Row S

3 going on 6 in the first half.  We were superb, but the H*bs defence was sh*te.  Their over-rated midfielders just passed themselves into trouble.  A brilliant shot by Barry over their midget schoolboy keeper.  

Talking of keepers, was Jonathan Smith actually on the bench today?  He wasn't out warming up before the game and never came out of the dugout to have a warm up with the subs.  Mikey Fraser looked calm and assured as well.

Nice to see some retribution taken out on that wee ned Scott Brown (twin of Barry Ferguson) as well.  Was it Denzil that stood on his head?

Hopefully we will hear soon about the date of the cup match.  I know it is most likely to be Sat 3 Feb, but being an all SPL tie the BBC might televise it and move it to the Sunday, Monday or Wednesday?  Surely we need a bit of notice to allow our 'exiles' to make travel arrangements. 

Portakabins?  How unsightly.  A more permanent development of the west side of the ground would be better, perhaps in association with some uses for other developers to build and help fund the boxes, e.g. apartments, offices, hotel and a match day pub/tavern, avoiding the gas pipeline of course.  There might even be room to build another 1500 seats. 

Time for the SFA/SPL/SPL to start docking points off the OF for their fans singing Sectarian songs.  That would surely shut the feckers up or make the league more competitive.

Much as I think this will not happen, we'll still be 10 points clear of the Pars.

It is absolutely teeming down here in Sneck at present.  Hopefully our pitch won't prove to be a problem and the water will be able to drain away in time for the game tomorrow.  There are also problems on the roads further south, which again should hopefully not exist by this time tomorrow.

I still think Charlie should try him out in the position just behind the strikers, linking with the main midfield.  Now that Blackie is suspended for the Midden game I would like to see how this might work with Bayne and MacSwegan.  I reckon Denzil could start scoring more regularly again from there.

A great performance capped by a win tonight should get things rolling again with the home crowd.  After all we are not expected to win so there is nothing better to get the players motivated than being the underdogs.  Indeed, three points from each of the next three games might help the whinging to cease for a while at least. 

Chris123, it was Beautiful Sunday by Daniel Boone.  I remember my mum and dad jiving to this cheesey number in the 70's when on holiday in Majorca.

Dougal lost the plot once he booked Roy for the first foul of the game.  Their first goal was off-side and Barry Robson should have had a second yellow for diving in the box (twice). 

I've said this before and I'll throw it into the ring for discussion.  Given Barry' s slowing down and the need to try something different, I'd like to see Dargo play as more of a right winger, He's got the pace and the skill to link the midfield and the other two forwards (possibly Wyness and Bayne).  Is this not the position Aberdeen play Darren Mackie in? Look at the goals he's been banging in.

My main concern is that, apart from that last 20 minutes against Falkirk, our performances at home this season have become predictable and boring.  Other teams are worldly wise to our style of play and send out formations at the TCS to stifle our midfield which is lacking pace and sparkle to open up defences. 

At 0-0 going into the last quarter, the last two games have been there for the taking if the right changes are made to liven up the side.  Charlie only resorted to all out attack when we were 2 down to Falkirk, but at 0-0 he seems to try and cautiously hold out hoping to sneak a late goal with little change to the style of play.  The fans want action and goals.  Look at the major exodus yesterday after what proved to be Motherwell's late winner. 

Our strikers need midfield players who can regularly give them clear scoring opportunities within the box not high balls and scraps to feed off.  Can anyone remember, without consulting the archive, when we last won by more than 2 or 3 goals at home? 

That said, I'm heading for Tannadice next week in the hope that Charlie and the team he selects prove that I'm wrong.

Do we need temp membership passes or some other bit of paper to get into the AP Suite?

Why not find out where the St Midden team are staying and spend all night outside singing, dancing and letting off fireworks to keep them awake and put them off thier game? After all it's what we normally do at New Year.  We could tie wee Chick to a rocket for good measure and send him up into the night air. :015: :015:

But you can blame the manager if he hasn't got the ability to change things around when not going well.  He should have done that at half-time.  He was also wrong to take Dargo off - it should have been one of the midfielders or Hastings at that stage. What happened to the 3-4-3 experiment that worked so well in the last 20 against Falkirk?

I would like to see the following line up for Tannadice next week: -

Brown

McCaffrey - Munro - Hastings

Hart - Black - McBain or Duncan - Morgan

Dargo - Wyness - Sutherland

It does make you wonder what they do in training.  That's the worst performance I have witnessed for a long time at the TCS.  Any more like that and our crowds are going to dip well below 3,000.

Time to change things around big style I think if the relegation zone is to be avoided.  We definitely need a midfielder who can provide a stroke of genius and give our strikers the ball at their feet in the box, not 30 yards out or a high ball that they get outjumped every time for.  Get it sorted Charlie!!!!!   

Absolutely right guys.  On Saturday Zander could have provided the spark of genius we needed to open up the Hearts defence in the last 15 minutes.  I would have hooked Roy for him instead of Dargo.  Zander on the left could have given Robbie Neilson some problems instead of the easy afternoon Roy gave him.

Discipline problems aside, I still think Blackie deserves to be in the team ahead of Rankin.  We need Blackie there to jump for high balls in midfield and play some decent passes.  He is less involved in the hot-headed stuff and plays his best when Russell Duncan is alongside him.

It used to be Caley Croc but I think it's Nessie now.

The Scotsman says Malofeev will be there before his touchline ban kicks in the following week.  The comments from Paul Hartley later in the same article could see him demoted as well.  So step forward 'Captain of the Week'.

I have a suspicion that Romanov's immediate plot is to destroy the morale and careers of the Scottish internationalists to deplete Walter's squad and give Lithuania a better chance of beating them in the next Euro 2008 qualifier.  Andy Webster excepted he can then sell on the players and bring in even more Kaunas players on loan deals.  Then he gets their coach across to run Hearts into the ground.

Rode their luck big style tonight.  Outplayed in first half, scored from a free kick that never was, tried to claim that Maloney's arm was played by the ball for the Man Ure penalty and then Boric is well off his line to save it. 

We must freshen up the midfield and swap Denzil for Bayne.  Dargo has missed him this season.  I'd also slot Morgan into the left wing spot for McBain and Black in the middle for Rankin.  To be honest, despite his 2 goals against Falkirk, Rankin has not impressed me at all this season.  When it isn't going our way it has surprised me why Charlie hasn't tried pushing Rankin up just behind the strikers or hooked him for young Zander more often.

Just the time to kick them when they're down.  The more Lithuanians the better. 

I must agree with Caley D as well.  Too often against H*bs and Aberdeen Roy was posted missing on the left flank allowing Whittaker to come strolling forward and set up chances.  Hastings is left to cope with two men bearing down on him a factor that led to Hart's cross for Aberdeen's equaliser last Monday.  Morgan would provide better cover and more skill to beat a few players going forward.  However, young Zander looks as if he could be a handful for the likes of Whittaker, forcing him to stay back and defend. 

I also thought Rankin was totally lost and apart from his last ditch on his own six yard line challenge to block a shot in the first half he contributed nothing to the game.  Glad to see him hooked at last but a bit too late in the day.   

You could see that Dargo was knackered.  He had put in a hard shift against two good defenders in Anderson and Severin.  However, I also felt that either Roy or Barry should have been tactically hooked a bit later on for Sutherland.  The wee lad could have occupied Hart for the last 5 minutes and stopped him getting forward to lay on the equaliser.