lightwelter

GOOOAAALL. Great start.

I'd certainly be making sure players who are out of contract in the summer were signing contracts before January. It will be a travesty if we lose Polworth - a local young player who has came through the academy and is yet to fufill his potential at the club - on a free. Same goes for Raven, we are unlikely to replace him with a better right back so what's the rationale in not signing him up for longer. All in all, are contract policy needs to change. Second, I'd play Miles Storey up front, not on the wing. I don't think he's too keen to remain at the club and I believe that part of the reason may be that he's being played out of position. In terms of the youth academy, it's easier said than done to bring players into the first team. John Hughes will watcIh them at training, and if they're not ready for the step up then there's no point in playing them. In answer to one of your other questions, I'm sure youth players get the chance to train with the first team from time to time. If not then they should. Finally, when scouting players, we should be looking in Scotland as well as down south. Our recruitment policy in the last 10 years has actually been really successful when you consider almost every one of our players comes from the lower leagues in England. However, judging by the post the other day showing some of the players being released in the SPL, we need to look closer to home as there is some real quality players being let go all over the place.

Interestingly, I'm yet to read our fitness levels being called into question with all the late goals we've been conceding. While a lot of it is obviously down to the psychology and mentality of the players, it seems to me as if fatigue towards the end of the game is a contributing factor.

I don't see how they can postpone this game with the split coming up so soon, but I might be wrong. Hoping it goes ahead if the majority of their team are ill!

Another Saturday ruined by another last minute goal. 1 win in 8 is shocking form. Let's pray we can stay up, get some contracts sorted, and make some signings for next season. What's worrying is that players may be deterred from signing a contract for a team on such a poor run!

Can't remember the name of the lad, but we signed someone from the MLS before, or at least he had previously been in the MLS. He can't have made much of an impact though, or I'd probably remember his name!

We'll definitely need a left sided player with Williams leaving, a creative active midfielder like Christie, and a centre forward. A winger wouldn't go a miss either! El Bahkatoui is worth a gamble, but he'll probably get offers from elsewhere in the SPL so probably a no go. Can only speculate on other players, it's likely we'll sign players from the lower leagues down south, as that seems to be our policy!

Don't see him being in Scotland rather than England is much of a factor, seeing as he made in debut for the Welsh squad whilst he has been under our books. I think he may even have a better chance of being noticed when in the SPL compared with league 1 or league 2 down south.

I noticed Draper also seemed to be gloating in front of the County fans as well, always a laugh when it's one of your players, and infuriating if it's an opponents!

and a goal for Partick making it 1-1 vs Hamilton, a draw there would be ideal.

and it's 3, Miles Storey, booooooooom.

Great start, and was glad to see Celtic score and absolute screamer in the last minute at Killi. Keep this up and we can breath a little easier

Hibs might be lower league opposition, but man for man they're a better team then us. From our starting 11 tonight, around 3 would be good enough to start for Hibs (Draper, Warren, Meekings, and arguable OFW). They have real quality in Cummings, Stokes, McGinn and Henderson, all the types of players that can make things happen and win games with touches of quality. We on the other hand, didn't have a single player capable of that. I only wish Christie had stayed until the end of the season rather than spending it sitting on the bench.

Absolutely devastated to be out the cup, was salivating at the thought of another trip to Hampden. At least we went out with a fight. When you look at our injury list, we can't be too disappointed or surprised. Pretty much every player who was unavailable tonight would have started. We need to get these players back quickly to ensure we stay up.

