Kmcalpin

Good on you mate. Spoken like true fans. We sometimes go on about some folk cheating the system and the club by abusing schemes but this is the other side of the coin. We have season ticket holders for example who rarely, if ever, see a game and regular PATG fans who give their gate money to FP if they miss a game. Good luck with your association.

I don't think so. Yes we are a selling club and always will be and every player has his price. That said the club has valuations for each player and if the circling vultures don't meet that price then there's no deal. There's no way that Jamie Murphy would be allowed to leave for £50,000. The club might not have much cash but its not in debt and there will be no fire sale.

What about some of our fringe players? Will Stuart McCall look to move some of them on to free up a wage or two and bring some fresh blood in?

We seem to be going through a bit of a lean spell just now with few young prospects having appeared in the last couple of years and seemingly nobody on the horizon with the possible exception of Steven Lawless. Probably last two successes have been Jamie Murphy and Shaun Hutchinson and they haven't fully proved themselves yet. Learnt a surprising fact yesterday at the game. What do Celtic's James Forrest and Darren McGeoch have in common with Brian Easton, James Macarthur and James McCarthy? Yes, they're all former Accies players. Rangers have just snaffled 4 of their youngsters as well. I think we ought to be looking closely at whats happening across the Clyde.

We're through to the next round and thats the important thing. 4-0 scoreline was totally misleading. The actual performance was a big disappointment with the fringe players failing to impress. Our midfield was totally overrun at times and that is a cause for concern. Tim Clancy was my MOTM. Henrik Ojaama? Only on for short spell but he really impressed. Early days but you can only score against the team you're playing. For whatever reason the crowd atmosphere was flat even in the normally raucous East Stand. Pitch looked excellent.

Tim Clancy for me. Very few competitors for MOTM today. Jamie Murphy notched two but again looked unsuited to his roving/defensive role. If he'd played further up the park he could have caused some real damage.

According to Stuart McCall on MTV he has picked up a chest infection.

I see that the club has applied for planning permission to erect a lift for disabled fans outside the Cooper Stand. Details can be found on NLC's e-Planning page for anyone interested. If it helps our disabled supporters enjoy their football a litlte bit more then it can only be a good thing.

SM said in a recent interview on MTV that Steven along with Lee Hollis and Nicky Devlin was making very good progress. Good luck to all 3 lads.

Pretty much agree with that Andy. In his second season with us he would be anonymous 5 weeks out of 6 and then show glimpses of brilliance in the 6th week. He always seemed to go missing in crunch games. He undoubtedly has talent but is a bit lightweight. Still good luck to him. He was a model professional.

100% agree David. We simply can't rely on picking up 3 points frequently in away games. Tynecastle proved that.

That is also very true of our home games.

Cheers Iain. A good New Year to you and all fellow Steelmen.

Does anyone know when the office re-opens this week? Cheers.

A bit pessimistic if I may say so, but I agree with your overall point. I've never subscribed to the "Don't worry about our home form our away form will see us through" view. We're not going to win every game but the 2 points dropped aginst St Mirren were entirley avoidable. We really do need to address our home form both in terms of points won and goal difference.

David's entitled to his opinion Andy and you should respect that. It doesn't mean to say that if you disagree with him then his opinion is "brain dead". Yes, some folk will be deterred from going by the weather (fair weather fans??) but if anyone makes their decision on the basis of preferring to watch the OF then he is right.

I would hope that most Well fans would prefer to watch the Well rather than the OF. If not we really are in trouble.

Just switch off Milo. I haven't watched it for well over a year.

Agreed. This is to the detriment of his game. He has been playing wide left midfield but not in an out and out winger's role.

The team is set up to counterattack which works well away from home as we all agree. It does not work well at home as we fail to turn pressure into goal attempts. Are we a one trick pony? Dropped home points willl cost us - I entirely agree. Although our squad is very limited size wise, I'm sure there's scope to change it a bit. Given Dunfermline's goalkeeping problems I'd lime to think we'll test out Smith early on with a range of threats - crosses, shots, one on ones. However our record this season of testing opposing keepers out is not impressive.

Presumably its Jamie Murphy we're talking about and not Nick Law. I view his best position as being wide left as he was at his most dangerous last season when cutting in at speed from the left wing. However this season he's playing far too deep and unable to make those runs. Your comment about him playing behind Steve Hammell may be tongue in cheek but there's some truth in that. In the St Mirren game he twice popped up behind Stevie at the back when we were crying out for him to be attacking the Saints full back 50 metres further up the pitch. By no means the only time this has happened. In my view he simply doesn't have the physique to be playing through the middle.

X 2 David. Stephen Hughes was lightweight, although taleneted, first time around and hasn't changed in my view. Ok he probably isn't match fit but has shown virtually nothing in his limited appearances this season. Is he so good that we have to spend months getting him match fit only for him to put in inconsistent (at best) performances. To finish on a more positive note, we have lads like Carswell, McHugh and Clancy who are desperate for a first team slot.

Best position left wing, possibly right. Yes he needs to bulk up. Contact Everton for advice - they worked wonders with Faddy - he must have put on 2 stones when he joined them.

Jamie Murphy can play in a number of roles, but at present can only play consistently well in one - as a winger. He is at his most effective when cutting in from the left wing against a team playing an open game. He is not suited to breaking down the serried ranks of defenders we constantly face at home these days. Is he capable of playing a different type of game? Mark McGhee certainly thought so and was keen to develop his defensive skills. However we've seen very limited evidence so far of his versatility. In our position I think we should stick to playing him as an out and out winger and then maybe not for 90 minutes week in and week out. The game against the Pars is going to be very tough - forget their league position. The time to be confident will be after the final whistle if we've won. With some players, SM will be able to cast up the Tynecastle performance to give them an ear bashing but with others its best not mentioned. SM will know best.

Hows about this line up? Randolph Clancy Craigan Hutchinson Hammell Daley/Murphy Lasley Hately Law McHugh Higdon That would give us some more height, more of an attacking threat whilst retaining a central deensive core to the midfield.