Kmcalpin

I'm not suggesting for a minute that QOS would be easy because they won't. However if they are that good why didn't they finish in the top 3?

A mixed game for him. He wasn't at fault at County's goal. That said he almost cost us one when Boyce(?) charged down his over casual attempted clearance. Not the worst player in the side but he tended to go AWOL at times. Made our goal.

The referee really was awful and was totally inconsistent with decisions and yellow cards. Ross County could easily have picked up 2 yellow cards in the first 10 - 15 minutes. They quickly latched on to his lenience and took full advantage. No sympathy for Paul Quinn as he committed a professional foul on a player who had skinned him although he did take one for the team. I've rarely seen a Scots team guilty of so many dives but it worked and thats all that matters to them.

Dom Thomas for me.

Exactly this. Ross County played exactly as we should have expected them to. Not great to watch but very competitive and streetwise and ruthless. They played the referee almost to perfection. This is exactly why they've been on such a good run. They also enjoy a lot of luck and because of that are difficult to beat. For our part we created a lot but the final ball often let us down and we lacked that killer touch. The lads put a lot of effort in but just weren't good enough. Defensive wise we left a bit to be desired. Stevie Hammell had a reasonable comeback but looked a wee bit uncomfortable in the second half as he was caught out of position once or twice. Conor Grant steadied the central midfield a bit but we sacrificed presence on the right to balance that and looked a bit narrow. Referee was a model of inconsistency but thats another matter. Its all very well trying to play nice football but it doesn't win points.

You could play Pearo wide left with Lasley and Grant in the middle.

Will Laing be fit? He could drop a winger and bring in Grant to shore up central midfield.

Don't entirely agree Ian. When he first signed for us I was impressed and said so. As Andy P said perhaps scoring 2 goals early on was misleading and did him no favours. As the season wore on I began to have doubts about him but in fairness he was more often than not played out of position in midfield. I think RB is his best position but in the past couple of months I don't think he's played especially well. Hasn't made any out and out blunders but generally his lack of positional sense has let him down and cost a 2 or 3 goals. At Hamilton he was anonymous - odd for a right back. Seems a decent sort though and good luck to him.

You can if he doesn't know what he's doing or how good he is/will be. Is he destined for bigger things or will he overestimate his capabilities? He'd not be the first young player to get this wrong - Alan Martin or Tom Hately anyone.

Yes, thats what you call evading the question.

I'm happy to share petrol costs if you want. Josh Law impressed me to at the start of the season but he fell away and although RB is his best position, he has been mediocre at best there. In the last few games he's been poor and at least partly culpable in a few goals that we lost. He was anonymous at Hamilton. No harm to the lad but best for both parties that he moves on. Premiership looks to be above his level.

The way I see it, the Dom Thomas award is protest vote that underlines fans' frustrations. He's a fine prospect yes and has done well in his limited game time but thats it. In such votes I usually cast mine on the basis of who has contributed most to whatever level of success the team has achieved, even if that is modest.

A bit confusing Alan. Certainly in home Scottish Cup ties for example the away team is due a cut of season ticket income based on those ST holders who attend the game.

No, not at all. In effect, the league would take a proportion of our season ticket income.

I know we have more serious matters on our minds just now but this is one trend which is getting worse and really gets to me. Its downright cheating. I'm not talking about stealing a few inches/centimetres but rather 10/15 metres at a time at throw ins and free kicks. I know some refs can be overly pernickety on occasion but thats usually an inconsistent one off during a game. What gets me is that match officials can stand close by and let the offenders get away with it. One of the worst examples took place last Friday at NDP. In the latter stages of the game, Michael McGovern was awarded a free kick a few metres upfield of the corner flag about a metre or so from the touch line. In full view of the linesman he took the kick about a metre from his penalty box. In other words he moved the ball about 10/12 metres infield. Despite those who were left of our support letting the nearby linesman know what they thought about it he was happy to let things go. Time to take a leaf out of rugby's book and go further. If any player tries this dodge - move the free kick/throw in 10 metres back and book the player. Rant over.

Yes I recall that vividly - several thousands were at it if I recall correctly. That was something I found thoroughly offensive. In my book it is a sectarian term and along with T*m is offensive. Time that was all stamped out and relegated to prehistory where it belongs. Going back to Stuart B's post I agree about the blatant time wasting - the worst I've witnessed for many a season. The referee and officials largely condoned it. If I'd been in charge I'd have yellow carded a few more of Accies players and added on about 7 minutes extra time - not that it would have done us much good.

