Kmcalpin

Its all very well to say that DT should have played in a few reserve games first but perhaps there's none scheduled for some time? As far as Allan Campbell is concerned, I've a lot of time for his committed all action style of play and he was one of the main reasons for our great early season. However, I've said for some time, going back to the autumn, that he was burnt out having played too much football. Thats not to say he's been poor in every game; he hasn't. He badly needs a rest and I hoped that he'd be rested more in the past week or two. Sometimes you have to take a short term hit for a long term win.

A left sided centre back? Who could he possibly be back up to? Hartley or Dunne? Is it possible he'd be brought in as a first choice?

Robbo still has credit in the bank for me. He was asked to steer us clear of relegation and bring on youngsters, both of which he's done this season included. That said he must take a good share of the responsibility for our meltdown since December. We're still 3rd though at least as of today. Poor recruitment? Yes especially with regard to strikers and defenders. As far as Tait is concerned, I would not award him another deal. He has gone backwards this season losing what little pace he had and is not defending well. Bear in mind though that he'll be very envious of Jim Goodwin and Tom Wright's budgets. We have one of the lowest playing budgets in the league and its now showing.

I didn't expect much last night and so it turned out. There were a number of mitigating factors which influenced our selection and tactics ie injuries, suspensions and a demanding schedule over the past week. So we had to field some players I and others would not normally choose. Over the past week we should have mixed up the personnel more to keep the first 11 as fresh as possible. I would, for example, have expected to see more of Grimshaw especially and perhaps Maguire and Illic. The latter 2 are not my first picks but needs must. Also young Dean Cornelius could have been given some game time, if only from the bench, but not hung out to dry. This would have freshened things up a wee bit more and given some the chance to rest their legs. It didn't happen. So I wasn't in the least surprised to see the team look tired and jaded especially last night. They were also bereft of confidence and fight, not surprisingly. I couldn't quite fathom out the formation last night but it seemed like a 3-5-1-1 in the first half and a 5-4-1 in the second. Others may see it differently. Currently we don't have the players for a back 3 (until Dunne returns) or midfield 5 and it showed. Hartley and Tait had another poor game and Gallagher had to do the work of 2 men covering for Aarons. He and Robbo were screaming at Aarons for not tracking back and covering. St Mirren had us well sussed and their off the ball work was excellent. As with last week they bombarded our right flank and left to a lesser extent. Again our tendency to leave the wings exposed was our achilles heel and we don't seem to have learnt much from last Tuesday when the same thing happened. We had no plan B. Polworth and Campbell once again looked burnt out. Aarons looked the part when attacking but he's no wing back. Can't blame Hylton too much as any time he got the ball he was closed down very quickly by 2/3 defenders. O'Hara had a decent game but took several heavy challenges and was forced off. I thought Watt did ok up front without much support and am looking forward to him being paired with Long. We had a reasonable first half without showing any killer touch and even early doors our defence looked very vulnerable and disorganised at times. That needs sorted urgently. Our set pieces were awful - don't know if we actually practice corners! I thought our substitutions were strange and expected Grimshaw to replace O'Hara to retain some bite and competitiveness in the middle, which we badly needed but instead MacIver came on. A promising young lad but not ready for first team action yet and too lightweight. Good to see David Turnbull come on but he didn't really do much which wasn't surprising given his long lay off. Still it'll boost his recovery. I didn't really get the Seedorf for Hylton change as it only meant that Saints marked him out of the game as well. The bottom line was that the squad looked tired and lacking in confidence. Wrong off the field decisions by management also cost us big time.

Gallagher for me. Provided what little defence we had and had to cover for Aarons. Did the work of 2 players.

We're also 10 points ahead of St Johnstone but they have 18 points to play for prior to the split. They're on a decent run and Its hard to see where our next point is coming from. Agree about Robbo. He's met his objectives so far and so he is safe but he does seem to be running out of ideas. Many mistakes made by management tonight and they were costly.

A reasonable summary but I would not offer Tait a new deal. I think Turnbull and Gallagher will both move on. I'd like to hang onto Long as he's not been given a fair crack of the whip ie being played in a role for which he's not suited.

3 at the back is ok if you have the players to do it successfully but we currently don't as tonight proved. No defensive cover down the flanks......again. Big Declan had to do the job of 2 men and made a reasonable fist of doing it. Had he not played we'd have lost a lot more than 2 goals.

Same defensive problems as last week. Exposed down wings. Need to get this sorted and quick.

There will be a can collection tonight for our Youth Academy. A worthy cause I'd say.

Just wondered if anyone knows why Maurice Ross seems to have "disappeared"? I notice that Diarmuid O'Carroll has been taking interviews for the reserves for a wee while now, whereas Maurice took them before. Is it simply a change in duties?

Yes, I'm sure timing is a factor. Its not the first time that I've seen a shocking tackle put in by an Accies player early doors (we're not totally blameless BTW) and escaping with a yellow card when a red is warranted. I'd take the opposite view to the ref in these circumstances. Let the players know early doors that bad tackles will not be tolerated and that would stamp out most of them later on in the game. I'm 100% not against robust tackles but really horrendous ones like Hunt's no way. Fans pay to watch teams trying to play football not players being wiped out cynically. By letting culprits off lightly the referee encourages niggles and ill feeling to build up and pretty often more trouble follows.

