couttsy

Struggling to see Long or Scot (yet) as being the answer up front for us this season, however the during the short cameos from Cole I think there may be a player there if we can get him fit enough! Agree with others in that I expect we'll see a striker coming in on loan later in the transfer window....Really hope we're also still looking for a holding/passing midfield player, as I don't think what we have will do, all be it that yesterday was more encouraging on that front with Donnelly, Campbell and Polworth all having very good 1st halfs......

My take on today.....great 1st half and really unlucky to be behind. Polworth great for 1st Well goal....good strike from Donnelly.....Bain terrible..... Tait and Donnelly awful for 1st Celtic goal.... The free kick is very soft but he does hold him...stupid from Gallagher....Gillespie very poor Grimshaw terrible for 3rd goal (as he was for most of the game), then defence scared to touch Forrest in the box. Deffo hand ball in lead up to 4th, how the officials don’t see that is unbelievable ... then Dunne horrific. Donnelly awful for the 5th.... Bizarrely I feel more positive than I was going to the game, thought the midfield was good in the first half. Need to hope Cole can make the centre forward position his as Long doesn’t look good enough.

I worry after seeing yesterdays game that unless we get a fit Turnbull and/or Tanner back soon our midfield is nowhere near good enough to be thinking about anything other that just staying up.......it’s early days but Polworth looks weak and disappears from games (all be it he plays 2/3 eye catching passes a game) and Donnelly, whilst trying hard most of the time is simply not good enough with the ball at his feet to be the constructive influence we need in that position. Really hope we’re still in the market for a holding midfielder that can pass the ball, otherwise we’re in for a season of watching Dunne hit a lot of long diagonals straight out the pitch!

Gillespie, by a country mile. With very few getting pass marks.....

Unfortunately, as I suspected after seeing a couple of the league cup games the midfield is poor and weak..... Polworth disappears for long spells and Donnelly (whilst winning a few headers) is nowhere near good enough to dictate play in the top league. Campbell battling a way as usual but without much quality. Worried about Ilic stupidly getting himself sent off now he’s been booked....he should be booked at HT. Livi rightly leaving Dunne as the spare man when we get the ball, his passing the majority of the time is awful....Gillespie to thank for still at 0-0, big big improvement needed in the 2nd half or this is going one way.

Seem to remember Ged Brannan scoring a cracker that night...... Personal favourite of mine from over the years is the 1-0 win at Celtic Park, Kevin Twaddle cracker......seem to remember Sean Teale watching the 2nd half in front of me after being sent off...

Was a toss up between Gillespie and Turnbull......went for Gillespie, couple of good saves, took a few crosses and saved a pen.

Not sure it was the reason Saints equalised but, why oh why did we not have Livingston at LB, Tait at RB, Cadden RM and Frear LM at the end, instead of all 4 playing out of position?

Crazy crazy game...first things first, how good is Davie Turnbull? Thank god it’s Hastie and not him heading to Ibrox....Refereeing in the 2nd half was unbelievable. 2 or 3 fouls after Gorrin’s 2nd yellow that were worse or at least equally as bad not shown yellows, as for relying on the linesman who was 40 odd yards away at the penalty decision......inept, incompetent call it what you like but Clancy is up there with the very worst....

Aldred and Turnbull for me......Although if Tait gets POTY I don’t think any of us could complain...

Tom Aldred, an absolute rock again...

Went for Turnbull but was a close run thing between him, Aldred and Gorrin for me, all excellent. Gboly & Hastie having great 1st half’s and Grimshaw & Tait 2nd half’s.

Not even close, good old BBC. Hibs with slightly more possession I’d say.....Football has been better with Gorrin & Turnbull in particular trying to keep it on the deck. Both Gboly and Hastie looking really dangerous at times....Hibs struggling to get in behind.