Very much so Haggis. What we've lacked all season is for a strong character to kick backsides and fire up the players when the going gets tough. Now usually thats the job of an experienced player, but not always. What is needed is strength of character. Are there any leaders in the dressing room? Thats the job of the management team to identify the best person for the role. Now that may not always be the obvious choice of fans. On more than a few occasions our heads have gone down at say 2-0 and thats been it. At Hamilton last Friday you could noticeably feel, heads go down (fans and players alike) when an Accies player simply shot past our captain Keith Lasley and brushed him aside as though he just wasn't there. That was worrying.

That could be key Andy. Having watched Ross county twice this season, home and more recently away, I think they could be unsettled. They've had a tremendous run no doubt of that, but that has been based in no small part on continuing good luck. Signs are there that if things don't go their way they're quite capable of imploding. If we get wired in on Saturday or play very well early on it'll be an interesting game. They're a physical team who just won't tolerate a team playing better than them. At Dingwall in their 3-2 win over us the only reason they didn't end up with 9 men on the park was a very soft referee. It'll be very hard to get a result but we're more than due some good luck.

All very well but the majority of those who have had to endure a lot this season are season ticket holders.

Hindsight - absolutely. I expected us to finish in about 6/7 position this season. Hutchinson was huge loss but we knew well in advance he was leaving and did precious little about it. Faddy - not a huge loss. Despite finishing 2nd last season there were glaring weaknesses which Stuart McCall failed to address - a defence which was shipping barrowloads of goals for years and a poor central midfield - weak since Jennings departed. Carswell hasn't turned out to be the player McCall expected and Lasley was showing signs of ageing - why give him a 2 year contract? Stevie Hammell - maybe worth a one deal if he'd accept that? Where was our emerging left back to step into his shoes - ZFA? Granted we've been very very unlucky with injuries. However questions have been asked about the level of soft tissue injuries as opposed to the unavoidable impact injuries. Iain Vigurs? We knew he was a risk when we signed him and Ross County fans were surprised that we did move for him given his back problems - caveat emptor.

St Mirren away will a very very tough game unless by that time they are down and out. They pumped Killie 4-1 yesterday. Not sure about loan players - fine in theory but don't forget a fair few contracted players' deals expire at the end of the season (Law, Ainsworth, Straker, MacDonald, Sutton, Erwin). Character is more important than employment status although the two may be related. We need scrappers and battlers irrespective of whether they're on loan or not.

Yes another huge game for us and surely last chance saloon. Ross County may not be the best football side in the world but they have a ruthless win at all costs mentality and they do whatever it takes to grab the points. It won't be easy and the players and fans have to wise up if we are to take anything from the game. The one thing in our favour is that County will give us, the fans, some ammunition and we have to use that cynically as Dundee United fans have learned to do. The first goal will be crucial.

Make no mistake, most of our problems this year are down to Stuart McCall. Ian Baraclough, for whatever reason, hasn't helped much. It may be that our problems were too deep and long term for any new manager to remedy quickly. That said we've had no luck this season especially with injuries. A lot of money was wasted on bad personnel decisions - Bob McHugh, Stuart Carswell, Josh Law, Craig Reid, Iain Vigurs, Gunnar Neilsen, Dan Twardzik, Simon Ramsden, Mark O'Brien, Lionel Ainsworth, and 2 year deals for Keith Lasley and Stephen McManus. Thats what Ian Baraclough inherited. Stuart McCall neglected our defence and he would have known well in advance that Shaun Hutchinson would move on. He would also have known that our central midfield was in dire need of an overhaul. We also needed a right back. Despite these these glaring weaknesses virtually nothing was done last summer to address them. Thats the root cause of our problems. Ian Baraclough had his hands tied when he came in as he inherited all these problems, with limited scope to do much about them. All that said he hasn't motivated the squad - maybe the causes are outwith his control? He made a number of signings in January, with mixed success at best. Its his tactics though that have been found wanting, as we've seen in the last 2 games. The players though must take their share of the blame for turning in too many flat dispirited performances, admittedly with no onfield leadership.

My thoughts exactly. It cost us big time last night.

I'll be at all our remaining home games and I'll be there next season as well. Have we got a poor team? Been there, done it, seen it and got the t shirt several times.