Stirling Observer

By far the better side? The side that is a point behind Raith? Bigger side yes but better no, not at the moment. Every game is a battle, any ICT supporter should know this considering the amount of points we have dropped to part time/lesser teams. You earn every point. It's not like Falkirk were just sitting in the slipstream all season waiting for the moment to pounce. It's just not true. I'm quoting the  'far better' bit, nut. Not having it. 

Ah nice one. Don't know if I'd drop Reguero for Juanjo as it would mean bringing in malkowksi...

McKay in for paatelainen.

Straight swap Hayes for doran.

Bench

Macaulay/ Pepper (ni)

Djebi Zadi (?)

Anderson (Norway?)

3-4-3

Reguero (Spanish)

-

Hastings lcb (Canadian)

Baltacha sweeper (Czechoslovakia/Ukraine?)

Bulvitis rcb (Latvian?)

-

Robson LM (Scottish)

Draper CM (English)

Owain Tudor Jones CM (Wales)

Doran RM (Irish)

-

Paatelainen FW (Finnish)

Niculae FW (Romanian)

Ofere CF (Nigeria?)

Not really a best. Just scraping a team together from memory. Feel free to provide suggestions of players iv missed.

Bogus will definitely be easier than best

Forget any virus. We need to ensure we finish top 4. The arbroath game is a huge one. Lose and we are pulled back into a cluster of teams. Away win and we are looking good

Hopefully some common sense will prevail instead of a blanket ban and we can do without any police presence at our stadium. 

Good win. Queens were very poor. 

Took a wee while to settle into the formation but the goal certainly helped. 

Great corner from Keatings, with whip and dip. Vincent flicked if in. Second goal was a direct free kick from Keatings. It was a Ronaldo-esqe strike through the ball to give it swerve and dip. Keeper appeared to be distracted by this or the runners and messed up his balance. Ball went in quite centrally but moved an awful lot. Good strike from about 30 yards out. 

3rd was a good run (again) by Carson. Was fortunate his flick through deflected into the path of storey who was sharp to pounce and toe poke it in off the far post. 

Couldn't really see what happened with their goal. 

Defence wasn't overly troubled. Mchattie swept up everything and Toddy was everything in the air. Formation suited most the players particularly Keatings, Storey and Rooney. Carson had a super game again. Won back so many balls by harassing the opposition. Doran and Walsh seemed to enjoy their cameos off the bench.

Interesting to see what formation Robbo will play in Arbroath. Massive week upcoming.

Criminal defending indeed. Think we need to get the ski goggles and ropes out

We are in a false position. Previously when we have been 2nd in the 1st Division/Championship we would have a team capable of matching most premiership bottom 6 sides. The standard of our current league is pretty abysmal. That fact we are second after some of the performances and play this season is shocking.

In reality. We have lost 2 very competent centre backs who helped us to this position. Mccart is already getting rave reviews in Perth. Coll has settled in well. Playing mchattie who we took as a  covering squad player from Raith rovers and Brad McKay whose limitations are clearly obvious to any football observer. It's no surprise we conceded so easily against a creative team with boyle and allan. Welsh is our best midfielder by a distance but is constantly injured. Our top scorer has barely any goals.

Currently this is a limited team and don't let the league table fool you. Yes, we beat livi who are flying high but the wind was a major leveller with neither side creating anything. Robbo is doing very well to get us to second in the league and it seems by doing this and raising expectations it is causing him to come under attack from some. 

Strange game. It was pretty comfortable but we needed Ridgers to bail us out a few times. Thought Coll and Jamie did well, Keatings started brightly, Doran was hungry and Trafford/Carson battled away well. 

Our style seems to have changed somewhat. Last season when white was on good form, we were playing direct to White to hold up and Walsh, Doran and Polworth were making runs beyond him. Now it seems with both Carson/Trafford sitting that Rooney and mchattie push up high meaning Doran storey will play a bit narrower. Means more intricate play centrally which suits Keatings but not White. Might be worth trying someone else up top if we continue this style.

Storey is pretty guff. He has had about  1 or 2 decent games. Please accept it. He runs fast in a straight line. He started a game up front against Dundee and apparently was ineffective. He has been on the wing since, and has been largely ineffective there. If we had a stronger squad he wouldn't be near the team but we don't. But don't claim he is some sort of Messiah and being unfairly treated by playing on the wing. 

Really important win. We saw last year. 3rd place isn't much of an advantage. Finishing second (if we don't win it) is crucial for the extra rest ready for the play off. Glad the team have turned it around, was seriously concerned after arbroath and Clyde. Expect Ayr to plummet. 

Echo most of the above. After a torrid few weeks we at least showed a bit of fight and belief.

Ridgers solid apart from mix up where Carlo cleared off the line. Central defence stuck to the basics and grew as the game progressed. Trafford was slow to press the ball in the first half but looked good in the second half. Carson had an excellent first half but faded a bit. McKay got roasted by mcdaid first half but coped a bit better after the break. Doran had his best game in a long time, worked hard, took his goal well (we won't mention the one on one). Storey was rotten until the final 15mins. Mchattie did enough. White had a good first half. Toddy did nothing, Keatings exploited the space well after they sacrificed a midfielder to go 4-4-2.

