Kmcalpin

Its a game we should be looking to win as its against rivals and at home. However being realistic we may have to settle for a hard fought draw.

Given the players at our disposal, hoofball is the only game we can play just now. I'd argue though we're not playing it effectively. Robbo's first task was to make us more organised and hard to beat and he's done that. Stage 2, I hope will be to add a wee bit of quality to our attacking options. That should come in the summer.

No, I'm with you on this Al. We badly need muscle and drive in the engine room, just the qualities Kipper possesses.

I understand what you're saying but that would leave us very light up front.

It'll be another shitfest on Tuesday you can stake your mortgage on it. Two teams slugging it out in midfield with errors being crucial to the eventual outcome. It won't be pretty but thats what football outwith the top 4 is all about. I don't care if we play silky football or not so long as we compete and score one goal more than St Johnstone. We have to get wellied right into Murray Davidson and co from the off. We know how they'll play and any young players like Alan Campbell have to be properly briefed before they step onto the field. I'd like us to play more football on the deck but that may not be possible. Frear to start on the left to give us some much need pace but Cifti, the most talented striker we have has to play in and around the box. I don't get why he'd play wide left midfield.

I agree up to a point in terms of what we lack. However we have to win the ball first as Robbo keeps reminding us and yesterday we simply couldn't do that for long spells. You have to do the dirty, nasty, battling work first before the silky cultured players do their bit.

I agree with most of that. Yesterday apart from being outnumbered at times in central midfield Campbell and McHugh lost too many 50/50 challenges and personal battles. I don't blame them for that as they were up against bigger, heavier and more athletic opponents. We also lacked pace and width yesterday. The likes of Frear is more effective when in an open game rather than trying to break down packed defences and thats why I would have started him, even if he couldn't last 90 minutes. We have no pace whatsoever in central midfield. Whilst watching us being outfought in the middle I kept thinking of Al B's suggestion of moving Kipre forward to add some bite, drive and athleticism there. Yes, the team, which finishes 6th, probably Kilmarnock, will do so on the basis of being very competitve and making fewest errors.

We deserved the draw as did Thistle. The game was pretty turgid and turned out much as I expected. In the current circumstances I have no problem in principle with the way we play but the problem is that we don't have the players to do it. Apart from the first 5 and last 20 minutes Thistle bossed and dominated midfield. However they didn't get much on target. We came close a good few times. We were solid defensively with Aldred, Dunne and Kipre all very impressive. Kipre was my MOTM. Up front Main, one miss apart, and Ciftci did as much as could be expected of them against two giant defenders. Our problem was midfield yet again. Cadden didn't look fully fit and as our only real outball Thistle had done their homework. He struggled to compete against the pocket dynamo Dumbaya. Right wing back just isn't his position. Tanner didn't perform and Hendry didn't contribute much. However it was in the middle that we really struggled aginst much bigger and aggressive opponents. For long spells Osman and company simply outbattled us. They won 50/50 challenges and most second balls. McHugh had a poor game with his distribution especially bad today; he was also dilatory on the ball. Young Campbell was good in patches but found his bigger opponents just too much to handle. I wasn't looking for for us to outplay Thistle today but I had hoped we could compete and battle with them but we just didn't for long spells. That was one of our strengths earlier in the season but other sides seem to be bigger and more aggressive these days. Again we lacked any pace and creativity in midfield. I felt sorry for Ciftci and Main as therir main source of ammunition was either short balls with their backs to goal or high balls which they had no chance of winning. Neither are tall enough for this kind of football. We have to find room for the likes of Frear, who should have started today, Bigi or MacLean. I'm afraid the in fashion 3-5-2 formation just doesn't suit a few of our players. Unlike others on here I had no problem with Thistle's theatrics and time wasting. Thats how they play and it worked for them, although the media won't like me saying that. What I do have a problem with was the referee who let them off with it. Cerny should have been given a friendly warning early on and if he persisted then he should've been awarded a yellow card and a promise of a red card to follow. Simples. Overall the referee and his assistants were shocking and inconsistent in the extreme. Undoubtedly they influenced the nature of the game. On TV evidence, Osman was very very lucky not to see red for his assault on Alan Campbell. Anyway onto the next game and another draw might be on the cards, unless Robbo revises his gameplan.

