Kmcalpin

Louis Moult has 18 months left on his contract and the club will not want to see that run out with him exiting for nothing. Ideally, I'd like to see him move on in the summer as he would give us some more months of service (and hopefully goals) and earn us a reasonable fee. I just wonder if there are any predatory clubs watching him just now with an eye to submitting a bid later this month? Interesting that Aberdeen have a dilemma with Niall McGinn just now...we've been there, done and got the t shirt as they say.

Agree with that. When assessing our central midfield options I wouldn't include Cadden in the mix....yet. He may well make it there in time but right now he's more suited to playing wide right. On the plus side I think we can now add young Allan Campbell to the centre mix. I agree that our priority is the left hand side where we're short. IF, Pearo returns, and it is an IF, then he could fill in in the middle or at wide left. Stevie Hammell now seems to be very injury prone and I'm not fully convinced of Joe Chalmers, although he did perk up before his injury. We do need an attacking midfielder in some shape or form and some pace.

I think the issue was trying to keep his head out of the clouds before he moved to Leeds.

It just goes to show though how much a referee can influence games. Its conceivable that he could've issued a yellow card (I do think it was a red), awarded us a penalty and sent Kurtaz off for an early bath. That would have made for an entirely different game.

Agreed. Its unusual though for a player to be booked for simulation when a foul was committed on him. As you say inconsistency is the problem. There were a handful of incidents in the game when the ref could and should have yellow carded players for simulation but didn't. You either book none or book them all.

Its not uncommon for a referee to wait a few days after a match to clarify why a player was yellow carded. Billy Davies and Terry Butcher highlighted this very point. Not good refereeing though. If Skippy appeals would a physio or doctor's evidence be acceptable? BBC coverage is very subjective.

Humphrey was a far better defender than Ainsworth. However despite his talents and pace I wouldn't take him back.

Terry Butcher was the same. As an interesting aside, Skippy has a go at the match officials for being arrogant and booking him for simulation (the online Sun). According to him, Kurtaz poked him in the eye but the ref booked him for simulation. He wouldn't tell MacDonald at the time why he had been yellow carded, despite being asked (I've heard this kind of thing before). If that is the case why was Kurtaz booked if he didn't do anything?

Yes, Skippy was a bit theatrical but from the stand, Kurtaz's hand certainly made contact with his face. What confirmed it for me though was when Skippy went off temporarily to have his face checked over by the doctor/physio. If nothing had happened why would he have gone over for treatment to his head?

Sounds interesting.... On another tack, I've just watched the TV highlights on the BBC and I reckon the penalty shout could have gone either way. A bit soft maybe but we've lost a few penalties like that where the defender's arms weren't by his side.

Seems a sensible move for both parties and widely suggested on here. It'll give the lad some competitive game time and will free up a squad place and a small amount of cash for the club. Mark McGhee has commented that he needs to translate his training ground talent onto the pitch.

We were in the same boat. Despite having prepurchased tickets we had to wait in a general PATG queue; no when I think about it it wasn't a queue at all, just a general melee. I believe others queued up for over 20 minutes and missed kick off. Representations have been made by others to the club to pass on.

Had Kurtaz been rightfully shown a red card, the final 35 minutes or so would have been 10 V 10 and Accies would not have had it quite so comfortable. I recall Derek Adams being shown a red card in Perth for a slightly more minor indiscretion. Their playacting, diving and timewasting rattled me.

Yes, thats the one. Kurtaz lifted his hands to him and struck him in the face after play had stopped. Now thats a straight red card in my book. The referee should have ordered MacDonald off as he sustained a head knock but didn't. Skippy in fact went off voluntarily later to be checked by the doctor. I'm not saying he didn't make a meal of it, as he did. Lucas deserved to go for a two footed tackle but again Donati made a complete meal of it. He was so badly injured that he lasted the 90 minutes! The game was played in difficult conditions on a dodgy pitch so it was never going to be a classic. As to the game itself, our line up suggested a cautious conservative approach with little creativity in midfield and thats how it turned out. We were the better side until Lucas' dismissal but after that Accies had all of the pressure. For all their pressing however, Woods was by far the busier keeper. We dug in well and deserved our point. I felt sorry for both full backs as they had little cover in front of them. Despite playing a 4 man midfield we were very narrow. I was very impressed by McHugh who did well again after a lengthy lay off. Campbell too did well in a very difficult debut. He's a real terrier who is not afraid to get stuck in and his off the ball work was very impressive - chasing, harrying and hassling. Thats a quality we lack as team. However he didn't seem to be the most creative of players - time will tell. I'd like to see him in a better balanced midfield with at least one creative player alongside him. Unsurprisingly we played the long ball to, our strikers a little much to my liking but being a man down its excusable. All in all a deserved point against a streetwise Accies side who conned the ref a bit too often. It was gratifying to see Wood's blatant timewasting reap the reward it did. There's only one Louis Moult! We now enter a short break, with a cushion above 11th and 12th places, that should allow us to bring back some injured players and perhaps secure one or two new ones. Happy days!

