steelboy

surely all of them were looking to step up to the first team? and that's not the case now?

the games i went to were not overly competitive. and i don't think you could describe something where everyone playing would rather not be playing as competitive. no one cared who won. we send 11 guys who we want to give game time out against 11 guys in the same situation from another club. it doens't matter what you call, the players will get as much out of it as they put in, it's up to them and the coaching staff.

randolph kept us in the game.

were you at the game caller? craigan played well today, has played well in recent weeks and other than hateley has played more than anyone else in our squad this season. he scored an og today but it looked like russell would score and most people i spoke to at halftime thought daley and jenno sold the jerseys.

we were definitely improved today. we fell out the game after their goal and didn't get back into it until ojammaa came on. i thought we made enough chances to win the game but i'll definitlely take a point. jenno was off the pace in the first half but was better in the second. omar was shocking, it's quite dispiriting that we have him on a two year deal. it was a good finish from higdon but he had missed 4 absolute sitters before he managed to score one. if people are happy with that more fool them. his general play was better than usual today but still wasn't causing any problems and he gave away as many stupid fouls as ever. same 11 that finished for tuesday please.

a reserve game is no more real or competitive than a bounce game.

the two things are connected. we're not going to qualify for europe unless we start scoring more goals. mccall's comments after the game on saturday didn't appear overly concerned about our lack of punch up front, he actually seemed deluded when he spoke of the chances we had made. we need some acknowlegement that he realises that something is badly wrong at the moment.

in 40% of games under mccall we've failed to score (21/52). just in the spl we've been failed to score in 47% of his games in charge (20/42). if he doesn't sort this lack of goals then i'd say he will be under considerable pressure come the end of the season.

'pathological dislike' maybe it's just that i've seen them play and know their strengths and weaknesses?

to get back into the rhythm of playing football, formations, tactics, movement etc. forbes obviously needs that as well but he clearly has problems with his basic fitness levels that he should be able to improve with through training (and if he is incapable he has no future as pro player). there were part time amatuer players in the queens park who looked in better condition than him the other week, how do you explain that?

i would challenge his fitness due to the number of times he has to be subbed off after an hour and the occasions where he was been subbed on in the first half and subbed back off in the second half due to being gubbed. you also see his decision making declining after about 55 minutes of games and he starts playing terrible passes. if we're just talking pace it can be improved through technique. craigan has spoken about going to see sprinting coaches, i'm sure someone with track experience could help forbes to develop but he is just as slow as he was two years ago. saying that you need games to be fit is rubbish. are mo farah and jessica ennis preparing for the olympics by playing football matches? no. plenty of people achieve a far higher level of fitness than any of our players soley in the gym and on a track. i'd also say it looks like most of our players fitness levels have declined since the beginning of the season - hateley, lalsey, murphy and law in particular.

surely he could be fiiter than he is? a couple of seasons ago we had a corner at celtic park. they broke up the field and forbes was chasing back, the next thing you know craigan ran by him like he was usain bolt. for a young guy to be so bad at running is unexcusable.

he was shown up by amatuers 10 days ago. part of the reason he was succesful under gannon was because he wasn't asked to do much, the left back was expected to push high up the park and he had hateley sitting behind him so he wasn't shown up to often defensively. he did well in the game against celtic but being honest he probably should have been sent off, the ref let him away with murder. he played well in a narrow midfield 4 at aberdeen which limited the amount of running he needed to do. can we count on him to play 90 minutes and put in a shift every week? no and that's why he's finished at fir park.

you're meant to try and get the ball to your team mates. standing on you tip toes and glancing the ball off the side your head so it runs through to the goalie is useless. he had one decent flick on to the right on saturday but the wee glancing headers are murder.

that shambles was reduced entry.

so he gave the ball away every time?

i disagree. daley and murphy at least looked dangerous in the first half and they were all awful in the 2nd. do you not think there is a connection between or shite goal scoring record and higdon? we paid for a leader and he's not doing it.

randy would have leathered ***** ********. fair play to him.

anyone who voted higdon is smoking crack. a striker who didn't manage either a shot on target or setting up a shot on target. low expectations.

not scoring in 9 out of 21 league games is pathetic. we've haven't scored in any of our last 3 league games yet jamie murphy who has scored more goals for the club than anyone else in the squad hasn't played 1 minute as a striker. daley is worth his place in the team but he has played his whole career as a winger and is never a striker. law has been on the decline since he moved off the left wing yet he mccall won't put him back there. higdon is a complete waste of space. the usual suspects will no doubt be lining up with the same 'top scorer' patter but he contributes nothing. what about the 15 spl games he's played when he didn't score? the guy is hopeless, every time we get the ball teams have time to get every man back because playing it early to higdon is not an option. we have barely created a chance in 3 months. kilmarnock - one decent chance via jenno. dire otherwise ict - we scored 3 goals from 2 on target. one shot on target from open play. celtic - scored from a set piece, forster barely made a save aberdeen - 2 goals from 3 shots. dundee united - pathetic hibs - pathetic st johnstone - our best performance in the last 3 months but still poor going forward. 1 goal from enckelman and 1 from a deflection. st mirren - we created fuck all but higdon scored one and missed one from 5 yards. hearts - never threatened. rangers - never threatened ict - the keeper didn't make a save. we've been awful for months but mccall has barely reacted. i don't want him sacked but he needs to stop the decline.

it didn't really work out well for him though did it? when you consider that we knocked back an offer from swansea in the summer transfer window he must be a bit scunnered with how things worked out. i was suprised he went to wednesday - although he's on good money - and i think things would have worked out better from a football perspecitve if he had waited 6 months and left on a free. if we don't sell murphy in this window i can see him letting contract run down rather than just signing for the first team that offers us a half decent fee in the summer. if he does he'll no doubt get a lot of abuse on here but mccall isn't using him in a way that maximises his value this season so i don't think we can complain if it happens. i think that's harsh. he struggled in mcghee's second season but he was partnered with bob malcolm or quinn and so did quite a few others. after being bottom of the league at christmas we turned it round from boxing day when craggs and clarkson came back only just missed the top six. after those dodgy few months at the end of 2008 he barely played a game without craggs and when he did under gannon he had a good partnership with saunders (clean sheets against both sides of the old firm).

ben gordon back on loan as well. are they not meant to be skint?

he was hardly the only one who was poor that night. not one outfield player played well. you can just as easily point to his performance in the win over celtic were jeffers was nowhere to be seen

they didn't look too clever when we were down there during the summer. it's a really good draw for us. all the other ties look to be a lot closer especially if celtic have to go inverness.