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Met Wyness101 in the check in queue at Brum airport and had just finished telling him "that was shite today" when I realised Russell Latapy was standing next to him............

Highlights

Understand where you are coming from and admire your positivity but ball players are usually naturals and ball playing defenders are rare. What we have are good defenders who are not adept at passing. What I was hoping for was to be no nonsense at the back - akin to Yogi when he was playing - and try to make the most of ball players like Tansey, Christie and Doran, play with width and sharpness. Let the defenders defend.

The signs from pre season are that we are in for more of what proved frustrating and unsuccessful in the second half of last season. I never thought that Yogi was a good appointment but the fact is that he is contracted for two more years. Having been given the job he should be given the whole of this season to prove us cynics wrong unless come January we are in severe relegation trouble which, even with the current tactics, the squad should be good enough to avoid. If at the end of the season we are top six again then I will be delighted to acknowledge that the manager knew what he was doing after all. If, on the other hand, we are struggling towards the bottom come May, then that will be the time to shake John Hughes y the hand, thank him for his efforts and move on.

I'm in the same boat. Apparently there will be wifi covering the festival so we should be able to keep track of the game!

Very pessimistic about this season. ****-farting about at the back still on show and with no signs of action in the striker department it's hard to get my hopes up. Teams have Sussed we rely on Billy and judging by reports throughout threads, teams.. wether they can match his ability or not are trying to or do have him in their pockets. Is anyone genuinely excited for this season to start? Not me.

I simply feel that we have the squad to be Top Six again. I am also confident that we will have another good Cup run.

I also think we're in for a long hard and boring season. We don't look like scoring, the whole point of football. We knock it about back and forth around the defence and midfield keeping the ball nicely but just never look like hurting anyone. You need really creative dynamic centre midfielders, plus width for this style of football to work. We seem to play really narrow now and creative wise we have Greg Tansey. I also don't think we're getting anywhere near the best from Doran, Vincent, and most importantly Christie, who really could be a talent if played correctly. Even Draper we're not getting the best from, hes a combative midfielder and we're asking him to take the ball and be creative and for me he's not that sort of player. Mckay has basically been anonymous since Christmas. Also after the first round of games all teams will well and truly have seen we play one way and that's it, we have few alternatives other than the league cup final tactics of defend defend defend. I gave Yogi the benefit of doubt last season as he hadn't had a chance to sort out what players he wanted to stay and what he wanted to bring in. I honestly thought he would have brought in maybe 2 or 3 of his own signings to help the brand of football he wants to play. But he hasn't and if he doesn't I really do fear we may be in all sorts of trouble this season.

I certainly ain't writing off our chances. I am however concerned that we do not possess the players to execute the apparent favoured system. Hopefully what the players and coaches did gleem from yesterday is that we have to consider doing a bit of change work. Pre seasons are all about experimenting and learning so let's hope we see the "fruits" next Saturday.

Yip - There is nothing wrong with the system it is just that we don't have the players to fit in to it. Yogi is beginning to get as rigid as Butcher. Personally I would like to play a 4-4-2 or a 4-4-1-1. My big worry yesterday was how McKay was played. Has that been the same all pre season. He was almost played like a traditional centre forward and there was little evidence of him running the line or going wide, pulling the central defenders and allowing midfielders to utilise the gaps. That would be ideal for Christie and others.

Sounds like an identical playing pattern to the Fleetwood match except this time we paid for the mistakes at the back. Frustrating to watch as you know the inevitable error will come and why the reluctance for wide play in the final third? Is it just a case of thoroughly good square pegs but never going to fit in round holes?

I was sat with CaleyMad and pretty much echo his thoughts, and those of others...first half our line-up didn't really work at all going forward, although we looked quite comfortable defensively bar two mistakes for Brum goals. I thought Doran, Tansy and Vincent coming on made a difference and brought Christie in the game more...Doran actually looks quite a threat and if he pushes on this season could be crucial as will Christie getting more and more game time.....I'm a bit surprised to see Vincent operating on the wing as he did in the second half Which brings me to Watkins, who didn't seem to be in the game much, although some nice flicks....I feel he must contribute more for us to have a good season....and poor old Billy, so isolated yesterday (and much of last season)...just hope the plan is that Christie plays more often, up front, to give him some support In some respects 3-1 did flatter BCFC given the number of actual chances they created and that we had so nearly equalised just before the penalty! btw I thought Lewis Horan (trialist) looked a decent replacement for Raven when the latter had to go off early, and it would be good to sign him up Great to meet up with CaleyMad and Gringo (and Mrs Gringo) ...and bumping into Zoid (and Mrs Zoid) at half-time

Well here I am in the sober light of a new dawn and I am afraid that my angry impression post match has changed little. I am not going to bother with the smileys as they would have been paltry and Shinnie and Tansey would have been the only two who may have sneaked 3/5. I take it that Brill has been told not to kick the ball out. To be fair there would be little point as McKay is the only one to aim for and Watkins is not much use in the air. But that just cries out fer the option of the big man up front. So instead we were treated to 90 minutes of the ball being rolled out and 7-8 passes across the back line. Our back four tried to stroll about like Beckanbauers and the final pass was usually to a retreating midfielder. And we made four big mistakes doing that and were lucky not to have conceded more. Our defence also was very square and that is crazy against pacy forwards. There was one moment late in the second half when Shinnie must have been in 30 yards of space hugging the touch line, steaming fer the ball, and guess what. We had five players across the middle and I couldn't make out what formation that they were playing in. At times it appeared that they were attempting to be interchangeable and it didn't work. At times it was embarrassing. Shure wee Christie,, Ross and company displayed some fine touches but never looked like playing a killer ball. Tansey may well have not abided by orders becos he at least put his foot on the ball and looked around to seek out forward movement. And what have we done to Billy McKay. Where has his movement gone ? The old saying of the centre half having him in his pocket was spot on. Every time he got the ball one of the big centre backs was towering over him. It was not much of a surprise that our goal came from a dead ball position. And in the end we could have sneaked a draw and then came another reminder of last season. The simple ball through the middle of our standing defence and a goalie who has no pace leaving himself in no one land. I presume the tactic is to lull teams out but we are talking about Scotland and not the humidity of Spain or South America. We will get murdered at Parkhead and most other away grounds. I was hoping to see more width but got congestion. If I was boss of Hamilton I would have sussed us out by now. I was looking at optional systems and again was disappointed. We may well not concede many but I can envisage a lot of 0-0, 0-1 this season with the occasional hammering. Let's hope that I am wrong. What I have just written was the feeling of many yesterday. please correct me otherwise. The only fan that took positives out of yesterday must have highly tinted spectacles.