steelboy

but the fact we're a young side with developing players makes last night even more frustrating. i've never seen any team line up in that formation before and i doubt that any of the players have ever played that way before. the team were at a disadvantage from the get go against a far more experienced team. the manager should sending the team out in a system they're confident with, instead we get a situation where no one knows what they're doing and we pretty much beat ourselves. the most annoying thing was the fact that we actually had the game on saturday as a measure of what works and what doesn't. it was clear on saturday that we had zero penetration with one up front and that st mirren were capable of shutting down our passing game. surely it's just common sense to go with what worked on saturday? instead we try a system that addresses none of our flaws and actually weakens us in other areas. gannon seems to be more interested in forging a reputation as a master tactician than actually putting out a team to win games. naebody's going to think any less of you if you play a basic 4-4-2 jim. gannon mentioned in an interview the other week that our 4-1-4-1 formation was designed to protect young players. basically we sacrifice an attacker to have tom hateley sitting spare and giving support to any area of the park that is under pressure when we don't have the ball. it's been effective in we're not conceding many with it but our goals for total while playing it consists of three from corners and a penalty. 4 goals, zero from open play, in what i'd put at a rough estimate 600 minutes of football, that can't continue.

faddy has nothing to do with anything. when jamie has played through the centre this season we've made chances. when he's been playing wide we haven't. murphy is effective if you get him the ball in the final third or on a breakaway. when he plays wide right we give him the ball on the halfway line which is pointless.

i honestly believe that gannon has done an incredible job. players brought in, bringing on the young players, making us organised and generally turning the club around from a low ebb. for some reason though he seems to continually over think his tactics and we've paid a price for that a number of times. he seems unwilling to say "our players are better than your players we're going to beat you straight up". instead we get 3 at the back, ultra deep lying midifelders, insane man marking and lone strikers against sides who we have better players than.

i'm not actually that bothered about the result tonight. anyone with any sense would have seen that the way we started the match we were never going to win it. we were probably fortunate to only be one down at half time. we scored 3 goals in the second half on saturday, did we start that with the succesful formation? no. we started with a formation no one in our team had ever played played before and it showed right down to hutchy being clueless at taking shys, lukas being isolated, o'brien and murphy not knowing where to play and craigan being redundant in a sweeper position he's never had before. on saturday sutton was gannon's best option to equalise off the bench, tonight he wasn't good enough to be a sub. on saturday according to gannon forbes was the better option for the second 45 but tonight coke started. where is the consistency? we played a 3-4-2-1 formation which left reynolds on the left on his own but for some reason he spent the game manmarking ALAN JOHNSTON who was released by kilmarmock in the summer and who we wouldn't have manmarked ten years ago when he was in his prime. gannon's done a great job so far building a team that can compete in the spl but beyond his motivational and organisational skills he's let us down several times by over thinking his tactics and over emphasising gimmicks. today the natural thing to do was do what we did in the second half on saturday and be confident that our players are better than there players and we'll win. instead we end up with a system that unsettles the full team and put them on the backfoot from the start.

not my first game but i remember it clearly, probably becuase it's the only time i've had to watch a game from the south stand. i was raging i didn't get in the east. shivute ran riot in the second half. i can even rememeber watching micheal owen scoring a hat trick for liverpool against newcastle on sky before heading up to fir park. think it was ruud gullit's first game in charge. nae idea what my first ever game was, probably when i was 4 or 5.

fair enough. they'd both be great results. i predict us to win every game two nil no matter what. so 2-0 murphy and juke.

what caused the change of heart?

honestly? both matches were poorly attended and were major let downs last season. we were on a dire run for the first and even although we won the second match easy they got what they need to stay up . could be a belter this time though. if we get decent results in the next two games we'll probably sell out our end.

maybe it is just a rumour but i don't see fitzy featuring in gannon's plans, he's not comfortable enough on the ball. marc archdeacon seemed to be moving about ok at the race night on saturday, he might be back in contention soon. i'd quite like to see page, archdeacon and darren smith get a run out in the first team this season. it's a strange situation to be in where we have a dozen or so young players from youth system who look like they could be capable of contributing to the first team.

