Kmcalpin

You're ignoring the fact that people change as they grow older. I doubt very much if the current Well Bois will still be singing and beating drums when they're in their 60s and 70s. I don't know many older fans who dislike noise (barring abuse) or atmosphere. The older fans, who as you put it, sit in silence have been going to Fir Park for decades - will the younger generation be doing that in 2055?

Knowing the way these things work probably payable over 4 years in 12 instalments!!!

So when Pearo is fit who will start with Keith Lasley? If we started with Las & Grimshaw it would be a very defensive central midfield indeed. I too am unsure about Taylor's probable role.

Ok I'll say what a few others are thinking. I reckon he's being brought in as cover or short term replacement for Keith Lasley. Given that he's a defensive player who would partner him in the middle in an attacking role other than Pearo?

An interesting and somewhat different take on things. Time will tell. Overall I'm happy with the signing but just because a player comes from Manchester United (or any other big English premiership club) doesn't automatically mean they'll be a success. We've seen this before with the likes of Stephen Cosgrove and John Hendry.

Good post. For me too, its never been a case of "Whats in it for me?" or "Will I get value for money?". I accept however that there's a range of views and so be it. Folk can choose to join or not join. What I don't understand though is the view that "We'll just need to find our level". What if that level is liquidation and oblivion? Should we be fatalistic and just accept that that would be the natural way of things and football will evolve. I too can't just sit back and watch what happens in a detached way - a bit like watching a natural history documentary where the cameraman films predator V prey without interfering. All that said, I haven't been overly impressed with the way the Society has conducted affairs. When was the last fundraising event for example and when is the next one? |You would think that given our financial targets events would play an important part.

Happy with tonight's news. He comes with a good pedigree and will, hopefully, provide some much needed steel in the midfield.

Diving?

Where is the evidence for this? Have you canvassed the season ticket holders to find out their views? ST holders who are not members have not joined for a variety of reasons. Yes, there are some who have no confidence in the Society granted; there are also some who would join but can't afford it; and believe it or not there are those who just haven't got round to it. Its always presumptious to speak on behalf of a large group if you haven't determined their views beforehand. Like it or not the Society has already saved the club from going into administration. That doesn't mean to say that its perfect it clearly isn't.

Would there be any objections from local residents if Vodaphone applied for planning permission to erect a new mobile phone mast in your neighbourhood?

It'll cost her for the privilege though. No doubt an add on extra to an existing account.

Hopefully we'll hear some news on new signings later on today. Maybe English clubs will be slightly easier to deal with as their 1800 hrs deadline approaches - no doubt the usual brinkmanship.

From bits and pieces of information I suspect our Under 20s are on something like £300 - £500 per week. First team squad £1,000 - £2,000. In terms of the total wage bill, you need to add on 9% to cover employers' costs (pension & NI). So, a player earning £100,000 per year cost his club about £109,000 annually.

In a word, Yes. Now I don't know if there's any truth in the rumour that he's being paid £2.5k per week but if that is correct its pretty astounding. Thats the kind of wage a player can expect at Pittodrie, Tynecastle or perhaps Tannadice. Wages have also reportedly come down, on average this season. I've suspected for a wee while now that Ross County are paying at least some of their players fairly high wages. They are also forking out transfer fees. For a club of their size that isn't sustainable - I know they're being bankrolled by Roy MacGregor. However its unlikely that he's simply donating cash to the club with no strings attached. I'd like to see their annual accounts for the past year or so.

It was the right decision, although most probably not a deliberate foul. Your defender is about to clear the ball and swings his leg to hack it away. Moult nips in unexpectedly and your lad whacks the back of his leg instead and not the ball, bringing him down. Watch the way Moult falls to the deck - not a dive. In some ways similar to Louis Laing's red card last season for denying an opponent a goalscoring opportunity. Laing stumbled and fell and in doing so accidentally brought down an attacker. There was a lot of debate about that at the time on here but the rules say that if you bring an opponent down, accidentally or not its a foul. Had Moult been running the other way ie towards goal the chances are your defender would have been red carded. I personally don't agree with that rule but there it is.

