DoofersDad

Unusually, Polworth was substituted yesterday. I don't know what the reason was but I thought he had a reasonable game. Unless he has picked up an injury, there is no way the manager is going to drop him for the derby game. I'd go for ICT_Stew's starting line up

Someone asked on another thread whether 5 draws in a row was some kind of record. Now we have 6 in a row so I did a quick Google search. It appears that the record for consecutive draws in the history of the Scottish league is 7. A record held by St Johnstone. A draw against County would see us equal that and, of course, break our own record for games unbeaten. On a less positive note, 6 draws means we are also 6 games without a win. Our record winless streak is just 12 games so that is one record we don't want to get any closer to. In the English league, the record is 8 consecutive draws. Several teams share that record, most recently Swansea in the Championship in 2008/9. I don't know about anyone else, but I thought the record might be a bit more than that. Another record drawing sequence was in the 4th qualifying round of the FA cup in 1971 when Alvechurch, an amateur side local to where I lived, played Oxford City. In those days there were no penalty shoot outs so if the tie was undecided after extra time in the replay, they had a further replay at a neutral venue - and so on. After the initial game was drawn, they then played out 4 further draws (including extra time) before the tie was finally decided at Villa Park on the 6th time of asking. Alvechurch scraped through 1-0. I was at the 2nd replay at St Andrews - a hard fought goalless draw. That's one record which (fortunately) can never be broken.

Perhaps because he's scored twice as many goals for us than any other player and only 3 players in the Championship have scored more?

The team has just equalled the club record for the number of league games undefeated (22) and moved back into the play off places. It's a great achievement. Yet some of the "support" choose to boo the team at the end and to hurl abuse at our leading scorer who happened to score the 2nd equaliser tonight. It can't exactly encourage players to want to play for us if that is the kind of "support" fans give. Of course the recent draws are frustrating and we've lacked penetration going forward, but you don't go 22 games unbeaten if you are a poor side. The players themselves were clearly gutted not to have got a win from the game tonight. Perhaps if some of the folk who were constantly on the players' backs all night had shown a bit of support instead, then the players may have felt less pressured and played better as a result.

Those that don't go will be wishing they had when we emerge victorious after a 6-5 thriller.

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We appear to have become rather too cautious recently. It is as though subconsciously the manager and team feel the need to keep the unbeaten run going as the priority. Perhaps also, the caution is because they know that with our difficulty in scoring, conceding at the other end will make it that much harder to get anything out of the game. But let's keep a bit of perspective here. Whilst we have played better as a team under Robbo than we are just now, we are still getting forward and creating chances. According to the BBC stats, we had more attempts on goal on Saturday than County did in their thumping of Morton. Less of ours were on target, of course, and perhaps we are having attempts on goal when better options aren't on, or the quality of the strike is poorer. Either way, we are getting in the right area and with a bit more quality or confidence in the box I feel the goals are not far away. Unfortunately, the current results and style of play are not going to bring extra fans to games. Instead, they will lead to a slow trend the other way. We need to get fans through the gate to increase the revenue for the club. We need to be bolder and to attack with a bit more pace and more directness. We need players taking defenders on and taking a few more risks. Even if it doesn't result in a better points per game ratio, at least we will be better entertained.

Agree. Better attacking players, like Billy Mckay not only find space for themselves, they create space for others by drawing defenders away from areas that players like Doran would be looking to run into. I think that is one of the reasons that our midfield as a whole is contributing little to the goal tally.

But we're not drawing all our games. We are winning some too, which is why we are in promotion play off territory and not relegation play off territory. Of course, we should be winning more and scoring more than we have been, but that is because we don't have a striker on a good run or midfielders chipping in with a few. We all know that strikers tend to blow hot and cold and it is often something quite intangible that sparks a good run. But with a solid defence, even a modest improvement in front of goal would turn draws into wins and see us comfortably in the promotion play off places. It has often been said that strikers win matches but defenders win championships. Defensively we have been pretty sound having conceded only 6 goals in the league in 10 games. It is good that we have not lost games where we are having difficulty finding the net. There are games where we have come away with a point more than we might have, and our opponents have been restricted to one point rather than 3. That is something to be positive about. Of course, it would be much more positive if we could turn some of those draws into wins.

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People seem to be forgetting that Daniel started against Dunfermline in the Challenge Cup. If I recall, he started brightly enough but rather fell out of the game after that. I feel he is still best used as a impact sub at this stage of his career. Knocking in goals for the under 18s will give him both game time and confidence, and he will also get valuable experience being part of the 1st team match day set up with regular appearances as sub. I would worry that giving him a run in the starting XI might just knock the stuffing out of him. It is all very well to talk about Rooney (W) and Rashford but they are the exception. It is far more common to see players burst on the scene as teenagers then drift into obscurity. Our other strikers may not have set the heather on fire but their strike rate isn't bad. Having been awarded the goal on Saturday, White now has 3 and Oakley 2, both at a rate of roughly a goal every 2 games. We'd take that at the end of the season. We've still not seen a lot of Austin but he strikes me as the more composed and natural finisher and could well be the surprise packet of the season. It's true we haven't scored many goals overall this season but a part of that is the lack of goals from attacking midfield. Polworth, Walsh, Doran and Calder have just one goal between them. Calder's not had much game time but we really need more goals from the others. But back to young Daniel. He burst onto the scene last year and as a result I think some people's expectations for him for this season are unreasonable. He is clearly an extremely promising talent but he is far from the finished article. He needs nurturing and I think the way the manager is handling him is spot on.

