alternative maryhill

RiG will be relieved by this news - he's probably still traumatised by Stevenson making sexually provocative gestures at him during our last win at Tynecastle.

My memory of him is that expectations were high when he joined the club - he'd been Stockport's player of the year or something the previous season? - and that he didn't really impress for a while but then came on to a pretty good game mid-season, which coincided with our best spell. Seem to remember him playing well in a win against St Mirren.

It's clearly an area we need to strengthen in, and if he does well then he could be a long-term replacement for Foran.     

Butcher never did this when with ICT. He tended to keep tight lipped about potential signings...big headedness has obviously kicked in.

Pele underwent exactly the same change when he went to Aberdeen, and it did him no favours at all. Possibly something to do with having to appear forward-thinking and ambitious to supporters of perennially under-achieving clubs.

I'm sort of with RiG on this - rather Vincent than Draper. I suspect I didn't fully appreciate what Vincent gave to the team though - in the games I saw him in earlier in the season I felt that he didn't do a great deal, but there is no question that our best performances happened with him in the side, so I probably missed something.   

Happy to see Christie get game time, although it's not necessarily a change that's going to improve composure in the middle of the park. Hopefully he'll provide a good out ball though.

Is it me or are we losing our shape and chasing the game instead of keeping calm and structured. Ref has been very poor. Need a change.

No, you're right. They seem to be cutting through us far too easily. Not sure what change I'd make, though. 

Is Polworth very short on pace? Two incidents there where he either didn't go for a ball, or didn't reach a ball, that he looked like he was favourite to get. 

Quite encouraged by that half, although I would have loved us to have taken one of those chances as I suspect Utd can and will play better in the second half. It's the most creative we've looked with the ball on the deck for several weeks - Ross in the middle of the park is really capable of opening the game up and Doran's movement has been better than it has been for a while too. Agree with IHE about the lack of physical presence though, which, to be fair, there's not much we can do about. I was struck by how much bigger Utd looked than us as the teams were coming out; ironic, as we've endured years of being dismissed as a 'big, physical team' while all we have heard about this season is their collection of impish schoolboy geniuses.

Second half - come on ICT. 

Folk are saying Warren is out as well? 

Yeah, I saw someone tweet that from the game - can't remember who it was. If that's the case, assume Devine will come in there.  

 

Brill

 

Raven Warren Meekings Shinnie

 

Ross Tremarco

 

Doran Watkins* Greenhalgh

 

Mckay

 

Subs - Esson, Devine, Polworth, Agdestein, Williams, Pepper, Christie

 

* If Watkins is out, put Christie in there and Evans onto the bench.  If Toby's left the building by that time as well, put Ferguson on the bench.

 

Quite like the look of that line-up, but I saw someone on Twitter saying that Polworth had a good game when he came on - if so, maybe have him starting in there instead of Tremarco, as central midfield is his natural position?

Although this is an easily-reachable game for me, I'm so skint after Christmas that I'm almost certainly going to have to give this, and the other January games, a miss. Which means I'll be watching it on TV alongside my Motherwell-supporting other half. Oh great. 

Late recovery? Doran in the 90th minute.

Yes understandable but blame Butcher for unsettling a winning team don't lay the blame on Huges

Sorry, if that was in response to my previous post in particular, then I really don't see where I've laid the blame on John Hughes - in fact I made the point that we had similarly poor performances under Butcher. What I did say was that it will, obviously, fall to Hughes to try to address the poor run we're on, and I'll be interested to see how he does this. Whether it's fair or not to judge someone after such a short period in charge,  (and I agree that it's not fair to publicly pre-judge someone, as some have done since the appointment was announced) people will inevitably do so, and it could also affect the players' views. Such is life.      

given the run of January fixtures we have coming up, it's something that Hughes will have to try to address quickly, presumably by making changes to the team, which has gone unchanged in the past three matches.    

 

On the subject of which, his hand will obviously be forced now, although not necessarily in the positions that he would have chosen to do so - Draper will be out for Motherwell, and apparently Warren will be too, according to someone on Twitter. 

just how negative can people get !!!

