alternative maryhill

Remember Brian Fraser scoring the third, but I couldn't have told you that Milroy and Hay scored the other two. My strongest memory of the day was how different Kingsmills felt with that many people in it, and with that sort of atmosphere, especially in the last 20 minutes or so, I'd been going semi-regularly for a couple of years by that point, but I'd never experienced a day like that. I was down the front of the shed, watching the game under the barrier because I was pretty small, and it felt absolutely jammed.

Having been at both home and away games against Thistle this season, I'm not optimistic. For some reason they just seem to be able to discompose us. In both games they pressed the ball really well and didn't let us get into our rhythm at all. It didn't help, of course, that both games seemed to coincide with our defence having an off-day - we were particularly shaky at home, but also gave away a very cheap goal very soon after going ahead with a really classy opener at Firhill. Hopefully the manager has looked at those previous games and come up with a strategy to stop us being dominated the way we were in the previous two. It's the sort of game where it would be great to have Foran as an option to throw on up front to bully them a bit, especially if we need to go more direct.

Thick freezing fog across Maryhill just now. Hopefully it lifts for the afternoon. For those of you who like omens, at the moment it's very similar to the day in the 1st Division season where we lost at Firhill then went on a 13-month unbeaten away run. Would take the same run again now, obviously, but I do fancy going further in the cup this year.

Aye, quite a lot of the usual Glasgow crew missing tomorrow. I've come down with my second dose of man-flu in as many months and am feeling sorry for myself, but I'm going to struggle down the road tomorrow. Might not be as early as usual - need to wait to hear from Chris in the morning. Wouldn't be surprised if we're in the Star & Garter before kick off but not sure if we'll be meeting there or not . Johndo - can DM you my mobile no if you're knocking about Glasgow early and want to know where we've decided to go .

Can't agree; it would be the club cutting off its metaphorical nose to spite its face, imho. Shinnie has been one of the most significant and inspirational players in our improvement over the last three seasons: assuming that he's going to maintain his on-field form and commitment, then he should remain a first team starter while we fight for a European place. Obviously, though, if there is any evidence of lessened effort on his part, then he should be dropped straightaway.

Yeah, I thought the ref actually started going for his card and then stopped when he realised he would have to send Warren off. It was a pretty clumsy challenge and he couldn't have had too may complaints if he'd got a second yellow, but someone yesterday - think it might have been RiG - felt that the first booking was largely given because of an overreaction from the Hamilton player, so maybe justice was done. Can't say I remember the first booking terribly clearly myself.

Where did I say this?

I really, really, really liked Dani Sanchez. I know a lot of people thought he was a lightweight, but he had a great touch and eye for a pass. Didn't always suit the way Butcher wanted to play, but I think he would have fitted quite well into the current team, playing in behind Mckay.

True, yeah. Think one of the points I was trying to make through the fog of Guinness was that we haven't created enough opportunities for either in the last few weeks.

A lot of criticism on here, but from my seat in the Stadio de la O'Neill's in Glasgow I thought that, from about 20 minutes in, we were a lot better than against Dundee, Partick or (from what I heard) St Johnstone, and with better luck and decision-making should have had all three points. Dreadful lack of positional sense from Tremarco for the goal, obviously, and for the first part of the first half we didn't seem able to bring Watkins or Doran into play at all, but as soon as Tansey, Christie and Doran started pressing the ball better we started dominating possession and created better chances than we have done for several weeks. Can't really blame either Watkins or Mckay for being a little selfish in front of goal when both are presumably desperate to put an end to barren runs, but we could certainly have done better had either shown more composure. It's a depressing result and run, but having sat through that horrendous capitulation against Partick two weeks ago, I'm quite encouraged that we were today, for an hour at least, the better team against a side that is by any measurable statistic one of the best in Scotland currently. Would stick with more or less the same line-up against County, but we do need to take that more aggressive, pressing approach that we showed from 20 minutes in today, rather than letting them dictate play as they did in the first half of the previous fixture.

^ This. There's no reason to see bringing Doran and Christie back in after yesterday's performance as a knee-jerk reaction: both have played very significant roles in our excellent start to the season. Having been at the last three Saturdays' games, there has been a bit of a lack of spark in our forward play; by some distance our best spell of play over those three games was the second half against St Mirren, where Christie, after a tentative first half, really pulled the strings. He's a young player and we can expect to see dips in his performance levels in some games, but he definitely offers a vision in his passing and a dynamism in his running that neither Vincent or Williams seem to possess.

Quite a few of us heading up from Glasgow for this. Train just after nine, so will be in the pub by half ten. *Shudder*. I'm too old for this sort of nonsense.

Easy trip for me. We've got a pretty horrible record at Firhill though - not terribly confident.

Cowdenbeath away, please. I still haven't been to the legendary Central Park.

