Kmcalpin

Does anyone know why Hartley was red carded yesterday? The reason I ask is that as far as we know the Hamilton "hard man" who sneaked up and whacked Hartley from behind after he shoved Imrie wasn't afforded the same punishment. Was it for something that occurred in the tunnel? No doubt the SFA will investigate and a few players could be hauled up.

A decision for the directors. IF we call time on Robbo, and thats by no means certain, then how much culpability, if any at all, can be attributed to Las?

He still has some credit in the bank for getting us to a cup final and doing well early on. The current run is disastrous but has been influenced by a very tough run of fixtures and injuries to key players. Hopefully the break will allow us to recharge batteries and get some fresh faces in. Its crucial that he does the business early on. The question for the Board is, if he doesn't improve when do we get rid? For me we would have to allow time to find a new manager/management team and give them time to turn things around. Like Milo I'd say we see first who is brought in next month and then decide after the Ross County game (15 games to go). Leave it much longer than that and there's no point in changing. If we can't beat Accies and Ross County then it doesn't matter what I think the fans will call time on him.

Agree with that assessment Clackscat. Assuming no-one is sold and no-one is shipped out I'd say we need 2 strikers, a creative midfielder and a central defender. That sounds like a lot. However I suspect a few might be moved on to clear the decks a bit. I think Bowman has to go, for his own good. Joewarkthelegend said to me yesterday that all the negative media publicity he's copped since the league cup semi final has really got to him and he's now not half the player he was a couple of months ago. We all know that the strikers are misfiring but yes, they've had to work with very little ammunition. For all that though its the midfield, and particularly the centre that is underperforming. There is zero creativity, zero pace and it just isn'tm protecting the centre backs. On paper it looks decent enough, but the likes of Rose, McHugh and Grimshaw just aren't doing it. Bigi, at best has been ok. Recently we just haven't been competing in central midfield and before you can work with the ball you have to win it. Big changes are required this month and we'll see if the management teram are up for it. We also need to bring in bodies quickly as we have a busy schedule at the end of the month. i.e. 3 league game after the cup game.

No such chant from me as we are indeed playing poorly just now, but do you need to post in a public forum that you're not sure whether to go or not? Folk go to games for a variety of reasons. I appreciate its a democratic forum though and the rules state you can pretty much write what you like, as long its MFC related. I appreciate that money might be tight but you shouldn't feel that you have justify to us that you may not go or the reasons why.

McHugh is indeed suspended for one game and Tait will miss the cup game.

Thats my understanding. PNE would not be happy if he featured tomorrow.

We do however need to sign at least one striker who is match fit. In the past we've signed players who've taken 6-8 weeks to get fit.

I wouldn't have thought that the conditions of the surrounding pavements etc was an issue for the Police given the conditions at Firhill a week or two back when folk were falling all over the place. A few of us can also remember wading through a foot of ice and freezing water to get into Inverness' s stadium for a midweek cup game during Craig Brown's reign. Anyhow a thaw is forecast to set in. Onto footballing matters and presumably McHugh will be a certain non starter if he sustained a head knock on Wednesday? Far from ideal but lets see Newell start and inject some pace into our attack, if only for 50 minutes or so. Accies will be short of defenders but that won't matter if we can't pressurise them. No doubt they'll play as streetwise as they usually do - time waste, break up play, niggle and foul. The ref will need to be strong from the off, but don't hold your breath. they'll also be a bit fresher given their midweek cancellation. It won't be a classic and no doubt it'll end up a midfield street scrap or brawl. Being realistic, a 0-0 draw will do me fine, although a win would be even better.

When did we last have one, if ever, who could do that? Lukas Jutkiewicz? Its a very, very tall order.

A well reasoned post, which I lalregy agree with. This was my big fear pre match that our midfield would be unable to compete and protect our defence and so it proved.

We'll agree to differ on that.

Not really. McHugh is a deep lying, slow, holding midfielder cum centre back; Campbell is a terrier like aggressive midfielder; Rose is a box to box cleaner upper if you like; and Grimshaw is an aggressive all action sort who can play wide.

Hammell can certainly pass and indeed cross better than Dunne, I wouldn't disagree on that. However Dunne is quicker, stronger, better in the air and a better defender. Stevie Hammell could never defend and his positional sense was always his achilles heel. Don't forget too he part and parcel of one of the worst Well defences in years. Most of that was not his fault of course but he played his part. Dunne may not be the answer but turning the clock back isn't the answer either.

I looked at both sets of highlights and concentrated on Sevco's efforts on Carson not just their goals. They attacked our box at will, with little or no resistance from a weak midfield. We had little or no width. Covering in the box and not just by Dunne was very poor. Weaknesses that evident aginst Dundee, and probably before that.