An old chestnut I know, but the inconsistency of referees is really annoying at the moment. Not all poor decisions are game changers admittedly but they do make life harder. A few examples that have been evident recently: * Switching the direction of throw because we were taking too long at Paisley. I've never heard of this before or since. * Yellow carding a player for booting the ball away: Long gets booked at Hamilton but I can't recall the last time I saw a referee taking this action despite this happening in almost every game. * Yellow carding a keeper for time wasting ie Gillespie yesterday. Far worse example have gone unpunished and this happens very rarely. * Pulling up players for stealing yards at throw ins: completely random application by referees. * Foul throws: occur in almost every game but once in a blue moon does the referee take action and then at random. You'd think the SFA would issue strong consistent guidelines to cover these situations, but if they do they're never implemented except completely randomly. Rant over.

I didn't see him yesterday but you're right. Looking forward to seeing him fully fit playing with Long and Turnbull in a 4-4-2 or similar formation..

I would say that its cost them something like £40-45K this season (£20K per game). Many of us would like to see their accounts but thats never going to happen. I believe that is because their turnover is below a certain figure, and as such, like St Johnstone, they are not obliged to pubish their accounts. Maybe some accountants on here could clarify that? As to the game itself, I've just watched the brief highlights and again some of defending was very poor. Fortunately, unlike St Mirren, Accies are toothless up front. I didn't see a lot in Long's 2nd yellow card. A foul yes, but more clumsy that anything else. A yellow card? Maybes yes, maybes no. You'll see similar tackles go uncarded. I think he was fristrated by Accies' aggressive" defending which was a feature of the highlights. On that subject Hunt was extremely fortunate not to be red carded for his far worse effort earlier. These borderline refereeing decisions going against us just now are simply adding to our plentiful self inflicted woes.

Its a mystery to many others, including me, too. Alan Burrows did express his disappointment when the original decision was made to bump up prices, but I can't recall his exact words.

I think our last away crowd at NDP was 1600 so today was down on that. Like you I don't get travelling to English games given the cost of travel. The price hike by Accies has probably cost them something like £20K today. Ah well they can obviously afford it.

The overall crowd was very low, just what I 'd expect after Accies' ridiculous recategorisation of the fixture. That has cost them a good few thousand pounds this season. Hell mend them. What was our support today?

I thought referees stopped issuing yellow cards for kicking the ball away years ago. You see it week in week out with no action taken. St Mirren did it at least twice on Tuesday with no repercussions.

Agree with your opening comments. Not a bad side on paper but even if we did announce that it'd never be a 4-3-3; it would turn into a 4-4-2 or even a 4-5-1 as soon as we took the field like the first half on Tuesday and yes we'd end up trying to bottle up the central midfield in a typical derby day scrap with this choice of players. We have to bottle up the wings.

Absolutely. An injury update from Gavin MacCafferty on Twitter. Carroll is out for the season and will require surgery. Turnbull is back in full training and is just waiting on the go ahead from his consultant to start playing again. Gallagher, Long, Mugabi and Hartley all fit for tomorrow. So that gives us some options thankfully.

That assumes that Gallagher is fit and we've heard nothing at all about that. Both camps will be keeping their cards close to their chest until the last possible moment. I suspect Robbo and Rice will be stoking the injury crisis talks about known casualties but will keep quiet, as usual, about any additional ones. My reason for suggesting we reintroduce Carson at the expense of Gillespie is down in large part to his poor distribution in recent games. While Grimshaw and Hartley have rightly received flak for their poor distribution more often than its been Gillespie who has put them in trouble by giving them the ball when they're being closed down by high pressing attackers. The fact that he's moving on in the summer and that Carson will be our No 1 is also a major factor. A midfield 5 has its attractions on paper but depends on the personnel you have at your disposal. Hylton cannot defend and although Aarons has played in a defensive/wing back role before he would need to be instructed to stay wide unlike Tuesday. Our midfield 5 didn't work in Tuesday's first half. Hopefully Long will be fit but I really don't think MacIver is ready yet. Much will depend on who is injury free and also who is fit enough.

I see that Accies are sticking to their guns and still treating this as a Category A fixture. It'll be interesting to see what our support is. As to the team changes are required but they'll be constrained by the fitness of the squad. Management will know about individual players fitness, but could Ilic and Maguire come into the reckoning? Keep Donnelly in defence irrespective of who is fit, start O'Hara and rest Campbell. I might upset a few on here but I'd bring in Trevor Carson. He's due his chance again.

Right now I'd say that O'Hara is our best midfielder and should be an automatic pick. I thought Polworth had a good game throughout last night although his set pieces were poor. I'd move Donnelly back into defence. Campbell looks burnt out and badly needs 2/3 weeks rest. Could young Dean Cornelius come in and do a job now, if only from the bench? We'll certainly need someone to put the shackles on Gogic on Saturday. Unfortunately Jamie Semple is injured. To answer Fizoxy's question about young defenders I don't know. Certainly we have immediate short term defensive problems. Maguire is returning from injury and may be fit but can he step up to play in midfield or central defence? Does Robbo rate him? David Devine is on loan at QoS could he be recalled? Hussain is rated I think but is he ready to step up now? Maybe someone with a knowledge of the youth team could offer us some informed opinions on this.

It depends on the players that you have at your disposal. Gillespie's distribution is poor and that puts pressure on the likes of Hartley and Grimshaw, neither of whom can pass. Possible ways around that is for your playmaker i.e. Polworth to drop deep and provide an out ball for the keeper or defenders. Either that or launch the long ball to a well supported target man like Watt. The bottom line is not to get caught dithering on the ball or making hospital passes to colleagues Hartley style.