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There have been some very critical remarks on a number of threads on this forum in the last day or two, so for what it's worth, here are a few thoughts in the context of the game on Saturday. Firstly, let's acknowledge that it was a superb performance by Celtic. For my money, that was the best performance I have seen against us by any team, ever, Their movement on and off the ball, the accuracy of their passing, the tight control on the first touch, the speed with which they closed us down, and their ruthlessness. They were also hugely disciplined at the back with Boyata and Sviatchenko not giving Mckay or Anier a sniff. And the fact that they can afford to put a player of Christie's ability out on loan to their nearest challenger illustrates just how far ahead of everyone else they are. We lost by 6 to an excellent team at the top of their game, but it wasn't as if Fon Williams had a lot to do except pick the ball out of the net - unlike Fox for County against Aberdeen! And what made the score so high was specific instances of poor defending. Fon Williams should certainly have done better for the 2nd goal and we clearly have a problem with that position. Whether he is carrying an injury or is just short of confidence, I don't know. But he did a great job for us last year and has not suddenly become a poor keeper. Injured or not, we need better cover for him than Esson can provide. But whilst OFW can be blamed for the 2nd goal, so can the defenders - and for Dembele's other two goals. He's the top striker in Scotland at the moment (and by some distance) but nobody was marking him for any of his 3 goals. With the sheer numbers Celtic attack with, including the quality of their 2 full backs, it is nigh on impossible to pick everyone up all the time - but you must pick up their main man. Dembele is clever how he drops back or wide and then just seems to drift into the right space at the right time, but everyone was watching the ball and nobody was watching him. That really needs to be addressed. There are some basic errors being made and just as defenders need to have confidence in their keeper, the keeper needs to have confidence in the defenders. Currently we are lacking the cohesion and confidence as a defensive unit as a whole. Having said that, there was a lot that was relatively positive about the performance. Folk have criticised some in the team for a lack of effort. Vigurs seems to have taken the brunt of this. I din't see any lack of effort from any of the players against Dundee and I saw none against Celtic. I think the message is perhaps getting through that unless players give 100% every game, then we will be going down. Richie needs to continue to impress this on his players, but unlike Celtic, he has little option in some positions if players slacken off. Meanwhile, we show real promise at the other end where competition is greater for places. We have scored more goals than all the 6 teams directly above us and whilst we managed very few efforts at goal on Saturday, that was testament to their defence rather than a reflection of our weakness. We did manage to get behind their defence and won no less than 7 corners. Not many teams have done that at Celtic this season. There's lessons to be learnt from Saturday. We are nearly a pretty good team but we absolutely must address our defensive frailties. Do that and we have the potential to go on a decent run. Fail to do that or fail to continue with the desire and commitment, and we will go down. The cup's gone and Foran's not going to be sacked. It's time to focus on the league. We rightly demand commitment from the players but it's also time for the fans to commit their support to the players.

Yes it could be an IX and not a XI - Does that give some players an opportunity to stake a place and improve our level of performance. The pitch also looked horrendous against Hibs and dare I say it, could favour the hoof. How Foran will play it : OFW Raven Draper McCart Tremarco King Tansey Cole Mulraney Mckay Anier How I would play it: OFW Raven Draper McCart Tremarco King Polworth Cole Anier Mckay Fisher How IHE would play it: Calder Raven Milroy McCart Tremarco King Polworth Anier Bingham Urquhart Mckay

Maybe its just when the team you follow are playing the worst and most disorganised football you can remember and are lacking any sort of improvement over the course of a season grasping to inconsequential statistics such seven corners and zero shots on target seem not just optomistic but blindly ignoring the truth and reality of the situation.

Polworth is RB for the second half.

Could Fisher be re-invented as a centre-back? Draper's always looked a bit dodgy back there.

Extended highlights on Alba on Saturday evening so fingers crossed they will be worth watching!

I was not at the game and couldn't watch it, so won't comment on how we did. However, just went on the club's site to check last week's Centenary Club results and spotted a news story about the Cup replay against Celtic with ticket information. How nice it would have been to be going to a replay tonight.... Presumably this was drafted in advance and should never have been uploaded to the site!

And not one shot on target....

OFW Raven McCart Tremarco Polly Draper Tansey Cole Mulraney Mckay Fisher Somehow with the limitations we have, we need to park the bus. Have Draper and Tansey try protect the back 3 as much as possible. Try use Fisher as a target man to hold up the ball and use the pace of Mulraney and Mckay to get up in support on the break.

Along with the Happy Clappers and the Depressing Droners, we also have an abundance of experienced Premiership First Team Managers and Board Members. I cant understand why we are in the position we are with all this experience and expertise floating around. Amazing!

There is no question that Richie's inexperience is costing us week after week. His response to our crisis is to go with experience in the middle of the park - sacrificing pace and invention. The Draper/Tansey/Vigurs midfield is catastrophic. Worse still when Polworth is played on the right. No pace, no invention. Despite warning signs about this formation for weeks, Richie persists with it at Parkhead of all places! 4-3-3 looked like our formation against one of the most mobile teams we've ever seen in Scotland! Utterly suicidal not to offer Warren and mackay protection with 2 holding midfielders who would deny space in that crucial part of the field. The frustration is that I think we do have a good enough group of players to get us out of the mire, but I don't have any faith in Richie to pick the right team in the right formation to do it. Play the same midfield trio in the next 3 games and we'll be thrashed in all 3, destroying any remaining confidence and dooming us. Vigurs needs to go and Doran, Cole, Mulraney need a chance in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Time is short.

Sorry but I feel that this needs continued debate. If I was in charge I would be looking at Richie's contract and looking at a deal to end it. A legend but one that needs to go before we actually make things a lot worse for him. The next two games may be chalked down to just go fer it affairs. Sevco is more of a could do. We need to get in a new management team for the Sevco game. We then have to task them to either save us from relegation or prepare to bounce back up again. Richie is NOT going to change things, Richie is not going to infuse the necessary passion. Richie unfortunately can only make things worse. I do NOT want to remember him as the man who took us out of the Premiership and potentially further down the ladder. The Board are also the ones that need to make that decision and that would be a major back down for them. Do they actually have the bolls to do it ?

It's a demonstration of what's possible when you think a bit outside the norm when working with advertisers and sponsors. Dicksons are sponsoring what's already in place with interviews, but further support and buy-in will be needed as we (fingers crossed) roll out further services to ensure they remain sustainable. Two new volunteers have joined the media team in recent weeks and are quickly finding their feet....freeing up others to develop new services. It's not all going to happen overnight and things will be grown at a sensible and manageable pace for the long term.

What a vile nasty comment .Shame on you !!!!

Some people just can't see any positives DD

Not sure if you don't get sarcasm..... as I said previously, I guess we are putting players out on loan to free up finances to get others in. Cammy had been at Elgin before, and was clearly in demand. This arrangement is beneficial short term -finances and long term - developing a player for the future, either for us or to sell on. Arguably, we put our 3rd choice out on loan, as Esson would be the natural 2nd choice. there are problems further up the park which need to be addressed before blowing more money on another keeper! If any free agents are to be signed, they should be defenders!!!