DoofersDad

Well, Scotland didn't do it but I think they can take enough from the game to have a realistic hope of picking up their first ever World Cup win. England, on the other hand must now realise that they have a fight on their hands to even reach the quarter finals and are unlikely to progress beyond that. Without Moeen Ali it might have been a very different story. As an Englishman, I'm worried. I listened to commentary early on and went to bed with England coasting at 160 without loss. With all wickets in hand and with the pitch offerring little to the bowlers, the scene was set for the English batsmen to launch an assualt on the lowest ranked team in the competition. But no. Yet again the English batsmen failed and could only muster about 130 runs in the final 20 overs. Pathetic! Still a target of over 300 was always going to be too much for Scotland and so the English bowlers were under no pressure at all and should have been able to keep things really tight,so Scotland did well to score as much as they did. Moeen and Bell won the game in the first 30 overs. For the rest of the match Scotland at least matched an England side who were no longer under any pressure. They should take great heart from that.

I think a lot of the comments stem from an earlier comment about it being dull for a 3-3 draw and perhaps it should be seen in that context. From an entertainment perspective I have seen far worse at TCS this season but I've also seen far better. Match stats show that between the 2 sides there were 16 attempts on goal which is pretty average. 6 goals is clearly a plus point entertainment wise but apart from Williams goal and arguably Slater's free kick the goals were more down to sloppy defending or good luck than good attacking play. But rather than judging the game by my own subjective opinion, folk might be better to reflect on the response of the crowd as a whole rather than applauding the players. The game never really got the crowd going and at the end most folk moved quickly for the exits. I know there was a big element of disappointment but I have been to games where a hatful of goals have been scored and fans of the losing side have stood at the end to applaud the entertainment provided by both sides. That was never going to happen yesterday. It wasn't a bad game but it was not as exciting as the scoreline would suggest.

Hamilton have now got just 2 points from their last 8 games and scored only 1 goal in their last 7. Today they only had one shot at goal in the entire match. With Dundee and St Johnstone both with games in hand I would be really surprised if they finished in the top 6. They played some really good football earlier in the year and it is a bit of a shame to see them fall apart like this.

What on earth have these factors got to do with anyone's opinion on the entertainment value of the game itself? The game is what it is. If it's a dull draw it's a dull draw whether you happen to be top of the table or bottom. Gaining a point over Utd, still unbeaten in 2015, 3rd in the league, cup QF, still scoring goals even after losing our top striker? - Fantastic! Entertainment value of yesterday's game? - Not great.

Mckay....small "k" Caley D small minded CaleyD.....no space.

I never like the fancy terms that are used to define players these days. The extent to which someone who lines up toward the back of the team joins the attack will be dependent on the game plan and the way the game develops. As far as I'm concerned, Raven is a Right Back and Shinnie and Tremarco are Left Backs. I think they are all good going forward and personally I would like them to press forward more positively more often. By the way, where did the term "Fullback" come from? what is wrong with simply a Left Back and Right Back? After all, you have Centre Backs and not Centre Fullbacks.

Apart from consolidating 3rd position, a win at Tannadice on Tuesday would also all but guarantee top six. Kilmarnock in 8th would not be able to match our points total before the split. Whilst St Johnstone possibly could, they have to play both Dundee and St Johnstone and it would require a particular combination of results on those two matches and then for all three of them to win the rest of their games before the split and for us to lose all of our for us to drop out of the top six. It simply isn't going to happen.

Given the run we've been on I thought that was a pretty nervy and lacklustre performance against a team we should have beaten. We have a huge game against Dundee Utd on Tuesday and we are going to have to play better if we are to get anything out of that. I thought Tansey and Draper were both well short of their normal high standards. Ross and Williams both did reasonably well in midfield (great strike from Williams!) but MOTM for me was Christie by a country mile. He worked tirelessly and was always wanting the ball despite getting some pretty rough treatment which the referee seemed happy to condone. Defensively we were not great and there were a number of individual errors which led to goals. Whilst it is, of course, fantastic that we are still unbeaten in 2015, it is a bit worrying that after taking the lead against County we were pegged back to a draw, then against both St Mirren and Partick we had a two goal cushion and they pulled one back and then today, we took the lead no less than 3 times and were pegged back each time. Yogi was talking about this last week saying we have to learn to kill teams off. Whatever he said to the team clearly didn't work! That is now 4 games in a row where we have allowed the opposition to score the last goal of the game and these games have been against 4 of the bottom 5. Interestingly, that coincides with Brill's absence from the team. It would be good to know how close he is to a return to fitness. On the balance of play we might consider ourselves a little unlucky not to get all 3 points but to be honest, we never created a lot of chances and at times gifted them opportunities to attack through sloppiness. So we probably got what we deserved. A 3-3 scoreline sounds great but in truth it reflected defensive frailties rather than good attacking football. At least Dundee Utd lost and we strengthen our hold of 3rd place.

The clips are quite impressive but his record over the last two years is not great. Playing in the 2nd tier in the Dutch leagues he has averaged just one goal every 6 games. I guess Yogi needs to judge whether his undoubted talent can be exploited within our set-up and whether he has got the appropriate work ethic. If he signs then we will have an interesting player on our hands.

What a crepe name for a lad - although he probably doesn't give a toss.

John Sutton?

One amazing fact I read today is that of the 5 successful run chases of over 300 in the cricket world cup history, it has been Ireland that has achieved the target in 3 of those.

Back on topic, our two goals were both really very good goals indeed. Both came from excellent work on the flanks (Shinnie and Raven) and then really composed and decisive finishing. This is not a one off - we've scored a number of top quality goals in recent weeks.

