Kmcalpin

Thought I'd start a new thread to continue this discussion. There are many and varied reasons for decreased site traffic and I wouldn't care to quantify their effect. The team isn't enjoying the success it had recently and that may be a club related reason. This influence will wax and wain. Then there's the internet effect. Generally, online football fora have decreased in popularity as fans have become familiar with them. Thats not peculiar to Steelmen online. No doubt there are other general reasons. Now on to the site specific reasons - my own opinion of course although based on the views of mates who don't now use the site. There's been an overabundance of negativity, trolling and online bullying that has put many off posting. For some posters its more about them than the club at times. For example "I'm not going to the game on Saturday" or "I'm not going to renew my season ticket". That kind of comment is perfectly acceptable if we're discussing reasons for poor sales/attendances etc but not otherwise. I've never felt the need to post that I wasn't going to a game as I didn't think it would be of general interest. Then there's online bullying and trolling eg treatment Leeanne, TrafficLight etc etc. I may not agree with theirs and other similar posts but I've never ever felt the need to get personal. Disagree fine but don't get personal. Comments should be confined to addressing comments and not about posters. Reasoned but robust debate, discussion and different opinions is what this site should be all about not abuse or petty name calling. In that respect I think the Mods could be a bit more assertive. Finally, talking further of the Mods, some of whom I know, they do a great job overall. Its an unpaid and thankless task and entire voluntary. To put matters in perspective, the site fulfils a very important role and every year helps the club financially (take a bow Iain). Without them the site simply wouldn't exist. To Ian (Bucs) and other Mods - thank you.

Absolutely Iain. Small away crowds should be accommodated in the South Stand albeit in a restricted area. Imagine the outcry if the club were to allocate a portion of the Cooper or East Stand to away clubs. POD Stand patrons are no different to other Well fans.

No, if you have joined, albeit you're paying by instalments, you are a member of the Society and as such are entitled to a vote in the Society.

I know from facebook there was a Society presence outside the ground for publicity shots - did they answer questions and encourage sign ups?

Great result today although I had to miss it. After brickbats on Wednesday the management and players deserve credit today. I hope I'm wrong about Clay and Lucas and if they can sustain today's form or somewhere near it I'll happily admit I was wrong. Is it possible that Clay and Lucas play better together than Clay and Lasley? These things do happen in football. COYW

Good post. I don't like the long balls either or the strikers playing so deep. I assume its because we have no creativity in midfield. We also defend far too deeply and narrowly and thats why we lose so many goals - 2 on Wednesday for example. I agree with UBH that theres others apart from Samson not performing. I'm not convinced of Tait, defensively anyway, and McManus is far from convincing. Heneghan is promising and left back is simply a problem. However, where I disagree with you is that I don't think we do have good midfield players, Cadden and perhaps the unfortunate McHugh apart. I don't rate Clay, Lasley and Lucas for different reasons and Ainsworth is very hit or miss. MacLean and Campbell are too young and inexperienced yet for us to rely on them and the jury is still out on the talented but frustrating Dom Thomas. In my view, midfield is our weak point. Cadden apart, there's no creativity or pace. Specifically Lasley and Clay are not competing, not supplying our strikers and not shielding our defence. That forces strikers to drop deep and it also leaves defenders, including Samson totally exposed. Their every error is therefore put under the microscope for all to see. I could even thole it if we lacked creativity but had a workmanlike and solid midfield but we don't even have that. Successive managers have failed to address the midfield, a critical area of the team.

Strike while the irons hot.

Pretty much my view. If he is a better keeper and is performing why wouldn't Mark McGhee select him?

Absolutely Andy. Well the club's future is now in our hands and its up to the support to make it work end of. A bit more professionalism from the Society would not go amiss either.

I'm one of the many who have not been impressed by Samson but there must be a reason why Brill hasn't been given his chance and only the management team will know that. I think the defence picks itself for tomorrow as does the strikeforce (Moult & MacDonald) but the midfield is another matter entirely. I'd start with Cadden wide right and Ainsworth wide left but beyond that......

