hislopsoffsideagain

What a run by Davis for the fifth - three Killie defenders just bounced off of him. And what a run by Tade for his first, 60 yards, and then round the keeper...not bad for a guy who has missed so many one-on-ones this season.

My mum's half-time analysis of the game - 'We're doing all right. We should probably win this.' She's certainly a better pundit than Alan Shearer...

Awesome result. Well done, lads! That bad feeling I had pre-kickoff was clearly just indigestion! Still bottom, but only five points off top six. It's a shame it's an international break next week...

The world's gone mad. Six goals away from home?! Yet, unless Hibs nick a goal, we're still bottom of the league!

Typical - I blogged this week that Caley would be relegated this season. Then they go and score four goals away from home. I clearly know nothing about football.

Oh, for goodness sake...

Thought Shane played well last week, shame he's not available today - neck injury I think? That defence worries the heck out of me

I'd be quite happy with a point today. Got a bad feeling about this.

Esson Meekings Tokely Golobart Gillet Cox Davis Sutherland A. Shinnie G. Shinnie Tade Subs: Tuffey, Proctor, Chippendale, Ross, Tansey, Foran, McKay Back to the 4-2-3-1 which has fared us well in the past and gives us some solidity against a good Motherwell team. Five changes, including a revamp of the back four. Push Graeme Shinnie further up the pitch to give us width and bring in the solid Gillet at left back. Bring Cox back in and use Sutherland wide as we did at the end of last season. Drop Proctor, Ross, Tansey and Foran, as well as the suspended Piermayr.

Those who didn't go to the game should not be deceived by the scoreline. This was a game that Dunfermline should have won at a canter, and would have done had it not been for some shoddy finishing, another epic Ryan Esson effort (it's depressing how often we say that) and for some good luck when Burns hit the post. Apart from Esson, compliments should go out to the tireless Tade, and to David Davis, who put in a wonderful effort in central midfield. As for the rest...well, they can all get stuffed, frankly. Huge, huge question marks hang over the management's decision to stick with the same XI who were an utter embarrassment at McDiarmid Park last week. Yet again, McKay, Sutherland, Cox, Chippendale and Gillet sat on the bench, and Golobart was put out to pasture. We ended the game today with a centre-back at right back (Meekings), two right backs in central defence (Proctor and Tokely) and a central midfielder (Tansey) floundering like a fish out of water on the right flank. No wonder we were a mess. Meanwhile, our esteemed captain did take a brief break from standing around looking fed up and blaming his teammates for all his mistakes in order to set up a goal, but otherwise Foran was a complete waste-of-space again. And hopefully Butcher and Malpas crucified Proctor after the game - for god's sake, if you know you're going to have to hack the guy to save a potential goal, at least do it outside the box. He's got enough experience to know that. Proc was a complete liability all day - he kept following Dunfermline's lone striker whenever he dropped deep, leaving a great big hole for midfield players to run into. But is it Proctor's fault that a deluded manager keeps playing him in a position that doesn't suit him? Admittedly, the only position that suits Proctor is left-back-in-the-dressing-room. There is a huge staleness to the team right now. They need new ideas desperately - this current tactical set up, with these players, absolutely does not work. I still have confidence that Butcher and Malpas can bring these new ideas to the table, but my faith in them is really starting to be tested. Our next four fixtures are a sobering prospect - Motherwell (H), Kilmarnock (A), Celtic (H), Hearts (A). There is every chance we will lose all four and be cut adrift at the bottom by November.

Dougal, were you even at the game? - definitely a 4-4-2, Foran stood up front all game. The tactics weren't negative, just crap.