Support the team don't decry it

I'm rarely very negative about the team - I'm just trying to open up a bit of debate about why the creativity going forward seems to have evaporated to such an extent. I was at all the games in December apart from the Celtic game, which I watched on TV, and the lack of chances is genuinely worrying. Might just be a bad spell - we were equally bad against Aberdeen & St Johnstone under Terry Butcher - but given the run of January fixtures we have coming up, it's something that Hughes will have to try to address quickly, presumably by making changes to the team, which has gone unchanged in the past three matches.    

if we finish in the bottom six I would be very disgusted and thinking of a new manager and destroyed the hard work butcher did.

Without wanting to sound like I'm scaremongering, it could happen quite easily. We're 8 ahead of St Johnstone in 6th and 9 ahead of Hibs in 9th (albeit with a game in hand over both),  but there are over 50 points still to play for, and Hibs look like they are going to be a much-improved team. If we can't create chances then we will really struggle to pick up points.   

 

either way we shouldn't be losing to a team that's been struggling at the bottom of the spfl

I agree. If Hearts were not deducted points County would be bottom of the league. I suppose they have nothing to lose so are going for it. Not impressed with our lack of attacking options recently.

 

We've been pretty awful going forward for weeks now - apart from half an hour against Hearts and the second half against Aberdeen, we've created almost nothing. I can forgive the defenders the odd lapse, as they have been fantastic this season, but unless something radically changes in our attacking play in the very near future, then it could be a bottom six finish after all.  

Agdestein has just replaced Watkins. If this is tactical, fair play for making the change, but if Agdestein can't contribute anything with more than an hour of an opportunity to do so, then I don't see the point in him being here, tbh - he really hasn't looked a footballer in his appearances to date, although the rest of team has been culpable in that. 

'Shambolic defending' according to RiG on Twitter. Not something we've seen much of this season, first half against Aberdeen apart. We need to show a lot more innovation going forward than we did against either Partick or Celtic though, or we're not going to be able to turn it round.

This place is going to be interesting tonight unless things change quickly.

Where is there radio commentary? Or is there tv coverage?

No TV coverage. I'm just making do with Sportsound on Radio Scotland. Main commentary is Dundee Utd - Aberdeen, but I'm hoping they will have open all mics coverage on one wavelength.

Same line up as last two games. Not a great surprise.

I`d be quite happy for Yogi to start changing things around soon. Some players need resting or dropping.

Doran, Ross, Draper come into this category & drop the Shinnie in at right back unless necessary.

I don't see any reason for dropping Draper, but even if there was, who do we have who could come in for him? With Foran out, Draper is the only experienced midfielder we have who provides that sort of strength and presence. Polworth has barely played, and Devine isn't a midfielder.

I also thought Doran's performance today was an improvement on the last few games: he maybe didn't present a very serious threat, but his movement and ball retention were better than they have been recently. Having been quite critical of him recently, i'd be inclined to keep him in against County and see if he can raise his level further.

Personally I'd keep Ross in ahead of Williams, but if Hughes is determined to keep Williams playing in the deeper role and playing Ross off Mckay, then I could see an argument for replacing Ross with Ryan Christie a little farther down the line - initially using him as a sub and bringing him on earlier than he was introduced today, but if he builds on the promise that he showed today, then eventually starting games with him.     

On the balance of possession, we were probably a bit unlucky to lose that, although we didn't create too many clear chances. Much more creative and patient in the build up than we were against Partick - hopefully we take that into the derby. Williams was probably a bit better than he was in the previous two games and showed some nice touches in linking play, but still looks very lightweight in that area. Meekings was excellent at the back and Shinnie and Watkins again linked very well going forward. The most encouraging thing about the whole game was Ryan Christie's performance as a late sub - several great little touches around the edge of the area, and a tenacious bit of ball retention on the left. He looked desperate to be involved in everything and offered more in less than ten minutes than Toby has in all his sub appearances put together.    

Apart from the lack of chances, we're actually playing better football than we did against Partick. Might be to do with Celtic not closing us down as much, but there have been a few decent moves with, unfortunately, no end product. Haven't seen enough of Celtic to know, but they sort of look like they are playing within themselves. After that start I expected them to up the tempo much more than they have,

Really terrible ball out of defence made that possible. We need to be much more vigilant and much calmer in trying to begin  moves. Don't know if it was Shinnie or Draper that played the ball, but whoever it was had enough time to look for a man.

I'm pretty surprised to see Williams in there again. Hughes is obviously seeing something that we haven't. It it isn't working though, I'd liek to see him make changes a bit earlier today.

In other news, anyone see that Hector Bizerk rap on BT Sport? I'm still crippled from the embarrassment of it.