I think Ross MacLean can feel a little hard done by given that we're currently hardly awash with attacking midfielders. Other than him I don't know.

Wherever we finish in the league, big changes are required in the summer. In the meantime we need to make as many changes next month as possible. Our defence is a bit stretched, but basically ok. We have no strikers worth the name (I except Newell from that comment). Central midfield needs toughening up with a bit of creativity thrown in. Too many fringe players and one or two first picks just haven't performed, despite being given chances.

We live in very strange times indeed. Normally I'd consider myself to fall within the most pessimistic 30% of posters but not tonight. Too much pant wetting and panic and thats saying something coming from me! What exactly were folk expecting tonight? I said a few days ago that we could pretty much write off tonight and probably the best we could hope for would be a draw on Saturday. I stand by that assessment more than ever. Whatever the result on Saturday we'll be in no lower than 8th spot going into the January break. I'm comfortable with that. We do need to make signings in January however - 2 strikers and a defender at least. Given our toothless strikeforce we were probably never going to score tonight and we didn't - what a surprise. The result was always going to depend on our midfield. Could they compete with, not even outplay, their Sevco counterparts? I didn't think they had it in them and they didn't. To earn a draw they would have needed to keep their opponents out of our box and I just couldn't see them do it. We have a decent defence, albeit with a half fit goalie, but even they would buckle under constant pressure and sure as fate they did. We had no outball to take the pressure off them. It didn't take a neurosurgeon to work out that we went to Ibrox to contain Sevco/not get beat/to limit damage whatever you want to call it. If they scored one it would game over. Did we pick the wrong side? Probably, but we had very limited options. What we did find out, to reinforce recent lessons is that a good few of our signings are simply not good enough for Premiership football. Our defence isn't bad, strikeforce non existent and central midfield not nearly as good as we thought and not good enough. I'm not happy at all with recent results or performances, including tonight's, but its no time to panic. Starting from Monday its time to sort things out big time.

Was he yellow carded for it?

How was McHugh injured? Was it as a result of a foul?

I've never come across so much additional time before.

Pretty much the line up I expected, with the exception of the lack of a fast attacking midfielder ie Petravicius or MacLean. A safety formation but with no obvious outball. I agree with resting Bowman given the resurgence of negative media publicity in the past week. Fisher and Tanner may have a lean night. We're putting a lot of pressure on our captain to shield and protect our defence and it'll be interesting to find out if he's up to it. if we're still in it with say 30 minutes to go we may see changes.

The injuries to Cadden and to a lesser extent Frear is a blow to the squad and means that our avenues fro an outball are severely limited. We also have a toothless strikeforce. Given that its going to be difficult to score against Sevco and Accies. I think most fans accept that. Thats going to impact greatly on our chances of winning or even drawing these matches. The Accies cup game is a different situation altogther. If we can bring in a striker or two preferably without losing Cadden or Kipre, then we stand a good chance of progressing. We'll have 3 weeks or so after the break to bring in a goalscorer or maybe him plus another striker. If we can't secure one until late in the window then that changes things. I think most fans are being patient and understand that things will improve but if our run of poor form extends into February some may become restless. Moult's replacement will be crucial.

Although we're going through a bad spell just now we need to take a bigger view. We had a huge rebuild in the summer with a lot of new players coming in. Our tough schedule has meant that many of them have been put under the microscope moreso than usual. Some have done well, sone not so well, but thats only natural for a rebuild. Other things being equal I reckon it'll take Robbo about 3 years to get the squad he wants, so given our achievements this season so far, as another poster said to me recently, we're ahead of schedule. Next month will be a big month for us and I'm sure there'll be a few squad changes. I know the club has a few irons in the fire, no doubt including a few surprising ones, if past dealings are anything to go by. Players could also leave. A critical issue will be who we bring in to replace Louis Moult. We aren't awash with cash but do have some. That might make squad adjustments a bit easier.

Sevco are not that good but neither are we just now. For once our defence is ok, but our midfield isn't performing defensively and fell into long standing bad habits last Saturday. Our attack is non existent. Some of thse issues can be put down to tiredness and injury but others are more deep rooted. However, as others recognise, if we can limp along to Saturday evening without taking on too much water we can take the ship into dry dock next month for a refit. I can't see us scoring tomorrow except through a set piece and penalties don't come along too often at Ibrox. A win is not out of the question on Saturday but a draw is much more likely and I'd settle for that. The best we can realistically hope for tomorrow is a draw or narrow defeat, but a win would be great.