Just back. We were absolutely awful today, from the moment St Johnstone went in front, until the final whistle. Our attacking gameplan in the first half consisted of 'punt it down the right wing and maybe we'll win a throw in'. In the second half it turned into 'piunt it down the middle and maybe Foran will flick something on'. Whenever we got into the final third we made a mess of it - our delivery from wide areas was awful, our midfield couldn't play a killer pass and, whenever we did get the ball in their box, our ball control was utterly hopeless. Let's split it down into the various parts of the team DEFENCE - Useless. Today is incontrovertible evidence that if Proctor and Tokely are our centre back partnership for the rest of the season, then we are a shoo-in for relegation. Rossco had an absolute shocker today, bossed in the air by first Sheridan and then Haber, and completely unable to deal with Sandaza's movement. Proctor didn't win a header either and looked like what he is - a player playing out of position. Esson made a great stop in the first half but seemed all over the place for the second goal. Graeme Shinnie had his poorest game for ages, using the ball poorly and really struggling with Chris Millar. Piermayr might be my MOTM, simply because I can't recall him doing anything particularly rubbish (possibly because he did nothing at all) MIDFIELD - Useless. No-one in the entire team wanted the ball except for Tansey and Andrew Shinnie, which is a pity because they should never be allowed near it. Shinnie was back to his old self, with a hopeless first touch and no real idea of where he was meant to be playing. Davis and Tansey run around a lot, but Tansey can't pass either and all he does is try speculative shots from distance, while Davis just looked like a headless chicken. Nick Ross looked like a 5 year old playing with teenagers, since he just kept getting bumped off the ball. FORWARDS - Useless. Tade did nothing whilst he was on the pitch, but he got absolutely no service and I'm astonished he was subbed instead of Foran, who might do better if he concentrated on playing instead of just whinging at his teammates and the referee. I'm not sure he could be @rsed breaking into a sprint at any point today, he was frankly just a passenger - and not for the first time this season. SUBS - The only ray of light - Sutherland at least looked like he gave a damn. I'm not convinced Chippendale is any good, but at least he wanted to get on the ball, ran at players, and had our only decent effort on goal. I can deal with rubbish performances, but I just won't tolerate the disinterested, demotivated performance that I wasted my afternoon watching. Next week's game against Dunfermline is already a relegation six-pointer, in my view. This team badly needs Hogg, Cox, Jones, Hayes and Doran back ASAP, and surely the boss has to give Sutherland the chance to prove he's more useful than our mouthy captain. End of rant.

Errr...they already have four between them, so I think it's a pretty good bet they will get at least that half dozen.

Ahh, Tade in a nutshell - he missed three one-on-ones and then scores when the ball rebounds in off his shin. The flipside is that he spent most of the match playing wide right and put in yet another outstanding shift. A deserved win, I think, as we missed lots of good chances...Foran's scuff in the opening seconds was an astonishing miss, while Andy Shinnie hit the post early in the second half. Ryan Esson made one good save in the second half but actually had a relatively quiet time of it. Proctor did better than I expected; I thought the standouts for us today were Tokely and Piermayr. Davis was superb first half but drifted out of it. Thought Foran was disappointing, and Nick Ross never got in the game. Not bad considering we are still missing some important players - I think Hogg, Hayes and Jones will still walk straight back into that team.

The first half was absolutely awful with no chances from either side; the second half was completely the opposite. We passed up so many chances at 1-0 that it's disappointing that we didn't win. Still, I'd have taken a draw against Hearts before kickoff. The main surprise for me is that Ian Black completed 90 minutes - I'm staggered he didn't get a second yellow for a studs up challenge on Foran in the second half. Thought Foran, Tade and Graeme Shinnie were super. As for Andrew Shinnie, well...I'm sure he's a nice chap, but a footballer? You must be kidding me.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! It's a while since I've heard a roar like that at TCS...but what a racket when Graeme Shinnie scored. In the end the game could have gone either way, but for the first time this season it went for us. We were out of the blocks super-fast, and Tade's lovely headed opener from Foran's cross was the least we deserved...only for Shiels to score a screamer out of nothing, which knocked us for six. Killie probably shaded it after that, hitting the post after a Hogg blunder and bringing some good saves out of Ryan Esson. For us, Tade was unlucky with another header, whilst Foran missed a glaring chance. After he went off with a knock, and then we lost Doran to a nasty-looking shoulder injury, we would have probably taken the draw...but we nicked a smashing winner on the break. The ref made up for some of his uselessness by playing a great advantage after Andrew Shinnie was poleaxed in the build-up, and his brother finished wonderfully. A gutsy performance today, no doubt about that. Tade was absolutely flipping amazing, and worked so hard that when he was subbed he almost had to be carried into the dugout. Was quite impressed by Morrison too. As for Killie, I was expecting pretty patterns and clever build-up, not a bunch of hatchet-men - Doran had been nailed at least twice before the cynical foul that led to his injury - and a competition for Worst Diver Ever between Dean Shiels and James Dayton. You had to see Dayton's effort to believe it - it was so bad that the ref probably thought he'd just lost his footing.

According to TB's media interviews - he seems to spend every game shouting at the players at half-time and/or full-time. Judging by results, perhaps screaming at the players isn't getting them motivated? If we go behind against Killie on Saturday, I wonder whether we might begin to hear one or two boos from the stands...

Ok...can we officially call this 'a crisis' now?

A shame. I liked Aldred as well and thought he should have played on Saturday. Regarding Halkirk, bear in mind we can only use 5 subs tonight against Ayr, so with Tokely available again he wouldn't have made the bench if Golobart is ahead of him in the pecking order - so the Halkirk game was a chance to keep him match fit. It seems the arrival of Golobart has pushed him to fourth in the pecking order for a centre-back spot so it's not really worth his while to stay if he can get first team football in league one or league two. A tweet from Nick Ross this afternoon seemed to suggest family reasons might be playing a part too. On the bright side, I hope this means we can afford a big powerful centre-forward!