i heard a rumour that fitzy went to gannon to ask why he's out the picture and it didn't go to well. apparently lasley and mcgarry have kept the head down and worked hard as did craigan and hammell when they looked out of favour but fitzpatrick went looking for answers. gannon saw him playing against rhyll on his first day up here and he was unbelievably bad. that probably made his mind up about him there and then.

forgot about that. sorry but out ye go, mchugh and hutch. i quite like to see jennings get a start sometime soon. but i've got my heart set on 4-4-2 and forbes is worth his place in centre midfield on saturday's showing and hateley is the manager's pet by the looks of things and looked very good with a wee bit more freedom to get forward in the second half on saturday. he's been great as the screen in front of the back 4 but i think he showed he's capable of much more than that. it could be a 120 minute effort anyway so those two plus giles and jenno could have all part to play.

looking forward to the game even though it's my third trip to this wasteland in three weeks. hopefully we'll follow on from our performance in the last 20 minutes on saturday and have a right go at st mirren from the start as we were too passive on saturday and spent far too much time fannying about with ball within 30 yards of our own goal. there defence cracked under the pressure on saturday and we've got to make sure we put them under from the first kick tommorow. for me gannon has two major issues to address. 1. 4-4-2 vs 4-5-1? we were miles better in the second half on saturday playing a 4-4-2, hateley and forbes were more involved in the game, jamie murphy got the ball in dangerous areas rather than the halfway line and big lukas could concentrate on playing through the middle rather than dropping short or wide all the time. gannon obviously puts a lot of faith in the 4-5-1 but everytime we've played 4-4-2 with jamie murphy through the middle we've scored at least two goals so i think we've got to go for that. 2. Higdon. the big haddy loves playing against us and set up one and almost another on saturday. i expect higdon will start on tomorrow so gannon will have to choose who's best equipped to deal with him craigan, saunders or hutchison. hopefully hammell will be back in at left back and reynolds can go back to cb. my team. ruddy yassin saunders reynolds hammell humphrey hateley forbes o'brien murphy lukas subs: coke, sutton, jennings, craigan, hutchison, mchugh, seb

i'm sure whatever happens we'll be fine but we're a work in progress at the moment and it'd be a bit frustrating to have to start from near enough scratch again. we're doing really well just now but if we can keep the squad we've got together for two or three years we could do something special.

i think the only players contracted for next year are murphy, craigan, hutchison, forbes, sutton, mchugh, reynolds, fraser and humphrey. slightly worrying.

i take it the votes for forbes and coke were steamers trying to vote for lukas clicking the wrong bit.

the highlight of my night was the failure of my "consortium" to get a horse in the auction. crags money went up with our steaming bidding, my wallet stayed closed. ideal.

great night.

we looked much better in the second half when we were playing 4-4-2. hopefully we'll start that way on tuesday and attempt to put st mirren under pressure. we were a joke in the first half continually trying to pass the ball out the back and getting nowhere, st mirren clearly had us sussed out. the last 15 minutes showed how if you put teams in this league under pressure the chances will come, it's time to start our playing our football in the final third. anybody else think big giles got the hook for diving when he gave the ball away in the lead up to their first goal? he did the exact same against hibs for their second.

is his paedo father in law banned from fir park?

in his interview on the official site he talks about how we're doing well in ball retention and defending but things haven't really come to together yet for us in forward areas. he's done a great job so far to mould a team that are as composed on the ball and as organised and solid defensively but i think it'll take a lot of work to make us a side that can use the possession we've having in most games to punish teams. if we're going to be playing 4-5-1 long term (the next two or three years) i think we're going to have to invest in a quality centre forward and find a midfielder who is comfortable getting up to support the lone centre forward. the next five games are winnable but difficult. hopefully things will come together in the final third and we'll start making chances and scoring.

the final last time was such a let down i think if we were to make it again i'd be so wary of getting pumped again i wouldn't really be able to enjoy it. a lot of my caution relating to the well can probably be tracked back to that game, we had a month of unbridled optimism shattered inside five minutes.

that was a 44 game season but i think we'll end up at least equalling it. i can't see anyone in our squad getting into double figures in league goals.

anybody know what our record for 0-0s is in a single season?

i don't think anyone really hates broadfoot. most people are actually delighted to hear his name read out when we're playing against the h**s.

i'm going through to both of them so if we win one and score a few goals from open play i'll be happy.