Kmcalpin

Hospitality today for us so the team had better serve up a feast.

Ok thanks, that explains it.

Apologies, at the risk of appearing thick, what does this mean? It's completely over my head.

Great minds think alike or fools seldom differ. I was thinking exactly the same thing. This will be interesting. Our long running injury crisis could, of course, be a random one off.

IF true, Ketsbaia would be a risky appointment. He seems to have moved clubs fairly frequently. He doesn't seem to fit our past managerial model, but who knows?

It might be more realistic to think that the Dundee or even the St Mirren games would be achievable for having a new manager in place.

A useful update, but no mention of Seddon, Callachan or McGinn.

A brief progress update wouldn't go amiss. Just a short statement to tell us us what stage the process is at.

Whatever the precise line up, it would make sense to move SOD out of central defence, unless we've picked up more training ground injuries this week. Its not fair on the player himself to play him out of position.

Aye it was guid honest food.

I thought that we did show some improvement, but not a great deal, in terms of work rate and attitude. Celtic worked far harder than us when we had possession. By comparison we sat off them, Kettlewell style, and didn't put tackles in. Not all players gave 100%. A huge change in attitude and work rate is required for next weekend. Even allowing for injuries, I believe that the current crop is capable of upping their game considerably. They have to be motivated though and played to their strengths. A priority is to sort out our midfield and defence to make sure we're harder to play against, and to give our striker(s) more ammunition and support. They also need to be told in no uncertain terms, that a game isn't finished at half time, it lasts for 90+ minutes.

I see both sides of the coin here. However, there was also the issue of under 14s being refused entry to games, if not accompanied by an adult. This limit was imposed without any consultation whatsoever and upset a fair few families. I agree with the thinking behind it, but consider the 14 threshold a bit high. Other clubs obviously thought the same. That too could have been handled better. Over the past week or two a few posters, and respected ones at that, have articulated discontent with a slight but slowly widening gap between club and fans (and with the Society to a lesser extent|). One or two other fans have also mentioned this to me. Not at the serious stage yet but this slight rift needs to be healed now; morseso that we're a fan owned club. As it happens, I emailed the Society recently to express this very concern. The Society needs the members to particpate fully and notify it of any concerns rather than let them grow out of hand. Lets turn this into a positive.

The playing side has been boring to watch for spectators, and also ineffective of late. A fresh pair of eyes and a new broom are required to sweep away the staleness. They are vital. Hopefully the club is attuned to fan discontent and unrest.

Yes, good point. Maybe that and allegedly signing a PCA with Hertz. Time to bring him back on board. Stephen Frail does seem closely aligned with the dearly departed Stuart Kettlewell, but is maybe a different character. You can't turn a supertanker around quickly, but hopefully SF will manage to alter tactics a bit for the County game. Edit: we've yet to beat them this season - a good time to start.

Have a look at P & B. To be fair, some decent posts but dearie me.

I missed that. Who was on the programme?

A huge game for us. Win and we're still competing for top 6 with the play off place disappearing behind us. Lose and we're being dragged into a dogfight. Not sure if we'll have a new manager in place beforehand.

Autocratic too. Presumably Naismith leads the betting odds? Don't know about being the fans' favourite though.

Yes that's 100% on the money. Kettlewell never managed to address this. A good team is built from a solid defence.

Kaletta is only on loan. Add to your list the likes of Koutroumbis, Callachan and Ebiye and we're cooking on gas. We only have about 13 or so players signed for next season with a few on option. I think we have the makings of a decent squad and any new manager coming in will have scope to make his own signings in the summer. The squad as it stands, lacks pace, energy and leadership plus a bit of physicality.

Not quite convinced of Ian Murray. Looking back at his managerial record, it smacks of being the perpetual bridesmaid. Raith fans were not unduly upset when he was binned. One I spoke to on Monday opined he wasn't bad but not quite good enough. There are weaker potential appointments about i.e. John McGlynn, but nothing about him screams look at me. No obvious out of, or in, work, Scots based candidate.

Just an unsubstantiated hunch. Speculation if you will. Nothing more. He must have had some reason for coming out and saying that. Otherwise why not just keep quiet? There was no pressure on him to say anything. Did something similar over the St Johnstone vacancy when he was given a rise by Ayr.

I can only assume that Broonie has been awarded a pay rise in the past few days.

Good post. Our off the ball work when not in possession is very poor. Frequently our midfield defends only 30 yards in front of our keeper and looks disorganised. One mistake and we're in trouble. Now, I know there are reasons for this, at least in part. Some players like Halliday just don't have the legs or others like Paton are returning from injury. That's maybe a signing issue in itself. However going back to the game on Sunday, I was impressed by Celtic's work rate and organisation, during the short time we were in possession. They closed us down quickly, got in our faces, and looked organised. At one point, Manwhanise was suffocated by 3 defenders near the corner flag. We just don't do that.

I doubt if the bloated squad will cost us that more. Say we're 7 players up on our normal squad. Average pay £1,250 pw for say 5 months. That might cost us an extra £180,000 - £200,000. Not a fortune in the great scheme of things. That's a very rough estimate of course.