This is spot on, was saying exactly the same yesterday. When the hell anyone thought we were good enough to star with two players who barely looked fit (Tait & McCormack), whilst playing with two wingers when we’ve played the vast majority of the season with none, whilst not having any strength/presence up front, when we’ve played nearly every game under Robinson with 1 sometimes 2.......Put that together with a Tenerife attitude and you get beaten by any team that’s competent and to be honest that’s all that County were. We managed to make Van Der Weg, Draper and Graham look like world beaters when we all know they’re playing in the championship for a reason. Can deal with us being poor (let’s be honest we’re all used to that) what really gets me was the lack of desire, fight, application, most of them looked like they couldn’t give a xxxx. We were saying after 25 mins that Campbell and Main should have been on for McCormack and one of the wingers.......scunnered to the point that Wed will be a chore due to having a season ticket rather than something I do for any enjoyment.

Usually fairly level headed after defeats but that.....absolutely disgraceful. Most of them looked like they were still swanning about on the beach....looked like they couldn’t give a sh1t. Whilst we’re all paying to watch it! Tactically clueless, players suddenly asked to try and pass the ball when they’ve be lumping it all season, unfit players picked...everything wrong. Gillespie the only player coming close to pass marks...

Looking at what we have left to choose from I would go with a 4-4-2, Gillespie, Tait, Aldred, Hartley/McGuire (hopefully at least one of them will be fit enough), ATS, Grimshaw, Gorrin, Campbell, Turnbull if fit (Frear if not), Johnson, Sammon....Sad to say against the wee team, however I would take a draw now, given our injuries, form and points advantage.

Slow and not in good form? Who the hell should be playing today then? Unfortunately that describes more that half the team at the moment...

Why so?

Agree with the point above re players playing in correct positions. I'd go with 3-5-2 Gillespie, Tait (RWB), ATS (LWB) Aldred, Hartley, Dunne, McHugh, Gorrin & Turnbull, Main & Johnson..... I like Campbell, however he seems to be really out of sorts at the moment. Don't rate ATS, however I don't see any other options......Suppose the one alternative is to move McHugh back and put Dunne at LWB and bring in Campbell/Grimshaw, however I think we need McHugh's presence and battling qualities in the middle of the park at the moment and I think Dunne is more suited to playing centrally..... I fear another narrow defeat beckons........Wonder how different a season it would have been for both/either of these teams if Main had stuck that pen away to put us 2 up at Rugby Park a few months ago......

Spot on Kmac, this is the exact team I’d play. McHugh is better at the back in my opinion but I think with Dunne back we could do with his grit in the middle of the park. The rest pretty well picks itself....

Has to be Turnbull, however Cadden and McHugh not far behind. Pass marks for all for a change!

I agree with the sentiment here (going 4-4-2), however playing two guys under 21 together in a two man central midfield would be very risky.......Think I'm in a minority, however I think Mchugh has been one of our better performers so far this season, not saying much I know, but I still think he needs to play..................

My take on this is whilst we have been poor, ok very poor, I still think we have enough in the squad to finish above at least two of St Mirren, Dundee & Accies (in fact I suspect we'll finish just above all three)......However, anything less than 4 points from the next games will see us looking for the panic button! Dont fancy going into that really tough run of games Nov/Dec with confidence levels as low as they are.............I still think we'll do enough to stay up but it may be tight and it deffo wont be pretty.........For those of you who insist that we are doomed you can get 8/1 on a bottom 2 finish and 22/1 on a bottom finish from Skybet! Lets hope the bookies are right...............

Not convinced his job is on the line just yet...........Hamilton & Rangers apart, we've lost the games we would have been expected to (by the bookies) and won the ones we have been favourites in, so maybe 2 points below where people would have expected by looking at predicting individual games. That being said, the 2nd half last week was the worst for a long long time........... I'd ditch the 3-5-2 and go with 4-4-2 with Carson, Tait, ATS, Aldred & McHugh, Cadden, Campbell, Rose, Frear, Main, Johnson. Subs, Gillespie, Hartley, Bigi, Bowman, Turnbull, Rodriguez, Maguire Not convinced at all by ATS, however options at LB are thin on the ground. Far from perfect, but gets us back to Tait & Cadden together on the right and Frear playing further up the pitch.