Kmcalpin

Agree 100% Joe. Referee was very inconsistent yesterday. Pulling players back for stealing 2 or 3 yards at throw ins yet ignoring others for stealing 5 or even 6 yards. I think we were unlucky with some of the major decisions, excluding Bevis' penalty.

My question was rhetorical. At the time the referee immediately rejected his claim without any recourse to VAR and then waved his yellow card. Given that, I assumed it hadn't been checked. I at least thought it would have been checked. A player can be booked for simulation and be awarded a foul. Richard Tait was yellow carded at Easter Road for simulation but still won the foul. That being the case, the Livingston player who Lennon Miller "fouled" should also have been booked for simulation as he fell as if poleaxed.

Was Wilkinson's penalty claim checked by VAR?

Good post. Some of these points also made on P & B. Yesterday we suffered a systems failure. Lessons were learned after our recent losses, but unfortunately by the wrong people and for the wrong purposes. We play very narrowly and need more width and pace. Yesterday Slattery, Miller and Spittal were smothered and closed down quickly and aggressively. Too many square pegs in unnecessary round holes at the back. Wilkinson was very unlucky to be booked and could easily have won a penalty. As someone on P & B commented, very simliar to the one Gent was deemed to have committed on the edge of our box, and for which a penalty/free kick was awarded. That was particulalrly galling as Mackay and Anderson gave perfect performances as olympic divers all day, without a single word in their ear. Our current set up is now a busted flush. Big changes need for Perth from back to front. The international break has come at a good time for us.

That doesn"t concern me at all. I have no problem whatsoever with playing that way as long as we have the players and set up to do that but we didn't.

Maybe. You could have a point. Irrespective of the reason though they were unable to support Bair. Yes, SK got it wrong today.

A bad day at the office today but it could have been worse, although not much. Only positive is that we didn’t pick up any bad injuries; at least none that we know about. Many around me took exception to Livingston’s tactics but while I get that, I can’t blame today’s opponents. The referee was never in control and a streetwise Livingston took full advantage. A substandard and inconsistent display – possibly the poorest ref I’ve seen this season. Anyway, enough of that. Livingston fully deserved their win and would have triumphed even without penalties or red cards. Our formation has been well and truly sussed out by rivals and I did worry about this after the Celtic game. Despite packing midfield we were second best from the off and hardly touched the ball in the first 20 minutes or so. No fight and no composure on the ball. The formation was wrong and SK must take responsibility for that. Spencer looked totally out of sorts at wing back today and the annoying Mackay had a field day (I'm not picking on him). Wing backs are becoming our achilles heel and we are losing games from those positions. To be fair they receive no cover or support from a narrow midfield. I've commented about Bair elsewhere but he had a thankless and soul destroying task today. The team look jaded, off the pace and tired today. By contrast Livingston worked harder, were more committed and were better organised. And, yes they were far more streetwise and physical. SK is now under the microscope and we'll see how he reacts.

I have the same concerns as many on here about Bair, but he was pretty blameless today. He was stuck up front on his own, sometimes being marked by 3 defenders. He won his fair share of challenges but more often than not there was no midfielder anywhere in sight to support him. Soul destroying for him.

Liam Kelly for me. He didn't have much to do but didn't make any mistakes.

Apart from a fantastic long-range lob, he was the only player to have a shot on target today and that was as a late sub.

Really? Ref needed all the help he could get today. A totally incompetent performance from start to finish. He was never in control of the game and credit to Martindale, he sussed that out early doors.

If the ref had done his job properly he wouldn't have been half as effective.

Game still on as I type. I saw a post on P & B from Livingston FC (X account) warning those in seats AA-D to dress for bad weather. Now, as the stadium will be nowhere near full, I'd hope that common sense and decency will prevail and they'll open up further sections to allow those affected to sit nearer the back. No need to pen us in 2, 3 sections or whatever.

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Thats fair comment. With the best will in the world, opposing teams soon suss us out and we have to keep them on their toes. Saturday's game will be interesting in that a lot depends on who domiates. If its them they'll be happy to shell long balls all day long. If its us we can play through midfield. Certainly it'll test out Bair's skills as a target man.

Good luck to Stuart McKinstry. A thoroughly decent lad and I hope this kickstarts his career.

Just joking of course but hopefully he's been banned from Fir Park.

Presumably he was arrested by the police?

Agreed. The club can only do so much. This was really down to the police. The club cannot postpone kick off. Only the ref and police can do that. I know its on a different scale entirely, but given what happened at Hillsborough, you'd think that the police would be very wary of break ins. If the overcrowding had been the result OF MFC overselling tickets, the police would have been very quick to act. I have a lot of sympathy for our police given severe budget cuts but we were paying them from our own funds. However, due to political sensitivities this will be swept under the carpet by Police Scotland.

IF thats the case, then the midfielders will need to step up their, admittedly impressive game, in terms of finishing.

Good thought provoking post and I agree with most of it. SK is doing well and the team has improved immeasurably as you say. We can all see that. However, a glorious defeat is still a defeat at the end of the day. In the long term they may well help our goal difference if we're talking about practicalities. As OTF rightly says we'll now see what SK is really made of after 3 defeats on the trot. SK has indeed been forced into making large scale changes due to a horrifici injury list; not just in terms of personnel but also in terms of formation. At our level, there are always trade offs/ swings and roundabouts; however you want to describe them. Theo Bair is what he is, although hopefully he'll improve under the management's guidance. He's a good target man but no goalscorer and relies on the midfield to get forward to feed from him. If they can't do that or don't have the goalscoring instinct then we're in trouble. The flipside is that we have a strong midfield who can protect the defence, up to a point in my view. What happens when our strikers are fuilly fit is anyone's guess. Maybe it'll be horses for courses? One, less highlighted, concern I do have is that we play fairly narrowly and that puts pressure on the 2 wing backs. In recent games we've seen teams take advantage of that to notch a few, a few, important goals. I'm not getting at individuals here but I'd like to see Gent and Spencer start to see what they can do. They might provide us with more energy. We know what O'Donnell can and can't do but the jury is still is still out on Souare for me and I'm yet to be convinced. The next 4 games are important and will allow us to see how things pan out. I don't doubt David Martindale will have been watching St Mirren's and Celtic's goals against us with interest; so lets hope that particular loophole is closed firmly shut on Saturday.

What was the attendance yesterday?

That's fine. However later in the second half the midfield was out on its feet / was defending so there was no-one advanced enough to feed off the knock downs.

Paton was a clear winner for me. Stood up to the impressive Celtic midfield even when others flagged.

100%. I think it was Melvin Bragg commented a few weeks ago that we were thin on the ground in midfield. When Butcher returns and is matchfit, I would hope he'll slot back into central defence. We have missed his aggression and organisational ability there. Given budget constraints it may need to be one midfielder. That said we may revert to playing 2 strikers when that department is fit and fully functioning. .