Kmcalpin

The game was lost by 2.00pm yesterday and we were totally outmanoeuvred off the pitch by a rookie manager. Team selection and tactics were all wrong. Cadden and Frear were wasted as they had to do the jobs of 2 men. They had to constantly make runs from very deep. Central midfield was totally unbalanced as Lasley and Campbell are similar types of player (Campbell is looking good as a back up replacement for the auld yin). There was no creativity and the left side was exposed in Pearo's absence (he was missed although he's not been playing well). Much as I don't rate him, Clay should have been in for Lasley. MacMillan or Ferguson should have started at right back. MacDonald played too deep and was wasted. Didn't link up with Bowman or Moult. Bowman and Moult don't play well together and were deployed too far apart. Moult was totally wasted - he played too deep, too wide and too often away from the danger area. The line up was a 3-4-1-2 or a 3-4-2-1 and just didn't work and its long overdue for binning. The long hopeful balls to the striker(s) were a complete waste of time (Gomis sends his thanks by the way). At the 30 minute mark, and well before Dundee scored, those around me were shouting for Robinson to make changes before anything went badly wrong but he persisted with his formation much to the delight of Neil McCann. Dundee spent the first 40 minutes sitting in and it took us until the 30th minute to register an effort on target. With 5 to go until half time we could see McCann frantically waving his troops forward to snatch the all important goal and it was just a matter of time until they did. Oh and Samson didn't play well. I'm rapidly thinking that Robinson has been a poor appointment. For all his organisational reputation, we were a total shambles yesterday in all areas of the team. We had 2 weeks to prepare for the game and totally f****d it up. No excuses.

Add to that Jim, a perfectly good goal chalked off at Firhill and Inverness being given an "offside" goal at Fir Park a few weeks ago. Yesterday Dundee could easily have had 3 players booked in the first half hour. Things certainly aren't going for us are they? Oh, and I'm stunned by the media silence over our disallowed goal yesterday........not.

Jay- was there any Society presence in the POD Stand yesterday? I couldn't see any. Thanks for the feedback incidentally.

I opted for a null vote but if I had picked a player it would have been Campbell. Not the best of games but by no means the worst and he's only a youngster, who should expect help from more experienced players.

Great post which gets to the very root of our defeat. I felt very sorry for the players today - too many square pegs in round holes and some were hung out to dry by the management. I'm building up to a related rant on the matchday thread.

Agreed. Whilst a single goal win would be nice I'm hoping that we can give them a turning over. Its dog eats dog and a humping would not only secure us the 3 points but help our goal difference and strike a huge psychological blow by helping to convince Dundee that their fate is sealed. Not nice but its us or them.

I noticed the club has posted a tweet about Hughie Ferguson today. Arguably our best ever player. If not he'd certainly be in the top 3 of our all time greats. As time passes our memories of favourite players fade but Hughie deserves recognition from all generations of our supporters. He passed away in sad circumstances but shouldn't be forgotten.

Has Craig Moore been banging in the goals for Ayr? The answer to that question will influence our decision no doubt.

Yes we were, Terry Butcher brought him to Fir Park for a trial but thats as far as it got. Not a bad goalie.

Ruddy was the most brilliant keeper I've seen in my years of going to Fir Park. However he was a tad mercurial. He could also drop the odd clanger. Darren Randolph wasn't quite as brilliant and his best wasn't as good as Ruddy's but his worst was better. He dropped fewer clangers and overall achieved a consistently higher standard. At our level both very, very good keepers but different. Ripley and Long were both decent but inexperienced custodians.

As an add on to his transfer fee. Its not uncommon for these clauses to run and run.

The sole question for me is are we due any further payment?

I've seen various shots of the incident and watched 2 versions of the highlights. My guess is that the whole ball was not over the line but I've not seen conclusive evidence either way and certainly not strong enough to argue either way.

Hateley was a decent full back no more no less. On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd rate him as a 7. We've had better right backs and we've had worse.

I talked to Alan Mackay in hospitality today, who older fans will recall joined us from Third Lanark in the late 1960s. A real gent.

A hugely important win today and we managed to bag 4 goals. So, it was job done. We got off to a great start but then retreated into our shell and took stage fright. We didn't work hard enough and gave ICT the room they wanted to target Samson's goal. For quite a spell, either side of half time, our 3-4-3 formation just wasn't working. Tweed's words came back to haunt me "The 3-4-3 works if Cadden and Frear can get forward, it doesn't work if they get pinned back as if they do we can't get out and the midfield gets overrun". Both Frear and Cadden became old fashioned defenders having to make runs from deep. MacDonald retreated back into midfield leaving a gap between Bowman and Moult. Credit where its due Robinson then made game changing alterations. Our defending at times was very poor but we did hit the net 4 times and that will boost confidence. I was impressed by young Campbell who played well and scored an important goal but he'll be sore all over tonight after taking a bit of a battering by bigger opponents. Frear and MacDonald also played well. Ainsworth too did well when he came on. Was Skippy's goal over the line or not? I don't know and its impossible to tell from pictures. We're more than due a bit of good luck and so I'm not complaining. Two more dubious calls in our favour will even things up. I was bit sick of BBC radio's incessant carping on about it. I don't recall a similar furore over our disallowed goals against Partick, Dundee and Hamilton. Oh, and I'd say Kat is correct about Inverness's 2nd goal. As the ball is played their player is fractionally offside. So, they weren't as unlucky as the BBC would have us believe. Over the piece in an up and down game we deserved the 3 points. Over the next fortnight we need to work on our defensive organisation and on getting players like Moult, Tait and Pearson fit. The latter is clearly carrying some kind of knock.

Sameroff wasn't great but we've had worse, far worse.

I know thats how it works all too often but its something that I detest and always have done. Not for me Alex Ferguson or Matt Busby tactics. Thats not to say that players shouldn't put in heavy but fair tackles. I recall the days of Tiny Wharton when players were targetting a certain opponent. He'd call the offending side's captain over, eyeball him and tell him in no uncertain terms that if another of his players targetted the player, he (the captain) would be sent off. It almost always worked.

Not for us surely?

Money/income?

I'll be surprised if we don't play Accies reasonably early on after the split. Can't see it being the second last game and certainly not the final game.

Yes, some cracking goals especially the fourth.

Much has been posted on here about the role of the players and manager, in this upcoming game, but we the fans have a huge role to play also. Irrespective of our opinions we have to turn up on Saturday and get right behind the team in this important clash.

I see our Under 20s have only 3 named subs tonight. Surely we could have picked one or two more?

Very true. Successive managers have failed to address this problem despite having had more than enough money to do so. Any formation involving a 3 man defence on paper ie 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 inevitably ends up as 5-3-2 or 5-4-1 or something similar. I don't why Robinson has settled on this 3-4-3 formation as it doesn't work (it did at Ibrox for some reason). It places intolerable strain on the 2 wide men/wing backs. Prior to coming back Robinson earned a reputation as being a good tactician but we've seen precious little evidence of it lately.