IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER

It is not criticism grasshopper - it is envious adulation.

Degenerates due to the feckin company he keeps - Is this feckin Have a go at johndo day ?

I would like an enamel badge of ma tattoo - seriously !!

Neigh lad

It was from the heart

"Of course you have much more tactical awareness than an ex England captain who has also played under some of the great managers." - At last Gordie has grasped the concern. I really wish that Richard Gough had got the managers post and we had McFadden playing out wide. It is my super ego by the way !! "I believe you over heard a conversation about Roberts at a game and this has now become your source." - Again many thanks for believing Gordie - it is difficult not to hear a conversation when i is being directed at you. I feel like Gary Hooper - I was being pushed

A must win in the sense of a much needed confidence booster - 1-0 and a borefest would suffice - A must win in the sense of holding on to second spot and maintaining a potential drive to European places. Not exactly a must win fer Top Six. Feck it - lets just feckin win PLEASE.

Many - usually the fellow posters who have a degree of intelligence and tactical awareness. My detractors usually attempt to personalise posts in order to deride me but are probably unable to debate or challenge my views in a rational and pleasant manner.

February Wednesday 13th 2013 - Tulloch Caledonian Stadium - Bounce back time ? TB has asked for more ruthlessness, patience, cohesion and the need to get the ball in to the box and concentrate more on damaging other sides in the final third of the park. Spot on so lets put out a side that produces the goods. TB also states that we are capable of winning any of the next nine games - spot on again - but I suspect the other teams are feeling likewise. This is going to be a very tight finish and all the teams concerned are going to take points off each other. The next team that goes on a wee run - like the travellers just have - is going to be in poll position - so tonight really needs to be a confidence boosting win that keeps us embedded in second and should provide the bounce fer Muvversmell and the Jam Tarts. Lets keep the "boos" to the post match pub and forum discussions.

All I know is that he is a very pleasant and likeable young man.

So we agree then - there were three first teamers and eleven reserves Sorry - two first teamers and twelve reserves

Are you grissle in disguise - once again the happy clappers jump on any criticism put forward and poor Johnny Mac gets the brunt. I have been highly complimentary in the main of the team, players, management and club this season - some peeple always appear to focus on my negatives - which to me shows that I have actually hit a nerve. You may also find that I have amassed quite a collection of "likes" to boot. The one thing that you will never witness is me booing or criticising any player at a game - that to me is for pub talk afterwards and to get rid of your frustrations on here. Again if I make a criticism I always try to provide a rationale. Of course peeple will disagree and many will debate - and unlike the days of yore - I use pure sarcasm if required and not abuse. In fact the individual on here who is probably the most abused is Poor Johnny Mac !! And as fer some jumped up puritan thinking that what is posted on here effects the confidence of browsing players - that is hysterical. Perhaps I should have been more guarded with the statement that appears to have created the unfair vitriol and usual condemnation but there are other posters on here who witnessed a certain conversation. Rasatamouse as I like to refer him as (cue racism rant from Grissle - who is still watching ) was one of my faves this season and I have attempted to protect him in a very paternalistic manner. I would hope that he himself is disappointed in his spell with us and he has not met my expectations - although I still feel that he is being played in the wrong position, fitted in to a rigid system and has been given to much match time recently and should be "spared" by the requisite benching. In respect to the feelings of others at the club he may wrongly come across as being arrogant - unfortunately that is how he is beginning to portray himself on the park. I can only hope that he is reading this as he appears to be a likeable, pleasant young man but is going through the University of Life and if he can accept criticism and alter his personna then he will progress even further. Dare I say that similar criticisms have been made about the likes of Ronaldo, Rooney and Van Persie.

Get off yer high horse - I have probably been one of the main supporters of Roberts and I have continued to promote his positives. It is no real secret about the reputation and Roberts and the others at the club are undoubtedly aware of it - that happens in all walks of life - what Iwas trying to point out was that such an atmosphere must have as big an influence on him than boos from the terraces. And Butcher IS affecting his confidence by preservation. It would appear that I know more about what I am talking about than an individual who can only attempt to pour personal abuse on the defenders of the hoof.

He is an announcer who runs a Fish and Chip shop ?

Now there are different ways of looking at this. I wholly agree that the **** in the Hat is a knobhead. I have been a supporter of Roberts as I feel that he has real potential. BUT he is being played completely out of his comfort zone of a centre forward. Shure it is a learning process but he simply does not have the ball control or awareness to play on the wing. TB's persistence in playing him can only be denting his confidence. I am also informed that he is not the most liked individual in the camp. But my main frustration is that I feel that i have recently detected a degree of lets say non-urgency and sorry a bit of a couldnt care less attitude. That could well be becos of the manner in which he is being treated by some fans but it is not acceptable. Many may never forgive him for the penalty miss even though he should not have been walking up to the spot in the first place. I now cannot help but think that there must be summat in his extended loan contract to stipulate match playing time.

Nowt like an old fashioned tanner ba right winger or left winger !! That is what Doran was starting to do down the right and he was scaring them and then he gets moved to the left and it didnt happen. That is also why I feel that putting on peeper would have given us width and pace and options to attack defenders and hitting the byeline. Then you have penalty box players like McKay in their element and foragers like Draper and Shinnie in with a shout to boot.

Jhesus - great thread - was OTJ the feckin announcer as well ?

