Kmcalpin

I'm confident that SK knows where we went wrong today and will work to address that. Striking problem is mainly out of his control. We can't say that of quite a few previous managers.

Good post Grizzly. Sums up my view.

I think the likes of Butcher, Gent and Biereth will make a big difference when they're all fully fit. That'll give a much needed and timely boost to the defence and attack. I'm not overly bothered if we play well in the next 4 games or not (although that would be nice) as long as we pick up the points. In short, follow the old Alex Ferguson / Matt Busby philosophy of "Just do it and don't get caught".

I think he made a mistake by not refreshing the midfield with about 20 minutes to go. Slattery and Miller were out on their feet and most fans thought that Celtic would come at us strongly in the closing stages. No one's perfect; everyone makes mistakes. He's young enough and bright enough to learn from that. To put that into perspective we're doing well and he's doing really well. We've just played the 4 best teams in the league. The next few games will be a test as to how we react. The encouraging thing for me today is that, apart even from our weakened strikeforce, we could have played better especially in defence. Butcher and Gent have still to reach fitness and have yet to come in. Given the players we had at our disposal I reckon we were at 80/85% of our potential. Defensive errors let us down.

Don't fully agree. Yes, we all know we're toothless up front. However we usually defend well , but not today. That exposed right flank ought to have been sorted out well before half time and the midfield looked knackered with 20 minutes to go. Schoolboy defending and you can't get away with that at this level. Changes ought to have been made but were not. We ran them close, so nothing to be ashamed of, but at the death we were well short. Onwards and upwards.

Easier to take than defeats against Sevco and St Mirren though. We blew it simple as.

We've played well, up to a point, but have been toothless up front, and slack at the back on the wings. Off the field mistakes also cost us. No complaints from me. We blew it.

Self inflicted. Who didn't see that coming? We've been badly exposed on that right hand side.

Fresh legs needed I think.

Bair too often isolated up front. We're pretty toothless up front again.

Yes, a few avoidable errors at the back and we're putting ourselves under pressure. No threat up front so far. .

Kieran Spiers signs for Caledonian Braves. A strange one. He burst onto the scene under Hammell, looked promising; then disappeared; and finally released.

I assumed that the Police had set an early kick off time and the club just decided to make some cash out of this game - no?

I've not seen much of him but he does seem a good prospect. Hopefully this loan will give him some hard competitive experience.

There's no doubt we are chronically short and toothless up front and thats resulted in the loss of say 4 points in the past couple of games. Thats down to various factors. Firstly KVV was never going to be replaced like for like. A huge loss beyond our control. Obika was signed as a target man/foil for a main striker, he then got injured again. Wilkinson was signed as a main striker but we've hardly seen him because of injury. Bair was signed as a long term project over 2 years, and I suspect we never planned to play him week after week. Biereth was the victim of a very bad tackle and we were unlucky. Shaw - a last minute stop gap? We've been very unlucky, yes but there some potential question marks over 3 or maybe 4 of our 5 strikers. Early days but points are slipping away.

Just received an email from the Society about Board elections. The various candidates set out their statements. Get involved folks.

Yes let's hope Bair and Shaw are fit.

Oh for Davy Cooper yesterday, as our crossing and set pieces were very poor and predictable. He could vary his deliveries and in a game like yesterday's, where aerial balls were totally ineffective, he'd fire in hard, knee high balls into the 6 yard box, knowing they were a nightmare to defend against. On paper, our best chance of snatching a goal was perhaps set pieces but that was never going to happen. Currently, Shaw is the only other fit senior striker we have but we don't know if he's match fit quite apart from the fact he might not be good enough. I'd like to think though that we'll now cease "the lone striker as Bair" forced experiment forthwith. There are other, albeit limited, avenues to explore hopefully.

I think we've only failed to score twice under SK and on both occasions its been against St Mirren. Lets hope that's as far as this statistic goes. Maybe just a coincidence.

Yes playing one striker who isn't a goalscorer was always going to cause us problems. If injuries permit, I'd play Shaw and Bair up front together. Great that young Ferrie got some game time but any time I've seen him he doesn't seem ready for first team football. Still not at all sure about Bair but no one expected him to be a first pick striker.

Good post Denny. Each to their own. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

McGinn is also suspended.

Not unexpected but the timing is strange. Maybe its clears the deck for a free agent to join up with us?

Amongst middle ranking clubs such as ourselves, St Mirren and Partick hold more sway with the media than most. Perhaps because of proximity to major media premises.

Agree 100%. They can also unduly influence governing bodies and put pressure on match officlals.