If that's the case, then the average Celtic player gets paid more than our entire squad. Such are the inequalities of the modern game.

Indeed it would. Who would score our goals?

We're drawn away against Edinburgh City. Potential banana skin against an ambitious club who are going well in Division 2 but a match we simply have to win.

Scott Boden scored for Gateshead in the FA cup today. The match was live on BBC. I think that's about 6 he's got for them this season. Rooney, Fisher, Boden and Mckay all finding the net regularly. We need one of our current lads to do the same.

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It's a no from me as well for two reasons. Firstly it would undoubtedly reduce the number of away fans at games. Whilst Don makes some fair points regarding travelling support, I think that away fans are important in improving the atmosphere at games and a good atmosphere makes for a better match day experience for all. Secondly, the future of the game depends on the enthusiasm of youngsters. Late kick off times when it is dark and cold is not going to encourage parents to take young children to matches. There is an urgent need to get more youngsters going regularly to matches. Many of us got hooked on watching football when we were in primary school, so anything which makes it less likely that that age group will attend matches needs to have some pretty compelling arguments to justify it.

If Bolt makes it in any way as a footballer it will not be because of his pace. Speed over 10 metres is more important than speed over 100 metres and Bolt needs a bit of time to get those long legs working. If he can head a ball then his height and physical presence will be an asset. He also strikes me as the sort of guy who will be very focussed and composed in front of goal. I've no idea how good he will be but I am sure some team will pay him good money to find out. It won't be us though.

Credit where credit is due. The chairman's statement on the official website gives a lot of positive detail. Some of this detail could and probably should have been communicated earlier, but better late than never. There also seems to be an uplift on the level of communication generally and hopefully this signals a change to a more communicative ethos in the Club. This coincides with the re-energisation of the Supporters Trust which bodes well for future engagement between club and supporters. A quick look at the new Trust website https://ict.supporterstrust.org/ makes it clear that the Trust's AGM on 6th December should be a much more positive event than in recent years and that the new Trust Board should be in a far better position than before to engage with the Club Board on matters of concern to supporters. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of what is in the past, there does seem to me to be an opportunity now to develop a closer relationship between Club and Supporters. I know there are certain specific areas where close relationships do exist but I am talking about relationships in a much broader sense with the views of the supporters being proactively sought by the club and the club communicating more openly. It is clear from the contributions to this thread that there are a lot of things a lot of supporters are not happy about. Not all of them will be things which can be addressed as those voicing the concerns may wish, but when that is the case, it is always good to receive a considered reason as to why. The club needs to get more revenue to increase the playing budget. And it needs more supporters through the gates in order to get more revenue. Supporters will attend games if they have a good match day experience and if they feel valued as supporters - if they are made to feel part of the club. This requires the club to actively engage with supporters and we all need to work together to make sure the relationship between the club and the supporters is as constructive as possible. It is great that the club are holding a Q&A session on the 25th of this month and I sincerely hope it will be a constructive and informative event for all concerned.

Brilliant news. An extension of a further year demonstrates the commitment of Robbo to the club and the Board's faith in him. Well done to both for reaching this agreement. With Robbo now contracted to June 2011 players will know there is stability at manager level and hopefully that will make it easier for them to also commit to the club if offered contracts. The club suffered a pretty drastic fall in its fortunes but Robbo has undoubtedly stopped the rot and got us going in the right direction. Onwards and upwards!

Presumably there is a reason why this is done but on the face of it, it seems daft on a nice green pitch after recent rain.. Does anyone know what the reason is?

So who decided that this significant police and steward presence was required, what did it cost and who paid for it? Sounds to me as though the Club needs an SLO to liaise with people and allow a bit of common sense to prevail.

I have some sympathy with referees when there is so much pushing and holding in the box.. They can't see everything and they do need to be sure before they award penalties. I'd like to see the Assistant Referees take a bit more responsibility for picking up on these incidents. On the positive side I thought Thompson was pretty good in letting the game flow and he wasn't blowing every time a Morton player went to ground after being tackled. He was a lot better than most of the referees we've had this season - mind you, saying that isn't exactly high praise.

The route to access this appears to have changed for me. The headings at the top of the page appear to have changed and the "features"" button which used to be there is now only visible when you click in "more" first. Once you do that and click on "Features" the Prediction League comes up no problem. It is worth persevering as when you do access it you will see I have extended my lead at the top!

I thought that was a much better team performance than against QOS. We started in much the same vein as we did last week and then some woeful defending led to their goal. But that seemed to galvanise us into a more positive approach and I felt we were playing pretty well across the team. I can't agree with Caley100's comments on Polworth. I thought he had a much better game than last week and was looking to be involved all the time. It wasn't his best performance by any means but he made a very solid contribution to the team effort. I'm not sure why Chalmers was subbed at half time as I felt he was having one of his better games. After the break I felt we missed his solidity in defensive midfield and that allowed Morton to have a significant spell of pressure when we just couldn't seem to get into the game. Doran didn't have a bad game but his replacement by Calder seemed to energise the side and we were much more threatening for the last third of the game. Had we not been up against a goal keeper in fine form we would have won that. He made 2 top class saves and generally commanded the box cleanly taking out 2 or 3 crosses lesser keepers might have stayed on their lines for. It is interesting that in his post match comments Robbo said "The unbeaten thing is annoying me now .... I just wonder at times do we get into a position where, instead of going on to win the match, we are happy not to lose it". There is maybe some truth in that but I also wonder whether he is picking a starting 11 aimed more at not losing rather than winning. We need a more dynamic approach from the first whistle if we are to make a push for promotion.