I think many fans need to be shocked into joining. Hearts of course found that easy due to the well documented situation they were in. If you want the club to be here in 5 years time join and contribute now..... Nothing to be gained by beating about the bush.

Absolutely Andy. Imperfect though it is, had it not been for the Society, the club would already have gone into administration. End of.

A good point and one which the Society needs to clarify. The members need to be kept informed.

Depends what we mean by "midfield". Does that include the wingers or more likely the central midfield? Assuming its the latter, there's no doubt Pearo has been a huge loss, but even without his box to box style we have been weak defensively in central midfield for some time. I wouldn't say that we've been rank rotten there but rather have been weak and ineffective. Now we are never going to dominate a game for 90+ minutes - that just isn't going to happen. Our weakness in centre mid is down to a combination of factors, one being playing with 2 wingers which means we can be outnumbered there. Yes we do lack creativity there but I don't blame Leitch or Lasley for that - they simply aren't that kind of player. I haven't seen enough of Taylor to pass comment. More than any other area of the pitch, midfield has to be a balance of skills. In the games I've seen this season (Dundee Utd, Aberdeen, St Johnstone, Kilmarnock and most notably East Fife) the opposition has for long spells in the match dominated the game and pinned us back. We've lost, by Ian Baraclough's own admission too many individual 50/50 battles. We haven't been closing opposition players down and haven't been winning 50/50 balls or second balls. To do something with the ball you have to win it first. Its not nice and not exciting to watch but you have to outbattle the opposition and do the dirty spadework to allow more talented players to perform. I don't know the kind of player that Ian Baraclough intends to bring in, but suspect it will include a combative energetic defensive central midfielder. If so I would envisage them replacing Keith Lasley either immediately or gradually over the course of the season. Presumably they would partner a fit again Pearo?

Looking at the strikers now on our books, it appears that they are all quite different. The latest addition, Theo Robinson, looks to be extremely quick. However one thing they do have in common is that none of them is a big target man. None is particularly good in the air. Given that we need to cut out aimless punts or high crosses into the box. Maybe time to instruct our wingers to take a leaf out of Davie Cooper's book - nothing wrong in firing in hard crosses at ankle, knee or chest height.

Good post. Ian Baraclough has bought himself time and hopefully the new players will settle in and learn how to play as a team. You're also spot on about our position in the Scottish pecking order. Too many fans are just too easily brainwashed by TV football coverage of the English premiership football and coverage of European football

They're different kinds of players. Dom Thomas is very capable of beating 2/3 opponents at close quarters and squeezing past them - not so good at running at a defence at pace. Johnson is the opposite - not tricky but his stregnth lies in running at an open defence. Horses for courses.

Just watched the TV highlights - a stonewall penalty for me. For whatever reason the defender just hacks Moult down from behind - can't see what is soft about it. An agricultural challenge.

First and foremost a very welcome, not to say critical 3 points. We deserved to win...just. Kilmarnock were devoid of creativity and a cutting edge but fought hard to gain the upper hand in terms of possession and their defence was far better than I had been led to believe - they shielded MacDonald very well indeed. Over the 93 minutes they had over twice the shots on target we could muster. I counted that we hit the target twice excluding the penalty. Kennedy was the pick of the bunch for me, but Chalmers, Thomas and Moult all played their part. Thomas was the right choice to start and was certainly eyecatching with his trickery and wizardry. However more often than not his final ball was poor. We started off very brightly for the first 20/25 minutes but again lacked a cutting edge. After that Killie began to dominate as they did in the second half. Their midfield was powerful enough to steamroller our engine room but fortunately lacked creativity or flair. Much as I expected, our central midfield was overrun for long spells unable to win the ball and when they did so unable to to do much with it. Killie though worked damned hard to close us down in the middle of the park. I thought Lasley was largely ineffective and disappeared in the second half. Leitch, in my view, had little or no impact on the proceedings. I won't criticise MacDonald because again he was played out of position and sat far too deep to help Moult. The ref had a poor game but got the major decisions right - I've yet to scrutinise the penalty. He was very inconsistent to say the least. I'm looking forward to finding out if we can strengthen central midfield in the next 2/3 days by acquiring more pace, power and steel there. Not a great game but we seized the 3 points the SPFL had on offer.