A real shocker last night and we were beaten before we even took to the field due to poor team selection and totally inappropriate tactics. I felt sorry for young MacMillan, who acquitted himself reasonably well in impossible circumstances. Playing on the wrong side with no protection in front of you is not the way you want to start your first team career at full back. The midfield was a shambles there's no other way to describe it. We had no-one playing on the left - presumably Clay was meant to be playing there?? MacLean played wide right but really had a pretty anonymous game. O'Neils40yarder is right - I expected him to play wide left not on the right. Cadden was moved inside - why? He has all the attributes to play well there, but in his short career to date hasn't impressed there. Clay and Lasley should not be playing for different reasons and as I feared last night were outfought, outpaced and outplayed last night. I did feel for Moult and Bowman last night as they received shocking service and were not played correctly. It was painfully apparent after the first 20 minutes or so that the high ball to them just wouldn't work against a big defence. Changes ought to have been made well before half time but weren't. Samson had little to do but conceded 2 needless corners and didn't communicate well with his defenders. As for the game itself, Inverness were no great shakes but were organised, competitive, quick and worked damned hard off the ball. They defended well 40 yards out and worked their butts off to prevent us from getting crosses in (those that we did manage were usually overhit). By comparison we surrendered our left wing to them and gave them time and space in and around our box. Inverness's third goal was a defensive disaster to illustrate that - an opponent advances unhindered to the edge of our box and lets fly. How many goals do we lose like that? The first two were equally as bad. With the first, an opponent is given plenty of freedom to sling over a cross, under no pressure whatsoever with chaos ensuing and the the second is little better. As many have observed, the team lacks pace and hardness in the midfield. We have known about this weakness for years now, especially over the summer and done precious little about it. We've made bad signings/resignings eg McManus, Hammell (remember him?), Lasley, Clay, Belic, Lucas, and to a lesser extent Bowman and Blyth (maybe). Despite touting Johnson around we weren't prepared for his departure and have been caught short. Yes, we've been unlucky with the injury to McHugh but really last night was the culmination of a combination of short and long term problems. Good to see both MacMillan and MacLean get game time but it has to be in the right circumstances and they have to be afforded every help possible.

Probably Cadden, Tait and MacMillan (who was hung out to dry) were the best of a very poor bunch, but none deserved MOTM.

Would certainly agree that Brill should be given his chance and that MacDonald should regain his place. Midfield is a real problem though - Cadden must start but not in the middle. Best other option the the best of a very bad bunch, would be to play Ainsworth or Thomas on the left wing.

Thats my greatest concern followed by our butter fingers keeper.

More than likely that some will be involved. If injuries stay the same, then Ferguson will retain his left back slot. If thats the case then he'll need a natural left footed player in front of him.

I suppose our crowds are returning to their levels of the late 1960s. A number of reasons for their decline as have already been mentioned - pricing for some maybe but I'm not sure how valid that is in a wider geographical context. Hearts for example can fill Tynecastle and Hibs aren't doing too badly. Neither club is known for their generosity to fans. Plenty of Scots football aficionados seem to have the financial wherewithal to travel to watch top level games in England for example. Maybe its a reflection on the economic nature of Lanarkshire as compared to say Edinburgh or Aberdeen/shire. Proximity to Parkhead and Ibrox are certainly factors as is the social history of Lanarkshire. Football is becoming more global and society is changing. Back in the 1950s after the Second World War, crowds were massive with clubs like East Fife being able to bring over 2,000 fans to Fir Park for a league game. Certainly at that time there were less in the way of alternative attractions and fans expectations were considerably lower. An average Scots fan supported his/her own club and had little interest in English games. Nowadays, fans' expectations are massively higher with the English Premiership or top European football being the set standard of football. Anything less than that is viewed as being poor. In short the reasons for declining crowds are wide, varied and complex.

Just watched the TV highlights and both goals were totally avoidable being down to defensive errors. For the first the Celtic player arrives in the box and is completely unmarked, not tracked by anyone. Yes, he finishes well but he has the time and space in our box to do what he wants. The second, as has already been mentioned was a shambolic and totally avoidable error down to poor communication. Samson may have been culpable at the penalty, as the Captain has said above but overall his defence and midfield continually left him badly exposed and to that extent he did well. Surprised at the large number of empty seats. Not a midweek game, a 3pm Saturday kick off and not the week before Christmas. I wonder what the official attendance was. Worrying that our injury list seems to be growing again and that our only two left backs are unavailable. Certainly these are the kind of games that traditionally our managers rest players who are not fit. To finish on a positive note, good to see some young lads get an opportunity to gain some first team football.

