Kmcalpin

Alf is sticking to his guns.

My late father was at the game and got drenched. If I'm right, Hibs crushed us at Fir Park the week before and were rightly odds on favourites for the cup. Make of that what you will.

I think I'm right in saying that St Johnstone were 10th when he took over and expectations were very limited. They'd only picked up 4 points from 7 games.

Its a broad comment about footballers in general. It goes on.

A Dundee supporting friend says he was highly thought of at Dens Park. A very committed player, who would run through a brick wall for the team.

Apparently, if some players are carrying a knock they'll play through the pain barrier whilst others won't. I think it was either Steven Pressley or Tony Doherty who said that.

Often when things are not going well in a workplace, employees take more sick time off. Could that be an issue here? Not saying it is; just playing devil's advocate. Maybe if a player is 50/50 just now he'll be less motivated than if we were on a good run.

We're currently struggling to score goals and I think a major reason for that is our recruitment of strikers, which has been less than impressive even under JBA. Maybe its related to the way we play. Hendry, a permacrock, has never been a goalscorer, more of a facilitator. Thor looks to be the same type of player although he's never had a run of games. Palmer-Houlden again looks to be a facilitator rather than a goalscorer. Now this type of player is fine if you have others able to score from deeper positions but we currently don't. JT was scoring for fun early last season and covered up the cracks, but his goals have dried up. Now, you could justifiably attribute some of our goalscoring problems and form of our strikers down to lack of support from midfield and you'd be right. In fairness, goalscorers are hard to find and don't come cheap, but right now we don't even seem to have a 10 goal a season striker. A big questionmark hovers over our striker recruitment policy.

Yes it does. If we look at Thor, Palmer-Houlden and Hendry,for example, none are out and out goalscorers. More a Ryan Bowman type rather than a Louis Moult. Maybe the first 2 are looked upon more as projects. The last goalscorer type we signed was Ap Stam. I've assumed, maybe wrongly it has to be said, that our 3 current strikers were signed with a view to them creating chances for others.

Not sure about that. If rumours are circulating its not unreasonable to discuss them on this forum. Some details, of course, should be left out. Its important though to treat them as rumours and not facts. Alfred seems a decent sort and you do feel for him. We want him and the team to succeed. However, sometimes in life things don't work out. That is life. There is a whole range of opinions in our support, and its not unreasonable for supporters to express their emotions when things go badly wrong like losing 6 consecutive games. As long as we avoid abuse. Apathy is our enemy. Football is an emotional game.

Maybe but not by very much. If we continue on this very poor run when would you sack him? For the record, I'm in favour of giving him another 2 games, both winnable on paper. If we continue to show patience and the poor run continues, hitting 12th place in the process and a gap opens up to 11th place do we continue to do nothing? It may well be that our manager, whoever that may be, will want to do some business in the January window. Do we hold off until then? Even if we hold off taking action until December thats very tight, given our lengthy appointment process. leaving a new man little time to settle in. I doubt if our manager will have anything near a full squad at his disposal this season. On top of that, you have the fans to consider. If we continue on this abysmal run, the fans will vote with their feet. Sometimes mistakes get made in the appointment process; it happens. Its looking very likely that the club has made one.

I'd give him the next 2 games. Anything less than 4 points though and he should be relieved of his duties. As you say, a new manager would need a couple of months before the window opens. As it stands, we're in freefall.

Irrespective of what SOD did, he wasn't the reason we were beaten. We need to look at the bigger picture.

I had hoped we'd ditched that experiment. Last time he played there he was totally ineffective.

Certainly a few surprises there. If we're short of a right back McGhee has played there often enough, but he's in midfield.

I've heard similar rumours from completely independent sources Allan. Names of individual players very similar, which lends credence to rumours - I won't mention them. Not described in "lost the dressing room" terms though.

Quite a few players wanting out in January. P & B also worth a read this morning.

In today's conditions, we'll need aggression, hard work and physicality. Do we have those qualities?

Very few, if indeed any, of our group will be travelling today.

Certainly less rain that yesterday but wind is far stronger.

Rumours doing the rounds of significant player discontent behind the scenes. Not a good look, if true.

Wind strength forecast to increase slightly before kick off. Why would the SPFL go against Police advice? They don't normally do that.

Police warning against unnecessary road journeys in the next 24 hours. Surely the game will be postponed?

I would say that Tom Sparrow is a decent squad player, in midfield only. An honest pro but thats it. Never a starter.

Its interesting that he questions whether we have the personnel to play this way.