Robbo gets credit, he sussed out Dundee, matched up against their formation and it worked. Players looked up for it today. Dundee have good individuals but struggled to really break us down. Nice to leave the game happy and wanting to look at the league table again. 

Boring but winnable. Just need to grind our way to the next round. Hopefully get bonnyrigg or bsc Glasgow in the next round if we progress

Ridgers was mom for me which is really concerning. McCart is a shadow of the player since Robbo had a go after the Partick game. A big concern, he seems to have stopped talking and I think Coll needs someone to keep him right. Missed Rooney's attacking runs, McKay was happy staying in his position and generally looked disinterested. Tremarco didn't get forward much but at least looked interested. Trafford needs about 3/4 touches before passing. Slows us down every time. Storey, runs fast to the outside. Never cuts in. No variety, seems disinterested. Curry played central but struggled a bit to find space. White held ball up well. Doran, surprised he was sponsors mom. Offered very little apart from a 10 min spell in the first half. 

Really concerning. Didn't see any speed of passing (1 touch, 1-2s). No guile to take a man out of his position and create space for others. We played slowly, rigidly, no confidence or belief. We really struggled to break down Clyde. 

Was disappointed with the line up. We started with a strong line up but these are the players who performed so poorly the week before. If this was their chance to right the wrong, they failed badly. Was desperate to see Machado to offer some spark or guile. Really concerned for next week.

Penalties were good. Ridgers is good. Free wafer was good. Everything else was awful

In Robbos first season we lost away to Dumbarton after leading one nil with a whimper. The fans turned on the team a bit. However the players slowly turned it around and won back the respect of the punters. Yesterday had that horrible feeling again. The attitude of some of the players was pretty disgraceful. The style of football was terrible. 

I went into the game expecting a tough game and wouldn't have been surprised to lose against an in-form arbroath side but we had players hiding and shirking responsibility from the first whistle. Yet again (same as the previous few weeks), Rigders rolls it to Coll, nobody moves or shows an intent to receive the ball. Coll smashes it forward. Defence deal with it comfortably. Is this a tactic employed by Robbo, or just players not having the balls to make a run, angle, or take the ball. The middle of the park was weak and invisible yesterday. Only players who I would give any credit would be Ridgers or Walsh, maybe McCart. There is no leaders, no fight, no toughness.

Like has been said, there isn't a heap of players to replace our current 11. They need to take some responsibility and have some pride for themselves and the club and pull us out of this mess. This result has been coming and hopefully it makes these players realise they are nothing special and have to dig, fight and battle for every ball. Press, niggle and stick the foot in now and again. They need to move for each other, create space, have faith in each other.

I'll be there on Saturday, I would rather see Harper, Machado, McGregor on the park giving 100% than the likes of storey, Keatings or trafford going through the motions. 

First of all Utd deserved their win. However, game spun in the minute of Keatings miss and Clark's goal. They had started to drop of and we were beginning to probe.

Unsure of Keatings role in the team. He played very close to White, almost too close I would say. If it's a 4-4-2 then fine. But if it's a 4-2-3-1 then he needs to be the player linking midfield and attack. We really missed that today. Ridgers to coll, coll looks for a pass ahead. No movement towards the ball. Coll trys a diagonal which is either intercepted or difficult to control. Repeat. Really need the midfield three to be taking the ball from defence and playing balls out wide or into Whites feet/body. Every fan knows that long balls to White don't work. Play into feet or his body he can hold up and lay off to others. Punting long balls at him is a rubbish strategy, likely to succeed very few times. Doran needs to offer more. Walsh has to start. Whenever we were on good runs they played like part of a front 3, making runs beyond the striker. Roddy or Machado in the 10 role. Roddy against Alloa was constantly making good runs in between the lines but the defence and midfield were too slow to play the pass. Uh, I'm depressed.

Very few players with pass marks (Roddy, Vincent, coll, tremarco). Lots lacked the desire and bite required at this level. Thought Welsh was okay but we need him to drive the team with his harrying and tackling but he seemed a bit fatigued. Doran seemed lost. White hot and cold. McCart had a bit of a nightmare, missed a glaring free header from a corner after gifting Partick the 2nd goal. This goal really gave Partick belief and something to hold onto. They ran out deserved winners as the showed more fight and energy. They countered well on a few occasions and killed the game with a third. Our best spell was just before half time. Started both halves very slowly. Really disappointing.

Carpool kareoke?

You have to admit, it's quite unique, the club have made noises about this group being a bit special. Our U18s were very successful last season. The first team have kept the ones who are ready Dan, Roddy, Cameron etc and they will make their mark to cover injuries and suspensions when they come. The club loaning 9 players to fort helps keep the rest developing together and facing more challenging and physical games. I think it's a great move by the club and I'm hoping the experiences they have with fort will mean the lads stand a better chance of making it with our first team. 

I liked it

I would presume he is splitting the squad equally like he did for the early pre season friendlies. All those who didn't play today will probably start on Saturday. Bit risky but obviously wants to give everyone some decent game time. 

Strong opposed to Feruz. One of these 'wonderkids' who is now 23 and has done nothing in the game despite plenty chances. Caught driving a Porsche whilst disqualified perhaps indicates towards to his attitude and character. Give me McGregor or McKay any day.

The boys need game time. This could really aid McKay's development and could become a replacement for Curry when his loan expires. He can be ready to step in for us fully fit and high in confidence, which is a massive thing for a player.