Huisdean

I just Rembrandt that (ouch!)

Just a few things to add to what has already been posted. Best performance first half that we have had for a good few months, pace and movement off the ball was excellent and Christie and Storey played exceptionally well. Aberdeen changed their formation in the second half moving Shinnie to left back and then had a better balance to the team. We did help them however by sitting far too deep and being slow to support on the few forward breaks we had but minor quibbles in a thoroughly enjoyable game despite the best efforts of the referee and Derek McInnes to spoil it. The referee's performance yesterday was up there as one of the worst I have witnessed for many a year. He did seem to be trying his hardest to get Aberdeen into the game by giving a succession of free kicks (which were very very dubious) on the edge of the box and missing blatant fouls by Aberdeen players. Seemed very quick to book our players and react to shouts from Aberdeen players and their bench where McInnes was at it the whole game claiming for everything, complaining that our players were not being booked and generally trying to influence the game. Very disappointed with the antics of Shinnie and Rooney as well yesterday. Shinnie was going down at the merest touch and Rooney seemed to spend most of the time claiming for non existent fouls or our keeper wasting time. Thankfully this did not cost us the game but something seriously needs to be done on the quality of refereeing.

Tremarco injured in midweek so that is why he was out, Vigurs and Sho Silva injured in a friendly so can hardly conclude that the above is valid. Why would you even contemplate saying this?.

Totally agree but if you were watching Scotsport, you must be watching from a time machine

with regard to your last paragraph, what absolute nonsense to suggest he should be dropped. Agree that cheating or simulation is aa problem within the game but that is, in part, down to poor refereeing in many cases.

Can't agree. Yes there was contact and if the ref sees it it's a red card but there was never anything like enough contact to send him down. That was pure gamesmanship. I realise it's part of the modern game but I'd rather not see our players indulge in it. Neither would I but, as seen in the Hamilton game, if other teams do this and con the referee, we need to get much more streetwise.

Totally agree DD. While Ryan has potential, he is by no means the finished article although some posters would have you believe otherwise. Football is a team game and it is very disrespectful to Ryan's team mates to put him on the type of pedestal some posters do.

While Subway is a national franchise, it is run by a local person so the criticism is a bit harsh. It is a fact of life that we will have a sponsors logo across our shirt as that is why they sponsor us

Just some general observations on this sorry saga. The transfer windows do nothing but harm to football, especially for smaller selling clubs. The old system, while not perfect did not wreak as much havoc as this in my opinion. Celtic, although being cynical on this, have done nothing wrong and exploited the situation to their best advantage. Perhaps the board may have been able to get more money but as no other concrete bids at this time, could they risk losing Christie for nothing in January or at a reduced fee. For those suggesting we should have held out for nearer a million, or considerably more than 500k, it has to be remembered Christie, at this stage in his career, is an exciting prospect, no more. He is still learning his craft and plays in fits and starts for us. I do think this may not be the best move for him nor would joining an English Premier league club (assuming any wanted him). Only time will tell but he does need to play more games at this level. I am however starting to have some concerns about the board. I do not think they are hard enough or ambitious enough to really drive the club forward. They need to be more dynamic/proactive and this should not be taken as being negative or not recognising their efforts we need more of a figurehead for the club in the boardroom.

A bit harsh on Yogi I think. You cannot force players to sign longer contracts, I suspect many don't want longer than 2 years anyway. As for being unprepared, this is a direct result of the ridiculous transfer window where what is happening with Ryan leaves Yogi with little chance of signing a replacement. He could have had players identified but until he can get the money in for any transfer, he cannot sign any players and by the time he does get the money, the players may not then be available. Does anyone know if the manager or the board dictate contract lengths?. I have more of an issue with board than Yogi over transfer dealings/signings as we seem to be a very soft touch.

Only thing I would say about Tremarco's (and slightly off topic) was that if that was a sending off, what about Craig Gordon's foul vs Ross County on Day 1 of the season?. Collum was the ref that day as well. Back on topic, the standard of refereeing at the home matches so far has been as poor as it has ever been so not just Collum that is poor (although he is about the worst to be fair!)

and received no protection from a very poor referee.

