Kmcalpin

Yes, it was good to see Chris back in the team and I wish him and his family well. In footballing terms I thought he might have been given 45 minutes yesterday. His pace was badly missed.

I quite realise that we would not remain unbeaten ad infinitum but I really thought we could have beaten Hibs today. Make no mistake they were there for the taking today. Despite all the hype about Riordan and Stokes they were given acres of space by our defence. Despite the media hype its by no means certain they will make the top 6 this season.

Best post of the day Grew. We lost today due to a combination of errors off the field and sheer poor performances on it. To me we looked a well beaten side by 10 past 3. JG is rightly famed for his meticulous preparation and tactical awareness but today he got it all wrong. Hibs defence, with the exception of Hogg, looked a bombscare and their midfield lightweight. They had a good midfielder and 2 good strikers. The team lacked pace and aggression and the problem to me was quite plainly in midfield. Reminiscent of the bad old days with Ged Brannan ambling up and down the pitch at snails pace. Given JG's reputation for changing things I really thought he'd wield the axe after 30 minutes or so but this never happened. Steve Jennings and Keith Lasley could both have done a turn as could Chris Humphreys (even for 45 mins or so). I'm not a Keith Lasley fan but his greatest strength is his ability to man mark. He could quite easily have snuffed out Zemmamma and rendered him a passenger today. As others have said Ross Forbes played far too deep. As you say both Hamilton and St Johnstone crushed Hibs recently and I really thought JG would have learnt from their feats. Probably the only time this season JG has got a game plan badly wrong.

Yes, we are weak up front and I can't disagree with that. It is costing us. However, today the service to our front men wasn't so much poor as non existent. Our big problem today was our pedstrian and lacklustre midfield. Can't judge our strikers on today.

You could well be right. Many fans are blinded by the skills of Riordan and Stokes but Hibs are more than just a 2 man team. John Hughes has never been noted for encouraging his sides to play open flowing football, despite what the media would have us believe. Their midfield are defence are nothing out of the ordinary and are quite likely to try to stifle us. Many fans were predicting a classic at Tannadice last week but that was never going to happen.

I couldn't agree more. You've summed up this whole thread in 3 paragraphs Weeyin.

Seconded. There's a lot of good work that goes on behind the scenes that folk don't know about. Out of sight out of mind I guess.

A great summing up Bop. Too many folk are blinded by the undoubted yet mercurial skills of Riordan and Stokes (hope they have a good night on the town on Friday incidentally). However a team is made up of more than 2 individuals. As we saw last night their defence is very suspect indeed. No doubt they're missing Mr Hibs himself, Rob Jones. A real stalwart who was more valuable to his side than many bigger names.

Good question. A typical Stevie Hammell performance last night. Fine attacking game culminating in a well deserved goal, and yes, it was his goal. However defensively he was all over the place at times.

Not a great performance last night but we won through and in cup competitions thats all you can ask for. Ross Forbes won it for us with a real cracker of a goal. Too many of our moves last night were just inches out and that was frustrating. It was worrying though that ICT were managing to find spaces in and around our box late on and when playing with 10 men. With the notable exception of our right back our defence had an off night. All credit to ICT though - they were motoring up and down the pitch at the end of extra time even with 10 men. As JG hinted the United game took a lot out of us physically. It was a hard bruising encounter by all accounts and that showed up in the amount of knocks we picked up. I suppose a physical battering on Saturday took its toll last night.

I think you're right. Despite Levein's media reputation for playing great entertaining flowing football, his teams are always big, physical, well organised and designed to stop the opposition. They tend to grind results out.

Nothing at all Andy. Certainly Darren Smith, McGarry, Fitzpatrick and Fraser seem well out of the picture. Of those four only Darren Smith appears to be injured.

Given the wailing and gnashing of teeth on Boards a few months ago, I just thought I'd ask posters who we are missing. FWIW I reckon we're only missing Davie Clarkson. The jury is still out on Paul Quinn.

Not sure about that Peter. United are supposedly one of Scotland's best teams, are at home, going for a win and we were missing Slane, Humphreys and Hutchison. Why would they set out to prevent our midfield from playing? I really don't think Levein is as imaginative as the media believes him to be, either that or he reckons we are a very dangerous force to be reckoned with.

Genuinely sorry to hear that. I feared that might be the case but had been assured that wouldn't happen and United had enough class to go out and not worry about us but simply beat us by playing the better football. Anyway a great result and Jim Gannon is driving us forward with a will, determination and acumen not seen at Fir Park for years. Incidentally, When did we last record 3 SPL shut outs on the trot?

Can only echo what Foghorn has said - what an excellent crop of youngsters we have coming through both in quantity anmd quality. It can't all be down to John Park!

I can see it being a low scoring game. Although we're capable of playing some good stuff and scoring from midfield we might struggle to score. Against Aberdeen and Rangers we drew 2 blanks and lacked a killer touch up front. Still JG is aware of that. Not sure of Robertson is suspended - did he not pick up 2 yellows as opposed to a straight red?

No comment about my age - I was born in the year that Hastie Weir joined the club for the first time. Seriously a lot of good points made and for me the reasons for poor attendances are many and varied. Hopefully the club will carry through Leeann's idea of an open forum for fans to look at ways of increasing our support. Over the years there's been a lot of good ideas on these fora - some may work, some may not but they're worth considering. For me its the single biggest issue facing our club and one we can't afford to ignore.

Thanks for that Brazilian. Its good to demonstrate our support with a financial contribution.

You might not, but real or imaginary, many of our fans over the years have done. This dip in home attendances at OF games has been going on for as long as I've been going to FP and probably well before that. Many fans realise that crowds can be boisterous and of course that does add to the atmosphere but they don't like explicit sectarianism or streams of foul mouthed abuse. I'm no prude but it seemed to me last weekend that some of our guests couldn't utter a single sentence without an expletive. That kind of behaviour deters many folk from going to games especially those with families. If culprits behaved in the same way in the street they'd be done for breach of the peace and rightly so.

How does £28 for a Category C game Hearts V Kilmarnock at Tynecastle sound? The Jambos still managed to attract a fair crowd.

Thanks for the support Tweed, but I was really referring to when we were defending. I can thole a player being caught upfield but last Saturday Stevie kept drifting into the middle, not marking anyone in particular whilst Rangers players were trying their damnedest to hit the by line. At times, those in front of me commented that they didn't know who he was meant to marking.

No, I was simply using the Novo shot as but one example. Stevie had a decent game going forward but all too often (not once or even twice) was caught out of position when Rangers were on the attack. As others have said he's good on the ball but not so good off it.

I thought Stevie had a poor game defensively on Saturday. Much of Rangers' danger came down our left flank. Too often Stevie was caught inside. His error in the 72nd minute almost cost us a goal. He was shadowing Naismith closely, then moved away from him allowing him to interpass with Novo who then unleashed a shot which John Ruddy could only parry. There was no need for our custodian to have to make a save at all, had Stevie stuck closely to his man.

Spot on Big Man. If a manager comes out and says the team could not have played any better and put in a perfect performance then he's not doing his job properly. Teams can always improve. We played well on Saturday but had our faults in most areas of the field. As JG said, not the finished article.