Given our earlier discussions on this thread an intertesting article from the BBC (The Sun). Celtic will look for protection from world governing body Fifa if any clubs try to entice Karamoko Dembele away from the Scottish champions after the 13-year-old made a substitute appearance for the club's under-20 side earlier this week. Now given that Celtic and many other clubs poach young players, including ours, isn't this blatant double standards?

100% agree. We can debate, discuss and disagree but we're all Well fans and should show respect to one another on these boards.

Good post as usual Sir. I tend to agree that we wouldn't have much, if indeed any say, about if or where young Semple went on a "visit" to learn about different teams. No doubt its giving Benfica an opportunity to assess whether he's worth keeping under surveillance on or not..

We don't know much about Brill and Blyth yet and I think Bowman has something to offer, if played correctly. Belic - who knows? However with regard to midfield your spot on. We've known for some time now that it needed replaced / upgraded but the players we've signed seem to be ad hoc and not what we require. I suspect Pearo's departure caught us on the hop but we've all known that Keith Lasley is at the end of his career and that Marvin Johnson would likely move on. That said, Pearo was a box to box player than a creative one. As for the younger lads I would expect the management team, by the end of last season, to have known pretty well who would make the step up to first team football in August ie nobody.

Teams like St Johnstone, Inverness and Hamilton all manage to be competitive. While its nice to have flair and panache in the side at our level its not necessary. Every team needs a balance of talent, flair, solidity, and hardness. We have some decent talented players in the squad but what we need are athletic, hard working, solid, reliable types and this is what we lack. They're not expensive and can be picked up as Tom Wright at Perth will testify. Players who are not standouts but make few mistakes and can be relied upon not to let you down.

I'm reasonably happy with Moult, MacDonald and Bowman as each brings something different to the team and they have the potential to play well together IF they're played to their strengths which did not happen last night. MacDonald will never be a lone target man and Moult is not a midfielder. Skippy is at his best when playing off the shoulder of a bigger man like Moult or Bowman. To play to their full potential they also need good service and quick support. Our fundamental problems lie in midfield and defence. The midfield in particular lacks creativity and certainly defensive qualities. Most Premiership sides we've met this season can outcompete and outrun us in midfield and that is root cause of most of our problems. Despite their weaknesses, Clay and Lasley are giving 100% but they just aren't capable of putting in an acceptable work rate due to their lack of pace. I don't know that they're the worst s central midfield combination in the league but if they aren't they can't be far off it. Hearts' midfield worked like trojans last night, running all over the park to frustrate, harry and hassle us. Partick were the same as were Accies, Ross County and St Johnstone. They may not be eye catching glamourous qualities but they are badly needed. In one example last night 3 Hearst attackers had Hammell surrounded near his own corner flag. He made a pass under pressure and they immediately darted off to annoy the recipient. We're simply not capable of playing like that off the ball. I think it was Al B who said that until Pearson resigns McGhee hopes that the midfield will muddle through. Yes, we're missing McHugh but Al is right in my opinion. The question is "Is our midfield good enough to muddle through?"

Absolutely - the way we played just asked for trouble. In truth we were beaten by 7.45. I agree with many comments about the wrong formation and tactics. The front three didn't know what they were meant to be doing. Moult was wasted in midfield and for much of the time Bowman played far too deep. MacDonald was on a hiding to nothing in a sometimes 4-5-1 formation trying to win aerial balls. Cadden's enforced departure didn't help as he was our midfield. Samson wasn't the cause of our loss but he looked far from impressive. As MJW wrote we sat far too deep and paid the penalty. Both full backs were poor again and I shudder to think both are on 2 year deals. The midfield simply didn't function - no creativity, no protection for the defence and poor work rate. Lucas didn't impress when he came on and did very little of note but too early to judge him. Hearts ran out easy and worthy winners. Their midfield and defence was way above ours in terms of performance. Not the best Hearts team I've seen by along way but they were clinical in their finishing and worked their socks off when off the ball. They harried, chased and closed us down. I felt sorry for McManus and Heneghan - they have problems behind them (keeper); in front of them (central midfield) and to the side of them (full backs). I sincerely hope that McHugh stiffens our midfield on his return but we're still a creative player short there. Lasley is well past it now and I just don't see what Clay brings to the team. Lucas????

Only one candidate for me...Heneghan. Not brilliant but the best of a very poor lot.