Had my doubts about the way the team was set up at first, but overall I think it worked pretty well but for a few individual player lapses. Against another team, where we were likely to have a lot of pressure, I'd like Hughes to have stuck with McKay to allow him to try to play his way through the goal drought, but against Celtic it made more sense to start with a forward player - Watkins - who would provide more pace on the counter-attack. Allowing Shinnie to play in a more advanced role, and more centrally, also worked fairly well: Christie could have played the same role but wouldn't have offered what Shinnie offered tracking back, and while Shinnie did almost put us in trouble a couple of times with misplaced passes, overall I felt that he was one of our best players, and seemed to be everywhere. In the end, though it did feel like a bit of a chance missed. I can understand that Watkins was maybe trying to conserve his energy, and he did have a very good second half, but I felt that he could have chased down and pressed the ball more in the first half, especially as it became clear that he could completely own Denayer for pace. There were also a few too many times where we just turned away from Celtic instead of trying to build any sort of direct attack: the most infuriating was a free kick near the left touchline about 40 yards from the Celtic goal, which just got played backwards into our own half and ended up putting our defence under pressure. Lastly - and I'm surprised no-one has mentioned this yet - Draper's decision to simply stop with his hand in the air appealing for a free kick that never came in the build-up to the goal was absolutely criminal: Stokes simply strolled past him and set up Guidetti for a neat finish. We did play well for the last half hour - Hughes got his subs right, although I'd like to have seen Doran on a little earlier - and Christie offered more options and movement in the middle of the park, without quite having the creative impact that we've seen he's capable of. I'd have him in from the start against Hamilton, I think, though: I know that Vincent apparently had a very good game last week, but yesterday, once again, I couldn't see what he offered beyond a lot of running around and rather predictable passing in the middle of the park. I'm probably missing something though, as plenty of people seem to rate him.

Post-Midden, the chat with Red card et al was about going to West on Glasgow Green, just off London Road. If I was you, I'd head there. It's not as if I've ever given you bad pre-match venue advice before...

Miller may have a speaking voice that could send a statue to sleep, but he's pretty much spot on with his analysis here. It's all very well being composed in your own half, but unless there's an ability to change pace, make space for passes and take players on in the final third, then you won't create chances and you'll give the opposition confidence. That's what happened tonight. Rangers were far from fluent, but they were able to cause us far more problems than we caused them. It's frustrating, because we were creating real chances and controlling play against the likes of Motherwell and Hamilton, and after we went behind tonight, we did have some really dangerous pressure; just too little, too late. It's not a particularly disastrous result, but hopefully it's one, like the weekend game at Firhill, that the management can use to make us more clinical going forward. On a side note, there was a properly nasty atmosphere among some of the Rangers supporters tonight - first time I've witnessed genuine violence (as opposed to posturing) outside the ground.

Uncultured oaf.

There's your seethe factor right there, Mantis. Dodds is a jug-eared walloper.

RiG is probably already readying himself for a few 2 a.m. phonecalls from Northumbria.

Fantastic performance. The players' confidence in the ball retention strategy was more apparent than it has ever been, and there was some lovely inventiveness from Watkins, Christie, Williams and Tansey in switching play and opening up opportunities. Our play rarely seemed aimless, and there was some great movement both on and off the ball when we were in possession, but perhaps the most important development from last weekend was the way the players pressed the ball when Motherwell had it - they just couldn't get started, conceded possession cheaply, and we seemed first to every loose ball. The players must have been knackered at the end of it, but it worked perfectly, and if we can do this every week then it could be another excellent season. Looking forward to seeing the first goal, which apparently was a beauty. I was in the pie queue with TopSixNextYear...

Terrific work. Has really got me in the mood for today's game despite the fact that it is horrible outside.

In the post-match interview on the BBC, Hughes acknowledged a lack of creativity and imagination in the final third. It's good that he acknowledges this, but isn't it unrealistic to expect that all our opportunities should come from a 'piece of magic' (which is how he put it), based on a patient build-up from the back? Surely there's a place for playing a higher line at some points in the game, pressing the ball more and trying to force opponents into mistakes, as well, of course, as switching the ball out to the wings and trying to get in behind them. We do have the players to mix it up like this, I think.

That was enjoyable. We played some nice stuff at times today, with Christie, Williams and McKay linking up well in attack, Shinnie breaking forward dangerously and and Tansey dictating things from the base of midfield. It undoubtedly helped that we seemed to be gifted a goal so early on though - I didn't really see what happened beforehand, but all of a sudden McKay was on his own at the corner of the box and was able to lob McGovern neatly. Towards the end of the first half and for the first 15-20 minutes of the second the inventiveness went out of our play a bit and Hamilton had a bit more of the game, but Marley Watkins coming on swung the momentum back to us - he looked really up for it and threatened a few times, most notably when, after cutting in from the right, he almost scored with a wicked shot that McGovern did well to touch onto the bar. I'd like to see him start against Dundee, possibly instead of Vincent who was the least effective of our attacking midfielders, but if not, he's certainly a great impact player to have. Doran was much less effective when he came on and still looks like he's carrying a bit of excess summer weight. Encouraging stuff then, but Accies were probably the ideal opening team for us - they looked nervous, gave the ball away too easily and also didn't really take advantage by pressing the ball when we were playing all the languid possession stuff. A more experienced team, more familiar with our players, would probably have managed to capitalise on that period where our level dropped more effectively, and that way losing control of games lies. Presumably the players and management will be mindful of that in future games though. Someone I was with at the game mentioned that today was a bit reminiscent of our first ever SPL game, when we were easily beaten by a pretty efficient and experienced Livingston team, and I reckon it'll take a few games before we get a proper gauge of how we're going to match up in the league this year. Incidentally, the Hamilton Young Team trying to noise up some Canadian children's sports team at Hamilton West post-match was the most embarrassing thing I have ever seen. What a sorry bunch.

Myself and a couple of others are heading through from Glasgow - if we've time for a pint anywhere, it's most likely to be the Academical Vaults, across from Hamilton West station. Only a few minutes' walk from the ground.