In the unfortunate event that Yogi left, for whatever reason, I'd be keen on Peter Houstoun. He has success at Dundee United and is doing a very good job with Falkrik, keeping pace with the bigger teams in the league, as well as getting them to the Scottish cup final. He doesn't seem to get much of a mention, but I wouldn't be too disappointed to have Robbo return, he knows how to motivate his players and could probably attract good players to the club,

Terrible result, I've been staying optimistic and putting it down to bad form, but this was a must win in terms of keeping our hopes of a top 6 finish alive and staying clear of that dreaded play-off place. Just a theory, but has Tansey's drop in form coincided with his proposed move to Aberdeen? It's not hard to imagine how that could influence a players mindset and performance. He was outstanding last year and I believe he's one of the most gifted centre mid's in the league in terms of his range of passing, but has looked poor of late. We can defend Hughes by saying that injuries have played a major part in this seasons slump, but it is blatantly obvious that playing Vigurs along with Tansey and Draper does not work and a tactic change is required. A tricky, agile attacking midfielder with the ability to thread the ball through the gaps in a defence wouldn't go a miss.

1-0 Accies, shocking stuff. Not looking forward to Tuesday if we lose this.

As above, calling for Yogi's head at this point is a joke. 3 points off top 6, still in the cup. Despite our poor form, this season can still be a success.

A poor performance, but we managed to grind out a result and have a good chance of getting to the next round. Their record against us is terrible, especially in Inverness. As Yogi would say, we weren't "at it" today, and the only players I would pick out as having a good/semi-decent game were Warren, Williams (both keeper and outfield) and obviously the subs. I'm not convinced Tansey and Vigurs can play together as they're too similar, both could be labelled as "deep lying playmakers" and don't have a huge amount of athleticism. I also thought Roberts and Storey offered very little. I was shaking my head when Horner was brought on, but he did really well and was always looking to get forward. While he's too lightweight for the SPL and get's caught out defensivly, he definitely gives us something going forward and he's a good player to bring off the bench. I wouldn't be too disheartened at the performance. It looks like we're lacking in a bit of confidence and form, so to be scrapping out results whilst not performing well can't be a bad thing. Huge opportunity to get to another final with Dundee United in the next round!

I might be misjudging it but from the replay, it looked like Fon Williams could have done more for the first goal. Walker takes a heavy touch and I think there was an opportunity to dive in and knock the ball away. Easier said than done though. In general I think there's too much negativity on here, but saying that, it's often the case on football forums! Losing to Hearts is no disgrace, they've only lost once at home in the league this season. We lost 4-5 of our best players and have been plagued by injuries, so if we were to achieve top 6 it would be a brilliant achievements. On paper, our squad isn't great and we get by on the mentality and style that Hughes has brought to the club. I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but I think we have more than enough quality to stay away from the dreaded relegation play-off. While there's some complaints that our style in not exciting enough at the moment, supporting ICT under Hughes, it's the first time I've seen us really dominate teams with an attractive style of football. We desperately need Doran back to add some flair though. On another note, having seen the few clips of that Williams lad we signed in midfield, he certainly looks like someone who may have the ability to unlock a defence, so hope he is given at least a good chunk of the Scottish cup tie on Sunday.

Don't think so, gutted!

Can't see it advertised anywhere, what channel?

Anyone know if it's televised?

I don't think conserving energy was a concious plan or tactic, but there's some evidence to suggest that when players are subjected to so many games with little recovery, they display more conservative pacing strategies in order to preserve high-intensity activity, whether consciously or subconsciously. In response to the question about whether our training regime had anything to do with the injuries of the players, I most certainly think it does. At the start of the season, we had countless players dropping out through injury. I would guess that because of the Europa League games, the players went from doing nothing during the off-season, to all of a sudden being subjected to a high training load, which has been proven to increase the risk of injury. This is why careful management of training and recovery is essential to be successful in the modern day game. Lower injury rates and higher player availability are associated with performance throughout the season, and there's no doubt we'd be in a better position with less injuries. Maybe we should take a leaf out of County's book and higher a full-time sport scientist to work alongside the coaching staff and help to design and monitor a training programme.

Hearts are my second team, but im buzzing that Hibs win, especially seeing as Stokes and Cummings can't play. Dreaming of another trip to Hampden!