Kmcalpin

A disappointing outcome yesterday but in fairness Falkirk deserved all 3 points. I didn't like their tactics however and at risk of annoying the MSM, thought they were overly physical and relied on the long ball. They played a weak ref like a fiddle. In the first 45, we looked world beaters with some excellent expansive and fast football. The best I've seen for some time. However we were totally powder puff in and around the box and hardly troubled Bain for all our possession. One solitary goal was never going to be enough. If we'd gone in 4-0 up and break few would have argued and I include John McGlynn in that. We were never going to keep that level up but I was surprised that the game turned as early as it did. McGlynn made some tactical and personnel changes and JBA was outthought. On the park our midfield crumbled and we had to endure mishit passes, unenforced errors and a drop in work rate. When Falkirk pressed our defence, we looked totally uncomfortable with panicky passing. Falkirk's first goal was late in coming but come it did and the second was inevitable. Thankfully we managed to avoid losing a third. For our part I echo much of what has already been said. We're conceding too many cheap goals and I just wonder if McGinn's best days are behind him. It was noticeable that Falkirk targeted our left wing before, but especially after, Longelo retired. We sat too deep and just didn't have the midfielders to cope. We are very vulnerable under pressure. Up front our troubles continue and have now emerged as a very serious issue that threaten our season. I'm not an Ap Stam fan but presume he wasn't fit enough to start. Callum Hendry, even when match fit is not the kind of striker we need. He's not a natural chance converter. We're making too many wrong decisons in the final third. I only hope lessons were learned yesterday.

Can't fault your assessment. Martindale will have us well sussed out and will draw sustenance from the manner of our loss yesterday. Give us the ball to knock about with aplomb for 60 minutes or so, occasionally testing our defence, then make changes and go for it in the last half hour and capitalise on our errors. We simply can't go with the same approach and expect to win. Now by that I don't mean ripping our entire gameplan up; but rather introducing tweaks here and there some some personnel changes i.e. swap McGinn for Gordon. Hopefully Longelo is fit but, given our injury record, I'm not holding my breath. JBA also needs to learn tactical lessons.

I agree about McGinn. He has his strengths but does tend to come off second best against big physical strikers. You're being a tad harsh about Hendry but overall I agree about your assessment. I thought at the time he was an odd signing. He's never been a prolific scorer which is what our system needs, to be effective. He's more of a secondary striker to support the main man. I wouldn't be too hard on him today due to lack of match fitness, but didn't really see him contribute much. A decent scorer needs to be top of our shopping list come January. That could make or break our season. Finally why don't we have a back up left back???

A well constructed and thought out post Joe. I agree. We're playing very entertaining football but our tendency to lose leads is not a one off but is is now a serious weakness, which must be addressed. I'm not sure we can do that though until January. I hope we do. If this unfortunate trend continues, our crowds will drop off significantly. That's a fact. As a respected poster wrote elsewhere we don't seem to know how to defend when on the backfoot. Maybe, that indicates a weakness in our system.

Just watched the highlights of today's game. I really cannot see what was wrong with Said's disallowed goal. IF it was a foul it was soft in the extreme and certainly not clear or obvious. Why did VAR get involved?

I don't always agree with El Grew, but do so more often than not. On balance, I'm in agreement with his post. There is logic behind it. At the game and on leaving, I heard quite a few fans voicing the same opinion. Now, you may not agree with what he's written and what a significant number of others were saying and that's perfectly fine. I get where you're coming from. However, that doesn't make them funny people or their arguments ridiculous.

Not quite in this category, but Ewan Wilson was an unused sub in Raith Rovers' game with Dunfermline last night.

Some merit in what you say Joe, but the SFA received many brickbats, deservedly, for not doing enough and leaving it to others. Many positive suggestions were given to them, but as always they knew best.

It all boils down to the fact that the original refurbishment of Hampden in the 1990s was a cheap and nasty sticking plaster job. That said, finances were tight at the time (aren't they always?) but not nearly enough effort was put into fund raising. Ye reap what ye sow.

I just wonder what kind of state our squad will be in come Saturday morning. Certainly, Stephen Welsh should be a welcome returnee. Will Sparrow, Hendry, Just and Slattery be fit enough to feature even from the bench? How fit will TJ and RCC be after their international travels. Hopefully too, no more training injuries.

Maybe down to the SPFL? Club will have been told which sections to release and when.

At the semi final last year, one of our party had cause to ask a steward for advice, outside the stadium. His colleague had to intervene however as the original steward didn't speak any English.

I see there's some instructions on the Official Site. They're all good and well if you buy the tickets personally, but the process is not entirely clear if someone else has bought them for you. There is a cursory reference to buying a ticket for other people but not to receiving it from them. Also, the instructions say that the tickets are for sale to season ticket holders only, in the first instance, and that they can buy as many as they wish. They don't make clear however that they can be bought for non season ticket holders. Maybe just semantics. A right dog's dinner. Presumably there will be a physical help facility outside the stadium on matchday?

I think this is an issue for the Society and will be contacting it about this shambles. They will have more clout in making representations than a few individual fans.

The problem with using one smartphone is that everyone has to arrive together. Seems as though this system was designed by a typical tech expert (if there is such a person), to whom the term "user friendly" means nothing. I can hear them saying "what do you mean that everyone doesn't have a smartphone. I don't understand." As there will be.

I assume we will be allocated about 10,000 tickets, based on the St Mirren website info, which will be more than enough.

Agree 100%. I guess that the SPFL, or whoever is behind this arrangement, simply doesn't care. A symptom of society in general; you only need to look at automated supermarket checkouts which invariably aren't user friendly.

Why can't we do the same? There won't be shortage of tickets. An unnecessarily complicated set of instructions. Unlike the St Mirren site, our doesn't seem to mention the location of our allocated sections, unless I've missed this. These sort of instructions put folk off going to football.

You're spot on. Sevco fans are more important than than Martin though, whilst Kettlewell is more important than Well fans (in the eyes of the media).

Calum Ward's error rate is now unsustainable. Yes, keepers do make mistakes, but there comes a point when it really becomes unacceptable, and thats where we are now. The Ox is now due his chance again. If he proves unreliable then we have to move for a new keeper in the January sales. Goalkeeping errors are now costing us big time.

I'm as disappointed as the next fan but have seen it all before and many times at that. I wasn't expecting anything today. Just as I'm not going overboard about our new type of play I'm not going overboard about yet another defeat at Parkhead.

Disappointed but we deserved nothing today. If you defend like that you take what's coming.

Good end to the half. Keep it going Well.

Gate money yes. Programme & catering sales no.

BBC now giving Saturday's attendance as being 7,195. Whatever the precise number, the trend is certainly very encouraging. If attendances are higher there's also more spend in the shop, catering kiosks and on the HT draw.