IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER

SING YOUR HEARTS OUT FER THE BOYS

By the sound of things Dungdee are playing well but not fortunately getting the luck, poor last touch, good defending and Esson. Fisher and Mckay on fire are the difference.

WILLIE MILLER - Caley Thistle could be 4-0 up with the amount of opportunities they've had. Dundee are at times knocking the ball about nicely, but they look vulnerable at the back while Caley Thistle are putting in a performance we know they are capable of.

Brilliant save by Esson - "big let off" - blow the feckin half time whistle.

We should be 4 or 5 up - where have I heard that recently.

What would have been if we had partnered Fisher and Mckay months ago ?

Somebody put Davy feckin Crockett in front of Esson.

Sounds like we are finally getting a bit of good fortune. Oh for a third ?

Trying very hard to stop getting carried away too soon - but goal difference could be crucial - and Shinnie scores for Aberdire at Castle Greyskull.

Fisher and Mckay -

I'm fine, the players look fine and they have been told to concentrate on putting in 100% effort and, if they do that, they will overcome Dundee. "Play to your strengths and be aggressive. The flair players who are not aggressive have found that in the last couple of games and need to do that again tonight. "You are looking for brave players at this stage of the season and capitalise on Dundee players are not on their game. "If you win tonight, I look at the body language of the Hamilton players - they looked very down. "We need to take advantage of that." I thought that was more realistic than of late ?

Please, please do not go into defend mode and please not do anything stooped.

Billy Mckay - that was the start that we needed.

To be honest I can see why he picked that team. Mulraney and Cole have been wholly inconsistent. He has evidently gone for the old school experience and again I cant blame him. Lets hope that it is Tansey and Draper sitting in the middle. If it is we need both Polworth and Vigurs to show a lot more effort. I would be telling Vigurs to expect to me on for an hour. I also hope that he plays Fisher and Mckay both up front and does not put Fisher back out wide. I am glad that he has hooked Anier. but again we are changing the personnel and the system.

Do we play away or at home in the first leg ?

But it also depends on who starts, the system that we play, taking the lead, not dropping back if we do, changing the system if we have to and make good substitutions. Oh dear - were fecked.

Wish that I could go - would if I could - although I have not seen us win this season either.

Scabby bestards - see signature

I had the best seat in the ground

No he didn't. He sent the players over. I reckon that if he did he would have been greeted with boos.

Apologies Commisioner - Yes Vigurs made the pass and a fine one at that. Perhaps the voddies were stronger than I thought !! But Esson did mess up twice and Raven was caught unawares. But Richie should have stopped all that survival nonsense. Perhaps if he had been gobsmacked and bollicking many moons ago and learned from his mistakes ??

Well I travelled with forlorn hope and a fair degree of trepidation. But that still did not stop me and my 146 compatriots from sitting in the away stand, cheer on the boys and hope for some salvation. My only negative thought at the start was the inclusion of Anier but otherwise I was quite happy with the first team choice. Fisher has deserved his chance and may have been a more polished player if he had been given a run early. He had a clear cut chance in the 2nd minute, through on goal, 1-1 with McDonald and he totally fecked it up. If he had kept his composure, as he did 69 minutes later then it may have been a different story. So we have a plastic pitch. We are playing in to the wind and the driving rain. Killie know the surface and they play tippy tappy at the back, use the width, take people on and are patient. Us we hoof at every opportunity. Billy Mckay must wonder what the feck is going on. Anier offers sod all and Mulraney has an off-day but rarely gets a ball at his feet or a pass to run on to. The clear tactic was to feckin hoof it. And for the second time away from home Esson makes the second big error (OK there were 2 errors) of his belated season and gifts the first goal to Longstaffe. Just what we did not need. You could see some heads go down at that time. Have to say that I was really impressed by Frizell, Jones and Wilson. If we had that three playing for us we would have hammered them. But we have Foran and the hoof. So half time comes along and you think lets have a go. But God lets us down again. The wind dies down, the rain stops and some feckin sunshine comes out. And as if that wasn’t bad enuff we hook Mulraney for Vigurs. We put Draper up front and we switch Fisher to wide right midfield. Yes wide right midfield !! Foran complained about our defending for the second but I thought it was tidy lead up play and a very tidy finish by Jones who had tormented Brad all day long. And guess who had the two long range shots on target – of course – David Raven !! Anier goes off, 58 minutes too late, and gets replaced by Polworth who never got into the game. Not sure exactly where he was playing though. And then we hook Draper and take on Cole. BUT we put Cole on the left BUT keep Fisher on the wide right and put Mckay up front on his own. We pack feckin midfield with the lackadaisical Vigurs and Tansey with Polworth running around like a headless chicken. But as the chants against Foran begin to grow we put ourselves back in the game. Great pass from Tansey and Fisher tucks it away very neatly, 69 minutes too late. Lee McCulloch summed it up nicely – “The last 10 minutes were a bit nervy but we got there in the end.” We began to show the desire and fight that we should have been showing for weeks, nay months. No player can be faulted for endeavour in the last 15 minutes. Killie looked shell shocked and took their feet off the pedal. And wee Billy could have got us that desperately needed point with a glorious lob which would have been a goal of the season contender if it went in. We actually started playing football as well. Alas too late. And Foran summed up the day – “I'm delighted with the players' performance, believe it or not. I told them they should be proud of themselves, how they handled the occasion.” Well he must have just been watching the last fifteen minutes and had forgotten the deplorable first 45. And then "Individual mistakes have cost us again. The only disappointing part is the second goal. Jones has so much space to run at us. It's a set-piece for us, they break and score - that's schoolboy defending but overall we were the far better team and had far better chances.” – DOH – wrong goal – and we deserved a point and that would have been a bit of a robbery. “We didn't get what we deserved and that was the three points, in my mind. We need to cut out the individual mistakes, it's been the story of the season.” – Yes agree about the individual mistakes and add it has been the story of MY season. Some players do NOT play for you. And then he concludes as a modern day Lazarus – “We need help from other clubs now, simple as that. We need to do our business on Wednesday and Saturday. There is still a chance. It is probably a small chance, but there is a chance." – WTF !! No Smileymometer but here are my conclusions. Esson did OK but that one mistake early doors killed us. Brad was taken apart by Jones, Raven was solid and full of endeavour. Warren was my MOM for clearly giving his all. Laing was quietly effective. Mulraney never got going and Anier never has got going. Draper looked OK in midfield but was lost up front against a very tall Killie central defence. Tansey looks pretty but he is keeping himself for Aberdire. Fisher gave his all but was a fish out of water wide right. Wee Billy never got used and was a waste in the hole role. He is best on the toes of the last defender. Vigurs actually started trying to play football but he is such a lazy *******. Polworth and Cole made no impact. Ah Well it looks like Dumfries will be my ”home” game next season.

Full report 2 morro. We were second best until they went 2 up, they switched off and we could have scraped a draw. Fisher missed an absolute sitter in the 2nd minute. The rain and wind was against us but we just hoofed. Anier was terrible but Mulraney was just as bad but they were both bypassed. Esson fecked up the 1st goal but the decision to play the hard working Draper up front and playing Fisher wide right was incredibly stupid - and then hooking Draper? !! We fought and gave it our all, except Tansey, but we chopped and changed as usual, never got into a rhythm and at times did not appear to know what we were doing. I blame Maurice Mispass