As usual some very varying posts on yesterdays game. My view as far as yesterday went was that until Hamilton scored, the result of a poor pass from Vigurs, we were playing as well as I have seen us at home this season. We were creating chances but not taking them and Lopez and Mutumbo were looking okay. After the goal however, we started to fall into the trap of keeping possession and hoping something would happen rather than trying to create thing and Hamilton sussed us out and bullied us out of the game, not always legally. For those who say stop going on about injuries, bollocks, that is having a huge impact on the team from defence through to attack. Drazper is doing his best but does get caught out and we are missing the leadership Warren would give us. That was a disappointing.aspect yesterday, there was little or n o leadership yesterday. Raven as captain does not seem to be the one to drive on his team mates and we do need someone like Foran to drive us on when things go against us. As for the team yesterday, my thoughts on them were Fon Williams - okay but should have done better at the second goal (which looked very much offside to me and those sitting around me) Raven - okay and often got forward but did not receive the ball Draper - okay considering the circumstances but takes too many risks trying to play football at times Devine - poor game, passing poor and again takes too many risks. needs to learn to play the simple ball Williams - good game again. Our most consistent performer this season Tansey - poor by his standards but wonder if carrying an injury as he did go off injured and didn't see anything that would have caused this. Polworth - poor game, way to slow, sat too deep, passing average and should have been substituted Vigurs - probably as above and his poor pass contributed to the first goal. Offered little going forward Christie - good in parts b ut needs to learn to pass the ball rather than try to beat everyone Lopez - Good 20 minutes when he got some decent service but faded out of the game as service got worse. Mutumbo - Good early on and always looked like he had the beating of Hamilton's central defenders for pace. Unfortunately, he does not have the upper body strength to hold off defenders and Hamilton soon sussed this Subs - though Tremarco played well when he came on and his booking was very very soft. Wedderburn did okay as well but Horner to me looks lost in midfield. As for Hamilton, I thought they were pretty disgraceful today. They went down at every opportunity, tried to get our players booked and started time wasting as soon as the second half started. Lots of nudges and fouls that the referee missed somehow that disrupted play throughout the game. As for the referee, he was quite simply dreadful. He was inconsistent in his decisions, was conned by Hamilton players and simply seemed frightened to stand up and make a decision. How Nade styed on the park, and did not even get a booking for lifting his hands at the end was a mystery. I was sitting next to a German tourist at the game and he could not believe how poor the refereeing was. He also summed up the game that we were the better team but we need someone to score goals. Interestingly, while he was on holiday in the area, the reason he came to the game was he knew we had won the Scottish Cup.. All in all, a game we could/should have won yesterday as we had enough chances to do so before Hamilton scored. Need to get some leadership on the park however and some of the injured players back soon

Are you being serious. Uncle Roy has bankrolled County again so that is how they have the money and if you think offering Shinnie and Watkins more money would have kept them here, you are deluding yourself. Simple fact is unless attendances pick up, club will run at a loss and any windfalls have to be used to keep club on an even keel. It's either that or someone takes over the club and pumps money in. It is quite frightening that some fans do not grasp the basic economics of the clubs finances.

That may be true for Vincent and Dorran ( in my opinion Dorran should have started more games) but they give us more options. Dorran can take people on and get crosses in/create things. Vincent can also provide options running from midfield. With them in the team, we would be a much better and balanced team than we are at present. I do think we would be more effective this season with Dorran playing as we certainly created some openings against Astra with him playing

Totally agree Snafu. We are being to cautious in midfield and that slows things down far too much. When play was quickened up in the last 10-15 minutes, things did look a bit better. Part of the problem is we have too many holding type midfield players who seem frightened to get forward. I am surprised some posters have said Horner and Polworth played well, they were average at best and created nothing. Our midfield is also slow to support when we are breaking for some unknown reason. We need to have runners from midfield but that is just not happening just now. Defensively, we were not great in central defence and some posters need to remember Draper is not a natural centre back so he will make mistakes/wrong decisions there but who else do we paly there at the moment. he needs to be told to take no chances at the back as he tries to play too much football at times and his distribution was poor last night as was Devine's. This doesn't help as the poor passing just leads to the ball coming straight back at us. As someone has pointed out, many of our top strikers took a while to get going so maybe Lopez will come good although the signs are not yet encouraging. Not getting too despondent yet and I think once we get Dorran, Vincent and Roberts back things will change.