We played 5 in midfield - yet Aberdeen walked through us in the first half playing 4-4-2. Our resurgence in the match came after Doran came on and gave us a bit more width. I thought this was a game for Tade - Aberdeen's backline were short of confidence and bound to be nervous, whilst his best moment as a Raith player was a winning goal in a cup game at Pittodrie.

RiG is spot on. Our first half performance was abysmal beyond words. We were better in the second half, but I think that's more a reflection on how mediocre Aberdeen are. I've been trying to stay positive but its difficult after this result. Thoughts on the team... Esson-great save in second half. Blameless for the goals. I feel so sorry for him just now,considering what he has to put up with from the players in front of him. Piermayr-constantly dragged out of position. Frequently beaten for pace. Golobart-should not have been thrown in so quickly. Unforgiveable blunder for the second goal. Hogg-best of the back four, but that isn't saying much G. Shinnie-didn't get tight enough to Fyvie. Used the ball poorly. Tansey-worked hard but his flicks and touches didn't come off. Morrison-had a cracking shot in the second half but was bosses by Aberdeen's midfield. Ross-very quiet. Lacked the confidence to run at players. Didn't look like he wanted the ball. Hayes-was trying too hard. Got no service in the first half. Wasteful in the second. To his credit he kept trying to get involved. A. Shinnie-absolutely awful. Terrible first touch. Slow. Kept giving the ball away. I've never seen a player trip over the ball so often. Foran-put in a shift. Missed a glorious chance for an equalizer. Good on the deck but won few headers

CaleyD, just worth asking...Rangers and Celtic still sell a huge number of season tickets - isn't it often the case that the empty seats when they are playing the likes of us have been paid for, but the fans only turn up for the Old Firm games and a few others? So attendances are lower, but the revenue isn't. Or am I talking complete crap?

Just back from the game. Euan Norris, you are a cretin. I was sixty yards away from the Tokely tackle and could see it was a good challenge. Are we allowed to appeal it? The second one looked dodgy as hell as well (though I haven't seen the TV footage). The ref even tried his best not to send off Edu - he missed the challenge and let play continue, only for the standside linesman to flag so that he had no choice. Celtic fans are going to be moaning about Masonic conspiracies again... After a shaky start, I was delighted with our performance for the most part. Our defending was streets ahead of recent weeks, with Hogg and Shinnie playing particularly well. Tansey got stuck in and some of his passing was gorgeous. For the record, I gave Tade a big cheer when he was subbed - he worked really hard and made a nuisance of himself. He certainly contributed more than the likes of Foran or Doran today. Surely, surely, we are due a stroke of luck at some point?

How on earth did we contrive to lose that game? Aside from a bright opening 20mins from Hibs it was all us, and we managed to squander enough chances to win three matches - Foran and Tade in the first half, and then Aldred and Tansey (twice) in the second half, all contrived to miss glorious opportunities. After Doran came on it was complete one way traffic towards the Hibs goal. Gutted for Esson, who made some brilliant stops - including one with his chin in the first half - but who might feel he should have kept out O'Connor's goal. Lots of positives to take from it - but the problem is undoubtedly in front of goal where, at the moment, we are really struggling to take our chances. As for the referee today - well, I remember Steve Conroy having a shocker officiating our defeat against Aberdeen in January, and he didn't improve on that performance today, especially when he ignored Foran being practically "hugged" to the ground in the box in the second half. I don't see why he gets ?840 a game - most other clowns don't get nearly as much, and they have to put up with the daft makeup.

That was brutal. For a start, we were a tactical shambles. Butcher sent the team out with some sort of narrow diamond midfield, with A Shinnie at the top...which meant Hayes was sitting much deeper and tended to be getting the ball nearer his own goal than Motherwell's. Well simply pushed their full backs on and annihilated us that way. The first goal came after Gillet was isolated two-on-one and Proctor failed to track the man at the back post. The second was a smashing passing move, but Proc (there's a theme here) lost Murphy and Tokes was dragged out of position by Higdon, leaving acres in behind. TB then brought Ross into centre mid and stuck Shinnie out on the right, but the words 'stable door', 'horse' and 'bolted' come to mind. We did have chances of our own - Tansey especially unlucky after hitting the post with a free kick and then being denied by a point blank save, while I think Foran hit the post as well. In the second half they just sat on their lead and we couldn't break them down. Their third was a screamer from Lasley but I want to know why he had the chance to take two touches before hitting it, with no one closing him down. Pass marks to Esson, who made a good save in the first half, and Foran, who worked hard. In contrast our back four were rank, but particularly Tokely, who was owned by Higdon, and Proctor. I've never seen anyone trip over the ball as much as Andrew Shinnie did. As for Tade, his attempts to shoot were just comical. He tries, I guess. I know we still have 37 league games left, but we were so poor st the back and so tactically inept that I'm struggling not to panic.