Steady on, let's not make this more complicated for them than it already is! Yes, Otherwise we might also needs rules to define how far forward a defender can lean without any part of his body being within 10 yards of the ball.

Yes, it's a funny one (albeit not very amusing!) and is made worse by the different meanings of "resign". If you resign from a post it means you no longer wish to accept the terms and conditions etc of that post. Yet if Marley does not re-sign, we will have to resign outselves to that fact in the sense that we have to accept it whether we like it or not.

I suppose in theory some sort of sonic radar device could be used but you will only get a laser to go exactly 10 yards if you fire it at something which is exactly 10 yards away. Perhaps a more practical solution could be a simple retractable tape measure. The referee could ask one of the defenders to take the end and walk toward the goal until told to stop when the appropriate distance has been reached. He would then be told to hold the end still till the referee walks up to the point. The ref would then spray his foam, pocket his tape, get to his position and blow his whistle. Any defender encroaching would be booked. Incidentally, what annoys me as much as all the encroaching is the delay in taking the kick whilst everyone gets ready. If the ref was to blow for the kick to be taken as soon as he had accurately marked the distance and taken up his position then everybody should be ready. The defending side has, after all, just committed a foul so why should the attacking team be held back anymore time than the referee needs before they take the kick.

No. I remember we sometimes used to start with Andy Barrowman up front.

Interesting point. I liked what Yogi said in his interview about turning the screw when we are winning. For a large part of the season we tended to sit back in the first half and came good in the second half but it seems to me that recently we are starting with a more attacking mindset. If we can score first and force the opposition to commit players forward then that will create space for Watkins to use his pace. Whilst Mckay seems to be a more natural goal scorer, with a bit of tactical re-jigging you may well be right that we are a better team with Watkins up front. If he can develop the confidence to convert a few more of the chances that are being created we could be a very good team indeed.

I see County have signed a former Ivory Coast international defender. I wonder whether he will prevent them going down.

Have you been watching 50 shades of grey? He priobably wants a spanking new striker too. ...who can score from a variety of positions.

With the inevitable sacking of Paul Lambert there are now no Scottish managers in the English top flight (unless you count Scott Marshall who is jointly in charge on a temporary basis at Villa Park). Over the years, the English top flight has had way more than its fair share of Scottish Managers. Managers such as Moyes, Souness, Dalglish, McLeish and Strachan have all had some reasonable success but it is the legends of George Graham at Arsenal, Bill Shankly at Liverpool, and Matt Busby and, more recently, Sir Alex at Manchester Utd that made Scottish managers almost an institution in the English top flight. I don't know when, if ever, there were no Scottish Managers in the English top flight and wonder what this says about the Scottish game. More often that not, great managers were also great players before. Just as we have seen the number of Scottish players playing in the English Premiership decline, it now seems that this is working its way through to managerial level. Of course, top level football is so much more international these days. Top Premiership clubs are awash with foreign players and an increasing number of foreign coaches. But that doesn't mean that there are no longer opportunities for Scottish players and coaches. If they are good enough then they will be employed. The fact is that fewer and fewer players and coaches from Scotland seem to be making the grade these days and it perhaps reflects the general state of Scottish football. Lambert's sacking can be seen as representing the end of an era for Scottish football. Let's hope that Gordon Strachan can conjure up some success for the national side in order to regenerate grass roots enthusiasm again and trigger a new era for Scottish influence in the beautiful game..

I think County will improve but I don't think it will be enough. Partick are in 9th place, 13 points ahead of County and with a game in hand and I can't see any way County will catch them or anyone above them. It is therefore between County, St Mirren and Motherwell. It would not surprise me if Motherwell were bottom at the end of the season as they are just dire at the moment - before their draw with St Johnstone they lost 5 in a row all by more than a single goal, and they just don't score enough. County got thumped by the Dons but most of their matches in the latter part of the season have been pretty close. St Mirren are a bit up and down but I think have enough to keep then clear of the bottom 2. If it came to a play off, I reckon both The Rangers and Hibs would have a bit too much quality for County over 2 legs. I'd like them to stay up but I think they will narrowly fail.

That's a great draw for us. Raith are no mugs and will be well prepared for the game but notwithstanding that, we should win the game if we play to our strengths. Hopefully we have learnt the lesson from going out to The Rangers in the other cup. Getting to the semi-final would mean a real chance to lift the cup together with the financial benefits for the club. There are incentives all round and there really should be no slip ups. Bring it on!

The subs on the bench wait patiently for their turn to play.

I'm not overly bothered about not having a recognised striker, I'm more concerned that we secure contracts for our soon to be out of contract players and that we play to our strengths. To my mind our strength is a lot of good attack minded midfield players and full backs who can all run and can shoot. I'd like to see us be more positive in taking the game to the opposition with a front three having pretty fluid roles which would upset the defenders and pull them out of position. Get players into the box and get the full backs to overlap and play low balls in with the likes of Tansey and Shinnie coming behind, exploiting the space created by the runners and looking to shoot from cut backs and half clearances. Mixing it up a bit up front would make us less predictable and throwing the likes of Fergusson into the mix as well would offer further options for the team as well as giving him a chance to show what he is capable of. Because we had Billy as a recognised striker we tended to depend too much on him and build our attacking play around him. Rather than focus on a lone striker, if we can focus more on the collective strengths of the team and encourage others to take more of the responsibility of looking to score, then there is no reason why we can't score plenty. Watkins, Doran, Christie, Tansey and Ross all have an eye for goal whilst others are perfectly capable of getting in on the act as well. Goodbye "He scores when he wants". Hello "They score when they want".