dead_ball_specialist

-----------------------------------Esson-------------------------------- ------------Proctor--------Duff----------Munro--------McBain-------- ----------------------------------Duncan-------------------------------- -----------------Wilson-----------------------------Vigurs-------------- ------------------------------Black-------Imrie------------------------- ---------------------------------Barrowman-----------------------------

I don't rate Fraser at all, he's young but that means nothing. Some goalkeepers don't peak until their mid thirties! From what I've seen of Esson he reads the game better both in positioning himself in anticipating opponents efforts and in his distribution of the ball.

That was a game we should have won comfortably. But for a moment of madness from rooney (getting in the way of gary wood who was clean through on goal, motherwell going up to score seconds later) and a shocking decision from the referee (decided to give motherwell a free kick right on the edge of our box for absolutly nothing) we would have. The most frustrating thing about these home defeats is the fact that we're losing by inches (always by a single goal, a single break of the ball) I don't think it'd be unreasonable to say that with a little rub of the green we could have taken 9 points from hamilton, st mirren and motherwell rather than 0. If we weren't so toothless in front of goal (wood and rooney just aren't doing the business IMHO) we could easily be chalking up scorelines like 4-0 or 5-1 based on the balance of play. Considering the conditions I don't understand why gary wood was even on the pitch. I lost count of the number of times attacks broke down when he miscontrolled the ball. And what the heck was brewster thinking about with his substitutions? Waiting until there were 5 minutes to go to take on barrowman, hooking black who'd adapted to the conditions better than anyone, rather than the completely anonymous cowie, and taking on vigurs on the right wing instead of barry wilson. Absolute madness. Although the result was a disaster, the performance probably doesn't merit doom and gloom although I expect some of the more excitable posters on here will start beating the 'we looked like relegatin fodder', 'brewster must go' drums. There were plenty of positives to take from the game, particulary that Duff and Munro look like a good partnership. I can't think of too many poor individual performances apart from wood and cowie. One more moan, I can't help but wonder how much of a difference Dennis Wyness would have made to our season if he'd still been here, especially our home results.

Bobby Wilson?

Brewster should play himself, he was still a top class SPL striker last season and being a fitness freak I don't think it'd take him long to get back into gear. It seems like such a waste never having him on the pitch.

That was the best I've ever seen Russel Duncan play, he was IMMENSE!!!

"Please don't refer to me as your friend cos I haven't got a clue who you are." If it means so much to you.

"Christie said he was scoring goals for fun in training " Is he being marked by Phil McGuire by any chance?

The best thing to happen to scottish football in recent times was when our bubble burst. It wasn't so long ago that teams like Dundee Utd, Hibs, Motherwell etc would field an entire team of foriegn mercenaries.

Whatever happened to the kick boxing? I thought that was all about giving our players a physical edge. I assume that was ditched. There was also a hill-walking fad during Brewster's first spell, Golly being a big fan apparently. That was probably the fittest most energetic ICT team ever.

"My money's on both Rory and Zander going either in Jan window or at end of season. Sorry, but neither is or ever has been good enough for a 1st team contract. " Absolute drivel. Have you ever actually seen Zander Sutherland playing? He's been OUTSTANDING every time I've had the pleasure of seing him on our wing. He's probably the most skillful, exciting player on our books. I'm baffled as to why he isn't used more. You my friend, are a fool.

There isn't THAT much difference between most SPL teams and the first division as cup results over the last couple of seasons have shown. So a victory away from home agaist Morton is surely a good result. Nobody has mentioned that they knocked 4 past Hibs at easter road in the last round which ought to put our result into perspective.

\ :D :thumb04: :018: ;) :015: :D :P :021:

The 'nearly men' Hugh Robertson Sandy Robertson David Graham Gary Faquhar Benjamin Fetai Liam Fox Dougie Green Neil McUish Andrew Allen and my personal favourite Kevin Byers (he was class, how come he never got a game??!!)

There's never a 'gaping hole' when Barry Wilson is on the park. I agree that he would be better employed in a more attacking role though, particularly when our opponents put a nippy winger out on the left.

Phil McGuire OG specialist has probably scored for almost every SPL team, does that count?

The goalkeeping coach, what a nonsense that we even have one. And he's hardly doing a good job is he?

Yes!!

There has certainly been a lack of ideas and direction in the home performances I've seen this season, we just aren't scoring enough goals. Has any team scored less than us? I doubt it. But I don't think we're THAT far off being a good team. Many of the ingredients are there, perhaps our new(ish) players are still trying to work each other out and gel into a coherent unit? Rooney and Barrowman don't seem to be working well together so far, neither have really shown any creativity or flair in the games I've seen. Tokely and Cowie have never really clicked down the right have they? On the other flank, Hastings doesn't get up and down the park as he used to, he and Imrie don't help each other enough IMHO. Our back 5 (including the goalie) lacks understanding and an organizer. If things don't click in the coming weeks we should try some new combinations. You only need to look at the contrast in Tokely's perfomance level when he's playing alongside Barry Wilson Vs when he's playing alongside Don Cowie to appreciate how important teamwork is to individual performance.

Sounds like you're guilty of a little 'Sunday morning quarterback' syndrome there IHE.

He's certainly inconsistant and rough arond the edges, reminiscent of the young Barry Robson in that regard at times although perhaps he doesn't quite reach the same peaks. We are desparatly short of creative players, as our 'goals for' column shows. Creative players are naturally unpredictable and erratic so I think we have to be willing to make a trade off somewhere. My only moan is that IMHO Zander Sutherland is just as good, if not better than Dougie Imrie and he ought to be given a chance to show what he can do particularly when Imrie is off the boil as he has been recently.

Newcastle have the fifth highest wage bill in the premiership ffs! Is it unreasonable to expect a clearout before major investment in the squad? Surely not. He explained in his statement that he was trying to create a sustainable business plan based on the arsenal model. If Newcastle fans were a little more rational, a little less emotional and thought in time periods a little longer than the next 5 minutes, he'd probably have done a good job for them. Lets see where their Keeeeeegan worshipping gets them lol.

"How come, if the team is meant to be so fit, that we can't sem t competein the second half of home matches on our large pitch which our super fit player ought to be able to increasingly exploit as the game goes on ? " True. We used to run teams off the park and totally dominate the closing stages of games when Brewster was in his first spell in charge. He even had the likes of Golly fighting fit. Perhaps we've gone backwards on that front, or maybe the other teams have just caught up??? Whenever we have a lay off for internationals I always used to expect us to be the sharper team when we returned based on Brewsters repuation as a tough trainer, but the last few times this has happened we've come back rusty as our results in those games reflect. It might also be that we're playing a much more negative game now (flooding the midfield, lazy long balls, full backs rarely overlapping, hardly any movement in the midfield etc) so we don't wear our opponents out as much as we used to when we were a free flowing attacking team.

Vigurs was one of the few home players who actually looked like he was trying to play football out there today. Nice to see some passes ALONG THE DECK, something that appears to have gone out of fashion at TCS recently. No wonder we struggle to retain possession when even the simplest of short passes end up being unnecessarily chipped or drilled making it harder for the receiving player to control. I noticed this loads of times today.

The anti-marius comments on this thread are a total crock, the guy was a class act. Tokelyisvictorious, looking at rooney today I realized how much we MISS Niculae, i.e. somebody who can win headers, control the ball, bring other players into the game, pick out a pass, beat a man, burst the net etc etc, none of which I have seen rooney do in any of our home games this season.