Kmcalpin

Pretty good post in general, but I think JBA got it slightly wrong with Liam Gordon. We've known for a few weeks now that Stephen Welsh wouldn't be available for last night. So, why wasn't Gordon given more game time? Like him or not, he would have been a bit rusty last night. Whilst its unfair to blame Matty Connelly for the defeat, as there were a whole range of factors at play, I think he could have done a wee bit better at both goals. I still think he's too wee for a top flight keeper, and whilst he's generally good with the ball at his feet, he really has to prove himself, which he didn't do last night.

A start would be to avoid giving up an early chance to St Mirren. Thats been a continuing feature of our last few games and its likely cost us 2 points and a place in the next round of the cup.

Jordan McGhee to replace Sparrow at RB?

It didn't matter how good or bad Aberdeen were they struck it lucky and if that streak continues they'll be damned hard to beat unless they meet St Mirren or Falkirk!

Yes, it will carry over.

I agree 100% about the keeper - a needless and baffling decision. Liam Gordon was silly but it was never a red card; that was down to poor officiating. Priestman will be available to face St Mirren fortunately (Ref: Mayo's red card in the cup the week before Killie played us yet he faced us.) I doubt if we'd miss Liam Gordon anyway. Given his lack of gametime recently why did he start? with the best will in the world he'd be rusty. In any event Jordan McGhee is a more than capable capable CB.

Another hard game coming up for us on Saturday, but I'm hopeful that we'll take something from it. We'll miss Fadinger but Welsh will be back. A bit of squad rotation last night will also help. Given the other fixtures, its a chance to put a little more daylight between us and Hibs & Falkirk. A point would do us nicely. Maybe the team will be fired up, by a desire to thank the travelling fans, after last night's defeat. Still, I'm not one to listen too much to pre match talk - just go out and do the business where it matters. We were well overdue a stinker and hopefully that was it last night.

It was a horrible draw, which represented a bad start and that was well outwith our control. I get the need to rotate the squad but think that JBA overdid it a tad, certainly in terms of swapping keepers. To be fair though, he didn't really get the opportunity to find out if it would have worked. Once the game started, a mixture of bad luck (Priestman's red card and a deflected free kick) and questionable refereeing did for us. The pitch wouldn't have helped. Still, as with the League Cup semi it gives JBA another valuable opportunity to learn and assess his charges. He has to learn and quickly from it. We also avoided the need for extra time. To their credit the players never gave up. Some points of concern though. I'm still not convinced of Matty Connelly and despite some good saves, his early error killed the tie. Our lack of another left back is starting to hurt us. The fact that we didn't source one is a source of puzzlement to me. Like Grizzly, I'm just not convinced of RCC. Apart from a goal at Pittodrie he just hasn't done much. I ahd hoped that we'd learnt lessons from Sunday on how to stop Aberdeen's midfield but that didn't seem to be the case. Despite all our nice football, have we the qualities necessary to play on heavy tattie fields in winter? Still onwards and upwards and hopefully we can put tonight's experience to good use in preparing for next season's cups, which with some luck and ability to learn, we will have a more realistic chance of winning.

I agree that this year's team is an exceptional one, but I've never had the impression that it was capable of winning a cup. Of all our best teams that I've seen, none had that cup aura about them. Our current one lacks a bit of bottle, steeliness if you will and it certainly isn't a lucky team and to win cups you need plenty of good luck. Of the current crop of Premiership teams, I'd say that Aberdeen (now)' Falkirk and St Mirren look better cup teams than us. However, we're the best footballing team and will finish above 2 of them, possibly even all 3 in the league and deservedly so. Pre match I rated our chances of progressing at no better than 50/50 and I can't say that I feel too down about the result. The manner of it however is something else. What I do feel a bit down about is what our fans had to suffer - once again virtually out the cup began the game had begun. Many of our travellers would have been optimistic, probably naively so, but thats maybe not a bad thing.

Time to prepare for Saturday and conserve our energy.