I never saw either play but Baldy Shaw and Ben Ellis must come into the reckoning.

Kipre for me. Dunne and Aldred also did well.

Like many of you I've recently received an email from the Society. Its running a survey on ticketing which as many folk as possible should participate in. Apparently the club is intending to update its ticketing system and this will cost money not surprisingly. It will be of particular interest to those who don't live near Fir Park. Nows your chance to speak up.

Apart from a lack of creativity and pace in the midfield, I worry about our 2 strikers in the coming week. Main has done well but given the hectic schedule just now can we expect him to charge about effectively for 90 minutes, three times in the coming week? Ciftci - until now he hasn't been match fit and has not been able to play a full 90 minutes for us yet. Neither Tanner nor Sid are strikers. It doesn't leave much cover for injuries or even tiredness does it?

These days its impossible to tell.

I think its now becoming clear that our midfield needs a revamp in the summer. On paper we're not short of bodies but the mix seems to be wrong. We're badly short of width, especially with Frear being out, and of pace especially in the middle. I had hoped for example, that our seemingly defensive and combative midfield would have kept Hibs at bay last night but that certainly wasn't the case. I was particulalrly interested this month to see if a midfielder or two would move out given comments on these forums a few weeks ago but this simply hasn't happened. Still we're only a short way along the path of rebuilding and its only natural that more changes will follow.

We're crying out for creativity just now so with Frear being injured and Cadden being nursed carefully I'd like to see a starting slot for MacLean somewhere. He may not be the answer and I'm not saying he definitely will be but we do need his type of player to add something a wee bit different to our play. We are in the midst of a very tough schedule just now with Hibs last night, Partick on Saturday, St Johnstone on Tuesday and Dundee the following Saturday. There's no way we'll win all three. Given our injuries just now Robbo will have to rotate the squad a bit but how he'll manage our only two "fit" strikers I haven't a clue.

Overall I'm happy at the result of the transfer window but am very concerned about our strikers. As it stands, we are unable to field 2 first pick strikers for 90 minutes. It looks like Bowman will be out for 5/6 weeks minimum and its not beyond the bounds of possibility that either Ciftci or Main could get injured or suspended. I know though that we lost out on one at the death today and these things do happen. Maybe Robbo can procure a free agent now that the window has slammed shut.

I wasn't at the game tonight but have watched the highlights and the defending was awful at both goals. We did seem to lack pace and the midfield looked unbalanced; not being able to shield the defence nor service the strikers properly. Today was always going to be an uphill struggle to take even a solitary point and it wasn't helped by selection problems. We have more important games coming up.

Certainly a very cautious and defensive line up. No obvious outball. Still if we take something from the game it will have worked.

I think £180K would represent about 2 league places. As long as Robbo is left with some cash from transfers to reinvest in the team, I'm comfortable paying off Les and JB. Debt reduction is no bad thing and when they're both paid off that will leave us debt free for the first time in decades. As far as I know if JB has not already been paid off then we are not far from doing so.

Surely not? It was just a few days ago that Neil McCann did a Walter Smith and categorically denied that he would be signing any strikers.

Ah its in the Rancid. Why couldn't they have waited until after midnight to print this story? What was the source?

I think thats as far as it'll get as he seems to be Aberdeen bound.

It'll be interesting too to see the transfer activity of our rivals as they start to panic. No doubt the likes of Ross County, Dundee, Kilmarnock, St Johnstone and Partick will add last gasp signings. I'm not so sure about Accies as rumour has it that they offloaded Donati to cut costs.

With a 1400 hours deadline. The offer is being reported in the red tops as "almost doubled". Wow that was generous of Celtic not!

He was red carded in a League Cup game against us.