steelboy

It's a bit early to start patting each other on the back about the wisdom of appointments. There's still a long way to go and a lot of hard work needed before we are safe from relegation.

It would be great if we could keep McDonald. The attitude him and Pearson have brought to the team has been first class.

The way we are playing now is perfect for playing bottom six dross. For all the talk about possession football a few months we are using the width of the park to create space and hit the front four early and Lasley and Pearson are winning second balls in the middle of the park. Whether that style works against better teams remains to be seen and there is still a rebuilding job to do in the summer if regardless of what league we are playing in. Long, Laing and Grant will all need replaced, we'll need two new fullbacks and another centre half and Ainsworth and McDonald will probably need replaced as well. Maybe even Sutton. We've done a Ross County and thrown money at our problems, for long term improvement it's going to take a bit more nous.

If McCall had the money to sign the players Barraclough has we wouldn't be near relegation. We've added guys far better than the rest of the bottom six and to be fair to Barraclough he's got us playing to our strengths ie. ball into the final third and win the game there. No one outside the club knows what the budget is going to be like next season or what McManus, Lasley and Hammell will be able to contribute next season. If he keeps us up he should start as the manager next season but the most important thing is the budget. If we're really aiming to be self sufficient he's fucked, if Les Hutchinson wants a plaything he'll look good. We're back at being at the mercy of a rich individual.

Teams can already play 5 over 20s players. Most of them don't. We chose not to last night even though we could have. Creating another league for a problem that doesn't exist is daft.

Clubs can play 5 over 20s players if they want to so your complaint doesn't really stand up.

The Cooper doesn't have the capacity to serve enough people and the bar at JDs has been a farce since the Fir Park Club closed so this is good news imo.

I really hope we extend his contract in the summer. If McDonald doesn't hang around I think we could make a decent partnership out of Erwin and Sutton with Johnson out wide. When he joined he was just a poacher but he's turned himself into a leader and one of the hardest working players i've seen in claret and amber.

That was a good night's work. I was a bit worried we had shot our bolt in the first 30 minutes like the Dundee Utd cup game but Lionel came up with a bit of class and once we had the two goal lead it was never in doubt. We were very direct and with the players we have it's probably the only way we can play. I don't think it's a long term solution but given the fixtures we have left it should hopefully get us enough points to at avoid finishing bottom and if we have to go into a play off we'll at least have some confidence. Big Erwin was immense and most of our play went through him, he just needs a goal and it'll all come good for him.

Long played for the u20s tonight. Despite the England youth caps he is behind the ex St Mirren goalie Howard in the pecking order at Bramall Lane so we shouldn't be expecting miracles. Wee Dan is another sympton our decline this season, expecting the players to play in front of a midget from Dundee reserves is one of the more creative ways McCall killed the dressing room.

Even if you switch to summer football you'd still have to play in the winter. The club season lasts 10 months already and the international dates mean a 'summer season' would have to be even longer. The start of Feb til the middle of December is still going to be mostly cold.

If he is doing that he is more clueless than I thought.

If he can give us an extra bit of quality in the 8 games we have left to play against killie, Partick, St mirren and county then that could a long way to keeping us up.

My guess was drug dealer but we can sack him for this anyway.

That's him working. He's on holiday the rest of the time.

Do you honestly think that a 19 year footballer can't eat chips once in a while?

Gannon's problem was that he went out his way to piss off the old heads but succeeded in pissing off the young players and the English guys he brought in as well. The entire squad was against him because he was a screwball. I doubt Barraclough is trying to piss anyone off but his ineptitude makes it inevitable. Lasley has declined but can still contribute in this league, McManus has a fucked knee but Mccall knew that when he gave him the two year deal. We need more from both but I don't think there is anything wrong with them having the exact same frustration as the fans at where our signing policy has taken us.

Dutch people have a reputation for being direct and the two candidates are big hardy bastards. Barraclough on the other hand talks pish at length with evasive head movement thrown in for extra annoyance. We should have went for someone who could kick arse. Barraclough handed out 7 new deals but not one to a striker which was mental. He also went for quantity over quality which is nuts as well considering how few games we have left. We played for 90 minutes with one up front on Saturday, the man does not have a clue.

I doubt it. I think it's more likely they looked at the quality of the players we were bringing in (Reid, Twardzik, Law) and the managers ambivalence about getting knocked out of europe by part timers and thought we are fucked. The only people who seemed to think we were a good team in 2014 were the higher ups at the club and the constantly deluded on here.

He made a few mistakes but his technique was above anyone else on the park.

Reminiscent of a fat Andy Roddie.

I think if we try a radical technique of only playing midfielders in the midfield we might get an improvement in our performaces. Playing Moore in the most important position yesterday was like tiying one hand behind our backs and Erwin and Johnson for different reasons weren't suited to their roles.

Exactly. We don't have games to throw away.

Don't be daft. He'll never play two up front.

That's just code for being black.