So we agree then - there were three first teamers and eleven reserves

I agree with a lot of that. I am concerned rather than stressed and I am merely trying to point out how to get the HMS Sneck out of the stormy waters and en route to the Island Top Six. Most goals in any games are usuaully associated with individual glitches. You can change things irrespective of the players as long as you have summat other than Plan A. I have enjoyed this season too but I fell that we blew a real chance of a Cup Final - given where we are now anything other than Top Six will be a disappointment. By the way I hope to feck that we do play Cellic again. And I will be there on the 16th and the 23rd.

OTJ

You just repeated yerself !! It is what is called dialogue and is the art of polite clarification - Answer one question - How many of those players will start the game against Juventus - apart from Commons who was given a 45 minute run out ? If they arent in the first team they must be in the reserves. By the way a contender is a challenger for a first team place or in other words a reserve at the moment.

You only get clinical finishing when you get a final ball of quality - there is no use in looking pretty but not scoring. The system worked fer 15 minutes and then Lennon changed the shape and approach of his team. He changed the Cellic system 3 or 4 times during the game. That is what I am going on about - we dont have a Plan B far less a Plan C or D. We have become wholly predictable. And I have watched three of the last 4 games and in all three the opposition have changed their systems to combat ours and we have not done likewise. Are you telling me that you were not surprised that we stuck to the same system during the game - are you telling me that you were not surprised that we sat deeper after we scored - are you telling me that you were not surprised that Roberts was the first choice substitute and put in a wide role - are you telling me that you were not surprised that we didnt put another sub on until the last few minutes and that it would be Shane being put in to a wide position ? I admire yer confidence though and I again agree that we have the players and both the attack and the defence issues could be resolved but I am not sure if T&M have the nonce to do that. As fer poker - we are holding a good hand and we are still got more chips than many of the others. But that is when you "bluff" or you suss what the others are holding. I am worried that it has become clear to the other players what we are holding. And there again - a win versus Killie, a draw at muvversmell and a win down the Gorgie Road - and who knows. We have the technology but will we use it ?

Yes we probably started with our best fit X1 - we did play some nice stuff at times but not in the final third. This isnt a feckin bad patch its a sodden feckin bog and we need to get ourselves out of before it turns into quicksand. Two biggest games of the season coming up and I would take a jammy 1-0 in both of them. The dwellers are on a run wholly opposite to us and the only way I want to go to their water sodden bog is in a Top feckin Six match. If we were playing the proper Cellic then i would agree but when I saw their team and saw how we attacked in the first 15 I though that there were three points a begging. Again I thought all the players did put in a good shift although A.Shinnie looked like he wasnt 100% - I must have been watching another game as I never saw loads of chances. Good point about Kille though and lets hope our luck doesnt change in the cold Highland skies. Yes and that is becos everybody is taking points of each other BUT if we get a grip then we - at the moment are still in pole position. I wish that I had your degree of confidence. I actually thought that 3-1 was a fair reflection overall and it would not have surprised me if the had got a fourth or even a fifth. We certainly are playing the ball on the deck but we are mainly going sideways. Some of the balls to McKay today were of the "hospital" variety. Jones struts and does his job but only when paired with Draper. To me getting Draper forward is what we have been missing. Did we not play the back four and the midfield duo too deep yesterday ? I would have termed it as a disappointing display. I think that if ya watch the game on the box ya will change yer mind about some of the refereeing decisions. Thomsons was "bad" fer both sides. Is anyone surprised about the Kayal situation - that is conning the ref not the ref's fault. I would actually agree that there wasnt actually a poor performance today. I thought that all the back four plus Draper and OTJ passed muster. I thought Doran was MOM and Nicky Ross played well but faded. Shinnie was too deep also fer me and I doubt that he was 100% fit. McKay worked his socks off as well. Their first goal was a great move although if we had "marked" Commons he would not have had acres of space BUT no keepr was going to stop that blast. The second goal came about after some individual trickery and a power header that left Esson no chance. OK the criticism is that we should have blocked the advancing defender who had a 10 metre clear run at the ball. The third came when we were pressing fer an equaliser and were caught 1 on 1 at the back and Meekings made a big central defence boo-boo by attacking the ball instead of holding the middle ground. I dont think that Esson was particularly "uncertain" - I think its is the watching fans who pesently feel uncertain about both Esson and Reguero. Again I dont think that we ahve played badly in the last four games. Sure there have been some below par individual performances and some individual mistakes but that is oar fer the course. So what has gone wrong and how can we change it ? Could it be anything to do with feckin tactics ?

IF Reguero was dropped becos of lack of confidence then there should have been a few more joining him on the bench. We do have a real positive - as we had with Tuffey - that we have two good goalkeepers playing fer the one place. TBH I was more surprised that Esson was left to warm the bench and Reguero allowed to have a run. I dont think that it would have had any negative effect on the back four. Being a defender of olde I would have preferred to have had Esson behind me. He is a more commanding figure IMHO.

Well I'm not surprised as it wouldnt take much Have you forgotten that this is a fans football forum and it is all about opinions. And if you ever bother to read in to many of my comments I often try to focus on some positives as well.Unfortunately I am also passionate and I shoot from the hip - but I aint alone in my views about our tactics. I suppose Bughtmaster took this thread in another direction - which from a psychological perspective - shows that he is frustrated as well. As fer the second last line of his post then I would have given him a like. If you are going to give out criticism then do it on here, away from the game, and provide a feckin rationale.