Referee had a shocker. 2 stonewall and obvious red cards but he only awarded one. That had a huge influence on the course of the game.

I couldn't care less about odds as long as we do the business on the park and seize the 3 points. Each to their own though.

If there are 2 "vacancies" I'd imagine we will be looking at an attacking / creative central midfielder and an out and out left winger. Mark McGhee may have other ideas though.

Accies, as always will be a very tough nut to crack tomorrow. They'll give no quarter but will certainly expect it. Guys like Seabourne and Gillespie can dish it out so we shouldn't expect a classic. Hopefully we'll be up for it and if both teams play to their best we should collect a point if not 3. We'll need to watch Crawford on the edge of our box and make sure we don't allow him a clear sight of goals. The best means of doing this is to cut off his supply and also not concede free kicks on the edge of our box. Much too will depend on who is fit. The loss of Cadden would be a blow, Lasley less so. The problem spot will be left midfield. COYW

Is Scott McMann not also banned for his straight red on Tuesday evening?

From the way it was portrayed in the media I thought Fon Williams had Clay's shot well covered until the wind gave it a horrific swerve or dip. Neither set of highlights show this although the angles weren't good. From the admittedly limited evidence I tend to give Clay a bit more credit - however significant the swerve or dip was, it was a damn fine shot.

Yes, we'll take it. By all accounts though Inverness had some good fortune too. Did Ainsworth not hit woodwork and Cole was seemingly lucky to remain on the park. A very important result for us which will ensure we're not bottom at Hogmanay irrespective of the result at Hamilton. Credit to the management and players. Great to see Carl McHugh return and last a full game. A huge sigh of relief from me. Safe journey home for our fans.

Does anyone know about our long term injuries? Jacob Blyth: seemed to get injured early on; then out for a spell; back briefly with the Under 20s a month or two back. Hasn't been seen since. Joe Chalmers: seemingly had a groin injury a few months ago and due to have an operation. Hasn't been heard of since. Kieran Kennedy: apparently suffered from a nasty virus early in the season. Made a brief comeback a few months ago and hasn't been heard of since.

He didn't impress much either in his 45 minutes against Kilmarnock. Its hard to assess on his limited game time to date but decisions will have to be made soon.

You can also add Inverness, Ross County, St Johnstone, Partick and Kilmarnock (you beat me to it Superward) to that list although in a few of these cases its not by much. Most of them will be on similar budgets. While it would be great to bring in some really talented players I often think what we lack as much as anything are solid, reliable, hard working, no frills kind of players in central midfield and defence. The kind of players who can't make defence splitting passes but by the same token won't make many mistakes either. They play steadily week in week out without getting noticed. I know Inverness are having a hard time just now (hopefully even harder after tomorrow), but in recent years they have built up a reputation for successfully bringing in just this kind of player from English non league clubs. So, it can be done on a limited budget.

The bottom line is that it is a wish list, nothing more. I don't think for a minute it'll all come to pass, but hopefully it'll generate some discussion on here and we'll get an idea of posters' views. Football is all about opinions. There are many unknowns eg exactly how much cash is available right now or how much would be freed up by departures. Players may not want to leave or indeed join us. Other clubs may predate our best players and submit offers we can't refuse. Then there's the manager's views. Almost certainly he'll have different opinions from me. On top of that there'll be competition from other clubs. Last, but not least, deals can break down over contractual details. I fully understand that transfer dealings are a complicated business. All that said we cannot afford to enter February with the same squad, as it needs strengthening and quickly. Relegation for us would be catastrophic and the Directors have the unenviable task of balancing the financial cost of that against the costs of spending on new faces. Almost certainly we'll have been tracking players for months and I don't doubt there will be a surprise or two. January is a difficult window in which to do business and I don't think for a minute that we'll see activity on an Ian Baraclough scale.. Any player we bring in will need to hit the ground running.