? For older fans we had the likes of John Gray and Jim Beaton. These guys had/have amazing, really amazing, talent but just couldn't do it on the park at a senior level. Its a fine balancing act not always easy to get 100% right. I remember talking to Jim Leishman 5 or 6 years ago and he told me that its one of the hardest things in football to predict which talented youngsters would make it and which would not. He said they were all talented otherwise they wouldn't have signed them in the first place.

He's publicly stated that he wants to stay and thats good enough for me.

He's publicly stated that he wants to stay and thats good enough for me.