I haven't seen it Alan, but in that case you'd be right. It had to be a clear cut scoring opportunity. Intent is irrelevant though as accidental obstruction is no excuse. Louis Laing was red carded when he stumbled and his opponent fell over him.

I don't get the controversy about Priestman. Its stonewall red all day long. Unlucky very much so, but thems the rules, as Louis Laing will tell you. Folk have short memories.

Well!!!! Lets hope we prevent Aberdeen from firing high balls into our box. No corners either please. Presumably, we're prioritising Saturday. Briiliant or foolish? We'll soon find out.

Thats my major concern. We've been hard to beat away from home, but haven't actually picked up many wins.

Pretty much my view. We're still work in progress and far ahead of where I thought we'd be with JBA introducing a new system. There's still a few weaknesses for JBA or someone else to sort out. I'll be a bit down if we don't make the top 6 but thats becoming increasingly unlikely. I think we've got a better chance of winning a cup next season. Thats not to say that we shouldn't go all out for a win tonight. Aberdeen were kind enough to give us a few friendly warnings on Sunday; lets hope we learnt from them.

We have an exceptional team this year, but is it a cup team? Many excellent teams don't win cups and many bog standard teams win cups. You need a bit of good luck too and do we have that? Certainly we have the potential in spades but what concerns me are 2 factors: * Do we have the bottle? Some questions after the League Cup semi. * Will we be more clinical in front of goal? In our favour, we have a good record against Aberdeen this season; but they did seem a bit reinvigorated last Sunday. COYW.

I'm sure it is.

JBA must be impressed with him. Where does that leave the Ox now?

I think it'll be a close game on Wednesday, possibly going to 120 minutes or even penalties. There will be no love lost between the players given Aberdeen's cynical approach yesterday and the ref will be need to be strong and consistent from kick off to ensure a fair contest. I doubt if we'll change our game plan much but it will be fine tuned in the light of lessons learned. JBA should find it a bit easier, as he'll now have seen Aberdeen's various newbies in action. I wonder if we'll continue with our long ball experiment. Not sure if it worked yesterday - the idea was good but the execution not always great. Will our tank be running on fumes? There will be some squad rotation in that Welsh will sit this one out and Fadinger will come back in. SODs may also come back in. Possibly one or two other tweaks.

A strange game that could have ended 7-3 or thereabouts to us. We deserved to win but made it awfully hard for ourselves. We should have had the game sewn up by half time were it not for some incredible misses. Aberdeen weren't bad themselves and could have scored 2 or 3 were it not for some bad luck striking woodwork etc. Not our best performance it has to be said. A Jordan McGhee assisted OG saved some last minute nail biting. We looked a bit jaded and defensively weren't as secure as normal, although we achieved another incredible clean sheet. Maybe we missed Fadinger's presnce in the middle? Like Rangers before them, Aberdeen were cynical, picking up 6 yellow cards which should have been even more. Perahps a back handed compliment to us. Quite why 2 defenders weren't yellow carded for blatantly hauling down Said is beyond me. Someone was also very very fortunate not to be red carded for a deliberate elbow on Paul McGinn. David Dickionson was in charge and he let his assistants know it. Still another win and clean sheet. Top six is becoming increasingly likely. Happy days indeed.

BBC Sportsound were also distinctly unhappy with the result. They went to great lengths to emphasise that Jordan McGhee didn't score as it was an OG. No doubt thery're right but they didn't need to go an and on about it. Did it matter? They also suggested that Just's goals should have been chalked off for handball - even Peter Leven didn't bring that up.

There's certainly something wrong with him. A real shame though as he alwyas had a great attitude even when he wasn't playing well.

Anyone heard anything recently about Alan Campbell? It seems that he's yet to make an impact in Paisley. Presumably working hard to get fit.

Dan Casey scores again for Wycombe.

I haven't yet seen the annual accounts but would have expected a profit. Did some of the KVV and Bair money not fall within that year as well as a League Cup semi final? SK pay off?