This is the problem with Collum, he is either card happy, when there is no need or issues very few cards when they are needed. Simply a dreadful and inconsistent referee. Take last week when he should have sent off Craig Gordon, what was really different from that scenario from the cup final when Tremarco got sent off, absolutely nothing in my opinion.

I think we need to add more red and black to the strip

Hopefully it is just a rumour that he has signed or perhaps a short term contract to cover injuries but seriously question this signing if it goes ahead. He offers nothing to what we have already got in my opinion.

While we have to accept that the board are trying to do their best for the club, they do seem to run the club on a very secretive basis which is not helpful. If they were a bit more open, it would certainly deflect some of the adverse comments that come their way. I am not a shareholder but would suggest the questions concerning money and transfer policy are asked at the AGM.

But did we actually get any place money as no sponsor for the league?. As someone has already said, we continually run at a loss and surpluses in good years have to balance this out. The only real way we will compete financially with some other clubs is to get more people attending matches and that seems to be impossible to achieve. Having said that, I do think we need new blood on the board. I may be wrong, but it does seem that replacements for the board seem to come from the same/similar sources and we need some more dynamism from the board including a more aggressive stance on issues.

have to agree with Bughtmaster. I only caught the post match comments from BW but very negative and no or little mention of the injury situation we have and how that impacted. It was as if that did not matter or have an impact.

For some reason, and this has been the case for many years, we appear to have a section of supporters for whom the team can do nothing right. IHE, you have got your quote the wrong way around as usual, Thistle were always more entertaining although not always in a football sense!

As usual, some over reaction to a poor performance and defeat. Some posters do genuinely seem to think we have a divine right to win every game but hey ho. Obviously not a great performance yesterday and playing players out of position does not help but with the injuries we have, not sure what else we could have done. I actually thought Raven was okay on the left and was getting forward but when he went to right back and Williams to left back, much better balance in the team and we had some much needed width. Thought Devine had a good game as well for us, possibly one of his best?. Fully understand however why Hughes started with Williams in midfield to give us some attacking options. It didn't help losing an early goal which was the result of two bad passes, one to tansy and then his pass. Nothing at all to do with the passing game. Our possession was okay but we need to speed it up and have runners coming from midfield. Our midfield was way to deep yesterday and someone needs to tell Ryan that he should not be dropping so deep to get the ball, that is not his job. As many have said, we do need a striker and that is a major disappointment that we have still not found one of a suitable stature. Lopez does not look like a natural finisher and while Mutumbo showed good willingness and skill, only time will tell if he can score. On the subject of finance and why we didn't sign strikers like other clubs, I don't think the cup run generated huge amounts of cash as some fans seem to think it did. I know St. Johnstone and Dundee Utd were not happy at the amount of cash they received from the previous cup final. Until we get a rich benefactor to stump up cash or get more fans through the door, we will struggle for money. Some fans have quoted Dundee as an example but I guarantee they will have a bigger average gate than us. Looks likes we are in for a rocky few weeks with the injuries but lets recognise the difficulties we have currently and triumph in adversity which we have done many times before.

I think, with the players we had available, it was a decent performance last night from the team. With the injuries we have, not a lot of options for Yogi so although line up a surprise, probably not any real alternatives. I suspect some were also not fully fit both on the pitch and on the bench.Some surprising views on performances last night and as someone has already said, Warren was my MOM. Don't get all the praise for Ryan last night though. Sure he worked hard and covered all of the pitch but that was part of the problem. He needed to be closer to Lopez to support him and needs to learn to pass more often rather than run with the ball. He will learn but no way was he MOM. Wedderburn did okay for the most part and was not out of place while as many folk have said, Draper was poor last night and seemed way of the pace needed at this level.